MULHOLLAND DRIVE / SUNSET BOULEVARD

ABOUT THE FILMS:

MULHOLLAND DRIVE, 2001, Janus Films, 147 min, USA, Dir: David Lynch. 

In David Lynch’s maniacal, notorious thriller, amnesia-suffering Rita (Laura Harring), who barely escapes murder on winding, hilly Mulholland Drive, makes her way down to Hollywood, where she sneaks into the apartment of bright-eyed aspiring actress Betty (Naomi Watts). When the two women encounter each other and try to piece together what happened to Rita, their descent into the freshly warped and hypnotically nightmarish Lynchian rabbit hole ensues. A lethal blue box, an unlucky director named Adam Kesher and a neon-glowing nightclub called Silencio are only the tip of the iceberg in this kinkily off-kilter neo-noir. Edited by Mary Sweeney.

FORMAT: 35mm

SUNSET BOULEVARD, 1950, Paramount, 110 min, USA, Dir: Billy Wilder. 

“I’m ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille!” Director Billy Wilder created one of his most enduring masterpieces in this dark, glittering, poison-pen letter to all things Hollywood, told in flashback by screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden), whose final job is playing paid companion to egocentric, aging silent-film goddess Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). With Erich von Stroheim. Academy Award Winner for Best Screenplay (Wilder, Charles Brackett and D.M. Marshman Jr.) and Score (Franz Waxman). The original Schwab’s drugstore figures prominently in the film, as do Paramount Studios and the still-standing Alto Nido apartments.

FORMAT: 35mm