For this assignment I chose to analyze the film Sunset Boulevard. The director of this film is an Austrian Born Jewish American filmmaker named Billy Wilder who became a screenwriter in 1920. Billy Wilder co wrote and directed Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, California in 1950. This film falls on both the drama and Film Noir category. Elements from both genres are prevalent throughout the film with film noir being the most dominant. Billy Wilder shows iconography very well in the film. Billy Wilder incorporated eerie shadows, dark alleyways, as well as distress inducing appearances in order to help with the overall feel for the film. The significant scene I found to be most important due to its role and how everything ties together to it in the end. Norma became crazy and she shot and killed Joe. After this action she is under the impression that she is a movie start and that her big break has arrived. This ending is very enticing and it keeps you on the edge of your seat given how dark thins got. In this film Joe Gills (William Holden), a screenwriter, ends up finding his way to the mansion of an aging movie start shortly after the rupture of his car tire. Norma Desmond played by Gloria Swanson, is an aging movie star that offers Joe an incentive to move into her house. The offer was initially so that they may work on a screenplay together in hopes of its success paving the path to her return to mainstream Hollywood. Joe and Norma ultimately become lovers up until Joe finds another woman named Betty. This was the beginning of the end and leads to the scene I picked. At the very end of the movie Joe tells Norma that he’s leaving. This sent her into a downward spiral and made her lose her mind. She shot Joe three times and left him dead in her pool. Police came the next day to investigate what happened. When they went to talk to Norma she wouldn't leave the room. In order for her to go downstairs they had to lie and say the cameras are ready for her. Norma, in her crazy state of mind, agreed to go down to the cameras but got ready first. You could tell that when she started descending from the stairs that she was ecstatic because it was as if she found her way back to stardom. The mise-en-scene, sounds, and editing really helped to tie this scene together. Norma normally wore very dark dresses throughout the film but in this last scene she was wearing a dress with sparkles on it. I feel the filmmakers did this to show that she was happy to be back in front of the camera since that was what she wanted from the beginning. Sounds used in this scene were internal sounds. Internal sounds are a representation of a character's thoughts without them speaking it out loud and the character may be expressing random thoughts in their mind. Joe was narrating some parts of it which made it internal because he was expressing thoughts but only we could here them, the characters couldn't. I also noticed rhythmic relations in the editing. Rhythmic editing controls the length of time that you are looking at the shot. It can also include music, which helps add to the rhythmic pattern, and can create feelings of excitement, suspense, or tension. That also is the effect it could have on the audience, making them feel a certain way while watching the scene or shot. The filmmaker would make the shots kind of long which overall made the scene more intense. It makes you feel like you can't take your eyes off the screen because you might miss something. These three stylistic elements help the scene in positive ways like adding suspense and clarification to what is going on. These shots work together to create smooth transitions, which helps with the meaning and separately these shots add in feeling for the audience. Meaning is created for the viewer by adding those long shots. It shows that what is happening and what is being said is important. I also noticed in this scene that it was very silent except for the character talking. This also added meaning because it was showing that what was being said was supposed to be dramatic and important. It was also as if they wanted you to feel some sympathy towards Norma. Everyone was quiet and looking up at her since they knew she was going insane.
This scene relates to the other scenes because of the darkness and eeriness of the film. These are the two big themes I found throughout this film and the scene I chose also represented its overall genre, film noir. Film noir is a style of film that has mostly low-key lighting, distortion and dark shadows. In these types of films you may also find violence, down beat atmospheres, and darkness. The theme and plot of these movies are normally dark and that was seen again in Sunset Boulevard. For example when Norma found out that Joe was cheating she called the other women to inform her that Joe isn't faithful. Norma wanted to gain sympathy from Joe so she cut herself but instead of getting sympathy Joe left her which lead to her shooting him. This scene showed how evil she could be. Then following that scene was the scene I am analyzing. It showed the darkness through Norma since she clearly felt no remorse for what she had done and only cared about herself. She also fit in well with women characters in film noir movie. In these films they are normally disturbed. Women are “femme fatale” which is provocative and sexual. Femme fatale was shown when Joe was going to leave her so she tried to commit suicide and had him stay by her which she then tried to seduce him in hopes he would stay and then again in the ending scene by the way she presented herself to everyone. Iconography could be general indicators. It is what you expect to see in that genre of movie. Since this is a drama or film noir movie I expected it to be dark and cynical which it was. It was filmed in all black and white and had low lighting. There were also shadows throughout the film and the setting in which the scenes were filmed in were on point with that too. For example the wet streets, dark alleyways, night scenes, and gloomy appearances.
Norma had big open eyes that showed she was going crazy and the way everyone was looking at her especially her butler Max shows that they felt bad for her and knew she needed to get help. Sunset Boulevard does follow a three-act structure. The first turning point was on New Year’s Eve when Norma tried to kill herself. She was upset that Joe wanted to leave. He was unhappy living in her house. Norma ended up slitting her wrists hoping he would run to be by her side and stay with her, which he did. Second turning point was when Joe fell in love with another women named Betty. Norma found out and was so upset with the information that she called Betty to let her know what was going on. Joe knew that she had called Betty so he told Betty to come over. When she came Joe took her around and was basically showing her how “happy” he is there. Which brings up the third turning point. After Betty had left Joe began to pack up his stuff since he wanted to leave. He told Norma which caused her to freak out. As he was walking out the door Norma shot him three times and he fell dead into the pool. The character goal’s presented in this film was to get Norma back into the cinema world and write a screenplay. Both weren't really fulfilled. The screenplay never got finished but in Norma’s mind she did make it back in front of the camera by the end. This film also followed a classical Hollywood narrative. Both characters were goal oriented although neither of them met their goals they both still had a public goal in mind. There were also conflicts throughout this film, mostly the love triangle between Norma, Betty, and Joe. It was never fully resolved but it was present. My scene fit in with the narrative because it had casualty, which is a cause and effect chain. Each thing that was said lead to the next. For example when the police were trying to get Norma to go downstairs Max lied saying the cameras were ready for her which made her want to go downstairs. This scene also had a sense of space. Everyone was close to her but close enough to show that they didn't want to be right next to her. The police were crowding around here but obviously so they could keep her in close range if she tried anything.
As discussed above there are multiple reasons to why Sunset Boulevard falls under the genre of film noir and why the scene chosen represents that accurately. Drama films rely mostly on the emotional and relational development of realistic characters and although that is present in this film and scene, film noir is a lot darker. The plots are more cryptic. This significance of analyzing this scene in particular is that face that it ties everything together. It shows that Norma is crazy and everyone in the room is also realizing that as well. It also represents the genre well by the way it is filmed, how the actress and a actors are acting, and the setting of it. Overall, the interpretation of this scene showed the film in the way it was meant to be present, dark and cynical; It also helped that you didn't realize she was insane until the very end of the film when Joe left.