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Sunset Boulevard (film)

1950 film by Billy Wilder

Sunset Boulevard (also known as Sunset Blvd.) is a 1950 American film noir about a male screenwriter taking sanctuary in the home of an unwillingly retired silent film actress.

All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up.
I am big. It's the pictures that got small.
Directed by Billy Wilder. Written by Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder.
A Hollywood Story taglines

Norma Desmond

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  • No one leaves a star. That's what makes one a star.
  • We didn't need dialogue. We had faces!
  • There once was a time in this business when I had the eyes of the whole world! But that wasn't good enough for them, oh no! They had to have the ears of the whole world too. So they opened their big mouths and out came talk. Talk! TALK!
  • They took the idols and smashed them, the Fairbankses, the Gilberts, the Valentinos! And who've we got now? Some nobodies!
  • The stars are ageless, aren't they?
  • Without me, there wouldn't be any Paramount studio.
  • I just want to tell you all how happy I am to be back in the studio, making a picture again! You don't know how much I've missed all of you. And I promise you I'll never desert you again because after Salome we'll make another picture and another picture. You see, this is my life! It always will be! There's nothing else! Just us, the cameras, and those wonderful people out there in the dark!… All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up.

Others

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Max Von Mayerling: Madame is the greatest star of them all.

Dialogue

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Joe Gillis: You're Norma Desmond. You used to be in silent pictures. You used to be big.
Norma Desmond: I am big. It's the pictures that got small.
Betty Schaefer: Don't you sometimes hate yourself?
Joe Gillis: Constantly.
Joe Gillis: I didn't know you were planning a comeback.
Norma Desmond: I hate that word. It's a return, a return to the millions of people who have never forgiven me for deserting the screen.
Joe Gillis: May I say that you smell really special?
Betty Schaefer: It must be my new shampoo.
Joe Gillis: That's no shampoo. It's more like freshly-laundered linen handkerchiefs, like a brand new automobile.
Joe Gillis: I've got some ideas myself. One of them being this is New Year's Eve. How about living it up a little?
Betty Schaefer: As for instance?
Joe Gillis: Well....
Betty Schaefer: We could make some paper boats and have a regatta. Or we could turn on the shower full blast.
Joe Gillis: How about capturing the kitchen and barricading the door?
Betty Schaefer: Are you hungry?
Joe Gillis: Hungry? After twelve years in the Burmese jungle. I am starving, Lady Agatha -- starving for a white shoulder --
Betty Schaefer: Phillip, you're mad!
Girl: You can have the phone now.
Joe Gillis: [Paying no attention] Thirsting for the coolness of your lips -
Betty Schaefer: No, Phillip, no. We must be strong. You're still wearing the uniform of the Coldstream Guards! Furthermore, you can have the phone now.
Joe Gillis: O.K. [He gets up, starts out, turns] Suddenly I find myself terribly afraid of losing you.
Betty Schaefer: You won't. [She takes the glass out of his hand] I'll get us a refill of this horrible liquid.
Joe Gillis: You'll be waiting for me?
Betty Schaefer: With a wildly beating heart.
Joe Gillis: Life can be beautiful! [He leaves.]
[after hearing that Norma Desmond has come to see DeMille]
First assistant director: I can tell her you're all tied up in the projection room. I can give her the brush.
Cecil B. DeMille: Thirty million fans have given her the brush. Isn't that enough?
Joe Gillis: Well, this is where you came in. Back at that pool again, the one I always wanted. It's dawn now, and they must have photographed me a thousand times. Then they got a couple of pruning hooks from the garden and fished me out, ever so gently. Funny how gentle people get with you once you're dead. They beached me like a harpooned baby whale and started to check the damage, just for the record. By this time, the whole joint was jumping - cops, reporters, neighbors, passersby, as much hoopdedoo as we get in Los Angeles when they open a supermarket. Even the newsreel guys came roaring in. Here was an item everybody could have some fun with, the heartless so-and-sos! What would they do to Norma? Even if she got away with it in court - crime of passion, temporary insanity - those headlines would kill her: 'Forgotten Star a Slayer,' 'Aging Actress,' 'Yesterday's Glamour Queen'...
Max: Are you ready, Norma?
Norma: What is the scene? Where am I?
Max: This is the staircase of the palace.
Norma: [readying herself] Oh yes, yes. Down below, they're waiting for the princess. I'm ready.
Max: [shouting] All right. Cameras! Action!

Cast

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