"Lights! Camera! Action!", the dramatic yet traditional prompt we associate with Hollywood and the pictures. Hollywood appears to be this extraordinary glamorous world, but in reality is it? Many people dream of being in the limelight of Hollywood; where there is an endless amount of money, power, and fame. We fail to see what's behind fame; the dark, twisted, and ugly truths hiding within those very words. Billy Wilder explores and divulges the dark yet unknown harsh realities of fame, following Hollywood's transition from silent pictures to talkies; with his film Sunset Boulevard.
Sunset Boulevard is a 1950 American classic film noir, starring Gloria Swanson (Norma Desmond), William Holden (Joe Gillis), and Erich Von Stroheim (Butler Max).
…show more content…
In this film, Director Billy Wilder takes us on a melodramatic journey through the withering world of a time-worn silent film star Norma Desmond; who ends up trapping a hopeless screenwriter Joe Gillis into her decrepit world. This 1950's film uses many former Hollywood stars who to some extent play themselves in order to shed light on the dark aspects of the star system. During Hollywood’s silent era, Gloria Swanson is recognized as a silent film superstar, and Erich Von Stroheim was once a controversial actor as well as director.
After making several sound films, Gloria decided to retire from the screen whereas Stroheim was forced to turn strictly to acting. One of the scenes at the end of Sunset Boulevard is an actual real life scene from Erich Von Stroheim's never-completed film Queen Kelly, starring Gloria Swanson; its disaster assisted in bringing about the end of his directing career. Sunset Boulevard represented so much realism to what was actually happening in Hollywood, that it tremendously affected people’s reaction to the story. Actors absolutely loved the fact that the film had noticeable intimate details and told the harsh realities of Hollywood. However, Producers felt betrayed and hated it; they didn’t want people to know the truth. The film forces you to question what is real, and what is acting; being that it was very similar to what had actually happened in Hollywood. This film represented the lives of many writers, actors, and directors. However, Sunset Boulevard exposed viewers to the truth; that there is a price for fame in Hollywood’s toxic, and broken system. The industry can make you into a shining star, then break you at any given moment without a single warning. It is unreliable, unstable, and full of people who can care less about your
wellbeing. In the opening of the film Sunset Boulevard, Wilder automatically sets the tone as a dark, suspenseful, corrupted and corrosive world. The narrator takes us down the dark creepy streets of Sunset Boulevard, where we discover a dead man lying face down in a swimming pool. This mysterious murder is then explained by going back 6 months to where it all began; when Joe Gillis encounters has-been superstar Norma Desmond and her loyal Butler Max, in what he thought was an unhappy deserted mansion. The film creates a sense of anxiety when investigating the private fantasies of Norma Desmond, and demonstrates the catastrophe evoked after exposing her to the truth. Sunset Boulevard shows us just how dark Hollywood can get, through lies, abandonment, and destruction. Scriptwriter Joe Gillis struggles to find work in his competitive career, he is often rejected, and has no one to help him fix his financial crisis; until he meets estranged Norma Desmond. Desmond lives in the past and dreams of returning to the pictures; but she is lonely, and abandoned by directors, fans and absolutely everyone except her Butler Max who loves her dearly. Max is the person who discovered Norma and introduced her to Hollywood, so he creates this fantasy world where she isn’t forgotten because he feels responsible for how her life turned out. In the film, Norma and Max are completely disconnected from the rest of the world, and Joe uses Norma to his advantage only to end up stuck in her world. Hollywood has the power to completely demolish and invade entire lives with negativity, hopelessness, depression, and emptiness. Billy Wilder recognizes these flaws that exist in Hollywood and demonstrates this in his film noir, Sunset Boulevard.
Sunset boulevard was to show the legendary silent film star Norma Desmond's deluded, and declined career that came with the sound. Which leads into the
Sunset Boulevard directed by Billy Wilder in 1950 is based on how Norma Desmond, a huge Hollywood star, deals with her fall from fame. The film explores the fantasy world in which Norma is living in and the complex relationship between her and small time writer Joe Gillis, which leads to his death. Sunset Boulevard is seen as lifting the ‘face’ of the Hollywood Studio System to reveal the truth behind the organisation. During the time the film was released in the 1950s and 60s, audiences started to see the demise of Hollywood as cinema going began to decline and the fierce competition of television almost proved too much for the well established system. Throughout this essay I will discuss how Sunset Boulevard represents the Hollywood Studio System, as well as exploring post war literature giving reasons as to why the system began to crumble.
Sunset Boulevard is macabre movie designed for mature audiences who would be able to acknowledge the emptiness of a fallen celebrity, the vanity of stardom and insights of the movie industry. It features the transitory nature of fame, a pessimistic perception of Hollywood and the corruption of a celebrity with the example of a once legendary actress - Norma Desmond. Through the movie, audiences identifies with an alienated celebrity.
“There once was a time in this business when I had the eyes of the whole world! But that wasn't good enough for them, oh no! They had to have the ears of the whole world too. So they opened their big mouths and out came talk. Talk! TALK!” (Sunset Boulevard). The film Sunset Boulevard directed by Billy Wilder focuses on a struggling screen writer who is hired to rewrite a silent film star’s script leading to a dysfunctional and fatal relationship. Sunset Boulevard is heavily influenced by the history of cinema starting from the 1930s to 1950 when the film was released.
The noir style is showcased in Sunset Boulevard with its use of visually dark and uncomfortable settings and camera work, as well as its use of the traditional film noir characters. In addition, the overall tone and themes expressed in it tightly correspond to what many film noirs addressed. What made this film unique was its harsh criticism of the film industry itself, which some of Wilder’s peers saw as biting the hand that fed him. There is frequent commentary on the superficial state of Hollywood and its indifference to suffering, which is still a topic avoided by many in the film business today. However, Sunset Blvd. set a precedent for future film noirs, and is an inspiration for those who do not quite believe what they are being shown by Hollywood.
The film, Fruitvale Station, is based upon a true story of a young, unarmed African American male, Oscar, who was shot by a Caucasian BART police officer. The film displays the final twenty-fours of Oscar Grant’s lives going through his struggles, triumphs, and eager search to change his life around. There will be an analysis of the sociological aspects displayed throughout the movie that show racism, prejudice, and discrimination.
Billy Wilder’s “Sunset Boulevard” is a 1950’s film about famous, but forgotten, Norma Desmond, a silent film star, who has been living in exile, in her gloomy rundown mansion. William Holden stars as Joe Gillis, a struggling Hollywood screenwriter looking for work with no success. During a car chase between Joe Gillis, and the repo men who are after his car, his tires blow out leaving him stranded in Desmond’s deserted mansion. Desmond spends her time watching her old films, dreaming of the day when she makes her grand comeback. Gillis agrees to help Desmond edit her script, that she’s been working on, soon their relationship goes through twist and turns. Swanson, who plays Norma Desmond, gives a great performance with stellar acting; her theatrical mannerisms were perfectly executed. Holden also does a great job counteracting Desmond’s delusional rants. His character is well balanced, and at times is the voice of reason. The film is not only a love story, but also a story about redemption. Overall, the film has beautiful cinematography, great dialogue, and amazing a...
...rojects to the audience the aging of Norma. The lighting really exposes her lines and wrinkles, even as she declares that stars are ageless, the audience can plainly see what age has done to her. With this notion of lighting one could also come to the realization that Norma Desmond is no longer a star. In a way Norma is right about stars being ageless. If one thinks about it most stars are remembered when they are at the peak of their careers; when they are young. Up until Norma Desmond’s arrest, most people probably pictured the young star that dominated the silent film world. This is the Norma Desmond that Norma is under the delusion of still being, but due to the lighting in this frame; the audience can conclude that this is simply not the case. This use of high contrast lighting with dark shades and values make Sunset Boulevard a film-noire.
Released September 29, 1950, Sunset Boulevard is a film noir of a forgotten silent film star, Norma Desmond, that dreams of a comeback and an unsuccessful screenwriter, Joe Gillis, working together. Ultimately an uncomfortable relationship evolves between Norma and Joe that Joe does not want a part of. Sunset Boulevard starts off with an establishing shot from a high angle shot with a narrative leading to a crime scene from a long shot (a dead body is found floating in a pool), this narrative throughout the film establishes a formalist film.
Sterritt, David. “HOLLYWOOD'S HOLOCAUST”. Tikkun 24.3 (2009): 60-62. Literary Reference Center. Web. 10 Oct. 2013.
The Classical Hollywood style, according to David Bordwell remains “bound by rules that set stringent limits on individual innovation; that telling a story is the basic formal concern.” Every element of the film works in the service of the narrative, which should be ideally comprehensible and unambiguous to the audience. The typical Hollywood film revolves around a protagonist, whose struggle to achieve a specific goal or resolve a conflict becomes the foundation for the story. André Bazin, in his “On the politique des auteurs,” argues that this particular system of filmmaking, despite all its limitations and constrictions, represented a productive force creating commercial art. From the Hollywood film derived transnational and transcultural works of art that evoked spectatorial identification with its characters and emotional investment into its narrative. The Philadelphia Story, directed by George Cukor in 1940, is one of the many works of mass-produced art evolving out of the studio system. The film revolves around Tracy Lord who, on the eve of her second wedding, must confront the return of her ex-husband, two newspaper reporters entering into her home, and her own hubris. The opening sequence of The Philadelphia Story represents a microcosm of the dynamic between the two protagonists Tracy Lord and C.K. Dexter Haven, played by Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant. Through the use of costume and music, the opening sequence operates as a means to aesthetically reveal narrative themes and character traits, while simultaneously setting up the disturbance that must be resolved.
Within the German Democratic Republic, there was a secret police force known as the Stasi, which was responsible for state surveillance, attempting to permeate every facet of life. Agents within and informants tied to the Stasi were both feared and hated, as there was no true semblance of privacy for most citizens. Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, the movie The Lives of Others follows one particular Stasi agent as he carries out his mission to spy on a well-known writer and his lover. As the film progresses, the audience is able to see the moral transformation of Stasi Captain Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler primarily through the director 's use of the script, colors and lighting, and music.
The ‘New Hollywood Cinema’ era came about from around the 1960’s when cinema and film making began to change. Big film studios were going out of their comfort zone to produce different, creative and artistic movies. At the time, it was all the public wanted to see. People were astonished at the way these films were put together, the narration, the editing, the shots, and everything in between. No more were the films in similar arrangement and structure. The ‘New Hollywood era’ took the classic Hollywood period and turned it around so that rules were broken and people left stunned.
Today, most movie goers categorize ‘silent films’ into one genre and discard the stark differences that make Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat, The Great Train Robbery, and Broken Blossoms vastly dissimilar. In my opinion, these films clearly illustrate the evolution from silent film projection on a cafe wall to the birth of the hollywood that we know today. The profound contrast is most apparent in their stories, their performances, and the emotional response each film invokes. Collectively these films provide viewers with a clear perspective on how early film progressed from silent stills into what we call today, The Classical hollywood “silent” film era.
During the course of this essay it is my intention to discuss the differences between Classical Hollywood and post-Classical Hollywood. Although these terms refer to theoretical movements of which they are not definitive it is my goal to show that they are applicable in a broad way to a cinema tradition that dominated Hollywood production between 1916 and 1960 and which also pervaded Western Mainstream Cinema (Classical Hollywood or Classic Narrative Cinema) and to the movement and changes that came about following this time period (Post-Classical or New Hollywood). I intend to do this by first analysing and defining aspects of Classical Hollywood and having done that, examining post classical at which time the relationship between them will become evident. It is my intention to reference films from both movements and also published texts relative to the subject matter. In order to illustrate the structures involved I will be writing about the subjects of genre and genre transformation, the representation of gender, postmodernism and the relationship between style, form and content.