Research Catalog

Title

Sunset Boulevard / Steven Cohan.

Author

Cohan, Steven, 1948-

Publication

• London, UK : BFI, 2022.
• London : British Film Institute, 2022.
• ©2022

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

104 pages : illustrations (black and white); 19 cm.

Summary

"Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard was a critical and commercial success on its release in 1950 and remains a classic of film noir and one of the best-known Hollywood films about Hollywood. Both its opening, with William Holden as the screenwriter Joe Gillis floating facedown in ageing star Norma Desmond's (Gloria Swanson) pool, and lines such as 'I am big, it's the pictures that got small' are some of the most memorable in Classical Hollywood cinema. Steven Cohan's study of the film draws on original archival research to shed new light on the film's production history, and the contribution to the film's success and meanings of director Wilder, stars Holden and Swanson but also supporting actors Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson (who plays Betty Schaefer), Cecil B. DeMille, and Hedda Hopper, as well as costumier Edith Head, and composer Franz Waxman. Cohan considers the film both as a 'backstudio' picture (a movie about Hollywood) and as a film noir, and in the context of McCarthyism, blacklisting and the Hollywood Ten. Cohan explores how the film was marketed, its reception and afterlife, tracing how the film is at once a product of its own particular historical moment as the movie industry was transitioning out of the studio era, yet one that still speaks powerfully to contemporary audiences, and speculates on the reasons for its enduring appeal."--

Series Statement

BFI film classics

Uniform Title

BFI film classics.

Subject

• Wilder, Billy, 1906-2002 > Criticism and interpretation
• Wilder, Billy, 1906-2002
• Sunset Blvd. (Motion picture) > Criticism, interpretation, etc
• Sunset Blvd. (Motion picture)

Genre/Form

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical refrences (pages 102-104).

Call Number

MFLP (Sunset Blvd.) 22-4441

ISBN

• 9781839024085
• 1839024089

OCLC

1338668341

Author

Cohan, Steven, 1948- author.

Title

Sunset Boulevard / Steven Cohan.

Publisher

London, UK : BFI, 2022.

London : British Film Institute, 2022.

Copyright Date

©2022

Edition

[First edition.].

Type of Content

text

still image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

BFI film classics

BFI film classics.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical refrences (pages 102-104).

Other Form:

ebook version : 9781839024092

Research Call Number

MFLP (Sunset Blvd.) 22-4441