This episode will help you understand how art—specifically cinema—can grow in importance over time, and our ongoing exploration of art continues to shed valuable light on the human condition. #ArtIsLife   Today, more than 70 years after it premiered, "Sunset Boulevard" remains the finest ever movie made about the pathology of fame: those who lose it, those who abuse it, and those who never attain it at all.    Great films are born of great collaborations, and "Sunset Boulevard" represents one of the most extraordinary confluences of cinematic talent in film history. Still, its production was surprisingly fraught, filled with unexpected twists. Why was William Holden, who had never caught fire as a leading man, hired to play Joe Gillis after the fastest-rising star in the business dropped out at the last minute? After Mae West and Mary Pickford turned down the now iconic role of Norma Desmond, how did Billy Wilder convince Gloria Swanson, who had long been absent from Hollywood at this point, to leave her low-paying job as a TV talk show host to join the cast?    From the writers' room during Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett's final collaboration to the moment when the film won three Academy Awards, scholar and former Rolling Stone staffer  David M. Lubin takes readers on a fascinating journey through film history that proves, once and for all, why "Sunset Boulevard" is one of the most iconic films in cinematic history.    By exploring the history of "Sunset Boulevard" in time for the movie's 75th anniversary, from its inception to its making its present-day legacy, READY FOR MY CLOSEUP breathes life into a beloved masterpiece of American cinema, not only marking its influential place in film history, but also proving how prescient it really was in terms of the human costs of relentless technological change and our obsessive quest for fame, youth, and immortality.   As an undergraduate, David M. Lubin studied filmmaking at the USC School of Cinema while reviewing music for Rolling Stone. He earned his Ph.D. in American Studies from Yale. Among his seven books is an in-depth study of the blockbuster film Titanic. A professor at Wake Forest University, he has been a visiting professor at Oxford and lectured throughout the United States, Europe, China, and Australia. His Shooting Kennedy: JFK and the Culture of Images won the Smithsonian Institution's Charles C. Eldredge Prize for "distinguished scholarship in American art." Lubin is a Guggenheim Fellow and an NEH Public Scholar.   Podcast Highlights:   • Randy explains that his favorite thing to do on the podcast is to challenge himself by reading a book and "putting himself on trial" by interviewing its author   • David explains how his young students at Wake Forest University actually inspired him to choose "Sunset Boulevard" as a topic for his book. As his students were embarking on their own careers, the "Joe Gillis" character—and his challenges—resonated with them.   • David and Randy discuss additional reasons that "Sunset Boulevard" holds up so well. For one, it's the first Hollywood film that explores the "sickness" of fame. The film serves as an indictment of Hollywood's view of aging, which essentially has not changed.   • David explains how female students are influenced by the same pressure Norma Desmond feels about her appearance and the importance of looking their best.   • David and Randy discuss the concept "reel life" vs. "real life"—1950 vs. today, including the concepts of "reality television" and "being famous for being famous."   • David and Randy discuss "Sunset Boulevard" as an exploration of exploitation on a grand scale.   • David and Randy discuss Billy Wilder and the character of "Joe Gillis" are both gigolos.    • David and Randy discuss how "Sunset Boulevard" explores writers, the writing process, and the exploitation of writers, noting that every character is "writing" something.   • David and Randy discuss their concerns over AI's potential impact on true human emotion, education, and thought.   Best Quotes (from the book and the podcast episode):   • David M. Lubin, READY FOR MY CLOSEUP: "A movie about has-beens and also-rans, about failed comebacks, misguided dreams, and murderous delusions, Sunset Boulevard was made by a raft of exceptionally creative individuals, all at critical/junctures in their careers, several of them playing roles that seemed drawn from their actual lives."   • David M. Lubin, READY FOR MY CLOSEUP: "Comedy, crime film, horror story, Hollywood exposé, romantic melodrama, and psychological thriller, "Sunset Boulevard" is above all an unsentimental examination of our innate unwillingness to accept the inevitability of decline, decay, and death."   • Randall Kenneth Jones: "I don't see those of us who are beyond our youth doing much to support each other. We have so much power. We have so much knowledge. We have so much to give—and so much to learn—yet we don't do enough to elevate each other."   • David M. Lubin: "A lot of people think intellectuality is dry, dusty and inhuman, [but] exploring the ideas of works of art is anything but dry and dusty. If you do it the right way, it's exciting."   • David M. Lubin: "A good writer has to be a good reader."   • David M. Lubin: "The joy of life is making daily discoveries: Walking down the path and turning these corners and seeing where it takes you. So what I know with certainty is that life consists of uncertainty."   ON THE KNOWS is produced and edited by Kevin Randall Jones.   <a href= "https://www.OnTheKnows.com">www.OnTheKnows.com</a>    David M. Lubin <a href= "https://news.wfu.edu/2025/07/28/as-classic-film-sunset-boulevard-celebrates-its-75th-wfu-experts-new-book-garners-national-attention/"> https://news.wfu.edu/2025/07/28/as-classic-film-sunset-boulevard-celebrates-its-75th-wfu-experts-new-book-garners-national-attention/</a>  Randall Kenneth Jones: <a href= "https://www.RandallKennethJones.com">www.RandallKennethJones.com</a>  Susan Bennett: <a href= "https://www.SusanCBennett.com">www.SusanCBennett.com</a> Kevin Randall Jones: <a href= "https://www.KevinRandallJones.com">www.KevinRandallJones.com</a> 

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208: David M. Lubin KNOWS Art, Film, Subtext, Motivation, Education, Human Nature & Sunset Boulevard

ON THE KNOWS with Randall Kenneth Jones

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