An Appreciation – Sunset Boulevard

By contrast, William Holden is much more reserved as the writer, Joe Gilles. Where Swanson is big and grand, Holden is down to earth, more representative of everyday behavior. There is a blue collar, economical quality to how Holden plays Joe. He is a Midwest boy pretending to be a hotshot Hollywood writer, and is not very convincing about it. His dialogue – including the narration – is detached, unassuming. This is a character that has been around the block a few times. He contains a weariness that we often see from a noir protagonist. Notice the way he describes Norma and her estate (which is basically a shrine to her narcissism), knowing that something is not quite right but desperate enough to stick around. Holden was also going through a slump in his career leading up to Sunset Boulevard. He had not yet lived up to the potential he showed in his Oscar-nominated turn in Golden Boy (1939), and it was here where his career took a much-needed shot of life.

By their demeanor and behavior, Joe and Norma should belong on two completely different planes of existence. Their dynamic is a toxic relationship based on manipulation and selfishness. Joe essentially becomes Norma’s gigolo. She pays for his services with money, a fancy place to stay, with fine jewelry and expensive clothes. They travel together, and sit down to watch movies – of course, movies that only star Norma. Joe suppresses his dignity to live the life he’s always wanted, even though he is fully aware that the comeback Norma wants will never happen. He takes Norma’s strange behavior in stride, until he discovers the depth of her insanity. Whether it’s her love of the spotlight, fear of aging, or extreme loneliness, Norma’s focus becomes obsessively targeted on Joe. She tells him what to do and how to dress, and when Joe considers leaving she threatens him with suicide. When Norma throws a New Year’s party with the only guests being herself and Joe, Joe realizes the situation he is in is far more dangerous than he suspected. The camera shoots them on the dance floor from high above, accentuating the awkwardness – two souls in an empty room swaying together but never truly connecting. It’s perhaps the most disturbing scene up to this point.

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The true love story, if we were to call it as such, would be the love that Norma’s butler Max (Erich von Stroheim) has for her. In a shocking revelation, we learn that Max was not only Norma’s director during the silent era, but also her previous husband. In yet another example of life imitating art, von Stroheim was in fact one of the top directors of the silent era, and had directed Swanson in a number of her films. As the butler Max, von Stroheim has a straight, no nonsense demeanor to him. That approach only goes to highlight his off kilter relationship with Norma. Max loves Norma so much that he is willing to allow another man into her bedchambers, and even goes so far as to write fake fan letters to placate her ego. His devotion to Norma effectively enables her madness, feeding her lies to keep a part of her as his own. He is the cruelest character in the film – he sees Norma moving closer to the edge, but instead of pulling her back to reality he allows her to fall into madness due to his own selfish reasons.

With so many weak and troubled characters swirling around the narrative, it’s a relief to see Nancy Olson as the emotional lynchpin Betty, a studio assistant with aspirations to become a writer. Where each of the other characters struggle to hold on to whatever unrealistic thoughts they may have, Betty is grounded as a realist. She has the one thing none of the other players have: adaptability. Betty sees with clear eyes, realizes her strengths and shortcomings, and moves forward with the best chance of lasting success. Instead of having a short career as an actress, she recognizes the potential of having a long career behind the camera. We suspect that Joe becomes drawn to her partly due to a romantic attraction, but also because of her ability to acclimate to whatever life throws her way. Without Betty being here, the story could have turned completely into a madhouse.

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One of Wilder’s best gifts was his ability to close with a perfect ending. Sunset Boulevard has one of the greatest endings, with Norma succumbing completely to her illness soon after killing Joe. Look at Swanson’s face during this entire sequence – with her large round eyes, she doesn’t even appear to blink at all. As she descends down the staircase with reporters and policemen surrounding her, the tragedy of the moment is juxtaposed with Wilder’s graceful direction and John F. Seitz’s dazzling crane shot. There is no turning back for Norma at this point, she is forever lost to the abyss. Her final monologue, punctuated with the famous line “All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close up” while looking directly into the camera at the audience, is haunting and riveting all at the same time. It sends chills up the spine but is done in such an artful way that we can’t help but be moved by it.

When we watch a movie, we tend to cling to what we see on the screen: the stories, the characters, and the thrill of seeing it all come together within a few short hours. That’s what makes cinema such a powerful art form. But we tend to forget that the movies can’t exist without real people making them. These are people with lives of their own, who put their thoughts, hearts, and imperfections up for grabs for the sake of their craft. Some dive so far into their commitment to their work that coming back to the real world proves extremely difficult, if not impossible. It’s been said that storytelling is about the process of answering the question: “Who Am I?” In the business of playing pretend, that question is not so easily answered.

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Allen is a moviegoer based out of Seattle, Washington. His hobbies include dancing, playing the guitar, and, of course, watching movies.

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