Plaza Classic Film Festival: Sunset Boulevard

Plaza Classic Film Festival: Sunset Boulevard

One of the greatest movies about the movies makes a triumphant return to the Plaza Classic, which first showed it in 2009. In her most famous performance, Gloria Swanson is Norma Desmond, a former silent screen star who has grown delusional about how well she is remembered and is now hoping to return after decades from the screen. William Holden is Joe, the struggling screenwriter who sees an opportunity to become Norma’s ghost writer, and eventually her kept man. Erich von Stroheim is Norma’s servant Max who takes it upon himself to keep Norma from reality. Gloria Swanson being a former silent screen star in real life adds an extra dimension to this Hollywood-on-Hollywood story. One of the best! — Jack Fields