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eturn engagement<br />
SunSet<br />
Boulevard’s<br />
Big ComeBaCk<br />
was the role no one wanted<br />
— Sunset Boulevard’s<br />
Norma Desmond, a flamboyant,<br />
delusional silent film star who<br />
attempts a comeback with the<br />
help of a struggling screenwriter (played by<br />
William Holden).<br />
Mary Pickford (among others) said no<br />
to Sunset Boulevard’s writer/director<br />
Billy Wilder, but Gloria Swanson accepted,<br />
believing it could be a career-defining role.<br />
Locked away in her tomb-like mansion<br />
where she plays bridge with other washed-up<br />
58 | <strong>Cineplex</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> | september <strong>2012</strong><br />
silent stars (including Buster Keaton)<br />
and watches her old films, Desmond lives in<br />
the past but dreams of returning to the<br />
big screen, thus becoming a symbol of the<br />
cruel and transient nature of Hollywood glory.<br />
Like her movie alter ego, Swanson was a<br />
huge silent film star who had also lived in<br />
a mansion on Sunset Boulevard. But, unlike<br />
Norma Desmond, when talking pictures took<br />
hold Swanson realized her career was on<br />
the downward slide and gracefully exited<br />
Hollywood, returning only when Wilder<br />
called. —IR<br />
Sunset Boulevard<br />
screens as part of<br />
<strong>Cineplex</strong>’s Classic<br />
Film Series on<br />
<strong>September</strong> 16th<br />
and 19th. Go to<br />
<strong>Cineplex</strong>.com/<br />
events for times<br />
and locations
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