It's sad that a hero grows old and a beauty dies.

In the late 194s, three thrilling shots were heard in a mansion on Sunset Avenue in Los Angeles.

Joe Gillis, a handsome young screenwriter, falls in his favorite swimming pool-and this tragedy is related to a dead actress ...

This is the title of Sunset Boulevard, one of the greatest black-and-white movies of the last century.

The film was directed by the great Hollywood director billy wilder in 195. It won the 23rd Oscar for Best Screenplay and was nominated for the Best Director Award.

The film tells the absurdity and misery of Norma Desmond, the once-popular superstar.

The dying beauty, unwilling to be lonely, eventually leads to madness, unacceptable reality and irresistible deception, which finally destroys Norma-

In a Gothic mansion on Sunset Avenue, there lives a silent film red star that has been forgotten. She is Norma Desmond, the hero of this film.

She used to be young and beautiful. absolute beauty was the darling of the silent film era, the real queen of the screen and a superstar.

At the peak of her career, she received more than 1, letters from fans a week, and earned a huge income of more than one million dollars a year.

Paramount praised her to the sky and gave her a whole row of houses as a dressing room. At a young age, she bought a castle-like luxury mansion on Sunset Avenue in the rich area.

However, with the arrival of talking movies, silent films have lost people's favor. Norma, who should have adapted to the times, is still immersed in the aura of the old days, so she is reluctant to change.

She also announced from the earth that she relied on acting, "We don't need dialogue".

gradually, Norma, Zhu Yan's old and out of date, is no longer suitable for the beautiful young role. She can only hide in her mansion and wait for her comeback one day.

Time goes by relentlessly. She has wasted her brilliant years and finally entered the age of knowing her destiny.

Norma, on the other hand, never accepts the reality, and still lives in her own fantasy kingdom with her past glory as her sustenance.

She is aloof and isolated, but she wears heavy makeup and jewels every day. The only audience is the housekeeper Max and a chimpanzee.

She is narcissistic to the point of abnormal condition, with rows of former stills, and only chooses her own silent films when watching movies.

She is still a dazzling queen in her own world, and she doesn't even notice people's forgetfulness. After all, she will still receive letters from "fans".

However, she doesn't know how hard the housekeeper Max, her first husband, has made to protect her fragile fantasy and protect her from the outside world.

Sporadic "fan" letters are written secretly by Max himself; When Norma watched the old film starring herself, he accompanied her with the same feelings as her; He quietly sent away all the hostile visits from the media.

If this fantasy kingdom can continue to exist like this, maybe Norma will be fine. But all this was ruined by an uninvited guest.

This man is Joe Gillis, a 31-year-old down-and-out screenwriter. Although he is good-looking, his works are mediocre, and his plays are often killed.

because his career was not smooth, he was in financial difficulties, borrowed a lot of money, and was urged to pay debts every day.

On this day, in order to avoid two creditors, he drove into the mansion on Sunset Avenue by mistake and saw a scene that shocked him.

I saw a half-aged woman with red lips in Xu Niang, singing for her dead orangutan. She haughtily stopped him, mistaking him for a funeral for the orangutan.

When Joe made it clear that he was leaving, he suddenly recognized Norma. He exclaimed, "You used to be very famous!"

Norma said with some arrogance, "I am also very famous now, but the movies are getting smaller and smaller!" " She also confidently said, "I can break your heart with just one look."

When she finally met an audience, Norma found someone to vent her anger on, and angrily condemned the current movie: "Once this industry attracted the attention of the whole world, but ... they wanted people all over the world to' hear' it, so they opened their mouths, spoke loudly, spoke loudly!"

Joe was obviously disgusted by her hysteria. When he turned to leave, Norma brought a stack of drafts, saying that this was her play Salome, which would be a masterpiece for her to return to the film industry, and asked Joe to help her revise it.

Hearing that Norma would pay a large sum of money, Joe, desperate, immediately accepted Norma's suggestion to stay here temporarily.

Norma will hold a luxurious reception on New Year's Eve. She gives Joe a batch of high-definition clothes and invites him to attend.

That night, Max invited a band, and wine was placed in the mansion. Well-dressed Joe arrived on time, only to find that there were no other guests except Norma.

At this time, the band's performance reached its climax, and the warm tango dance music started. Norma jumped up with Joe.

She put her face to Joe's ear and made a beautiful vision, which made Joe seem to see the future.

However, Joe asked her doubtfully when the other guests would come, but Norma clearly told him, "It's just you and me tonight, and I'm already in love with you!"

Joe was shocked and resisted. Although he is eager for the help of the rich woman, he can't accept being a gigolo. He refused: "I am not suitable for you!" "

A conflict broke out between them, and Joe left in a rage and attended a friend's party.

He met Betty, a 22-year-old female screenwriter, and they talked happily about the creation of the script, and Joe got a lot of inspiration.

Joe decided to move out of that gloomy mansion, but received the news that Norma was going to cut her wrist and commit suicide. Joe had to go back to the mansion to comfort Norma.

Norma looked very haggard, which made Joe feel sympathy and they kissed. Joe promised Norma to stay with her.

Norma bought him new clothes in piles, renovated the swimming pool for him, and gave him a gold-plated cigarette case and a brand-name car ...

Although she didn't want to accept it, she suddenly turned from a poor boy to a glamorous "noble" and lived a comfortable and exquisite life. This temptation made Joe unable to refuse.

In addition, Norma's loneliness, loneliness and fragility made Joe unable to leave again, so he became a gigolo that he looked down upon himself, or a substitute for orangutans, and Norma was a new pet.

Although Max saw Joe's hypocrisy, Joe could make his queen happy, so he stopped.

In this way, Joe lived a canary life, with luxuries and luxury cars and wine every day. However, compared with the vibrant atmosphere outside, this mansion seems to be a gloomy world.

Norma locked Joe in the kingdom she built, where only her past beauty and glory, as well as her wishful thinking of becoming popular for the second time. Even the weekly "Movie Night" shows Norma's past works, such as "Queen Kelly".

Every time these old films are shown, Norma is more intoxicated with the past, and Joe only feels suffocated inside.

On this day, Norma looked cheerful. It turned out to be the studio staff and gave her a call. She thinks it must be the director Dimir who wants to invite her to make a film. She is finally going back to the screen!

Joe accompanied her to the set and was almost stopped by the doorman. Fortunately, after some prompting, the old guard remembered her before letting her go.

Director Dimir was busy filming, and he was a little surprised when he saw Norma. While pretending to greet Norma warmly, he secretly asked the staff what was going on.

It turns out that filming requires the lens of a luxury car. The staff just wanted to borrow Norma's car, but Norma misunderstood.

Norma, who didn't know it, was very excited. She went to the spotlight, posed in various shapes, and was worshipped by her eyes, as if she had returned to the era when all the stars were holding the moon.

Dimir couldn't bear to tell the truth, so he told Norma in a perfunctory way that he would look for her next time he made a movie.

knowing the truth, Joe couldn't bear to tell Norma. He met Betty again on the set, talked about the script with her, and prepared to work together.

After that, Joe and Betty spent almost every day together, and their scripts were written very smoothly. Young and beautiful Betty opened a window for depressed Joe with sunshine and vigor.

a few days later, their script was successfully completed, and they played together to celebrate. On the way, Betty expressed her love to Joe, and Joe found himself in love with Betty.

Joe returned to the mansion very late. Max was very worried and advised Joe not to make Norma sad.

Norma suspected that Joe was dating Betty privately and asked nervously. Joe only said that nothing happened between Betty and tried to make up for it.

Unexpectedly, Norma, who is sensitive and suspicious, called Betty in front of Joe and hinted at her affair with Joe.

although Joe was furious, it was too late to stop him. Betty braved the heavy rain to get here, and Joe simply told Betty everything: "This is an old story … a rich old woman met a young man …"

Hearing this, Betty was shocked and sad, and ran out crying.

Facing the ferocious Norma, Joe said nothing, packed his bags and prepared to leave.

Norma asked nervously, "Are you leaving me? ！”

At this moment, Joe can't stand it any longer. He shattered Norma's fantasy layer by layer.

He told Norma that no one wanted her script, and the crew just wanted to borrow her car.

Norma's eyes widened in disbelief, arguing that she was still very popular and received letters from fans every day.

Joe told her mercilessly that these letters were all written by Max.

Finally, he threw Norma a sentence: "There is nothing wrong with being 5 years old, but you have to pretend that you are sick when you are 2 years old."

The fantasy kingdom collapsed, and the great shock and anger made Norma completely lose her mind. She took out a pistol and shot Joe behind her.

Joe struggled out of the door, and Norma fired two more shots. Joe staggered down and plunged into the swimming pool repaired for him ...

I saw Norma wearing the costume of Queen Kelly, posing in an exaggerated posture, singing and walking down the stairs.

At the last moment, Max still protected her dream. He told her loudly: "Look, the cameras are all here, they are waiting for you to dance!" "

"I swear to my dear fans that I will never abandon you again ... OK, Mr. Dimir, you can take my close-up."

......

The generation of red stars ended in this absurd way, which makes people feel sad.

it's not a pity that a beauty is dying. Unfortunately, a beauty doesn't accept the reality of dying.

Sunset Boulevard is the first film to criticize the Hollywood star system.

In that era of Hollywood, some stars were once celebrated to fame, but when they were out of breath, no one cared. However, they have been spoiled for a long time, unable to cope with the situation of sharp decline, and languish in resentment, loneliness, depression, and even madness.

Although Norma Desmond is a fictional star, this film reflects many realities and can find many prototypes.

Gloria swanson, starring Norma, has a very similar life track with Norma.

She used to be the queen of the silent film era and the highest-paid actress, and she spent as much as $5, on jewelry every year.

One of her famous sayings is: I want to shine the stars all the time!

However, the arrival of talking movies and the relentless passing of time ended her film career, just like Norma in Sunset Boulevard.

It is wise for Benoma that although she no longer shines on the screen, Gloria swanson has not given up on herself.

After leaving the film circle, she began to learn painting, design fashion, establish cosmetics brands, write columns, publish autobiographies, and promote the book Sugar Blues for her sixth husband ...

On the stage of life without an audience, she still shines as she said.

In Sunset Boulevard, erich von stroheim, who plays the housekeeper Max, was once a famous director in the silent film era.

The movie "Queen Kelly" is the work that represents his career in Waterloo. It can be said that it was this movie that ruined the future of Gloria swanson and Eric.

However, the two actors accepted it and agreed to add this detail to it, which shows that they have long been relieved and regarded the past as a cloud.

In the story of Sunset Boulevard, Norma wrote the script Salome, but in real life, Gloria swanson played the role of Salome in the 1925 film The Stage is in My Heart.

William Horton, the actor of Joe in Sunset Boulevard, is actually similar to Joe. When William was young, he starred in The Golden Boy, but for more than ten years, his fame was always tepid, just like Joe in Sunset Boulevard, who suffered from career embarrassment.

and the director of the film, Dimir, is the great silent film director Sisi Dimir himself. That day, he was filming a movie. Wilder, the director of Sunset Boulevard, took the crew directly to the set and took advantage of Dimir's position to shoot Norma's scene on the set.

Sunset Boulevard is regarded as an epic movie. Here we can see the cruelty and helplessness of a beautiful woman in her late years, and we can also reflect on our own life:

Youth, beauty, brilliance and wealth may all be like a dream, but what we want to keep is our own heart.