Monday, September 30, 2019

Midnight Special: Sunset Boulevard

'I am BIG; it's the pictures that got small.'
Sunset Boulevard marks my first venture into Billy Wilder's work since I've heard from many film fans of his reputation. The film also written by Wilder had players like Gloria Swanson, William Holden and Erich von Stroheim. It tells the story of an aging film star of the silent era; Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) who forms an uneasy relationship with a desperate screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden), Desmond is looking to make a comeback in the film industry and asks Gillis to re-write the script of her comeback feature. Gillis, desperate for money and a break reluctantly accepts and soon becomes Desmond's confidant and kept man but when he starts seeing one of Paramount's readers she becomes jealous and paranoid. Erich von Stroheim plays Desmond's former husband Max von Mayerling who returned to her to become her butler who still sends her fan letters to make her believe she still has fans. This was very well-made for a film of it's time, and I put it up there with In A Lonely Place as one of those films where the studio took a chance on making a film that doesn't sugar coat the flaws of its characters or their actions. This is easily one of older Hollywood films that have made it's way to my top 100 films of all time.

William Holden as Joe Gillis
This is one of those rare films back then that had something to say about certain issues and my interpretation of what Billy Wilder was going for with this might not even be what he wanted to say with Sunset Boulevard. In the 21st century, things have come to light the film business and it isn't as glamorous as it looks in the magazines and it the newspapers seeing as how many sexual allegations have been made towards many of the people working within the studio as well as the rampant paedophilia that's come to light in recent years but in this 1950 film all that was covered up and no film star dared to speak out against what was happening behind the scenes. Norma Desmond feels to me like one of those stars who were mistreated, used and abused in her early career as a silent film star and taken advantage of by many of those around her, and as she aged and was no longer the beautiful star she once was she was taken out of the film business with plenty of time to develop the insanity while having enablers surrounding her in the form of Max von Mayerling and spending most of her days in her big mansion. Joe Gillis is a hack writer who waltzes into her life, and down on his luck, he thinks of her just like everyone else, a former film queen no one has heard of in years when she shelters him from car company employees looking to confiscate his car due to late payments she offers him to look into film scripts for her return to cinema. The film follows Gillis and Desmond's uneasy relationship, they visit the film mogul Cecil B. DeMille at one point and made her think that the studio was calling her because they were green lighting her movie but embarrassingly enough it was because they wanted to rent her car for one of the films. Gillis might be a hack but I'm sure he could have gotten out the mansion if he really wanted to, but when Desmond surprises him with lavish and expensive gifts he is tempted to stay just as he says 'the pool I always wanted'. In the final few minutes of the film, when Gillis finally packs up and confronts Desmond, he tells her that DeMille and everyone else was just sparing her the disappointment. The descent down the staircase is probably one of cinemas most iconic scenes, Desmond slowly walks down the stairs while photographers are frozen on the steps of the staircase as she passes them by as if they were just part of the set. 

Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond
The film received 11 Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor and won for Best Screenplay, Best Art Direction and Best Music. William Holden at this time was a rising star and accepted the role of Joe Gillis after Montgomery Cliff pulled out of the film. I thought Holden's performance was great, he gives Gillis a perspective as an insider in the film business, there's traces here of what his older self would come to achieve though it's not fully fleshed out yet. Holden later went on to work with Wilder again in Sabrina with Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn as the titular character. Best known as a silent film director Erich von Stroheim takes on the role of Max von Mayerling, the ever loyal-servant, later we find out that he's one of her ex-husbands and a famous silent film director, in the film he is the only person who still loves Desmond but he is also possessive and protective of her that he can't let her see that the world has moved on without her. Stroheim's acting comes across as cold in the only other picture I saw him in which was Jean Renoir's La Grande Illusion, but I thought he was very capable here, especially when he's in one on one scenes with Holden as well as the final scene down the staircase. The film features Swanson's contemporaries in the silent film era; Buster Keaton, Anna Q. Nilsson and H.B. Warner when Gillis talks of 'the waxworks'. Last but not the least; Gloria Swanson who is the real star of the film, some may say that Swanson was playing a version of herself, since she too was once a very famous silent film queen and had just as many fan letters as Norma Desmond had received in her hey day, she was also known to have lived an extravagant lifestyle but the similarities end there. Swanson was not Wilder's first pick to play Desmond, he'd looked into Mae West but thought that she might think it beneath her to play such a role, and Swanson name was thrown around and was hired despite her being reluctant about doing a screen test, thankfully she did and gave us a performance for the ages to celebrate. Swanson makes Desmond over the top which is understandable since she's playing a mentally questionable person who acts as though she's still in silent films and it's both humorous and unhinged yet her performance also makes us sympathise with her. 

'Alright Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close up.'
The screenplay by Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder is filled with now famous lines in cinema, it's also snappy and makes the film no less iconic and historical. The cinematography by John F. Seitz is beautifully told in black and white film, and you can't help but feel as thought he gives it a modern appeal to first time viewers like me and of course there's the music by Franz Waxman, who's work here reminds me of Bernard Hermann but sets just the right notes without invading the story and visuals altogether. Overall, this is probably one of the most perfect films I've seen this year and it's a film from 1950, and my first venture into Billy Wilder's filmography. I think my next Midnight Special post will definitely be another serving from Wilder.

5 stars.

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