(Billy Wilder, 1950, USA, 110 minutes)

Screening in 35mm!

Billy Wilder’s 1950 masterpiece of struggling screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden), hired to rework a script meant as a comeback vehicle for former star of the silents Norma Desmond (Gloria Stewart), works on any number of levels. First, it’s just a hugely engaging and entertaining film, no outside knowledge of film necessary. But it’s also marbled through with a meta narrative, constantly winking in the direction of a broader film history. Not least is that Swanson herself was a faded star of the silents and this film was a comeback vehicle for her. The movie helps you to recognize Cecil B. DeMille, Buster Keaton, Hedda Hopper, and others, playing themselves, coloring Norma’s world, not to mention her butler, played by Erich von Stroheim. In a scene where Norma and Joe sit down to watch one of her old classics, the movie they wind up watching is Queen Kelly, a real film made contentiously by Swanson and Stroheim in 1929. With Queen Kelly newly restored and running at the Webster Film Series February 6-8, why not get your friends together first, and watch Norma watch Gloria in Sunset Boulevard?