Very well executed

Don't listen to the negative reviews

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

I don't have to talk about Sunset Boulevard as the film is highly rated as it is. This is a great noir film, brilliantly lit and acted. The premise is simple: A Hollywood screenwriter chances upon an aging actress who orders him to rework a screenplay. He is relocated to her mansion- which is as much as a character as she is, and soon he realizes that not only is he trapped, but that the mysterious aging actress is a loose nut. Billy Wilder's film was a massive success upon release and its reputation has only grown since. William Holden is well cast as the tragic young scriptwriter and Gloria Swanson is magical as the elusive silent screen siren. This is dark comedy of the highest order.

Right away you feel transported to another Dimension. A Hollywood Universe unlike you've ever seen before. Now Watch this film!

What a wonderful and witty script, filled with cynicism and an immaculate set up of two characters-Joe Gillis and Norma Desmond-who are so different that they perfectly drive each other deeper into each other's hubris. The more I learned about the history of that time, and the wise allegory the film makes so ahead of its time, the more I appreciate this cinematic gem. It's hard to know where to begin. The larger than life settings are awesome in the true sense of the word: from the formidable and grotesque mansion (with more trinkets than those owned by the world's best hoarders), to the real film sets in Paramount Studios, and the humdrum writing office turned into a courting stage filled with spark and excitement. The acting is fantastic, and Gloria Swanson seems to have been born for this part-perhaps her creation of Norma was inspired by her own experience, being a silent film star herself.The intelligent plot and character development brings both Desmond and Gillis to self-destruct, and bury each other further in delusions, while staying entirely convincing throughout. The misery of both of them, and their consequent desperation and need for each other, makes the viewer even more engrossed in the picture and the inevitable fate of the two.There are not enough words to describe the magnificence and precociousness of this film-it simply needs to be experienced and taken in. How lucky to have been able to watch it on the big screen! Thank you TCM.

This is a movie that shattered the pure image of classic Hollywood. It takes on the fact of their ideal image of beauty and the effect on women when they no longer fit that standard. The film follows a start that has fallen from her golden thrown and her deep seated struggles when all she has ever known is gone. To further complicate this there is of course relationship drama. This is a great movie to start off the 1950's and encompasses a classic film noir.