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SUNSET
BLVD.
9/10
aka Sunset Boulevard : USA 1950 : Billy WILDER : 111 mins
Pedants’ corner: title is spelled ‘Blvd’, not ‘Boulevard’ – just as Mulholland
Dr. isn’t ‘Mulholland Drive’. David Lynch presumably among admirers
of SB: named the Twin Peaks character he played Gordon Cole,
a character referred to here, but who never actually appears. Apparently
TP is “peppered
with allusions to Sunset Blvd.” If so, part of illustrious
club of SB influencees: most overtly Veronika
Voss, plys Billy Wilder’s own Fedora, even What Ever
Happened To Baby Jane? and Psycho.
Endures as classic 50+ years on – still fresh, ahead-of-its-time, Hollywood
insider pic unmatched until The Player (and even that’s debatable).
Mythic: the shoddy Lloyd Webber musical is merely a summary of film’s
events. Not the first Hollywood-on-Hollywood film by any means, but there
can’t have been many before or since in acknowledging the falseness of
the process of movie-making – and watching. Crew and lights reflected
in the big dark glasses of Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson, amazing): everything
else so precise, leaving this “flub” in can hardly be accidental. Cecil
B DeMille, Hedda Hopper, Buster Keaton as “themselves”. Key line of dialogue
from narration by Joe Gillis (William Holden): “Well, this is where you
came in.” Even ends with Norma referring to the audience “out there in
the dark.”
But more than just self-referential “insider” movie (though terrific fun on
that level: key line of dialogue in party scene: “the budget only calls
for three drinks per extra): oddball mix of comedy, horror, film noir,
romance, proto-camp. Several romances on view: Joe & Norma, Joe &
Betty (Nancy Olsen), Norma & Norma and, strongest of all, Joe &
Joe! Maybe they aren’t such a bad match at all, these solipsistic egotists,
both prisoners of their delusions, both dreaming of escape (Norma from
obscurity to stardom again, Joe from Hollywood to his home town of Dayton,
Ohio).
No argument who’s the more talented of the pair – from what we see, he’s a fairly
poor writer (which calls into question Betty’s judgement, who praises
him). But Norma’s abilities are outmoded in post-war Hollywood: she burns
up as much ‘petrol’ as her unwieldy charabanc-sized Italian car. Her glaring-eyed
intensity still potent, but reminds us why silents became so rapidly outmoded.
Then again, at least she’s got no shortage of energy to keep movie
going: he’s more passive, often to be seen slumped in chairs. Bland as
Joe Cotten in The Third Man: flowery narration indicates how far
he’s also out of step – Hollywood in transition, and even the idea
of narration (never mind this much) seems anachronistic (this in a
movie defiantly black-and-white, with a proper old-school melodramatic
orchestra score).
As he concedes, he’s “not very admirable”. In fact even a “heel” – never says
please or thank you, whereas ‘old money’ Norma is always polite with servants,
etc. Joe even leaves the big party without saying goodbye to his pals
– basically steals his best friend’s girl while his back is turned. Little
indication of guilt or remorse to puncture his self-obsession. However,
style and structure of film is always trying to skew us over to his side,
against her: when he gives in to her on New Year’s Eve, thriller music
makes it seem like an ominous moment of defeat/degradation.
Then again, narration is so incessant that the usual movie technique of making
the audience sympathise with the ‘narrator-hero’ is subverted: he seldom
shuts up, and of course we never hear ‘direct’ from anyone else in the
same way. Even the romance with Betty isn’t really what we want – emphasises
his status as a “heel”: we’re told that when together they end up “not
talking much”. Chat about their joint project Dark Windows is the
least interesting part of the movie: Norma’s Salome script sounds
as it might at least be enjoyably bonkers.
24th October, 2003
(seen 20th August : Lonsdale Cinema, Carlisle)
For other films
rated 9/10 and 10/10 check out our Hall of Fame.
by Neil
Young
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