1:00:00 Norma Desmonds car definitely was NOT a Duesenberg; according to IMCDB it's a Isotta Fraschini !

Masterpiece! So much genius went into making this masterpiece. It has more layers than an onion.

This was wonderful and thank you so much for posting. I know that my next viewing of Sunset Boulevard will be enhanced by Mr. Brackett’s insightful comments. I could not agree more with his statements about modern comedies being crude in comparison to the sophistication of classic screwball films, the idea that nothing can be simply suggested anymore, and that constraints can lead to more creative filmmaking. Sitting @ home, many times I yelled out, “Amen!”

Thank you for uploading this program, events of such type are visited by Arty and High Class people and being none of the above there was no way I could ever experience this most interesting subject Sunset Boulevard.

Of course it's a delight that anyone would spend an hour talking about the classic Sunset Boulevard, but Mr. Brackett must know that if you are going to give a public lecture it is essential that your facts are straight--else they become "facts" in somebody else's lecture. A perfect example (besides those already quoted by other writers)--he mentions about 20 minutes into the film that Swanson took home the Oscar for this film. Not true at all--either she or Bette Davis were expected to win--but Fox had added Anne Baxter from All About Eve (instead of promoting her for Supporting Actress) and the surprise winner was JUDY Holliday, fresh from her Broadway performance in her first film. And how fortunate we are that Swanson was persuaded to be Norma Desmond.

This movie and Rebel Without A Cause are my two FAVORITES! Great video. I learned a lot.

He makes some curious mistakes in the lecture. A Foreign Affair is actually a comedy not a tragedy and Ninotchka was directed by Ernst Lubitsch not Billy Wilder. Charles Brackett's recently published diaries also reveals that he wasn't totally entranced with Garbo.

@kevinwilson3609

4 жыл бұрын

And Judy Holliday won the Oscar not Billie

Geez, the speaker is intelligent, but there are many glaring factual errors in his lecture. William Holden didn't appear in Picnic until six years after Sunset Boulevard, and the It Girl was Clara Bow, not Theda Bara. The old picture of Gloria is not from Queen Kelly, and was not taken in 1922, it was from Sadie Thompson in 1928. Cecil B. DeMille does not tell Norma he only wanted her Duesenberg (it's an Isotta Fraschini) in the movie, she only finds that out later from Joe Gillis.

@luckystoller6171

5 ай бұрын

Thank you for these corrections. I thought the car was a Hispano-Suiza. Seriously, we do cherish these little details. Trivia is important because truth is important, otherwise, people will be citing Wikipedia as a primary source. Even though they try, it's up to us to keep truth alive now more than ever.

Wearisome. Never gets to the making of the movie.

I worked with Bill Wilder

He would have been much easier to listen to if he had simply used his written lecture as notes instead of reading it verbatim. So much good information delivered in a tedious style.

My previous comment was made before Mr. Brackett later corrected himself--JUDY holliday (not Billie) was the Oscar winner the year Swanson (and Bette Davis) was nominated, and then he blithely states that Brando made no good films until after The Wild One--uh--do Streetcar Named Desire or On The Waterfront or Julius Caesar quality? It's these sort of careless mistakes one might forgive in an off-the-cuff lecture, but Mr. Brackett is reading from notes, and pushing a book on the subject, and his info should be accurate if he is going to air it in public. Meaning well is not the same as doing good.

@luckystoller6171

5 ай бұрын

And what about Brando in "The Men"? It was his very first film and so very powerful.

half an hour in and sick of the bs and his cousin lol, reading not talking to us.... and a very superficial explanation of the story.... based on the obvious, nothing new here.

@bluetoad2001

5 жыл бұрын

reading is extremely boring. a high school kid could do better with this material

He doesn't really start talking about Sunset Boulevard until about 20mins in. Prior to that, endless self-indulgent waffle.

When he talks about Garbo and Ninotcka at around 23:47: "Billy was the director."

@jeewanmadusanka8594

7 жыл бұрын

This movie is now available to watсh here => twitter.com/1a0f3f2c2c721d8c2/status/795841773058691072 TThе Мaking оf Wilder and Braсkett s Sunset Boulevaaаard Forum аt SFU

I gave up after 30 mins. Got bored as rehash of know facts (some mistakes) n got tired of 'my cousin' etc Though if u know little of background of film n times its fine.

rip. Greg Page... green eyes...

It's a comedy. Dark, cruel comedy but a comedy.

where can I find Breaking up is hard to do, author please

i dont like this guys repeated reference to lennon and mccartney

That's JUDY Holiday you nit!

This clearly appears to have more in common with someone cashing in on his name and distant relation to Brackett than it does with having some life-long connection to and background knowledge of the movie. Too many innacuracies and elongated babble to lend this man any legitimate credibility.

I wanted to like this ‘lecture’ - but it was riddled with factual errors, lacked connection because it was a reading of text, not a talk & didn’t offer any insights that admirers of the movie (like myself) did not already possess. Having read copiously about Sunset Blvd & its creators, I constantly recognised phrases & analyses pulled from the work of other authors. I hate to say this, but this is obviously a presentation which only exists because the speaker/reader has a very tenuous family connection with the movie’s Producer.

Commentators

This guy is a distant multiple-times-removed cousin of Charles Brackett, who likes to imply that he has some kind of inside knowledge about my husband's grandfather. Yes, my husband's grandfather, and my husband had never met, nor even heard of Mr. Donald Brackett until Mr. Brackett started doing these lectures! Mr. Brackett knows nothing beyond what anyone else could have read about Charles Brackett. Trust me! And he was told to cease and desist with the misleading implications. Not that he can't lecture about Charles Brackett (anyone is entitled to do research and lecture), but his implications of insider knowledge, due to being a very distant relative that none of us has ever met, had to go bye-bye.

@edgarparker16

2 жыл бұрын

I completely agree.

Comedy = tragedy + time Hollywood as a drug to help through bad times

Donald's consistent millennial-bashing is uncalled for and irrelevant to the insight he has to offer here

@taraniso

5 жыл бұрын

Millennials deserve all the bashing. They're the worst to work with/for. Billy Wilder would've eaten you guys for a breakfast snack.