ambition and career stagnation

His films like 'Sunset Boulevard' and 'The Apartment' dissect ambition's corrupting influence and the personal costs of climbing corporate and entertainment hierarchies.

His visceral, psychologically intense works such as 'The Wrestler' and 'Black Swan' explore obsessive ambition and the destructive psychology of professional stagnation and decline.

His deeply humanistic films like 'Career Girls' and 'Another Year' examine unfulfilled ambitions, working-class stagnation, and the gap between youthful dreams and adult reality.