monday january 18, 2010 sunset boulevard (billy

8/14/2019 Monday January 18, 2010 Sunset Boulevard (Billy

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Monday January 18, 2010Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder) at the Historic Asolo

Theatre, Sarasota

The Historic Asolo Theatre,http://www.ringling.org/HistoricAsoloTheater.aspx ,is the only recreated 18 th century theatre in the United States. Its yet another of the wonderful, many faceted aspects of The John and MableRingling Museum, http://www.ringling.org/ which sits at the end of University Parkway in Sarasota. The current cinema program is WeCould Make Beautiful Music Together: Six Decades of Academy Award Winning Film Scores:

Film Score by Year

Chariots of Fire Vangelis 1981Sunset Boulevard Franz Waxman 1950 The Red Violin John Corigliano 1998 The Summer of 42 Michael Legrand 1971The Heiress Aaron Copland 1949Tom Jones Jon Addison 1963

Getting ThereI wolfed a supper of spaghetti with a wonderfully simple

marinara, and a refreshing salad with lots of fresh ingredients,including some chopped fresh mint. I left later than I did lastweek to avoid the sunshine delay, but it was overcast anyway,so, no problem. I stopped to get some cash, and arrived about6:15 (I learned last week that getting there early helps in order to get a seat with good sight lines).

The AudienceThe audience again seemed comprised primarily of seniors, butnot ancient seniors, like last week. I struck up a conversationwith an affable couple to my right. He was from Ohio I think and she was from Chicago, although not for some time. Theywere big fans of the film program here, and were regulars(during our chat they waved twice to two sets of acquaintancesand/or neighbors). We agreed that it had been years that wed
http://www.ringling.org/HistoricAsoloTheater.aspxhttp://www.ringling.org/http://www.ringling.org/HistoricAsoloTheater.aspxhttp://www.ringling.org/


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seen Sunset Boulevard .

Sunset Boulevard

Sunset Boulevard was an amazing cinematic experience. Thefilm explored what can become of our heroes, our stars, our idols , when, callously replaced and forgotten, they obstinately(and tragically) cloak themselves in a gossamer cocoon of memories of fame that are as evanescent as the images thatflickered on the silver screen. And when the lights again go on,as they inevitably must, the maintenance of those memories of fame requires reinforcement from a panoply of photos, artifacts,and manufactured fan mail.

Part of what makes this film so awesome is that although themain character, Norma Desmond (silent film star GloriaSwanson), a silent film actress whose star had long faded, isthoroughly unapologetic, she is completely sympathetic. Her abject emptiness and loneliness are heartbreaking. In the worldof Sunset Boulevard , rejection can be brutal, cold, and isolating.And the ensuing loneliness can be pure anguish.

Academy RecognitionSeeing the film again after 20+ years, I was initially surprisedthat it didnt win an Academy award for Best Picture, nor BestActress. It was nominated for 11 awards, and won three, whichare, according to http://www.filmsite.org/suns.html

Best Story and Screenplay (co-authored by Charles Brackett,D.M. Marshman, Jr., and Billy Wilder);

Best Black and White Art Direction/Set Decoration ; and

Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture (FranzWaxman).

The eight unsuccessful nominations were for
http://www.filmsite.org/suns.htmlhttp://www.filmsite.org/suns.html


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Born Yesterday , and check out Hollidays Oscar-winningperformance. However, I did learn that two years after receivingher Best Actress Oscar, Holliday, according to Wikipedia, was called to testify before the Senate Internal SecuritySubcommittee to answer claims that she was associated withcommunism. Although not blacklisted from films, she wasblacklisted from radio and television for almost three years.

The Best Actress Oscar that year went to Judy Holliday for Born Yesterday .

Erich von Stroheim (1885 1957)According to Wikipedia, Von Stroheim was an Austrian-born

star of the silent film age, lauded for his directorial workin which he was a proto-auteur. As an actor, he is notedfor his arrogant Teutonic character parts which led himto be described as not a character actor, but what acharacter!. Playing villainous German roles during theGreat War, he became known as The Man You Love toHate.

He is perhaps best known as an actor for his role as vonRauffenstein in Jean Renoir's La Grande Illusion (1937) and asMax von Mayerling in Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard (1950).

For the latter film, which co-starred Gloria Swanson, Stroheimwas nominated for the Academy Award for Best SupportingActor . . . The Mayerling character states that he used to be oneof the three great directors of the silent era, along with D.W.Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille; many film critics agree thatStroheim was indeed one of the great early directors.Stroheim's character in Sunset Boulevard thus had anautobiographical basis that reflected the humiliations sufferedthrough his career.

The Best Supporting Actor Oscar that year went to George


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Sanders for All About Eve .

Nancy Olson (1928 - )After Sunset Boulevard , and several less successful pairingswith Holden, Olson's career, according to Wikipedia, stalled, though she did make several memorable appearances in filmsfor the Walt Disney studio. The Absent-Minded Professor andSon of Flubber paired her with Fred MacMurray and werepopular with movie-goers. She also appeared alongside HayleyMills in Pollyanna and Dean Jones in Snowball Express . Olsonthen moved to New York City where she appeared onBroadway.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, she did guest roles ontelevision, and has been retired since the mid 1980s, althoughshe made a brief, uncredited appearance in Flubber , the 1997remake of The Absent-Minded Professor .

The Best Supporting Actress Oscar that year went to JosephineHull for Harvey .

Billy Wilder (1906 2002)According to Wikipedia, Wilder's directorial choices reflectedhis belief in the primacy of writing. He avoided the exuberantcinematography of Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles because,in Wilder's opinion, shots that called attention to themselveswould distract the audience from the story. Wilder's pictureshave tight plotting and memorable dialogue. Despite hisconservative directorial style, his subject matter often pushedthe boundaries of mainstream entertainment.

Wilder was skilled at working with actors, coaxing silent eralegends Gloria Swanson and Erich von Stroheim out of retirement for roles in Sunset Boulevard . For Stalag 17 , Wilder squeezed an Oscar-winning performance out of a reluctantWilliam Holden (Holden wanted to make his character more


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(1945), and Sunset Boulevard (1950), receiving AcademyAward nominations for each.

His seven Academy nominations were for:The Divine Lady , 1929Five Graves to Cairo , 1943Double Indemnity , 1944The Lost Weekend , 1945Sunset Boulevard , 1950When Worlds Collide , 1951Rogue Cop , 1954

The Best Cinematography Oscar that year went to RobertKrasker for The Third Man .

Arthur Schmidt (1912 - 1965 ), Doane Harrison (1894-1968)Schmidt, according to Wikipedia, began his career as an editor in 1934 on the film Anne of Green Gables and continued untilhis sudden death in 1965. During that time he worked onseveral of the Bulldog Drummond B-movies, as well as The

Blue Dahlia (1946), When Worlds Collide (1951) and The Old Man and the Sea (1958).

He was a particular favorite of Billy Wilder's and edited Sunset Boulevard (1950, for which he received an Academy Awardnomination). Other films in their extended, notable collaborationinclude Ace in the Hole (1951), Sabrina (1954), The Spirit of St.Louis (1957) and Some Like It Hot (1959) for the director. Hereceived a second Oscar nomination in 1957 for his work onSayonara .

The latter part of his career was largely spent working on JerryLewis films, either as an editor ( Cinderfella in 1960) or as anassociate producer ( The Nutty Professor in 1963). He died onJuly 22, 1965 in Los Angeles, California. His son, Arthur


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Schmidt, is also a notable film editor who has won twoAcademy Awards so far for Who Framed Roger Rabbit andForrest Gump .

Harrison, according tohttp://theoscarsite.com/whoswho2/harrison_d.htm , workedmainly for Paramount, cutting some of that studio's prime filmsof the 40s and early 50s, including:The Major and The Minor , 1942Five Graves to Cairo , 1943Double Indemnity , 1944The Lost Weekend , 1945

A Foreign Affair , 1948Sunset Boulevard , 1950

Ace in the Hole , 1951Stalag 17 , 1953Sabrina , 1954Witness for the Prosecution , 1957

A favorite of Mitchell Liesen and Billy Wilder he later becamethe latter's associate producer for The Seven Year Itch (1955),

Love in the Afternoon (1957), Some Like It Hot (1959), The Apartment (1960), One, Two, Three (1961), Irma La Douce(1963), Kiss Me, Stupid (1964), and The Fortune Cookie (1966).

Harrison was also nominated for Best Editing in 1943 for FiveGraves to Cairo.

The Best Editing Oscar that year went to Ralph E. Winters andConrad A. Nervig for King Solomons Mines .
http://theoscarsite.com/whoswho2/harrison_d.htmhttp://theoscarsite.com/whoswho2/harrison_d.htm

monday january 18, 2010 sunset boulevard (billy

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