After a chance encounter with once-famous silent film star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), down-on-his-luck writer Joe Gillis (William Holden) is offered the chance to write a screenplay that will purportedly revive her career. He becomes her lover, but Joe also falls for a young script editor, triggering jealousy and madness, which eventually leads to tragedy.

Wilder’s coruscating tale set in a world he knew too well is a darkly humorous portrait of Tinseltown at its most tarnished.