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Ready for My Close-Up: The Making of Sunset Boulevard and the Dark Side of the Hollywood Dream
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About This Book
Today, more than 70 years after it premiered, Sunset Boulevard remains the finest ever movie made about the pathology of those who lose it, those who abuse it, and those who never attain it at all. Great films are born of great collaborations, and Sunset Boulevard represents one of the most extraordinary confluences of cinematic talent in film history, but its production was surprisingly fraught, filled with unexpected twists. Why was William Holden, who had never caught fire as a leading man, hired to play Joe Gillis after the fastest‑rising star in the business dropped out at the last minute? After Mae West and Mary Pickford turned down the now iconic role of Norma Desmond, how did Billy Wilder convince Gloria Swanson, who had long been absent from Hollywood at this point, to leave her low‑paying job as a TV talk show host to join the cast? From the writers' room during Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett's final collaboration to the moment when the film won three Academy Awards, scholar and former Rolling Stone staffer David M. Lubin takes readers on a fascinating journey through film history that proves, once and for all, why Sunset Boulevard is one of the most iconic films in cinematic history. By exploring the history of Sunset Boulevard in time for the movie's 75th anniversary, from its inception to its making to its present-day legacy, Ready for My Closeup breathes life into a beloved masterpiece of American cinema, not only marking its influential place in film history, but also proving how prescient it really was in terms of the human costs of relentless technological change and our obsessive quest for fame, youth, and immortality.
Reviews
"The author paints a complex portrait of both the film and the industry it takes to task."
"Insightful and thoroughly entertaining, this is a must-read for all fans of classic Hollywood."
"For anyone fascinated by Hollywood's beginnings or Billy Wilder's body of work, this heavily researched yet never dense page-turner is an essential addition to any film fanatic's bookshelf."
"A deft account of a Hollywood classic."
"He also pushes beyond the realm of Hollywood lore to connect the film to the thematic through line in Wilder's work."
"Lubin is alert to the various ways that Sunset Boulevard doesn't just observe Old Hollywood but serves as its mausoleum."
"On its 75th anniversary, this unflinching exposure of fame's endpoint has plenty to say to a culture in which attention is more important, and more fleeting, than ever."
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