Sunset Boulevard Directed by Billy Wilder Starring Gloria Swanson, William Holden, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olsen
USA, 1950 Not Rated (contains some mature themes, some violence)
The set, the cinematography, the costumes, the performances, the score- all of Sunset Boulevard's components give off a glowing, Gothic feel. Billy Wilder's most intriguing film is not one of his timeless romances: his rendezvous with Lemmon and Monroe, Lemmon and MacLaine, or Bogart and Bacall- it is the ultra-sinister Gloria Swanson classic Sunset Boulevard. Gloria Swanson is eerie as Norma Desmond, a silent film star who has faded into the background after the coming of the microphone. She has a quality few actresses have anymore: a powerful, blatant… dark, mysterious, enigmatic quality about her that envelops her acting and enhances and furthers its complexity and awe-inspiration. She becomes Norma Desmond and, looking back at Swanson's career, we can see she had her share of hard times after the silent era ended, just like Desmond.
The difference between the two women- the performer and the character- is that Gloria Swanson has been given a chance after her silent film era stint and has given her best performance in a talking picture. There is no hope for the washed-up Norma Desmond. She is focused on making silent movies and has not moved with the times. She is obsessed with being the center of attention, of making her "return" (she hates the word "comeback"). She is the scariest has-been ever put on screen.
The film starts with a film-noir-cynical style monologue by William Holden's character Joe Gillis. His career as a screenwriter is not going very well at all. His car is in jeopardy of being taken away- he has not made any payments for months. He is desperate- he has lost his agent, his latest script has been turned down, and he has been receiving harsh criticism. All he has are B-movies under his name. While being chased by two men who are after his car, he pulls into the driveway of a silent, old mansion on Sunset Boulevard. He parks his car in the garage to hide it. He enters the home to realize it is Norma Desmond's.
"I know you. You used to be in silent pictures. You used to be big," he says to the dark, miserable old woman in sunglasses. "I am big," Desmond insists, her head up high, "It's the pictures that got small!" She is a woman so full of her own faded majesty and oversized ego, she cannot face the facts or harsh criticism.
She hires Joe Gillis to edit a screenplay she has been working on for years. The movie, Solomi, will be her "return" and she has already set high expectations- "It is to be a big picture. I will have [Cecil B.] DeMille direct it." Gillis is full of skepticism and he moves in with her, to his reluctance, because her script is too important to leave the grounds.
The mansion creeps him out. It is gloomy and is a shrine to its owner. There are Norma Desmond photographs everywhere. The butler, Max, plays the ghostly organ every morning. All the locks and doorknobs have been cut out of the doors; it was suggested by Norma's doctor after she attempted suicide. She had been married three times. Norma is very protective of her "treasure" of a script, she refuses to take out excess from it because she believes that her billions of fans "who have never forgiven her for leaving the screen" will want to see more and more of her.
Through the weeks, the relationship between Gillis and Desmond becomes more than professional or platonic- it becomes dreadfully, slyly romantic. Gillis has no feelings for this shriveled up hag, but he is a kept man. She buys him everything under the sun- fur coats, gold cigarette cases, watches. He has feelings for his friend's fiancee, Betty and we, the audience, know that such a beautiful romance between Betty and Joe should be followed through. Betty feels the same way about him, but Joe's devotion to his best friend and his demanding ultimatums at the Sunset Boulevard house get in the way.
Meanwhile, the Solomi script is sent to Paramount Pictures for Mr. Cecil B. DeMille to read, but soon we discover he thought it was awful. On Desmond's trip to Paramount, she reminisces with old pals at the studio and with Mr. DeMille, who doesn't have the heart to tell her he hated the script for they worked together several times during the silent era. She leaves the studio thinking she will have a long career ahead of her with DeMille, "The old team together again!"
I'm already beginning to give away the plot twists of the film which make it incredibly fun and haunting from the opening credits to the classic finale- "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up."
Sunset Boulevard has a classic negativism on Hollywood and the fickleness of fans. It is perfect- the acting by the cast is well-done, at times flawless; the photographer creates a dark habitat for Norma Desmond- a near-extinct animal, giving the film an exceedingly gloomy feeling; the set is quite remarkable- the production designer has created a memorable location for Norma Desmond to seduce her prey; the score is sharp and staccato- murderous like Norma. The film is phenomenal really and it should be experienced as soon as possible.
By Andrew Chan
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