#cinephilia

#cinephilia

The bell tolling the end of Hollywood may well be the pending sale of Warner Discovery to either the streaming behemoth Netflix, which refuses to firmly commit to a theatrical release model going forward, or to rival studio Paramount, whose parent company has demonstrated more fealty to the ruling regime than to creative, journalistic, or political independence. Maybe "The Movies" have had their run, as

Billy Wilder's film starring Gloria Swanson as a reclusive former silent movie star, and William Holden as a young wannabe writer who becomes her kept man, more than ever looks not merely like tinseltown satire or LA noir, but a ghost story. It's the ultimate film about how the screenwriter is always the loser and the chump. You can tell that Norma Desmond (Swanson) is washed up because she has actually written a screenplay which is, however, more than Joe (Holden) ever achieves in the course of this film.