Sunset Boulevard: The Relationship Between Viewer and Film
Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950) is an interesting movie, to say the least. It is a film that examines the confines of the “dream machine” by exploring the world of faded silent movie star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) and up and coming screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden). The name Sunset Boulevard conjures all types of thoughts and images. Many of them negative. That street name represents all that Hollywood has to offer: money and fame. But when you turn down an old alley it shows you what it really is an old relic of youth, disillusioned and disturbed, reclusive to those that seek and dangerous to those that attain it. This self-reflexive film essentially is a cautionary tale of Hollywood. Sunset Boulevard is a tale that surmounts ideologies of gender roles, especially of women, and takes them to the extreme while Hollywood lay in the backdrop seemingly innocent. In this article, I will discuss the relationship of film and viewer by analyzing the cinematic techniques of dialogue and mise-en-scene. These techniques were masterfully used to show gender roles and ideologies of women through the lens of Hollywood.
Sunset Boulevard (written by Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, and D.M. Marshman Jr.), is a biting look at Hollywood. The film uses elements of film noir to show the Hollywood system as gender roles play the foreground. There are many quotable lines in the film that helps to shed light on the changing times as well as show the reversal of gender roles that the film did so masterfully. Though the film is told from the viewpoint of a dead man, the film most definitely centers on women. Norma Desmond is a woman that growls and bites at you. “You used to be big!”, said Gillis. “I am big. It’s the pictures that got small!” Her dialogue was more commands and threats than anything, unless she wanted something. For example, when Desmond found out Gillis was a screenwriter she changed her tone. It went from a growl of dominance to a purr of need. The dialogue in the film serves to show how Hollywood, as well as society, looks at females “past their prime”. After Gillis reads the script he tells Desmond that “It certainly could use a pair of shears and a blue pencil.” To which she replies, “I will not have it butchered!”. This banter was really a metaphor for Norma Desmond. Gillis really meant that she needed plastic surgery so that she could be up to par. But in all her delusions she doesn’t want that because she doesn’t want to be “butchered”. This says Desmond is completely dependent on “the power of image and the star system” (Lawrence 1991). Especially when told that she needed more dialogue she scoffed, “I can say anything with my eyes.” There are a plethora of lines that allude to her age and make fun of it. Gillis at the end of the initial meeting with Desmond he says, “Next time I’ll bring my autograph album, or maybe a hunk of cement and ask for your footprint.” This line alludes not only to her faded status but her age. By asking for her footprint I thought Gillis was treating Desmond like a relic or fossil. Something of the past that could be immortalized. The dialogue also helps show the gender role reversal in the film.
According to Hayward, “Gender has socio-cultural origin that is ideological in purpose.” (Hayward,179). Gender roles are usually fixed notions of what men and women should or shouldn’t be. With the harshest judgment being on women, Norma Desmond crossed lines continuously. Desmond, essentially, is a cougar; a sugar mama. She is an older woman that acquires the affection of a younger man, something that is taboo in society even today. She is a masculine figure in a world of damsel’s in distress, though she herself is often distressed. She often laments about her vast fortune and how it is nothing for her. When she asks Gillis for help on her script he tells her he is expensive. Desmond retorts, “I wouldn’t worry about money, I’ll make it worth your while.” This affirmation from her sounded like something a Hollywood executive would say to a young starlet all the while alluding to the real transaction that would have to take place. Quite often it’s a sexual transaction. But she acquires Gillis’ affection and talent really to show off because to her image is everything. Film scholar Mary Ann Doane would classify Desmond as a woman who overinvests in her image. Gender role reversal in the film not only feeds Joe Gillis but it emasculates him. Like in the scene at the suit shop, where the sales associate says, “Well as long as the lady is buying, maybe you should get the camel coat.” Gillis looks at him confused as if he had just been slapped in the face.
There are many elements that encompass mise-en-scene. It could be costumes, lighting, cinematography, etc. The entire films art direction helps to show the metaphor of Hollywood being dangerous. For example, the cinematography at the beginning of the film shows the title written on a sidewalk. It’s a shot of the gutter. By putting the title on the gutter, though it is a real street, shows where fame can leave you. It can land you homeless living on the street, completely helpless to who might step on you. This contrast is dark compared to the usual visual of Hollywood. Desmond’s house looks like an abandoned house when Gillis stumbles upon it. Norma Desmond is her house. She is an old, overly ornate and decrepit remnant of old Hollywood. She is a house/star forgotten; a lost image in the world of sound. As Gillis narrates after being put up in the spare bedroom he says that the house has, “a creepy paralysis….out of beat with the rest of the world.” He also describes what he sees, “There was a tennis court, a ghost of a tennis court with faded markings and a saggy net.” This description can be interpreted in a couple of ways but the meaning I got from it was Desmond was a star/woman, now she’s just a ghost. A faded star of yesteryear with saggy breasts, face, and neck. The film truly presents Hollywood as an illusion by taking a hard look at a former star who is disillusioned about her status as a star. This seen especially in the scene where she sees Cecil B. DeMille for the first time in years. It occurs to the viewer that while DeMille is still thriving as a director in Hollywood (maybe because he’s a man) that Desmond cannot compete with age or time because she is a woman. Her appeal has a time limit and hers has run out.
Sunset Boulevard is a cautionary tale of the perils of Hollywood. It seeks to examine the dream machine that churns out and chews out stars based not only on their age but gender as well. The cynicism on display in the film not only puts a mirror up to the face of Hollywood but societal ideologies of men and women. By forcing women to constantly feel the need to compete with women younger than them is an unfair system of discourses that bring upon unnecessary stresses especially in the realm of Hollywood.
Works Cited
Hayward, Susan. Cinema Studies:The Key Concepts,(New York City, NY: Routledge, 2006).
David Bordwell, and Kristin Thompson, Film Art: An Introduction, (New York City, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2010).
Mazur, Matt. “THE DEVIL IS A WOMAN: SUNSET BOULEVARD, NORMA DESMOND, AND ACTRESS NOIR.” Last modified 01 11, 2011. Accessed August 19, 2013. http://icsfilm.org/reviews/essays/85-the-devil-is-a-woman-sunset-boulevard-norma-desmond-and-actress-noir.
Lawrence, Amy. Echo and Narcissus: Women’s Voices in Classical Hollywood Cinema. University of California Press, 1991. http://books.google.com/books?id=6idnyfdp3VIC&pg=PA156&lpg=PA156&dq=Norma depends on the power of the image and the star system,&source=bl&ots=390lv7In_h&sig=Vajw2-tXhDFSgxz_No52kHJsmNY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=DCcSUpj_IuyAygHcwIAw&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAA
