Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1542296
P H OT O : P H OT O F E S T POOL PARTY: Gloria Swanson, left, with Billy Wilder and wife Audrey in 1950. 60 C I N E M O N T A G E By Peter Tonguette I n his recent interview on Bill Maher's "Club Random" podcast, Woody Al- len — speaking freely, candidly, and u n g u a rd e d l y — a d m i t te d t h a t h e w a s not among those who revere Billy Wild- er's "Sunset Boulevard" as a great work of art. "'Sunset Boulevard' is what my wife would call, and I would agree with her, fun junk," Allen said. "You know, it's great fun, but it's a junky and silly mov- ie." The Oscar-winning writer-director expressed several unconventional cine- matic opinions on the podcast (including that "Lawrence of Arabia," while impres- sive as filmmaking, contained "cornball" performances). FUN JUNK HOW BILLY WILDER AND GLORIA SWANSON MADE A SHOWBIZ CLASSIC WITH 'SUNSET BOULEVARD' Still, surprisingly, his view of "Sunset Boulevard" ref lects a strong minority position in certain cinephile circles. Al- though the film was an Oscar-winner and a box-office hit for Paramount Pictures, and has become a perpetual presence on "best of all-time" lists, some observers have failed to discern deeper meanings in the tale of Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), a one-time silent movie goddess who, in her senescence, has persuaded herself that the handiwork of barely-getting-by screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden) will be her vessel back to the big screen. In the screenplay by Wilder, Charles Brackett, and D.M. Marshman Jr., Norma is ready for her close-up, but no one else cares to see it. The film's maliciously comic insight is that star power waxes and wanes but ultimately — finally, permanently — wanes. Yet in his definitive account of leading directors working in America, "The Amer- ican Cinema: Directors and Directions, 1 9 2 9 -1 9 6 8," f i l m c r i t i c A n d rew Sa r r i s deposited Wilder in his dreaded "Less Than Meets the Eye" category, and he did not spare "Sunset Boulevard" from his critical contempt. "Even his best f ilms — 'The Major and the Minor,' 'Sunset Boulevard,' 'Stalag 17,' and 'Some Like It Hot' — are marred by the director's penchant for gross caricature, especially with peripheral char- B O O K R E V I E W