Sunset Boulevard - Movie Review

          'You're Norma Desmond. You used to be in silent pictures. You used to be big.'

                                 'I am big. It's the pictures that got small.'

To me, Billy Wilder's 'Sunset Boulevard' and it's fading protagonist, Norma Desmond, finds much of its essence in these memorable lines. The words are reflected in Norma herself, in the outdated, overdrawn makeup she wears and the ancient furs. They can be found resounding through the house itself, in it's gothic and decaying splendour - a home which, like it's owner, has now become a mere shadow of it's previous existence. For Gloria Swanson, the role of Norma Desmond must have been beyond difficult, beyond sensitive - she herself had been a world famous actress in her prime, the 1920s, and like many other silent stars, was all but forgotten with the emergence of the talkies, and later colour pictures. Many stars failed to debut in talkies, due to their nasal voices, or, like Norma, simply refused because they regarded talkies as a farce, an insult to the art form that they had so long glorified.

Perhaps Norma's words 'It's the pictures that got small' have more potency and less vanity than we might like to think. I often think what Norma or Gloria, for that matter, might think of movies today, where a narrative can be weak as long as there are special effects to gloss it over. In many ways, silent films and film noir, by their very limitation, possess an attraction that may be unachievable in the modern age. Many of my friends say to me that they cannot see the appeal of black and white films, protesting that they would work best in colour - but to me, the films would lose their very essence were this to happen. It is the grey and black shadows in 'Sunset Boulevard' that create the decaying, decrepit atmosphere, the screen behind which Norma desperately tries, and fails, to hide behind. They add an air of illusion, suspense and fear. They draw us in just as the young writer is drawn in inextricably to Norma's fatal web.

Gloria Swanson cemented her status as an actress of great stature in this film, perhaps because the film's topic was something she had not only researched, but lived through. Many of the lines she speaks are not merely reproduced, but clearly felt for the first time. Even her character's gestures are stagey, Norma's claw like hands begging her lover's return in a frightening imitation of a beautiful 1920s screen actress silently imploring her lover to remain faithful. Swanson perfectly captures the two sides to her character - on the one hand, we see a frightened, painfully lonely little girl, longing to be loved and appreciated again, whilst on the other hand we see a slightly vicious, positively frightening individual - a mask designed to cover up the hurt and injustices suffered. Paired with a soundtrack from Franz Waxman, and stellar performances from William Holden and Nancy Holden, as well as Erich von Stroheim, Sunset Boulevard is a heartbreaking and truly wonderful film not to be missed. 

   

Victoria x

N.B. I claim no rights to the images used in this post - all rights belong to the respective owners. I obtained the photos from Flickr under a Creative Commons license.