Happy 70th, ‘Sunset Boulevard'

Experiencing a bracing tonic?

We don't have the opportunity to enjoy such moments all that often, especially during those times when we actively crave a jolt or a push into a fresh way of thinking.

But satirical, stuff-to-say cinema has a way of coming through for us on this front.

Satires that skewer specific slices of life, even those parts of the world we're especially affectionate about, have a way of deepening our understanding and broadening our senses of humor.

"Sunset Boulevard" is one of the towering and timeless examples of smart satirical cinema. And that the film, which won the 1951 Oscar for Best Picture, not-so-slyly commented on the very world in which it arose?

Even more delicious and daring.

The Billy Wilder-helmed glam-gothic, which follows star-of-yesteryear Norma Desmond, aspiring screenwriter Joe Gillis, and their complicated, pricklier-than-a-cactus relationship, skewered several of Tinseltown's tightly held traditions and beliefs.

"Sunset Boulevard" is turning 70, and there's a special screening in, where else, the heart of Hollywood.

TCL Chinese 6 is the place, Monday, Jan. 27 is the date, and there's a special guest star in store: Nancy Olson, the actor who so charmingly took on the role, at the age of 20, of Betty Schaefer.

Ms. Olson, who starred in a host of well-known films after "Sunset Boulevard," will join a Q&A session during the evening.

Is this Golden Age gem your ultimate satire of the movie-making industry? Does its many taut and tangy observations about stardom, and its sometimes sour underside, still ring true for you today?

Seven decades have nearly passed since its release in August 1950. And yet? The observations woven through its spiky story of a striving up-and-comer and star-in-seclusion still hold water today.

And speaking of water, is there any more striking opening than the first few minutes of "Sunset Boulevard"? It certainly made a splash, in more ways than one.

Marvel at this craft-incredible work on the big screen, again or for the first time, in Hollywood, in celebration of its 70th anniversary.