SUNSET BLVD.
Titles are as they appear on the screen. BLVD. is correct and not “Boulevard”.
GENRE: FILM NOIR
Film noir was a name given to American films by the French. The term comes from the idea that the American movies that the French saw prior to WWII were of the Busby Berkely musical type. Even the crime films were largely those of gangsters such as The Public Enemy (1931), and Little Caesar (1931). As WWII began in Europe, many of the film makers in Germany fled the country – often to Britain or the United States. Germany had been very much interested in expressionism (e.g. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and elements of that style found their way into American films.
After the war was over and American films returned to France, only now, they were darker and more cynical and so were dubbed by the French “film noir”. They wee often “B” level films – the co-feature on a double bill with an A feature.
As is the case with any genre, there must be some historical development, and so there is with Noir films. Just where they start is something which is open to debate, as is where they end. In its most narrow definition film noir starts with Double Indemnity (1944) and ends with Sunset Blvd.in 1950. This is interesting since both films are written and directed by Billy Wilder, one of the refugees from Germany who did not speak English initially and yet came to write some of the best dialogue in films. He was intrigued by English conversational speech and managed to capture neat turns of phrases in his scripts (“I called a couple of ‘yes men’ at Paramount. To me they said ‘no’.”)
The noir period is often divided into a classic noir period and a neo-noir period.
There are those also who question whether noir is a style or a genre. There are both narrative elements and visual elements that are associated with noir films. Narratives generally involve an “everyday” kind of guy who is not a bad person (as is in the case of the gangster movies) who make a wrong turn and meets a duplicitous femme fatale who ultimately is the cause of his downfall. In Noir films the city is generally dangerous place.
Film makers often used chiaroscuro lightening with its pools of light surrounded by shadows and alternating patterns of dark and light to produce the somewhat mysterious and entrapping mood of noir. Films tend to be
These motifs are made visual through a number of images. The images of entrapment often involve frames within frames. A person appears in a window, a door way or some other encircling form. Ceilings may appear in shots which make the people in the shot closed in as well. Bars often appear across the face of a character (or even the entire body) Shadows can serve the same function as the bars. In Cat People, shadows from the railing of the bannister fall across the Irena and Oliver as they wait outside her door. Irena is also seen through the bird cage with the bars between her and the camera.
Duplicity is often indicated by the appearance of mirrors in which people are shown in multiples – usually 2 but occasionally more.
Fatalism is often indicated by the use of a rather lengthy flashback with voice overs which indicate that the end is already known and unavoidable.
SUNSET BLVD.
Sunset Blvd. certainly occurs near the end of the classic period of noir, and so some “evolution” of the genre has occurred. The main change is that the femme fatale is not a young attractive woman but a 50 year old aging movie star from the silent era.
Fatalism
The film starts with a voice over- a rather long explanatory speech – made by Joe Gillis, the person who is floating, dead, face down in the swimming pool. His narration then proceeds to tell the story of how he came to be in the pool dead. A narration by a dead man is about as fatalistic one can possibly get! Originally the idea was to have the scene in the morgue where the various bodies sat up and told their stories. This did not go over well in the previews and so it was changed.
Wrong turns and entrapment
Clearly the wrong turn occurs when Joe turns into Norma Desmond’s driveway to avoid the men trying to repossess his car.
Once out of the car, he sees Norma, wearing sun glasses, and behind some kind of Venetian blind.
Duplicity
Although there are a few mirrors in the house, the huge number of images of Norma scattered throughout the house serve a similar function. Norma herself is split into several “personalities” There is the imperious Norma, major movie star (e.g. when Joe first appears and she takes him as the undertaker and also when she speaks with the guard at the gate of the studio; there is a “just Norma” and the Norma who is not acting at being a major silent film star (when she talks with the wax works and when she talks with Joe in her more romantic moments, and the Norma performing in the silent film style. There is also a somewhat terrified Norma who is akin to the little girl whose “spirit” was damaged by a half a dozen press agents working overtime. She slips easily between some of the personalities (for example, she is “just Norma” when she breaks down in the studio talking about how much she wants to work again and how much she misses it. The sudden switch to the “actress” Norma comes when she reminds deMille that she doesn’t work before 10 and never after 4:30, losing both deMille’s and the audience’s sympathy at the same time.
By the end of the film , as the film reaches its climax as Joe is leaving, she leaps between the “just Norma” who is taken aback by the revelations which trigger the appearance of the movie star who is going over the edge, and the frightened Norma who is desperate for Max.
Set Pieces
There are many set pieces in the film – three major ones involve Norma with the movies. The first occurs when Norma stands up into the light coming from the projector as she says “I’ll be back up there” and indeed she is now literally in the projector’s light. A second occurs when Norma goes to the studio and is first “attacked” by a microphone on a boom which swings behind her and pushes against a feather in her hat. Her annoyance with the microphone reflects he dislike of the addition of sound to film. The final “descent down the stairs” scene is clearly a set piece complete with a tableau of the various people arranged on the stairway as Norma makes her descent which she believes is a scene from her film “Salome”.
All of the set pieces reflect Norma’s relationship with films – her desire to be back; her hostility to sound (“I can say anything with my eyes” ) and her final virtually psychotic return into the world of film as reality and film merge and Norma can no longer separate fantasy from reality.
Connections with Reality
The film links with reality by using a number of people in the film who play themselves. Norma’s waxworks Anna Q Nillson, H.B Warner and Buster Keaton were well known performers in silent film. Warner had played Christ in the early DeMille King of Kings, Buster Keaton was in more films than one can imagine, and Anna Q Nillson was an actress who received as many fan letters and Norma Desmond, but like Christopher Reeve was thrown from a horse and fractured her thigh. Although she appeared in about 40 films after the fall, she never regained her popularity.
In addition to the “wax works” Cecil B. DeMille appears as himself, as does Hollywood gossip columnist Hedda Hopper.
Erich von Stroheim, a famous director and actor appears in the film as Max, the butler. The silent film, Queen Kelly, which appears in Sunset Blvd. as the film which Norma and Joe watch is actually a 1929 film in which Gloria Swanson (who plays Norma) appears and is directed by Erich von Stroheim who plays Max in the film, Max is supposed to have directed the early films of Norma Desmond, and actually directed some of Swanson’s
Jay Livingston and Ray Evans appear at the piano in Artie Green’s New Year’s Eve party playing the piano and singing “Buttons and Bows”, which they wrote.
There are shots of the actual Paramount gate and also of Schwab’s Drug Store which was famous.
Text and Sub text
The film’s text is a typical noir text in many ways. The film deals with a basically good man (Joe) who makes a wrong turn (into Norma’s driveway). He meets the femme fatale (Norma Desmond/Gloria Swanson) and becomes entrapped in a way which leads to his ultimate demise.
In terms of subtext the film deals with questions of reality and fantasy and the ability to distinguish them – especially as it relates to people, who because of their aging, become forgotten and are cast off by the industry. The loss of position and reputation has a detrimental effect on them
The contrasts between the real world and world of the sets is also clearly demonstrated when Betty and Joe walk down the set and talk about the “Street set” is her favorite street – the one she played on as a child.
Similar contrast between Norma’s dark and suffocating house is clear in the appearance of Norma’s house with that of Artie Green.