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To whither into the sunset...

Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Life starts with a bang, snowballs into a gamut of cellular mash, develops its own dreams and desires, achieve it or least attempts at it, slows down afterwards and rides into the sunset... Along with this transformation, the psyche will ensure that the ebbs and highs are nicely handled so that the mass does not become a mess to others around. This mostly is the theme behind 'Sunset Boulevard' (1950).

It is a sad tale of a financially challenged struggling screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden), escaping the clutches of the car re-possessors, drives into a garage of an apparently abandoned mansion in Sunset Boulevard. He is ushered in mistakenly thought to be a funeral parlour technician who has come into assists in doing the final rites of a chimpanzee of the owner of the palatial house, an over the hill silent film era star, Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson - a silent movie star herself).

Corpse of Gillis floating in Desmond's pool in the 
film's opening scenes. The desired scene proved
difficult to stage and was achieved by carefully
placing mirrors on the bottom of the swimming 
pool and filming from above.
Gillis decides to enjoy the hospitality and the accommodation (as his wallet was dry). The relationship grows to something that can construed as weird like Norma deciding and paying for his new wardrobe and having a two-person-only New Year's Eve party complete with a musical accompaniment. Things get complicated when the obsessed actress tries to keep him as her keeps by suicide attempts. Norma, obviously delusional and living in a house full of her portraits and memorabilia of her heydays, gets Gillis to rewrite her screenplay to make a comeback into the movie industry. Trapped, he obliges in spite of his new writing offers and new love interest. In midst of her self-indulgence in self thought glory, Norma failed to realise that nobody is Hollywood actually wants her back.

During one of the arguments when Gillis attempts to leave, and Norma threatens self-injury, Gillis is shot, and his body is seen floating in the swimming pool. This forms the backdrop of the beginning of the movie which, as all film noir, is told in a narrative form with witty punchlines like this one recited by Desmond as she reminisces her illustrious career...(silent movie replaced by talkies)

"I am big, it's the pictures that got small!"
Sunset Boulevard received 11 Academy Award nominations and won three and is amongst the legends of a bygone era.
On a personal note, look around you. There are many individuals walking around with instability around them like a halo around their head. Their histrionics dressings, loud preposition, jolly excitable behaviour are all telltale signs of craving for attention.
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