Sunset Boulevard is coming to Blu-Ray for the first time ever. Billy Wilder’s iconic and tragic noir tale of life in Hollywood for a struggling screenwriter and an aging silent film star has managed to stay in the cultural lexicon for over 60 years, and it’s Blu-Ray release is being handled equally as reverently.
On November 6, fans will be able to catch the Sunset Boulevard Blu-Ray set in all of its restored glory. The main effort of the restoration was to maintain John Seitz’s beautiful cinematography, but unfortunately, none of the original nitrate materials had survived. To achieve this, a team was able to find a vintage print of the film within the Library of Congress to work off of, scanning the materials and restoring them for the best picture possible.
The sound, too, has been revamped for the upcoming release, having been transferred to digital and then cleaned up. The process for this started with the 2002 Special Collector’s Edition DVD release, but will supposedly sound even better with the added work put into the audio component. However, the big bonus to the new release is the incredible features section, which will hold over 2 hours of extra footage for diehard fans, and will even feature a never-before-released deleted scene.
If you already own a copy of the flick, you may have already been privy to many of the special features. Regardless, restoration work is one of the few times it may be better to trade up for a new disc set, and Paramount went to the mattresses for the upcoming Sunset Boulevard release. You can check out the full list of extras, below.
Sunset Boulevard Blu-Ray Extras
- Commentary by Ed Sikov, author of On Sunset Blvd: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder
- “Sunset Boulevard: The Beginning”
- “Sunset Boulevard: A Look Back”
- ”The Noir Side of Sunset Boulevard”
- ”Sunset Boulevard Becomes a Classic”
- ”Two Sides of Ms. Swanson”
- ”Stories of Sunset Boulevard”
- ”Mad About the Boy: A Portrait of William Holden”
- ”Recording Sunset Boulevard”
- ”The City of Sunset Boulevard”
- Franz Waxman and the Music of Sunset Boulevard
- Morgue Prologue Script Pages
- Deleted Scene—“The Paramount-Don’t-Want-Me Blues” (HD)
- Hollywood Location Map
- Behind the Gates: The Lot
- Edith Head: The Paramount Years
- Paramount in the ‘50s
- Galleries: Production, The Movie, and Publicity
- Theatrical Trailer (HD)
