Sunset Boulevard

5 out of 5 Stars
Norma Desmond breaks my heart. Such a sad, sad story of a woman living in the past and unwilling to change with the times. Norma and Edie Beale are similar in so many ways -- stories about powerful women (possibly before their time) who have difficulty adapting with change both move me and upset me. "I am big. It's the pictures that got small".
It's probably scary that I identify with Swanson in this role.

(cross posted from finishing-the-hat)
I recently re watched 'Sunset Boulevard' and was reminded of why this movie had such an impact on me at an impressionable age. Watching a powerful woman, way ahead of her time (though she didn't know that), living in the past and unable to move ahead and change with the times is both beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time. Sure, she was a bit senile, but aren't all actors to some degree?

A very wise woman 32 years my senior once told me that the key to staying young was being able to be adaptable, go with the flow and stay current. Not in a physical sense (ie. plastic surgery, botox, or obsessive gym and beauty regimes..."I need three more weeks to get these thighs in shape, no more carbohydrates don't be naughty, we'll soon have you skipping like an ingenue, you won't look a day over 40. We have dry heat we have steam and moisturizing creme, we have mud packs we have blood sacks, it's a rigorous regime, not a wrinkle when you twinkle or a wobble when you walk, of course there's bound to be a little suffering, eternal youth is worth a little suffering") but in a mental sense. Reading the newspaper without immediately harking back to the 'good old innocent days', listening and learning to the younger generation and being supportive without being judgemental. I'm sure this easier said than done. It's very probable that when I'm an octogenarian I'll be hitting the young-uns with my cane and reminiscing about the days when television shows had scripts and there were no commuter flights to outer space.

But I hope not. I hope that I, too, will be adaptable and willing to go with the flow.


But Norma Desmond. Oh, Norma. Joan of Arc. Showing them all that 'nothing has changed' and how she contributed to giving the world 'new ways to dream'. Striking, intimidating and reclusive. Obsessed with the zodiac. Living in a gothic and decrepid old Hollywood mansion. Living in her 'silver heaven'. She didn't need dialogue. She had her face.

And she loved her gentleman callers. She was unafraid to be herself and she made no apologies. Did she use men to make her feel more powerful? Or simply because she was used to the attention and thrived for it? She and Edie Beale are similar in so many ways. They both live in the glory days of their famous pasts of fame, culture and parties. They both love the company of men, but more so for their own egos and less for the physical intimacy. And interestingly, they both were obsessed by the zodiac. Both were in touch with their emotions that they had difficulties understanding subtlety and self censoring, They said what was on their minds whether or not people wanted to hear it. They were fierce and powerful yet so vulnerable and unaware.

The main difference is that Norma used her money to buy people. She lured Joe with money whereas Edie was busy having a love/hate (but mostly loving) relationship with her mother.

I am very drawn to both of these characters. Someday I just may write a play where these two women meet (in a fictional sense, obviously), not unlike Lillian Hellman and Mary McCarthy in Nora Ephron's 'Imaginary Friends'.

"They took the idols and smashed them, the Fairbankses, the Gilberts, the Valentinos! And who've we got now? Some nobodies!"

Haloscan Comments
How very wise and deep, your soul must be.
You are at least a thousand years older than I.
Dorian Gray | Homepage | 02.04.08 - 8:24 pm | #

I think you're skipping over the fact that Norma Desmond murdered her gentleman caller at the end of the show. I always considered her story more tragic than liberating.
T.A.B. | Homepage | 02.05.08 - 11:05 am | #

Wasn't the murder a metaphor?
Bear | 02.05.08 - 12:33 pm | #

I think because Joe narrates the film posthumously (in an amusing and cynical way) the murder is less literal and more of a use of plot device to bring to mind film noir. The audience knows Joe is dead from the very first scene and that Norma killed him -- it is Joe who tells the story and it is through his point of view that we get to know Norma. I always thought that 'killing' Joe represented killing the changing times in order to stay in the past. Joe represents 'talkies' and by shooting him she is talking out her rage on everyone who exploited her during and after her hollywood career.

I also love that throughout the film, Joe is 'ghostwriting' his own story...heh.
sarah | Homepage | 02.05.08 - 4:25 pm | #

Sarah, out of curiosity, did you see and/or like the Andrew Lloyd Webber staged version of the movie?
T.A.B. | 02.05.08 - 5:23 pm | #

Being even a petty celebrity can come with a heavy price, once you achieve that creature of myth. When out in the public, or even with friends, every day is showtime. When I felt like I could do it no more, I tried to live my life in obscurity. Like it or not, there is no going back to being a regular guy.
Walter | Homepage | 02.07.08 - 8:04 pm | #