Billy Wilder’s chillingly cold-blooded satire of Hollywood is one of his finest films — and indeed arguably one of the greatest movies of the period.

| Jun 27, 2023

Smashing drama of the old-fashioned kind, plus elegant perceptive characterization of the modern school, combined to make Sunset Boulevard one of the greatest films of the decade.

| Oct 11, 2021

It is Hollywood craftsmanship at its smartest and at just about its best, and it is hard to find better craftsmanship than that, at this time, in any art or country.

| Oct 11, 2021

It takes you behind the scenes in the celluloid city and into the hearts of those who make the pictures.

| Oct 11, 2021

The direction is by Billy Wilder who did Lost Weekend, and it is superb -- detailed, evocative and absorbing. Hollywood, with its mania for success is sardonically observed and there are a hundred witty touches to enliven the general atmosphere of decay.

| Oct 11, 2021

Dead fame, the grim phantom that often uniquely besets careers in Hollywood, becomes the theme for one of the most remarkable pictures ever produced.

| Oct 11, 2021

Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder, the smart writer-director-producer team, have cast a sardonic eye on Hollywood and come up with a picture of it that is not pretty, but is certainly fascinating.

| Oct 11, 2021

The amazing silent screen star Gloria Swanson makes her comeback in such a terrific picture that her only worry now is: What picture can she make next that will be as good as Sunset Boulevard?

| Oct 11, 2021

One of the most interesting and original picture to have come out of Hollywood in years.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Oct 11, 2021

Adult audiences will find the film unusual and interesting fare, with all the fascination of the fantastic filtered with truth.

| Oct 11, 2021

Gloria Swanson is more terrifying than Miss Haversham because she is more demanding.

| Oct 11, 2021

Sunset Boulevard is a triumph for Gloria Swanson, star of the silent days, and now at the top of the ladder in this more difficult talking era.

| Oct 11, 2021

There are certainly moments when [Swanson] almost persuades us that the character of Norma Desmond has been observed at first-hand, even though she is living in a world of her own -- a world of extraordinary delusions.

| Oct 11, 2021

There isn't a doubt that [Swanson's] performance, pulsing with intense and often ugly emotion, is one of the half-dozen most exciting and most complete character studies of the year.

| Oct 11, 2021

Sunset Boulevard is a story of Hollywood, mostly at its worst, brilliantly told by Hollywood at its best.

| Oct 11, 2021

[Gloria Swanson] proves that in the years she has been off the screen she has lost none of her glamour, the magnetism that made her an outstanding personality of the early Hollywood days.

| Jan 27, 2019

The conception owes something to Miss Havisham in Great Expectations, but the film builds a myth of its own, one that taps into something essential about stardom.

| Sep 14, 2018

Rarely is fiction shot through so glitteringly with real life.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 22, 2015

A tour de force for Swanson and one of Wilder's better efforts.

| Aug 14, 2007

Producer Charles Brackett and director Billy Wilder, along with co-scripter D.M. Marshman Jr.... rate a nod for daring, as well as credit for an all-around filmmaking job that, disregarding the unpleasant subject matter, is a standout.

| Jun 28, 2007