Join us for a book signing and Q&A following the film with film scholar David Lubin, who recently published ‘Ready for My Close-Up: The Making of Sunset Boulevard and the Dark Side of the Hollywood Dream’, in celebration of the film’s 75th Anniversary. Books will be available for sale at a/perture through Bookmarks. 

Billy Wilder’s iconic film returns to theaters, following a struggling screenwriter (William Holden), who becomes part of an artistic and disastrous collaboration with fading silent film star, Norma Desmond, brilliantly brought to life by Gloria Swanson. Winner of three Academy Awards including Best Screenplay, and often noted as one of the greatest films of all time, ready for its close-up with a beautiful 4K Restoration.

“A perfect marriage of film noir, metafiction, and the darkly comedic genius of Billy Wilder, ‘Sunset Blvd.’ is both the most loving and the most scathing look Hollywood ever took at itself. To die is a terrible thing – but to be forgotten, that is the true tragedy.” ~ Alan Mattli, Sight & Sound

Wake Forest professor emeritus David Lubin, an internationally renowned scholar of American art and culture, has written a page-turning account of the history and meaning of Billy Wilder’s masterpiece Sunset Boulevard. Entitled Ready for My Close-Up: The Making of “Sunset Boulevard” and the Dark Side of the Hollywood Dream, Lubin’s recent book has been widely acclaimed and listed by The New Yorker as one of the “Best Books of 2025.”

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