
The Dark Side of the Screen: Film Noir at the Great Neck Library

THE DARK SIDE OF THE SCREEN: FILM NOIR – a free screening of SUNSET BOULEVARD followed by a conversation with Professor / Author FOSTER HIRSCH
The Great Neck Library is having a movie screening and author discussion at the Main Library, 159 Bayview Avenue, Great Neck, NY 11023 on Sunday, February 9, 2025 at 1:30 p.m. The event is FREE to attend. You may purchase an autographed copy of the book for $40. For more information, please contact Great Neck Library at (516) 466-8055 or email adultprogramming@greatnecklibrary.org.
Provided by the Gold Coast Arts Center:
Please join us at the Great Neck Library for a screening of the “Academy award-winning film” SUNSET BOULEVARD, followed by a conversation with author and film professor Foster Hirsch, who will discuss the film and his critically acclaimed new book, Hollywood and the Movies of the Fifties: The Collapse of the Studio System, the Thrill of Cinerama, and the Invasion of the Ultimate Body Snatcher.
About the film:
Sunset Boulevard is a 1950 American black comedy film noir directed by Billy Wilder and co-written by Wilder, Charles Brackett, and D.M. Marshman Jr. Joe Gillis was played by William Holden, a struggling screenwriter, and Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond, a former silent film star who draws him into her deranged fantasy world, where she dreams of making a triumphant return to the screen. Also stars Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson, Jack Webb, Lloyd Gough, and Fred Clark. Director Cecil B. DeMille and gossip columnist Hedda Hopper play themselves, and the film includes cameo appearances by silent-film stars Buster Keaton, H. B. Warner, and Anna Q. Nilsson.
Praised by many critics when first released, Sunset Boulevard was nominated for 11 Academy Awards (including nominations in all four acting categories) and won three. It is often ranked among the greatest movies ever made. As it was deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the U.S. Library of Congress in 1989, Sunset Boulevard was included in the first group of films selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. In 1998, it was ranked number 12 on the American Film Institute’s list of the 100 best American films of the 20th century. In 2007, it was 16th on their 10th Anniversary list.
About Foster Hirsch:
Foster Hirsch is a professor of film at Brooklyn College and the author of sixteen books on film and theater, including Otto Preminger: The Man Who Would Be King, The Dark Side of the Screen: Film Noir, and A Method to Their Madness: The History of the Actors Studio. He lives in New York City. His newest book, Hollywood and the Movies of the Fifties, is a fascinating look at Hollywood’s most turbulent decade and the demise of the studio system is set against the boom of the post–World War II years, the Cold War, and the atomic age—and the movies that reflected the seismic shifts.
Praise for Hollywood and the Movies of the Fifties:
“The definitive book on 1950s Hollywood.” — Booklist
“An important, riveting look at our nation at its peak as a world power and at the political, cultural, and sexual upheavals it endured, reflected, and explored in the quintessential American art form.”
“A gripping yet informative report on a time in show business where threats to the industry seemingly lurked around every corner of society…[that] promises to entertain and educate movie lovers wanting to know more about the evolution of the film industry.”