"We didn't need dialogue. We had faces!"

The Rio Theatre's series of Summer Classics continues on Sunday, June 29 with one of our favourite genres - movies about movies (and, by extension, Hollywood).

One of the greatest commentaries on 'the biz' comes from master filmmaker Billy Wilder, and his impeccably dark film noir SUNSET BOULEVARD. Featuring the glorious (if not perfectly cast) Gloria Swanson as the iconic Norma Desmond as a former silent film star who finds herself "aged out" of the Hollywood galaxy. Refusing to accept that her star burns dark, Desmond hires a young screenwriter named Joe Gillis (William Holden) to help secure her movie comeback. Gillis believes he can manipulate Norma - but he soon finds out he is wrong when his ambivalence about their relationship and her unwillingness to let go leads to an inescapable descent into a fantasy world of violence, madness, and death.

Winner of three Academy Awards, Wilder's orchestration of the bizarre tale is a true cinematic classic. From the unforgettable opening sequence through the inevitable unfolding of tragic destiny, SUNSET BOULEVARD is the definitive statement on the dark and desperate side of Hollywood. Swanson as an aging silent film queen, and Holden as the struggling writer who is held in thrall by her madness, created two of cinema's most memorable characters. Erich von Stroheim as Desmond's discoverer, ex-husband and butler, and Nancy Olson as the bright spot in unrelenting ominousness, are equally celebrated for their masterful performances. With cameos from Cecil B. DeMille, gossip columnist Hedda Hopper.

"Arguably the greatest movie about Hollywood, Billy Wilder's masterpiece SUNSET BOULEVARD is a tremendously entertaining combination of noir, black comedy, and character study." (Rotten Tomaotes)

"Still the best Hollywood movie ever made about Hollywood." (The New York Observer)

"One of Billy Wilder's finest, and certainly the blackest of all Hollywood's scab-scratching accounts of itself." (Time Out)

Friday, June 27
Doors 3:00 pm | Movie 3:25 pm *Start time subject to change. Please arrive on time.

SUNSET BOULEVARD (Billy Wilder, 1950 / 110 mins / G) Aging silent-film star Norma Desmond ensnares a young screenwriter in this poison-pen valentine to Hollywood.