Close-up on Sunset Boulevard: Billy Wilder, Norma Desmond, and the Dark Hollywood Dream
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.57 (537 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 031227453X |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 320 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 0000-00-00 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Five Stars Everything you ever wanted to know about the naming if. James Lee Pyle said Inside Sunset Boulevard. I thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Staggs other venture in to "All About Eve," All About "All About Eve," so I knew I wouldn't be disappointed with this book. The way he dissects the entire movie without the result being so cut & dry that you feel like you've spent the whole day reading a phone book. I knew that Mae West was once considered for the role of Norma Desmond, but never knew that version was slated to be a comedy, how right on target they were with that thought!. Funny and very informative. A Customer It never occured to me that someone would write a book like this, going in-depth on a certain movie, until I just happened to see it on a "new releases" table at the bookstore. I had to buy it to read about one of my favorite movies, and I wasn't disappointed. I greatly enjoyed the author's funny, witty, intelligent writing. I found the book to be a real page-turner, even in sections where I didn't have a great deal of prior interest in the celebrity he was talking about.The only place I disagreed with the author was when he asserted that Petula Clark didn't make a good Norma Desmond (in the musical). I came to the movie backwa
There's much more, and Staggs layers this stylish book with fascinating detail, following the actors and Wilder into their post-Sunset careers and revealing Gloria Swanson's never-ending struggle to free herself from the clutches of Norma Desmond.Close-Up On Sunset Boulevard also chronicles the making of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical production of Sunset Boulevard and the explosive diva controversies that dogged it. By the last page of this rich narrative, readers will conclude: We are those "wonderful people out there in the dark.". It's also one long in-joke about the movie industry and those who made it great-and who were, in turn, destroyed by it. One of the most cr
Staggs's research is impressive: in addition to traditional print sources, he tapped unexpected sources, such as the film's previously uninterviewed supporting actress Nancy Olson, and explored nifty locales, like Norma Desmond's would-be neighborhood. The intrepid reporting results in little-known film facts: how co-art director John Meehan conceived and set up the face-down water shot of the dead Joe Gillis (William Holden) and why then-megastar Montgomery Clift did not want to play opposite older female character Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). From Publishers Weekly Staggs serves up another round of popcorn in this highly enjoyable follow-up to All About "All About Eve," plumbing the depths of the noir homage to the silent era, Sunset Boulevard. Staggs has succeeded in presenting another remarkable film study. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. DeMi