Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond in director Billy Wilder's 1950 film noir "Sunset Boulevard"

One of the most famous lines in film noir is "Alright, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up," famously spoken by Gloria Swanson in her portrayal of Norma Desmond in director Billy Wilder's 1950 classic "Sunset Boulevard" — the story of an aging silent film star who was living in the past and refused to accept the fact that the Hollywood of 1950 was much different from the Hollywood of the 1920s.

The Desmond character, over the years, has come to symbolize people who won't change with the times. Desmond was a major Hollywood star during the Silent Era; in 1950, no one would hire her. Another famous line from "Sunset Boulevard": "I am big—it's the pictures that got small."

Journalist David M. Lubin, in an article published by The Los Angeles Times on August 28, cites some parallels between President Donald Trump and Desmond. But Lubin also draws parallels between Trump and the character in another Hollywood classic: Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" from 1941.

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The New York Times' Maureen Dowd made a Trump/Desmond comparison in her November 14, 2020 column, published after the 2020 presidential election was called for Joe Biden. According to Dowd, Trump is a big fan of "Sunset Boulevard" and showed it to former White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham — who saw parallels between Trump and Desmond.

Trump is now back in the White House and seven months into his second presidency. And Lubin argues that the parallels still apply.

"Released 75 years ago this month," Lubin explains, "Billy Wilder's caustic Hollywood satire features a fictitious diva of the silent film era who deludes herself into believing she can make a glorious return to the silver screen. The film cautions against delusional thinking, which, left unchecked, as in Norma's case, results in mayhem and madness…. Norma Desmond's story ends tragically; she murders her young lover in a fit of jealousy and goes mad in front of news cameras that, in her mental fog, she mistakes for movie cameras: 'Alright, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up.' Her dream is realized only in her head."

Lubin, author of the new book "Ready for My Close-Up: The Making of 'Sunset Boulevard' and the Dark Side of the Hollywood Dream," continues, "Trump, to the contrary, proved his doubters wrong by returning to the White House, so help him. But then, making it to the White House doesn't necessarily prove the occupant to be free of delusional thinking."

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The "Mr. DeMille" Desmond referenced was director Cecil DeMille, who is featured in "Sunset Boulevard" — which, along with 1944's "Double Indemnity," went down in history as one of Wilder's most essential movies.

"Citizen Kane," unlike "Sunset Boulevard," isn't film noir. But it's a movie that, according to Lubin, Trump relates to.

"'Sunset Boulevard' is not the only classic movie from Hollywood’s Golden Age that Trump has identified among his favorite films," Lubin explains. "He's said the same about 'Citizen Kane,' a pseudo-biopic of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst directed by Orson Welles in 1941. Welles' movie invents an early 20th Century populist, who, though raised with a silver spoon in his mouth, vows to dedicate his life to the fight against big money and political corruption, not realizing that he increasingly comes to epitomize big money and political corruption; he is, in fact, the very enemy he tells his devoted followers he will scourge."

Lubin adds, "Despite his professed love for the common man, Kane is a hopeless narcissist, incapable of loving anyone other than himself. As his disillusioned former best friend has the courage to tell him to his face: 'You don't care about anything except you. You just want to persuade people that you love them so much that they ought to love you back."

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David M. Lubin's full Los Angeles Times article is available at this link (subscription required).