Sunset Blvd. (1950), directed by Billy Wilder.
A tale told by a dead man: a sarcastic writer, down on his luck and trying to escape the repo men, finds refuge in the rich, weird mansion of a nearly forgotten silent film star. Cynically, he devises a cunning plan to extract money from her by helping with her terrible comeback script ("Salome -- what a woman!") but the joke is on him. He can't get away and devolves into her boy-toy.
It begins as a dark comedy by a director who had notoriously bitter feelings about Hollywood. It becomes more serious, but as it turns out the romance plot is the smallest part. This is a film-lover's tale of the movies, with many striking contrasts, parallels and juxtapositions:
The contrast between the old, wide-eyed and extravagant acting of the silent film era, as absorbed and reprojected by mad Norma Desmond, with the low-key, more naturalistic acting and personality of the younger man of 1950.
Gloria Swanson had been a silent film star without an acting career since then. (Note: the actress was not a mad recluse and she had a busy professional life off screen).
Erich von Stroheim had been a silent film director with a ruined career, reduced to slight acting parts.
The movie they watch in the home theater: starring Gloria Swanson and directed by Erich von Stroheim.
This is a Paramount film about Paramount Studios.
Many more Hollywood people playing themselves, or very similar characters.
"I'm still big: the pictures got smaller". She's not wrong: the silent film actors were gods and goddesses such as we have not seen since.
Once you've seen the film and learn a certain plot twist, you find yourself watching Erich von Stroheim's tragic expressions more closely.
It's all self-referentially dizzying, with some moments of even greater magic:
Norma Desmond visits the set, sits in the spotlight and all the old-timers gather around, worshiping her and reviving the glorious past, the better days of their youth. You can't fake that star power: "fakery" has no meaning in such a case. It is a shared reality.
When William Holden and Nancy Olson stroll through the nighttime studio lot. She was born just a few blocks away and is a third-generation movie person. The boundary between fantasy and reality becomes untraceable.
In the famous final "I'm ready for my close-up" scene, she thanks "Those wonderful people out there in the dark", punching us in the gut and drawing us into her story.
Franz Waxman score, Edith Head costumes.
Available on Blu-ray. Ed Sikov provides an insightful commentary track:
Drag queens love to do Norma Desmond but never get it quite right. She is a real actress and the silent style and her madness may be easy to lampoon, but not everyone can do what she does.
Similarly, her Chaplin impression is better than most such efforts.
He thinks DeMille comes across as sour and unpleasant, but I don't see that at all. He is in an embarrassing situation and gets out as gently as he can. Like Max, he knows Norma can never be told the truth.