The Great Neck Library will host a movie screening and author discussion at the Main Library at 159 Bayview Ave., on Sunday, Feb. 9, at 1:30 p.m.
The event is free; attendees may purchase an autographed copy of the featured book for $40. For more information, call (516) 466-8055 or email adultprogramming@greatnecklibrary.org.
Presented by the Gold Coast Arts Center, the event will feature a screening of the Academy Award-winning film “Sunset Boulevard,” followed by a discussion with film professor and author Foster Hirsch. Hirsch will explore the film and his critically acclaimed book, “Hollywood and the Movies of the Fifties: The Collapse of the Studio System, the Thrill of Cinerama, and the Invasion of the Ultimate Body Snatcher.”
Directed by Billy Wilder, “Sunset Boulevard” (1950) is a black comedy film noir starring William Holden as struggling screenwriter Joe Gillis and Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond, a former silent film star lost in her fantasy world.
The film was praised upon release and nominated for 11 Academy Awards, winning three. It was added to the National Film Registry in 1989 and ranks among the greatest films ever made.
Hirsch, a Brooklyn College professor and author of 16 books, offers a deep dive into 1950s Hollywood and its cultural shifts. “Hollywood and the Movies of the Fifties” has been hailed as “the definitive book on 1950s Hollywood” by Booklist.
