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It's co-organized by Rachel Parker who works at the Library of Congress. She says anyone who cares about early film is welcome. Just to bring their brains with everything that they've learned about silent film and early sound film. The giveaway's the shadowy expressionist lighting and the heavy eye makeup. The actors look like goth raccoons. The crowd-sourcing continues with a sentimental family story about a bedridden child. The size of those lazy Susans at Chinese restaurants. Soon, just one or two movies in, we get our first positive identification. This is "Zigoto et Lecuyere. Lecuyere translates to the bottle.
She's young for this crowd - only years-old with a blonde streak in her black hair. While she was watching, she looked up one of the character's name in the Internet Movie Database and figured out the movie's title in just a few seconds. This is Morales's second visit to Mostly Lost.
She learned about it from a listserv. She's not a scholar or professional film person. She just loves silent films and thinks contemporary movies are a little over-stimulating. You're just bombarded by sounds - by soundtracks, explosions etcetera.
But with silent films, you have to use your imagination a little. That draws some people into the story. When the silent film accompanists are not playing along with the movies, they're yelling back at them - like the one where a little kid with a big dog of falls into a river. Pianist Ben Model is one of three accompanists at the screening. He got into silents as a kid. Charlie Chaplin was his gateway drug. Model hasn't seen any of the movies he's playing along with today so he has to improvise.
You just get into a zone where you're looking at the film on the screen and it goes into your eyes and the music kind of comes out of your hands. Two flappers, Saucy and Button Nose perch on the back of a shiny black car with a ukulele.
One of the great things about these incredibly obscure movies is you can see streets, people - how they walked and lived a century ago. They feel so alive. It's like looking through a keyhole to the past, says amateur historian Glory-June Greiff. These are things people laughed at years ago and more. I mean - oh, my gosh - a shared experience with someone from years ago. Because film is so new, Greiff says, we're the first people who can actually watch our foremothers and forefathers from years ago moving around. In the movie onscreen now, a crowd of preening dandies in top hats wave bouquets at the back door of a theater.
Sitting in the dark, working to identify these movies - it's paying tribute to these ghosts dancing on the screen. View the discussion thread. This week, a silent film was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar for the first time in 85 years. After a lengthy restoration process, the film is now available on DVD and Blu-ray for the first time ever. There may be no film image more iconic: Harold Lloyd, high above the street, dangling from the minute hand of a giant department-store clock.
The face of the clock swings down; the minute hand bends. It's been 90 years since the silent era's greatest daredevil shot that sequence, and it still has the power to prompt shrieks and laughter. Lloyd's character was the All-American Boy, innocent in his horn-rimmed glasses, eager to climb the ladder of success — and like many a social striver before him, he was plagued by anxiety that he'd fall before he got to the top.
View Slideshow 1 of 6. Wilder insisted that the age difference between the characters be delineated, and instructed makeup supervisor Wally Westmore to make Swanson look older. Swanson argued that a woman of Norma Desmond's age, with her considerable wealth and devotion to self, would not necessarily look old, and suggested Holden be made up to appear younger. Wilder agreed, and Westmore was assigned this task, which allowed Swanson to portray Norma Desmond as more glamorous a figure than Wilder had originally imagined.
The musical score was the final element added to Sunset Boulevard. His theme for Norma Desmond was based on tango music , inspired by her having danced the tango with Rudolph Valentino. This style was contrasted with Joe Gillis's bebop theme. Waxman also used distorted arrangements of popular film-music styles from the s and s to suggest Norma Desmond's state of mind.
The film's score was recorded for compact disc by the Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Joel McNeely and released in Wilder and Brackett, nervous about a major screening in Hollywood, held a preview in Evanston, Illinois , in late The original edit opened with a scene inside a morgue , with the assembled corpses discussing how they came to be there. The story began with the corpse of Joe Gillis recounting his murder to the others. The audience reacted with laughter and seemed unsure whether to view the rest of the film as drama or comedy. After a similar reaction during its second screening in Poughkeepsie, New York , and a third in Great Neck , the morgue opening was replaced by a shorter poolside opening, [24] using footage filmed on January 5, In Hollywood, Paramount arranged a private screening for the various studio heads and specially invited guests.
After viewing the film, Barbara Stanwyck knelt to kiss the hem of Gloria Swanson's skirt. Swanson later remembered looking for Mary Pickford , only to be told, "She can't show herself, Gloria. Mayer berated Wilder before the crowd of celebrities, saying, "You have disgraced the industry that made and fed you!
You should be tarred and feathered and run out of Hollywood! According to one often-told but recently discredited anecdote, [28] actress Mae Murray , a contemporary of Swanson, was offended by the film and commented, "None of us floozies was that nuts. Variety also noted that, while it was "breaking records in major cities, it is doing below average in The publicity helped attract people to the cinemas, but in many provincial areas it was considered less than a hit.
Sunset Boulevard attracted a range of positive reviews from critics. Time described it as a story of "Hollywood at its worst told by Hollywood at its best", [33] while Boxoffice Review wrote "the picture will keep spectators spellbound. Some critics accurately foresaw the film's lasting appeal. The Hollywood Reporter wrote that future generations would "set themselves the task of analyzing the durability and greatness" of the film, while Commonweal said that in the future "the Library of Congress will be glad to have in its archives a print of Sunset Boulevard.
The rare negative comments included those from The New Yorker , which described the film as "a pretentious slice of Roquefort ", containing only "the germ of a good idea". Pryor wrote for The New York Times that the plot device of using the dead Joe Gillis as narrator was "completely unworthy of Brackett and Wilder, but happily it does not interfere with the success of Sunset Boulevard ".
In , Roger Ebert praised the acting of Holden and von Stroheim and has described Swanson's as "one of the all time greatest performances. Film writer Richard Corliss describes Sunset Boulevard as "the definitive Hollywood horror movie", noting that almost everything in the script is "ghoulish".
He remarks that the story is narrated by a dead man whom Norma Desmond first mistakes for an undertaker, while most of the film takes place "in an old, dark house that only opens its doors to the living dead". He compares von Stroheim's character Max with the concealed Erik , the eponymous central character in The Phantom of the Opera , and Norma Desmond with Dracula , noting that, as she seduces Joe Gillis, the camera tactfully withdraws with "the traditional directorial attitude taken towards Dracula's jugular seductions".
He writes that the narrative contains an excess of "cheap sarcasm", but ultimately congratulates the writers for attributing this dialogue to Joe Gillis, who was in any case presented as little more than a hack writer. Of the various films that have attracted nominations in all four acting categories , Sunset Boulevard is one of only three not to win in any category, the others being My Man Godfrey and American Hustle At the time its eleven Oscar nominations were exceeded only by the fourteen received by All About Eve , which won six awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.
Bette Davis believed that her and Swanson's comparable characters effectively "cancelled each other out", allowing Holliday to win. More accurately, they were trying to flush out Norma Desmond.
It was dramatized as an hour-long radio play on the September 17, broadcast of Lux Radio Theater with Gloria Swanson and William Holden in their original film roles. In the film was among the first group of 25 deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
American Film Institute included the film on these lists:. Sunset Boulevard was the last collaboration between Wilder and Brackett. They parted amicably and respected their long-term partnership by not airing any grievance publicly. Their mutual respect and courteous integrity remained in force throughout the rest of their lives. He described it as "an unexpected blow" from which he never recovered fully. When asked to respond to Brackett's comments, Wilder remained silent.
The two men briefly reunited in October to face charges that they had plagiarized Sunset Boulevard. Former Paramount accountant Stephanie Joan Carlson alleged that in she had submitted to Wilder and Brackett, at their request, manuscripts of stories, both fictional and based on fact, she had written about studio life. Carlson's suit was dismissed after two and a half years. In , a similar suit was filed by playwright Edra Buckler, who claimed material she had written had been the screenplay's source.
Her suit was dismissed the following year. Brackett's Hollywood career continued after his split with Wilder. He won an Academy Award for his screenplay for Titanic , and wrote Niagara , the breakthrough film for Marilyn Monroe as a dramatic actress. Brackett's career waned by the end of the decade, though he did produce the critically praised and Oscar-nominated film The King and I William Holden began receiving more important parts and his career rose.
He won the Best Actor Oscar for Stalag 17 , also directed by Wilder, and by he was the top box-office attraction in the United States. Nancy Olson's pairing with William Holden was considered a success, and she appeared opposite him in several films during the s, although none of them repeated their earlier success. She went on to star in The Absent-Minded Professor and Son of Flubber , in which she was paired with Fred MacMurray , but despite the films' popularity with movie-goers, her career stalled.
Holden and Wilder also rejoined forces in for Fedora , another film critical of Hollywood. Similarly, Gloria Swanson was not able to leverage her own success in Sunset Boulevard. Although offered scripts, she felt that they all were poor imitations of Norma Desmond. Imagining a career that would eventually reduce her to playing "a parody of a parody," she virtually retired from films.
Sunset Boulevard was shown again in New York City in , and drew such a positive response that Paramount arranged for a limited rerelease in theaters throughout the United States. The ending of Cecil B. Demented is a parody of Sunset Boulevard's final scene. By the late s, most Sunset Boulevard prints were in poor condition, and as the film was shot using cellulose nitrate filmstock , much of the original negative had perished.
Paramount Studios, believing the film merited the effort of a complete restoration, mounted an expensive project to have it digitally restored. This restored version was released on DVD in Frame-by-frame digital restoration by Prasad Corporation removed dirt, tears, scratches and other defects. Stapley and Hughes first approached Swanson about appearing in a musical revue they had written, About Time based on Time. Swanson stated that she would return to the stage only in a musical version of her comeback film. Within a week, Stapley and Dickson had written three songs which Swanson approved.
In this version, the romance between Gillis and Schaefer was allowed to blossom, and rather than shoot Gillis at the end, Norma gave the couple her blessing, sending them on their way to live "happily ever after. Although Paramount gave verbal permission to proceed with the musical, there was no formal legal option. In the late s, Paramount withdrew its consent, leading to the demise of the project. In , Dickson Hughes incorporated material from Boulevard! Stephen Sondheim briefly considered turning Sunset Boulevard into a musical until meeting Billy Wilder at a cocktail party, who told him that the film would be better adapted as an opera rather than a musical.
A musical adaptation with a book written by Don Black and Christopher Hampton , and music and lyrics by Andrew Lloyd Webber was staged in in London. It closely followed the film story, retained much of the dialogue and attempted to present similar set designs. The production staged 17 previews beginning November 1, , and played performances at the Minskoff Theatre from November 17, through March 22, Sunset Boulevard is heavily referenced in The Disaster Artist: Quotes from the film are used as epigrams to many chapters, for example chapter 11 quotes "No one leaves a star.
That's what makes one a star. In an interview Sestero states, "I saw a lot of similarities with my story, especially when Tommy lived in a place that had a pool and wanted to make his own vanity project. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Sunset Boulevard Theatrical release poster. Charles Brackett Billy Wilder D. Doane Harrison Arthur Schmidt.
Silent is the touching and provocative story of homeless McGoldrig who once had splendid things. But he has lost it all - including his mind. He now. Silent and Forgotten (Modern Plays) [Pat Kinevane] on www.farmersmarketmusic.com *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Silent is the touching and provocative story of.
Nilsson as herself bridge player H. Sunset Boulevard film score. The New York Times. Retrieved November 19, Review of Conversations with Wilder by Cameron Crowe. London Review of Books , Retrieved on July 21, from http: Retrieved July 21, The Long Suicide of Montgomery Clift". Retrieved 3 December He was also close with stage actress Libby Holman, 16 years his senior, who had become a notorious feature in the gossip columns following the suspicious death of her wealthy husband, rumors of lesbianism, and her general practice of dating younger men.
Clift was so protective of Holman that when offered the plum role of the male lead in Sunset Boulevard, he turned it down—reportedly to avoid any suggestion that Libby Holman was his own delusional Norma Desmond, using a handsome young man to pursue her lost stardom. Telegraph Media Group Limited. His agent Herman Citron later suggested to Clift's biographer Patricia Bosworth that the Gillis role might have been too close for comfort; at the time, the year-old actor was conducting a secret liaison with singer-actress Libby Holman, 16 years his senior, a state of affairs that would have been considered scandalous.
View Slideshow 5 of 6. A pitcher's friendship with a catcher Robert De Niro who has a terminal disease. The life and death of Formula One great Ayrton Senna. And when the final piece is played, only one of us can be left standing. Jordan , but with football as backdrop instead of boxing.
A Hidden History of Film Style: Cinematographers, Directors, and the Collaborative Process. University of California Press. Retrieved 12 February Retrieved 10 February The Life and Times of Billy Wilder. University of Mississippi Press. The Life and Legend of Louis B. According to Kevin Brownlow 's foreword page ix , the "rigorous work" of Ankerich "indicates that Murray never made this remark.
Archived October 31, , at the Wayback Machine. Pryor August 11, Retrieved November 20, National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. Retrieved 14 February Retrieved 15 February Retrieved November 21, Retrieved 26 November Retrieved November 26, Look, I made a hat: Close-up on Sunset Boulevard: Retrieved February 27, Retrieved 17 February Screenwriters in the American Cinema, — An encyclopedic reference to the American style.
Sunset Boulevard, From Movie to Musical. All About "All About Eve". Wiley, Mason and Damien Bona Films directed by Billy Wilder. Streets in Los Angeles and the metropolitan area. Alameda Alvarado Atlantic Blvd. Gower Grand Avenue Highland Ave. Hill Hoover La Brea Ave. Los Angeles Main Normandie Ave. San Pedro Sawtelle Blvd.
Martin Luther King Jr. Hollywood and Vine Los Alamitos Circle. Retrieved from " https: Webarchive template wayback links All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from August Commons category link is on Wikidata. Views Read Edit View history. In other projects Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote.