Sunset Boulevard Film Analysis Theme

Sunset Boulevard and Double Indemnity, are just two out of the many incredible films directed by renowned director Billy Wilder. The two films which were released six years apart, (Double Indemnity- 1944, and Sunset Boulevard- 1950) are uniquely similar, in that both films share many of the same aspects, idea’s, and similar in narration, as one another. Both of these extravagantly, directed films are indeed classics. The films, both tell an intriguing story of spiritual loneliness of a female character, and how they use their power, money, and provocativeness, to “lure” the male character. We see the life of a once innocent (male) character, who is being hurtled towards his own self destruction, the character is “supposedly” unaware, of his own self harm through his seemingly ‘good/beneficial’ decisions that he makes.

The film’s main focus largely represents the Hollywood star system to which Norma Desmond is a victim of. The film particularly highlights the fantasy world in which Norma lives in, the world where she is the ‘greatest star’ (Norma Desmond, Sunset Boulevard, 1950). Sunset Boulevard steps into Norma’s mixed up world where hundreds of photos of herself clutter her crumbling mansion and where she watches herself on screen on a weekly basis. The crumbling and deteriorating mansion could be seen as a metaphor for Norma’s fall from stardom, the collapse of her career.

The film Sunset Boulevard (1950), directed by Billy Wilder, Norma Desmond exemplified a Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) by being demanding, intense and unstable. These behaviors that are consistent with the elements of abnormality include suffering, social discomfort, dangerousness, and irrationality and unpredictability. The first element that is consistent with Norma Desmond’s character is suffering. Desmond being one of the greatest movie stars in history suffers as she experiences the fall from stardom. She also suffers from identity disturbance as she reaches an unstable self-image notion. In one scene when Desmond recognizes for a moment about her age, she claims, “Look at me. Look at my hands, look at my face, look under my

Sunset Boulevard (Wilder 1950) explores the intermingling of public and private realms, puncturing the illusion of the former and unveiling the grim and often disturbing reality of the latter. By delving into the personal delusions of its characters and showing the devastation caused by disrupting those fantasies, the film provides not only a commentary on the industry of which it is a product but also a shared anxiety about the corrupting influence of external perception. Narrated by a dead man, centering on a recluse tortured by her own former stardom, and concerning a once-promising director who refuses to believe his greatest star could ever be forgotten, the work dissects a multitude of illusory folds to reveal an ultimately

Sunset Boulevard follows an unsuccessful screenwriter, Joe Gillis (William Holden), whom a past movie star, Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), hires to help her return to the big screen. Police find the body of Joe Gillis in a swimming pool. In a flashback, Joe explains events that happen prior to his death. Joe tries selling a script to Paramount Studios to pay for his car but they refuse his script. When a group of men try to repossess Joes car, Joe escapes by hiding the car in a deserted mansion. Norma hires Joe to rewrite a script that she wants to star in and accepts his situation by moving into the mansion. Joe learns that Norma use to be a silent film star who believes that she’s still famous. Norma’s butler, Max Von Mayerling (Erich von Stroheim), explains that he writes Norma fan letters and that Norma has made suicide attempts. Later, Joe wants to leave the mansion but returns since Norma cuts her wrists. At nights, Joe sneaks out to work on a script with Betty Schaefer (Nancy Olson) and the two fall in love. Joe informs Norma that no one remembers her and that there will be no comeback causing Norma to shoot Joe who falls in the pool. Policemen and reporters appear at the

The film, The House I live In, opened my eyes to the severity of unfair law enforcement and the depths of the battle with war on drugs. Theoretically, the more people are being arrested for drugs, the cheaper, purer, and more available the drugs become. Making these arrests are not helping get the drugs off the streets, it is only opening up more opportunities for other people to pick up the business.

The film Pleasantville directed by Gary Ross is about two modern teenagers, David and his sister Jennifer, somehow being transported into the television, ending up in Pleasantville, a 1950s black and white sitcom. The two are trapped as Bud and Mary Sue in a radically different dimension and make some huge changes to the bland lives of the citizens of Pleasantville, with the use of the director’s cinematic techniques. Ross cleverly uses cinematic techniques such as colour, mise-en-scene, camera shots, costumes, music and dialogue to effectively tell the story.

One of the symbolic representations in La Mission is where it takes place, in the mission district of San Francisco. It represents the traditional stance of Che the main character and compares it to the shift to a more hipster neighborhood with new people like Lena moving in who haven’t been in the neighborhood until recently. He also restores old cars into low riders which is historically Mexican American style of car. The music featured in this movie is a mix of traditional chorales, native drums and guitars mixed with newer more modern version that also show the transition that this community and culture are facing coming to terms with change and homosexuality that is culturally unacceptable.

The playwright was trying to get quite a few messages when he created this play. First of all, I believe he was trying to show social change and the power and potential that an individual has inside of them, despite their circumstances. I think that this play/movie reveals the true messiness of life and how with the right mindset, you can make it through anything you

The movie begins with Tracy, the main character, as a normal teenager whose life seems from the outside “ok”. However, even at this point in the movie, there are hints of Tracy’s inner pain and discomfort or distress with her world. Tracy lives a tough life. Her parents are separated, and do not have a good relationship. Tracy lives with her mom and brother in a suburban low to middle class neighborhood. Her mom, Mel, is a recovered addict, who works as a hair dresser. Her dad, Travis, is a somewhat rich executive, who works all the time and barely

Besides being at the brink of madness caused by her self-denial of the passing of her fame, Norma Desmond had also become rather sexual-transgressive. Some male traits shown in Norma consist of her dominance - she demands over Max, financial independence - owns factories which constantly makes profits and her assertive nature - she fearlessly confronts her passion for Joe. The way Norma is ridiculously insane to a degree of dark humour brings sympathy, entertainment and a corrupted depiction of celebrity to audiences.

As the audience knows well already since the very first scene, Sunset Boulevard does not have what one would call a “happy ending.” In this sense, the movie gives itself away as film noir considering the fact that all such works of cinema which fall in this style category are known to have dark themes predominantly sending a message of hopelessness and meaningless existence. With Joe’s lifeless body floating around in a swimming pool in mind throughout the entire movie, audiences of this motion picture are filled with a sense of pointlessness for Joe’s life, since his personal resolutions and growth as a

“The most exciting moment is the moment when I add the sound… At this moment, I tremble.” (Akira Kurosawa) Sound is arguably the most important concept in cinema studies, being there ever since the beginnings. It can radically change the way a motion picture is looked at and it can render what the director may sometimes find hard to depict using only his camera. Looking upon silent cinema one discovers an era which wasn’t at all silent, but rich in sound of different forms, from the simple narration of the images shown on screen, accompanied by a piano, to the complex score later composed specifically for that film. An example of that complex score is shown in Sunrise, a film by F.W. Murnau, which lies at the border between silent cinema and sound cinema. Considered to be one of the first films with an actual score, Sunrise is a great example of the multitude of dimensions and effects sound can have.

The film pointed out a lot of subject matter that greatly affects our lives and these are as follows being a Good Samaritan, determination in reaching our goals and dreams, expression of once self, making decisions in the path we take, the different perception of different individuals to a certain subject, our judgement in the life of others, the impact of different exercises/evaluation concerning a person’s multiple intelligence to how he copes with life, and so much more. The Good Samaritan in the film was depicted by Leigh Anne. She portrayed that even in her elite kind of living, she still managed to offer a home for a young man who she had not known except for the fact that she was a friend of her son SJ, although she was a

The plot of Sunset Boulevard shares common aspects with many other film noir movies. The whole plot of the movie is told by a dead man, William, which is a common theme of film noirs. Especially taking in the facts that the whole story was one long flashback. Another common aspect is the recurring voice over describing what is happening in the scene and what was going on in the