"I am big! It's the pictures that got small!"
Director Billy Wilder created one of his most enduring cinematic gems in this dark poison-pen letter to 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), who lives entombed in a mausoleum-like mansion. With nothing better on the go, Joe allows himself to become a kept man in Norma's smothering clutches, and is soon in way over his head.
A dreamy fairy tale of madness and broken dreams, this is noir at its most macabre and mystifying. And incidentally, it's also one of David Lynch's favourite films that he credits as having a profound influence on his work. If that doesn't convince you to see this seminal film, we don't know what else will.