Sunset Boulevard Flashcards
(43 cards)
Questions the authenticity/superficiality of the message of films and their purpose within a culture – are they are purely for entertainment or should they…
“I just think pictures should say a little something”
Joe expressing his frustration with audiences’ lack of awareness concerning the filmmaking process and how they continually undervalue the pivotal role of the screenwriter - who provides the blueprint for every film. He previously dreamed of achieving fame with his career, but this is unattainable as a screenwriter, who remain anonymous shadows subservient to the real “faces” of the film: the actors
Audiences don’t know somebody sits down and writes the picture; they think the actors make it up as they go along.”
The omniscient narrator - Joe from beyond the grave narrating - cynical and wry tone - “fish-eye” shot eliciting empathy as we see the dead man’s face
“The poor dope. He always wanted a pool. Well, in the end he got himself a pool - only the price turned out to be a little high”
Flashback - creating the non-linear, circular narrative - slow dissolve
“Let’s go back about six months and find the day when it all started.”
Final line of the film - cements Norma’s full engrossment in a delusional state of mind and final descent into insanity - literally reverts back to the mindset from the glory days of her past, even mistaking Max for the director Cecil B. DeMille.
“All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.”
Norma’s dramatic declaration when she first meets Joe and it is emblematic of her entire persona. It hints at her own delusion: still viewing herself as a star, she doesn’t blame her age or herself for her career stagnation, but rather the contemporary film industry, which she views as unworthy of her stardom. Illuminated how contemporary film destroyed the careers of many one-beloved silent actors. Projects her resentment onto the new technology of the changing medium.
“I am big, it’s the pictures that got small.”
Hog-eye shines the spotlight on Norma and a crowd forms, but DeMille commands it stop. Encapsulates Norma’s star status and her attempt to reprise her fame, which is ultimately doomed at the hands of the misogynistic film industry. He gets to decide where the light “belongs” - who deserves to be a star
“Hog-eye turn that light back where it belongs.”
Feeding her illusions and forging fanmail, Max views himself as Norma’s protector, a preserver of her lost fame. However, while he goes to fierce lengths to keep Norma blissfully unaware of the truth to avoid her chances of suicide, his lies provoke her evolution into insanity. This quote points to the contradictory nature of Max: his motivations are purely out of love and devotion for Norma, but they end up worsening her condition and endangering herself and Joe.
“This is my job. It has been for a long time. You must understand I discovered her when she was eighteen. I made her a star. I cannot let her be destroyed.”
This quote indicates Norma’s growing infatuation with Joe, but it also foreshadows his death, which creates a dismal dramatic irony. The audience knows the refilled pool is where Joe’s corpse will float once the police and press arrive to investigate his murder, but Joe is obviously unaware of his future at this point. Norma declares her intentions to further lavish him with luxurious items and vacations with a keen enthusiasm, but little does she or Joe know that the refilled pool will become the quintessential image of Joe’s tragic death.
“I’ll fill up the pool for you!”
Norma’s refusal to grow up
“Norma, you’re a woman of 50, now grow up. There’s nothing tragic about being 50, not unless you try to be 25.”
Betty acknowledges the artifice of Hollywood and understands how the industry pressures aspiring stars to change themselves, but she nonetheless embraces it. Betty’s self-awareness and optimism allow her to remain one of the few uncorrupted and spared characters in the film.
“Look at this street. All cardboard, all hollow, all phony. All done with mirrors. I like it better than any street in the world.”
not needed
“Maybe what you need is another agent.”
However, it is important to not accept Joe’s story as an objective reality. He is an unreliable narrator: his own subjective perspective dominates the film, and counter-narratives or different points of view rarely become offered. It is entirely possible Joe hides certain truths and embellishes the story to make Norma appear a villain, and him a victim. After all, Joe is a screenwriter simply crafting a story in a similar vein to the films of his own time. He controls the pacing of the story and manipulates our emotional responses to the events, further distancing us from the true knowability and dispositions of characters like Norma and Max.
Nonetheless, through his narrative and recount of the events leading up to his death, Joe does characterize himself as a deeply flawed person and often depicts himself in an unflattering light. He is unabashedly broke and about to lose his car, and his pursuit of quick cash is so pathetic, we nearly pity him. However, Joe may be defeated but he is still astutely self-aware. He feels shame about his dilemma—this becomes particularly evident when he abruptly asks Sheldrake for a personal loan—but he does not go about crying and sulking. Instead, he maintains a self-deprecating humor and attempts to sensibly confront his problems until he considers moving back to Ohio.
“But before you hear it all distorted and blown out of proportion, before those Hollywood columnists get their hands on it, maybe you’d like to hear the facts, the whole truth.”
Norma instigates Joe’s doomed fate. This may not be explicitly evident in these scenes, as Joe is convinced he outsmarted Norma and finessed himself in a high-paying job. Though Joe believes he found a quick way to earn some cash and get his life back on track, these scenes foreshadow his impending dependence on Norma, as well as his eventual death.
“I feel kind of pleased with the way I handled the situation. I dropped the hook and she snapped at it.”
First, there is Norma’s dead chimp, Norma’s closest companion besides Max. When Joe observes the chimp’s elaborate, somber funeral—one of the symbols of Norma’s excess of wealth, alongside her luxurious vintage car—he pities its utmost seriousness. In other words, Joe believes that Norma’s seeking of companionship from a monkey reveals the fundamental emptiness of her existence. She does not yearn for authentic human relationships, but rather something she can train to provide some entertainment in her life.
[it was “as if she were laying to rest an only child. Was her life really as empty as that?” “It was all very queer, but queerer things were yet to come.”
Norma hatred for contemporary cinema - hatred for Joel’s profession
“You’ve made a rope of words and strangled this business! But there is a microphone right there to catch the gurgles, and Technicolor to photograph the red, swollen tongue!”
Joe shares this outward resentment toward the film industry. However, his disdain arises from his failure to meet the demands of the industry and the formulaic hackwork of the job
“The last one I wrote was about Okies in the Dust Bowl. You’d never know because, when it reached the screen, the whole thing played out in a torpedo boat.”
.” In fact, he ridicules Norma with verbally ironic remarks like …. after her self-absorbed diatribe about modern Hollywood. Though Joe thinks Norma is ridiculous and demonstrates a lack of pity toward her, his and Norma’s cynicism share some similarities: they both resent the film industry because of their lack of success. Joe used to dream of having a fruitful screenwriting career of high artistic merit, but failed. Likewise, Norma dreams of everlasting stardom, but her popularity dwindled with the advent of talkies. These two seem to diametrically oppose each other, but their frustration both stems in their personal defeats, which in turn fosters a mutual dependence in forthcoming scenes.
Next time I’ll bring me autograph album along, or maybe a hunk of cement and ask for a footprint.”
A sense of death and decay permeate Norma’s menacing mansion, which symbolizes the soon-to-be-forgotten status of the silent era. Norma’s estate appears so mausoleum-esque, Joe believes it vacant at first. Only two people live in the eight-master-bedroom estate, the drained pool crawls with vermin, the tennis court has faded markings and a sagging net, and the gates resembling prison bars are copious. These features all signify the lifelessness of the mansion. In turn, the lifeless, deteriorating mansion evokes the silent era, as proven by Joe’s comment
The house was “the kind crazy movies built in the crazy 20s”
While several moments in this chapter of the film illuminate Joe’s subservience to Norma—her paying Joe’s rent payments, him emptying her ashtray—none of these are as mortifying as the removal of Joe’s car from his life. Joe’s car is a crucial asset for sustaining his own career as a screenwriter in the car-dependent Los Angeles. His car symbolizes his independence; it give him mobility and access to the basic necessities of his life, and it also functions as his only means of escape. This is why he goes great lengths to attempt to hustle enough money to keep his car and why he explains to Norma that its loss is a matter of life and death !” Now that his car— by extension his agency—is stripped from him, Joe has reached the point of no return. He is stuck with Norma, who justifies this by reassuring him that the two of them can go on rides in her Isotta-Fraschini. However, Norma’s words act less of a comforting assertion and more of an exertion of her ascending control over Joe, who now doesn’t have a justifiable reason—or feasible means—to do anything without her by his side, much less leave her. Thus, as Joe’s agency diminishes, he depends more and more on Norma to provide for him.
“That’s why I came to this house. That’s why I took this job - ghostwriting!”
The viewing of her older silent films also showcases Norma’s infatuation with her bygone career. Private screenings often show movies inaccessible to the public, whether it be pornography or pre-theatrical releases. Because Norma privately screens her older movies—movies no longer seen outside her own house—the film comments on the paradox of film immortality. Norma clutches onto her youthful image when watching these films; however, in the day before streaming services, movies were predominantly an ephemeral phenomena, popular during their brief runs in theaters but quickly forgotten by the public thereafter. In other words, Norma memorializes her past—a past remembered by few. Barely anyone has access to actively remember and celebrate Norma’s celebrity, thereby rendering her attempted preservation of her former fame frivolous and insubstantial.
When watching one of her older films, Norma speaks proudly of silent film acting, saying
Norma pauses in a dramatically outrageous pose, with the melodramatic background music and the flickering high-contrast lighting giving us a glimpse of Norma’s tortured mind and impending madness.
“Still wonderful, isn’t it? And no dialogue. We didn’t need dialogue. We had faces.” She curses the “idiot produces” and promises “I’ll be up there again - so help me.”
Since the beginning of his relationship with Norma, Joe has exhibited a condensing pity toward Norma, best showcased by his comment …. upon voyeuristically gazing into her excessive, ornate bedroom. Once Joe returns to Norma’s estate after her suicide attempt, however, his genuine sympathy toward her arises. At first, he is remarkably callous, condemning her actions as frivolous and “silly.” He then paces around the room, presumably attempting to reconcile his guilt and pondering how he should act toward Norma, who is at her most vulnerable. Notably, Joe’s snarky, darkly comedic narration is absent in this scene, leaving the audience temporarily detached from Joe’s point of view, which has dominated the film thus far.
“Poor devil, still waving proudly to a parade which has long sinced passed her by.”
Additionally, when Joe imagines the sensational newspaper headlines if Norma died …… he does not realize he himself will become the subject of a sensational headline after his scandalous, gossip-column-ready death. The dramatic irony instills fear and dread within the audience as we inch closer to the tragic ending of Sunset Boulevard.
“It sure would have made attractive headlines - Great star kills herself for the unknown writer”
However, because her fame is firmly rooted in the past, Norma is of little relevance to those not belonging to her generation, which explains the befuddled reaction from the other guard—a member of the younger generation. Norma asks the older guard to remind his coworker that …… Here, Norma insists that her stardom has enabled the existence and survival of Paramount, a highly ironic sentiment given that the younger guard did not recognize her as an important Hollywood star, and the studio has flourished without her stardom for decades.
“without me he wouldn’t have any job, because without me there wouldn’t be any Paramount Studio.”
