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67 W I N T E R Q 4 I S S U E BLUES CONTINUED FROM PAGE 30 forth until late at night, even after leav- ing the office, which fleshed out some of Ryan's ideas — for instance, the CG birds and fireflies. Adding to what James said about work- ing with film: The moment you're shooting on 65mm, you're falling back into a 25-year- old production pipeline. Ryan is a filmmaker who comes from the Marvel world, so he uses visual effects in the best possible way as an effective tool for storytelling purpos- es. We had a feeling about how high our visual effects shot count would actually go, and it was an interesting challenge to push more than a thousand visual effects shots through that pipeline and back onto 65mm film. At first, I admittedly wasn't convinced why, but once I saw the final release prints, I understood — and I would take that chal- lenge again, this time with some thoughts and ideas. CineMontage: What do you hope audiences took away from the film, especially the in-theater/IMAX experience of watching it on the big screen? Boeddeker: I was at the Oakland pre- miere, and Ryan and his family, including his grandma, were there. Suddenly, players from the Golden State Warriors walked in and took up two rows. But the highlight for me was this older woman sitting next to me and asked me what I did, and I told her and she said, "it's not scary is it? Because I hate scary." I told her it has its moments, but it's deeper than that. Every time there was a loud jump scare she would whack me and say, "Stop it!" Shawver: The ownership that viewers take from this is remarkable. I mean the a m o u n t o f e v e r y t h i n g f ro m f i c t i o n to backstories that they're writing, or all that cosplay; people are talking about Halloween costumes for all the characters. Burtt: I hope audiences come away real- izing the value of seeing movies on the big screen and remembering how fun it is to sit in a theater with a bunch of random people, sharing an experience together. This was a fun movie to see with crowds. People screaming, laughing, yelling at characters to get back inside, or cheering when a bad guy gets taken out. The movie is different. It's original, and I think people liked that. I hope studios see the response this film gets and continue to take chances on differ- ent ideas. ■ This interview has been edited for length and clarity. FUN JUNK CONTINUED FROM PAGE 62 of DeMille in a richly conceived cameo as himself. (Despite the fortune and glory he had achieved as a legendary director, he insisted upon a $10,000 salary and addi- tional funds and perks for a reshoot.) Lubin tracks the very Norma Desmond-like spiral of Stroheim, whose decline was especially dramatic: from an immensely talented, albeit overspending, director in the 1920s to a character actor in the 1930s and beyond. Unable to bargain for a higher salary for "Sunset Boulevard," he gladly took the job, saying, "Even geniuses have to eat at least twice a week," though his high self-regard w a s u n d i m m e d . C o s t a r N a n c y O l s o n reported that Stroheim, unable to slough off the habits of his previous profession, "moved his chair as close as possible to the cameras, as if he were more than ready to step in as director on a moment's notice," Lubin writes. Especially fascinating is the discussion of Wilder's pursuit of real locations for the film, including the exterior of Norma's house, 641 South Irving Boulevard — a res- idence acquired by Ann Rork in her divorce proceedings with ex-husband J. Paul Getty. A swimming pool, an all-important element in the story, was not present on the premis- es, so Paramount built one, albeit "without proper filtering and water circulation." On-set anecdotes make up the meat and potatoes of "making of " books like these. It's enthralling to learn that, for Norma's climactic staircase descent that is capped with her line "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up," Wilder approached filming as he might have in the silent days, playing "Dance of the Seven Veils" from the opera "Salome" to get Swanson and the other actors in the right frame of mind. Lubin does not neglect post-production. He quotes film scholar Sam Staggs to de- scribe the importance of Doane Harrison, who received credit for "Editorial Supervi- sion." (Arthur Schmidt is the picture editor of record.) "Harrison taught Wilder how to pre-plan each shot as part of a total editing scheme," Staggs wrote, and Lubin illustrates several examples of how, in "Sun- set Boulevard," Wilder and the editors "connect a shot in one scene with that in another." For example, one scene ends with Joe Gillis departing through a door at a New Year's Eve party and the next scene begins with Gillis entering Norma's bedroom. "It's a visual match — out one door, in another — that furthers the contrast between Artie's apartment, which pulsates with energy and life, and Norma's solitary, cloyingly baroque bedroom." Throughout, Lubin describes the film with authority and enthusiasm. The subsequent triumphs and failures of all the principals and prime movers — Wild- er, Brackett, Swanson, Holden, and more — are accounted for, but most intriguing of all is the afterlife of "Sunset Boulevard" itself. "'Sunset Boulevard' remains the best drama ever made about the movies, because it sees through the illusions, even if Norma doesn't," film critic Roger Ebert once wrote. "Fun junk"? Maybe. But a little junkiness is to be expected in a movie about showbiz. ■ "Ready for My Close-Up: The Making of Sunset Boulevard and the Dark Side of the Hollywood Dream" By David M. Lubin 317 pages Grand Central Publishing $30, 2025