Wednesday, December 20, 2006

George's pick: Sunset Boulevard



Sorry I've been so absent, everybody. But we went through our Pharmacology unit in less than half the time we were supposed to, and the good news is I have yet to kill anyone I've given meds or injections to.

So instead I will present you with the ultimate in what my old film instructor called the "Dead Man's Story." You may have seen "American Beauty," but this is the one that really set that style of narrative -- the main character and narrator is already dead, and he's gonna tell you why.

Maybe Billy Wilder is best known for his comedies -- "Some Like It Hot," "The Seven-Year Itch," "The Fortune Cookie" or "Sabrina" -- but he started out with dramas, some of them very dark. "Sunset Boulevard" is his masterpiece, with Hollywood during the end of the Golden Age of the studio system as a backdrop.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice choice.

cl said...

Haven't seen it. Good pick!

driftwood said...

Wilder was such a remarkable talent, and he did very well in the studio system. This will be a great movie to talk about.


So what would you say his best comedy was, “The Apartment”?

george said...

Maybe, dw, though I'm a bit partial to "Some Like It Hot," which was when, as a 9-year-old, I found out who Marilyn Monroe was, and "The Fortune Cookie," which I also remember watching as a kid.

driftwood said...

I’m not so taken with “Some Like It Hot”, but, yeah, “The Fortune Cookie” is a good one.