Sunset Blvd. (Billy Wilder, 1950): Australia

Reviewed by Rachel Morales. Viewed at AFI Fest 2012

It is appropriate that I went to see Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950) on a Sunday. As I waited in line to go inside, an air of hushed piety hung in the crowd, which was composed of worshipers of all ages and social classes, including me. Lucky for us, we were gathered together at the Vatican of movie theatres, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. After we were seated, a couple of restoration experts stood on stage to discuss their recently-completed project, which was a painstaking restoration of Sunset to its original glory. They did not need to tell any of us that seeing the restored version of the film could “move it up to a top ten.” I’m pretty sure that every worshiper in the church had already placed it there.

Since the film is cast to perfection, I was surprised to find out that William Holden was not Billy Wilder’s first choice to play Joe Gillis; Montgomery Clift actually turned the part down. I think it is quite fortunate that Clift declined the part, because Sunset could not work if chemistry didn’t exist between Joe Gillis and Norma Desmond. With William Holden playing Joe Gillis and Gloria Swanson playing Norma Desmond, the bond between them is completely convincing. Holden’s Gillis is savvy enough to get Norma to hire him as a script editor but innocent enough not to realize Norma is falling completely in love with him. At the same time, Swanson’s Norma is haughty enough to believe her fans still want her back, yet vulnerable enough to shed tears when the Paramount film crew gushes over her. We understand their weaknesses, and we begin to care deeply about both of these characters. The fact that Norma sleeps with Joe is a bit creepy, but we can forgive her. After all, every hetero female in the audience has already thought about doing the same thing.

As in many films noir of the era, we are provided with voice-over narration from the protagonist, which in this case is Joe. As we quickly discover, he is a decent guy from the Midwest who came to Hollywood to be a writer. However, he is currently experiencing a dry spell. He is three months behind in his car payments and he has to scramble so the repo guys don’t get his car. By pure luck (or by pure misfortune) he lands in the driveway of a washed-up star of the silent movie era, a pretend queen living in a fantasy kingdom up on Sunset Boulevard. Joe appears at her doorstep on the very day she is burying her pet monkey. Little does he know, but Norma wants Joe to be her next chimp.

Perhaps the most unusual element of Sunset is the blur between reality and fantasy. It is impossible to tell where the horizon ends and the sky begins. The fictitious plot tells the true story of how the industry “uses up” its best people, and it is cast with actual casualties of the Hollywood system. The actor who plays Max, Erich von Stroheim, was an auteur director whose perfectionism threw him out of favor with the budget-conscious studio. Before he was given the boot, one of the actresses he directed was Gloria Swanson, the silent film actress who plays Norma in Sunset. Like her character Norma, Swanson got too old to star in films. In the scene when Joe is watching old movies with Norma, the film they are watching is actually Queen Kelly (1929), which Erich von Stroheim had been directing in real life until he was fired. In addition, Norma’s “waxworks” are real-life icons from the silent film era, including Buster Keaton. Somehow Billy Wilder was able to convince Cecil B. DeMille to play himself; when he greets Norma with his “Hello Young Fella” line, he could have been saying it straight from his heart to Gloria Swanson. It is these truths that give Sunset Boulevard its devastating edge.

 

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Published:
11.12.12 / 8pm
Category:
AFI Filmfest 2012, Films