Since the advent of Hollywood, the media has promoted the benefits and exclusivity of enjoying a lavish and decadent lifestyle. In Billy Wilder’s sardonic and confronting noir film, Sunset Boulevard, the director focuses on how exciting, but also how destructive, it can be to seek wealth and an affluent lifestyle. Through his portrayal of a former film star and a burgeoning writer, he explores the vast influence of celebrity and fame, and how easily people can become lured into the cut-throat world of filmmaking in the 1950s. Despite this, the damaging and even fatal consequences of the pursuit of fame and affluence are depicted by the director, unveiling how all is not as it seems behind the flashing cameras and lights of stardom. Presenting …show more content…
Betty Schaefer is a young and attractive woman who enters her boss’ office wearing a tweed skirt and carrying a bundle of papers. Her professional stance and costume are matched by her lack of fear of Joe the first time she reads his story, “Bases Loaded”, calmly but firmly telling him that the script is “flat and banal”. However, her ambition led her to suggest the two meet “in the evenings” or “at six in the morning” because of her faith in Joe’s writing talent. The apples the two are often seen with symbolise the potential for this relationship to be nurturing and healthy for him, but he rushes back to Norma, and Betty hurls an apple into the bin, knowing he has discarded this chance to be with her. When Betty approaches the huge and shrouded mansion to seek him out, she is horrified that he is willing to sacrifice their writing partnership, and a possible romantic future, for “plenty of champagne and plenty of caviar” instead of his “one room apartment” as a struggling artist. His blithe and dismissive tone towards her when he turns to her and condescends: “Look sweetie, be practical” leads her to rush in a panic from the door and disappear from the film. The archetype of a young and attractive female lead character is usurped by the dominance of Norma on the screen and in Joe’s life – her wealth and her gifts have finally had the desired …show more content…
The film opens with a dramatic, non-diegetic flourish of horns, a musical trope used in noir films to precede danger. The close-up of the gutter with the title of the film painted on it foreshadows the tragic ending for both the main characters, and Joe’s wry voice-over narrates how the murder of a “young man” will be interrogated by “police and newspaper men” and he is “sure” the viewer “will read about it in the late editions”. The film cuts to a dead body floating in a swimming pool, which the film circles back to in its final moments. Joe has, ironically in death, become famous, and dies floating in a symbol of excess and profligacy. The bizarre funeral of Norma’s pet monkey, in the dead of night in her external garden, is flushed with noir tropes of sepulchral clothing and shadows – hallmarks of the Gothic genre - another frightening portent of Joe’s impending doom if he stays. Norma’s previous suicide attempts are similar indications of her psychological inability to cope with the reality of being forgotten. The missing door handles and locks on every door in her huge mansion, and her climactic and melodramatic threats to kill herself with a revolver are sure signs of desperation for human company, to not be alone. Fame and wealth have also not cushioned her from becoming delusional. The tragic
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.
This quote from the book, Lone Survivor, shows the incredible resolve that the Author and protagonist of the story, Marcus Luttrell has. The book is all about the horrors that he endured in the Hindu Kush mountain region in Afghanistan when he went on a mission with 3 other Navy SEALs (Sea, Air, and Land), Danny Dietz, Matthew “Axe” Axelson, and Michael Murphy. The book, Lone Survivor was set in the mountains of the Hindu Kush, details the fight for survival against the Taliban, and has a theme of hospitality.
Hollywood is not simply a point on a map; it is a representation of the human experience. As with any other location, though, Hollywood’s history can be traced and analyzed up to present day. In 1887, Harvey Henderson Wilcox established a 120-acre ranch in an area northwest of Los Angeles, naming it “Hollywood” (Basinger 15). From then on, Hollywood grew from one man’s family to over 5,000 people in 1910. By then, residents around the ranch incorporated it as a municipality, using the name Hollywood for their village. While they voted to become part of the Los Angeles district, their village was also attracting motion-picture companies drawn in by the diverse geography of the mountains and oceanside (15). The Los Angeles area continues to flourish, now containing over nine million people, an overwhelming statistic compared to Wilcox’s original, family unit (U.S. Census Bureau 1). However, these facts only s...
From the lavish mansions of Hollywood stars to the cigarette smoke filled offices of broke screenwriters, the 1950 noir movie Sunset Boulevard remains a timeless classic with a stunning story of an actress gone mad, and a screenwriter just trying to squeak by. This film is the first pre-1960’s flick that has left me with a feeling of awe. The first word that comes to mind after the credits begin to roll is just“wow!”. I was struck by the intriguing plotline and brilliant execution of the story. Not only is the film a classic for its gripping story, and twisted power dynamics, it also shows amazing camera work and brilliant acting.
“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.
In Nathanael West’s “The Day of the Locust,” multiple characters are introduced within Hollywood, California, which is widely regarded as the national capital of the film industry. One main character focused on throughout the novel is Tod Hackett, who West portrays as being superior to the fantasy observed around him. Many of the characters have traveled to Hollywood in pursuit of a personal, ambitious goal. However, there is a reoccurring theme of failure in their pursuits due to the fictitious personalities and actions they have created for themselves influenced by a setting full of artificialness.
Nathanael West’s The Day of the Locust is said by many to be the best novel to be written about Hollywood. When we immediately think of Hollywood, we think of a glamorous story, in the picturesque setting of Los Angeles, full of characters with abundance of talent living the much sought after American dream. This is perhaps what sets West’s novel apart from the rest. The story is full of characters that have a vague impression of the difference in reality and fantasy in life. The characters are submerged in their lives in Hollywood, with what seems to be a false reality on how the world works. The untalented would-be actors, withering vaudeville performers and prostitutes place a certain grotesque over the novel from the beginning, and in a world of certain fantasy and chaos like this, violence is bound to come to the fore as a theme in many different forms. The protagonist of the story, Tod Hackett, is different to the rest of the characters in the novel. Tom is a talented artist, but still has a good view of reality by times, so Tom can act part as an observer in the novel. Tom however has been sucked in to the fantasy world also life has become somewhat submerged in the fantasy world.
Sterritt, David. “HOLLYWOOD'S HOLOCAUST”. Tikkun 24.3 (2009): 60-62. Literary Reference Center. Web. 10 Oct. 2013.
Sunset Boulevard (Wilder 1950) explores the intermingling of public and private realms, puncturing the illusion of the former and unveiling the grim and often disturbing reality of the latter. By delving into the personal delusions of its characters and showing the devastation caused by disrupting those fantasies, the film provides not only a commentary on the industry of which it is a product but also a shared anxiety about the corrupting influence of external perception. Narrated by a dead man, centering on a recluse tortured by her own former stardom, and concerning a once-promising director who refuses to believe his greatest star could ever be forgotten, the work dissects a multitude of illusory folds to reveal an ultimately undesirable truth. Its fundamental conflict lies in the compartmentalization that allows the downtrodden to hope and carry on. Sunset Boulevard carefully considers the intricate honeycombs of dishonesty and deception that constitute a human life, then dissolves the barriers and watches the emotions, lies, and self-contradictions slurry together and react in often volatile and destructive ways.
In this essay the following will be discussed; the change from the age of classical Hollywood film making to the new Hollywood era, the influence of European film making in American films from Martin Scorsese and how the film Taxi Driver shows the innovative and fresh techniques of this ‘New Hollywood Cinema’.
[This essay explores those characteristics of the novel Foundation, which are peculiar to the genre of Science Fiction.]
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.
Movie stars. They are celebrated. They are perfect. They are larger than life. The ideas that we have formed in our minds centered on the stars that we idolize make these people seem inhuman. We know everything about them and we know nothing about them; it is this conflicting concept that leaves audiences thirsty for a drink of insight into the lifestyles of the icons that dominate movie theater screens across the nation. This fascination and desire for connection with celebrities whom we have never met stems from a concept elaborated on by Richard Dyer. He speculates about stardom in terms of appearances; those that are representations of reality, and those that are manufactured constructs. Stardom is a result of these appearances—we actually know nothing about them beyond what we see and hear from the information presented to us. The media’s construction of stars encourages us to question these appearances in terms of “really”—what is that actor really like (Dyer, 2)? This enduring query is what keeps audiences coming back for more, in an attempt to decipher which construction of a star is “real”. Is it the character he played in his most recent film? Is it the version of him that graced the latest tabloid cover? Is it a hidden self that we do not know about? Each of these varied and fluctuating presentations of stars that we are forced to analyze create different meanings and effects that frame audience’s opinions about a star and ignite cultural conversations.