A 1950 American film noir about a failed Hollywood screenwriter who becomes entangled with a forgotten silent-film star living in faded grandeur.
Production
Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett, and D. M. Marshman Jr. wrote the screenplay together. Gloria Swanson played Norma Desmond, a role drawing on her own silent-era stardom; William Holden played the writer; Erich von Stroheim played her butler and former director.
Reception
The film opened in August 1950 to strong reviews and modest box office. It received 11 Academy Award nominations and won three, including Best Original Screenplay.
Legacy
The film’s portrayal of Hollywood as a place that devours its own remains the genre’s reference point. Lines including “I am big — it’s the pictures that got small” are routinely recycled in writing about the industry.
Find more movies by letter
Sunset Boulevard starts with S and ends with D. Browse other movies along the same letter.
Movies that contain a letter from "Sunset Boulevard":