Ready for My Closeup: The Making of ‘Sunset Boulevard’ and the Dark Side of the Hollywood Dream

In this detailed account, art historian Lubin (Grand Illusions) investigates how the 1950 film Sunset Boulevard expressed both the anxieties and joys of being in the spotlight. Sunset Boulevard is “a movie about moviemaking,” Lubin writes, in which former star Norma Desmond hires young screenwriter Joe Gillis to read her film script before taking him as a lover and murdering him out of jealousy. Lubin details the personal backgrounds of many people involved in Sunset Boulevard’s production, including director Billy Wilder and his cowriter, Charles Brackett. Beginning in the 1930s, Wilder and Brackett teamed up to write several successful films; after the death of a washed-up filmmaker in 1948, Brackett reflected on the feeling of falling into obscurity and worked with Wilder to turn this idea into a film. Lubin notes that the film, in addition to blurring “the lines between real life and reel life” including in its casting, tips “into comedy, mystery, melodrama, social satire, or horror.” The author paints a complex portrait of both the film and the industry it takes to task. This shines. Agent: Elias Altman, Massie, McQuilkin & Altman. (Aug.)