Starring: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson, Fred Clark, Jack Webb

Are you ready for your close up? Sunset Boulevard is Billy Wilder’s essential Hollywood noir about the bizarre relationship between a down-and-out screenwriter and a silent movie star has-been. Starring real-life silent era actress Gloria Swanson, the film weaves together a changing moment in the movie business with the extreme things people will do to hold on or gain industry success. It’s pretty unique in the fact that the audience knows the fate of the leading man from the very first scene and, from that point on, his ghost leads us through his unfortunate journey.