Sunset Boulevard (1950)

 

Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard

 

In 1950, Billy Wilder released his masterpiece Sunset Boulevard. This film is often regarded and lauded as being a scathing critique of the Hollywood machine. It is a story about the dream of Hollywood and the ultimate disillusionment of that dream – and how someone can hold too tightly to the past or to their expectations. Wilder uses the mechanics of the Hollywood system to explore deeper themes involving the nature of change, decline, and even death.

The film begins in death. A narrator to the film states that a man drowned in a pool, only to reveal that he is that man. Wilder already sets up the rest of the film with this death hanging over the rest of the story. We the viewer are to keep in mind that our protagonist has a tragic and certain ending. We learn that the protagonist, Joe, is a screenwriter down on his luck. He needs money so he can pay off his car and his rent. He tries to sell one of his scripts to a Paramount producer. However, a young script reader named Betty Schaefer harshly critiques it, stating its pandering and something that’s been done before. Joe becomes desperate for the extra cash and notions that he will write anything so long as he can get paid. It is with this that the workings of Hollywood come into focus, that studios hold the economic powers over creatives and can use that power to choose whatever and whomever they like to produce their films – along with whatever drivel they want to churn out.

Joe gets a flat tire and pulls into a seemingly deserted mansion. He wanders throughout the estate as Wilder films the scene from a high and wide angle as the camera takes in the full view of the vastness of the space – contrasting heavily to Joe’s apartment in the beginning of the film. Joe has walked onto a true ‘Hollywood’ dream haven. Wilder wants to instill this dreamlike quality into the mind of viewer, setting up the expectations of what most who pursue Hollywood expect. One example of him doing this is when we cut to the actually telling of the story after seeing Joe dead in the pool: Wilder transitions the scene with an out of focus fade and dreamlike music. The purpose of instilling this dreamlike quality to the film is to set up the understanding of what most expect out of a Hollywood pursuit: fame, money, glitz, and glamour, everything you dream of. Wilder also uses this understanding to set up the expectations for one’s life in general. Everyone has expectations for themselves and how their lives will go, often times they have a very idealized vision of the future. Wilder uses this to set up our expectations for the rest of the film until he pulls the rug out from under us.

While Joe is exploring the estate, we hear the voice of Norma Desmond calling out to Joe. Joe looks and sees a silhouetted figure standing up on the second floor behind bamboo blinds – as the camera slowly zooms in on her image, but not enough to get close. This is the first time we see Norma, a shadowy figure isolated in her home – not able to truly see her. Throughout the film, Wilder will present Norma in varying ways that distort our image of her, often times we will only see her through a mirror. This seems to suggest that Norma does not let anyone know or truly see her, we can only ever see the reflection of her – something she presents to us, a possibly something she only presents to herself.

 Once inside, Joe recognizes Norma, stating that she was a silent film star. “You used to be big,” he tells her. Her response, “I am big. It’s the pictures that got small” is the first time we are able to glimpse into Norma’s psyche. It is apparent that she is resentful over the changing of time and the changes to Hollywood that came with it. However, she has used her resentfulness over time to manifest a script she has written. She wants to hire Joe to doctor the script and improve it. Joe recognizes that the script is awful and will not be the kind of artistic work Norma thinks it will be. However, Joe is able to see the situation as a benefit, realizing that he can use Norma to finance his car and apartment in exchange for doctoring a script he knows will never be good enough to produce. It is in this way that Joe ‘sells out’ as he is compromising his artistic purity in exchange for the comfortability of economic means. This is a common function of the Hollywood machine that Wilder lays out.

As Joe spends his days working on the script, Norma’s butler Max begins to move Joe’s things into the house, much to Joe’s chagrin. What is actually happening is Joe is slowly being trapped into staying in the mansion, aided by the financing of Norma, forced to be her dancing monkey. Joe even wakes up from a dream stating he dreamt about an organ grinder and his dancing monkey. Wilder is illustrating the trap that creatives fall into, forced into a situation in which they must compromise themselves for economic means. Joe also becomes more acquainted with Norma, noticing how self-obsessed she is. She surrounds herself with images of herself and won’t stop talking about the brilliance of the sound era of film. Norma refuses to accept that her fame has evaporated and that she is not the talent and beauty she once was. She has difficulty understanding her own decline and eventual downfall. Max assists Norma in these fantasies as he is constantly writing her ‘fan’ letters. Max states that he does this because Norma has attempted suicide several times, as she is unwilling to accept reality. It appears that both Joe and Norma are compromising themselves; Joe is compromising his professional and artistic pursuits in exchange for comfort; Norma is exchanging the truth of reality for the delirious dream she clingingly hangs onto.

Joe is also tying himself to Norma indefinitely and is holding on to the comfortability and is letting the present time he could be spending slip away from him. There is a scene in which Norma is playing cards with old silent film actors and she asks Joe to go dump her cigarette ash in the fire. Wilder uses the cigarette ash and Joe throwing it out to demonstrate that Joe is now becoming more like the ashes of a cigarette, withering away and decaying with Norma in her mansion, rather than the lit end of the cigarette experiencing life. Norma seems to represent the unwillingness to face the future and the changing of time and oneself. Her mansion assists in that, it appears very dark and decrepit. It seems to represent decay in its visual tones. These dark and decaying tones seem to contrast heavily to the New Year’s party Joe attends. When stepping inside, the party seems vibrant with Wilder using lots of light to aluminate the room. Everyone at the party appear young and lively – contrasting heavily to the tired and bloated mansion. The youthful attendees of the party are laughing and having a good time, exerting their newness which contrasts to Norma’s Hollywood ‘oldness.’ – even the fact that it’s a New Year’s party rings with this idea of the new. However even this haven along with its young crowd are not safe from the passage of time, as Wilder reminds us. The “New Year” party can be a double edge sword, even with the newness, it still hints at the passing of time – keeping up with the notion that time is continuing on, new years are coming over and over. Joe even walks into the bathroom and notices that there is water dripping from the ceiling – an indication from Wilder that even this youthful haven is slowly showing signs of decay. This decay will always seep through the cracks of our lives – as Wilder visually illustrates in this instance and throughout the film.

Norma is under the impression that Paramount is contacting her about her script and arrives on the Paramount lot to speak with Cecil B. DeMille. Mr. DeMille explains to her that films have changed, and that Norma would not be accustomed to this new landscape that the film industry is in. Also, Joe learns that Paramount was contacting Norma for permission to use her car because it looks old and vintage. Still believing in her comeback, Norma undoes various beauty treatments. These things play into Norma’s unwillingness to accept change and unwillingness to understand her own decline.

In the meantime, Joe visits with Betty as the two of them work on a script together. Joe becomes invigorated by working with Betty as he feels more aligned with his artistic roots. However in the end, Joe must decide to stay with Betty and link back with the Hollywood dream he accustomed himself to in the beginning of his career, or stay with Norma and get paid to make nothing, signaling the end of the Hollywood dream. After Norma almost kills herself once again, he chooses to stay with Norma. However, after trying to leave Norma to go back to Ohio, Norma can’t bare the though of him leaving and shoots him. He falls into the pool as we are brought back from our dreamlike flashback to where we were in the beginning. Joe is dead in the pool and Norma is being questioned by police. The only way for them to get Norma downstairs to put her in the car is for them to indulge her in her twisted reality and pretend that she is still the hitmaker she once was, ready to film her new picture.

Wilder presents Sunset Boulevard as story about the disillusionment of Hollywood and of life. He conveys through the film how our expectations about ourselves and what the future holds are simply a fantasy to combat the reality of decay and decline and ultimately, death.

 

Camerawork:

The Over-the-Shoulder: As Joe is goading Norma into hiring him, Wilder films an over-the-shoulder of Joe standing over Norma, illustrating the currently held power he has over her, manipulating her to acquire her economic means. We then see this shot again when Joe is at his lowest point and tries to take power back from Norma to regain his sense of self. He is getting tired of being Norma’s pet and accuses her of taking him for granted. Wilder shows the over-the-shoulder once again with Joe standing over her as he is re-asserting himself and his self-worth. However this time, Norma rejects this power play by standing up. Upon standing, she asserts herself in equal proportion with Joe in the frame and even disrupts the frame by slapping Joe, causing a visual disharmony. The power play that Joe used over her in the beginning has backfired this time. Wilder is showing us that Joe is now emotionally trapped by Norma, as Norma holds all the power in the relationship and will not give up that power – just as she doesn’t give up the scale of herself in the frame.

Wide Shot: In the scene in which Norma has thrown a party, Joe realizes that no one is actually coming to this party and that he and Norma will be alone. As they are dancing, Wilder cuts to an overhead wide shot of the two of them on the dancefloor as they occupy a very small portion of the frame. Wilder is emphasizing with this wide shot the characters intense isolation. Joe has aligned himself with someone who is now cut off from the rest of the world due to her inability to face reality.

Zoom-In: After Joe storms away, Norma runs off her to room. The camera then zooms in on the lack of door lock present on the door. This zoom is meant to recall the past conversation Joe had with Max as the two of them discussed the reason why none of the doors have locks – to make sure that Norma doesn’t lock herself up to commit suicide. So, the zoom-in is used to instill in the viewer that context of what is happening without using words. Wilder is zooming in on the important information we need to know to instill in the viewer the understanding of why its important and what that means for Norma.

Best Shot: The best shot in the film is the shot in which Norma is being interrogated by police about Joe’s murder. Norma is unresponsive. Norma can be seen in the frame in the mirror on her desk. Throughout the film, Wilder keeps showing us Norma through mirrors. Wilder is illustrating with these mirror shots that Norma is not all there, she is not presenting herself truthfully. She cannot bear to accept the reality of her own sunset, so she only presents the false image of herself – one that she believes aligns with the image of herself the world has come to see her as. We can never actually see the real Norma or who she could be other than this self-obsessed aging woman who cannot confront reality. All she is ever able to show us is the reflection of a real person – a projection, much like the projection of a Hollywood film. This projection is all Norma has left to cling onto.