Sunset Blvd. Vs. Being Julia

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 12/14/05 at 3:18am

i watched "Being Julia" and thought it had too much in commom with "Sunset Blvd." anyone knows if Sunset was based on the play "theatre"???

[Kringas]

Posted: 12/14/05 at 3:27am

There's a play called "Theatre"?

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 12/14/05 at 3:31am

LOL, I believe the movie Being Julia is based on the play. It's an old play though, opened in 1941 I believe. I doubt the movie Sunset Blvd. was based on it but I have never read the play or watched Being Julia so who knows?

[Kringas]

Posted: 12/14/05 at 3:35am

So there is. Cool. Not knowing that play, I can't speak for it, but I didn't really draw any correlations between Julia and Sunset. Is it because of the aging actress thing?

Both movies, however, are excellent.

Updated On: 12/14/05 at 03:35 AM

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 12/14/05 at 3:42am

I watched the Sunset Blvd. movie last night for the first time because I randomly found it at the public library and was surprised at how good it was. Sondheim wanted to make a musical based on it before Lloyd Webber approached Wilder about the rights, that would have been interesting.
Sorry neither of us has been able to answer your question muscle.

[jimmirae]

Posted: 12/14/05 at 5:44am

I believe Mr. Wilder wrote it and in top secret at the time, calling it something like "A Can of Beans" as his work in progress title. Of course, Glo Swanson & EVS were already stars of the Silent Screen Era.
This is why I cannot have any more cosmetic surgery, If I do, I will have to deny remembering Greta Garbo - And I could never face that fate, Ever.

Updated On: 12/14/05 at 05:44 AM

[Fosse76]

Posted: 12/14/05 at 9:59am

It isn't though. In Being Julia, Julia isn't a has-been who's time has come and gone. It's really not similar at all. It's a woman who has a slight mid-life crisis and recovers. Sunset Boulevard is totally different.

[broadwaygiant19122]

Posted: 12/14/05 at 10:05am

as far as sondheim and sunset blvd. go,

in sondheim's biography by meryl secrest, there is an anecdote concerning a conversation between sondheim and billy wilder. when sondheim mentions turning it into a musical, wilder refuses. he insists " it must be an opera, as it is the dethroning of a queen". It was then that Sondheim gave up the pursuit.

As far as the movies go, i love both. Being Julia is an amalgamation of Sunset,All About Eve also.

[Musical Director]

Posted: 12/14/05 at 10:18am

Sunset Boulevard and Being Julia are not related at all. Sunset Boulevard was an original screenplay written by Billy Wilder, who also directed the film.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 12/14/05 at 10:56am

"Being Julia" was based on a Somerset Maugham novel called "Theatre."

"Sunset Boulevard" was an original screenplay by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett.