Also, I have finally moved into the 1950s. Well, the very beginning at least.
I don't know what to say about this movie to be honest.
It's the story of a narcissistic and delusional silent film actress who has been living in seclusion since the popularity of talking pictures and the struggling screenwriter who becomes her kept man.
And it's amazingly directed by Billy Wilder.
And the acting is awesome.
And the dialogue is hilarious and memorable.
And it lost Best Picture to All About Eve. Apparently 1950 was a good year for movies as one of my personal favs Born Yesterday was also nominated.
But it did win for Best Writing, Art Direction, and Music. This post will hopefully make two of those three clear (I don't know how I would show music since YouTube only has clips from the musical Sunset Boulevard which in spite of my love of musicals, I know nothing about except there is one clip of John Barrowman singing and being a Doctor Who fan that made me happy).
The main cast: William Holden (Joe), Gloria Swanson (Norma), Nancy Olson (Betty), and Erich von Stroheim (Max).
Swanson was a silent film actress who's career fizzled with the talkies and the other actresses considered for the role (like Mary Pickford) where in the same situation. This casting idea along with a bunch of cameos from people in the music industry adds a level of realism to the picture that must have been eerie at the time. In fact, when Swanson was being considered for the role they asked her to come in for a screen test and she asked if it was really necessary since she had made 20 films with Paramount in the past. Art imitates life.
So thematically this was a controversial film at the time. The wounds of the silent film stars who couldn't cross over into talkies were still festering after about twenty years and many were rather angry. On the contrary, a lot of people seemed to like it and see it as a film that would last. Guess who wins?
Also, after A Trip To The Moon it must be nice to look at clear pictures, huh? I sure appreciate it.
So the film starts with a shot of the street name painted on the curb before following the road to where a bunch of cop cars are driving.
Apparently the opening scene of the movie was actually supposed to be a scene of a Hollywood morgue with a bunch of corpses chatting about how they died leading our deceased narrator, Joe Gillis, to start telling his story which is the movie. The scene confused the test audience who wasn't sure what type of movie they were in for so they took it out.
Joe: "The poor dope - he always wanted a pool. Well, in the end, he got himself a pool."
Joe is an amusing narrator. He makes a lot of snarky comments and crazy descriptions. This is a noir film after all.
He tells us that there has been a murder at the home of a famous actress. Gee, I wonder who got killed . . .
Um, spoiler? I guess we didn't need his corpse to talk after all.
Repo: "This car better be back here by 3PM or there are gonna be fireworks"
Joe: "You say the cutest things."
So we back up to Joe living in a shanty apartment, trying desperately to figure out if the problem with his movie scripts is that his ideas "aren't original enough or too original" since no one is clamoring to buy them. He is visited by the repo men since he is three payments behind on his car. He needs $300 and now.
Product placement!
He goes to see a man about his script only to hear that it isn't very exciting. His script reader comes in telling him it's total crap not knowing that the writer is standing behind her. Good first impression.
Betty: "Right now I wish I could crawl into a hole and pull it in after me."
Joe: "If only I could be of any help."
Think she might show up again?
Needless to say, they don't buy the script.
The pharmacy. The meeting place of the 1950s according to Joe.
"Of course, I could give you $300 but I'm not going to . . . The finest things are written on an empty stomach."
After making some calls regarding the money he needs, he goes to bug his agent. His agent gives him the above advice. Subtext: Suffering is good for you and I'm selfish.
In a mild chase scene from the repo men, Joe parks in what seems to be an abandoned garage to hide his car for now.
"It was a great big white elephant of a place, the kind crazy movie people built in the crazy 20s."
So obviously, this means he has to go check it out. Because nothing bad ever comes from inspecting deserted buildings. Nothing.
The doorman tells Joe that they have been expecting him and Joe, still surprised that someone actually lives there, tries to insist that he's only here because of his car issues.
Regardless, he is ushered upstairs to where the owner of the house resides in a room bound to induce schizophrenia (spoiler?) and she immediately starts talking: "I'd like the coffin to be white, and I want it specially lined with satin. White... or pink. Maybe red! Bright flaming red! Let's make it gay!"
Who says you should go out with dignity? Go out with eye-searing gaudiness!
. . . And she was talking about the death of her pet chimp. Well, at least now the "bury him in the garden" comment is way less creepy.
After Joe admits that he is not a funeral director and she starts pushing him out the door, he recognizes her as Norma Desmond, the famous film star.
Joe: "You used to be big."
Norma: "I am big. It's the pictures that got small!"
After hearing that Joe is a screenwriter, she shows him a slew of scripts for a movie adaption of "Salome" that she has been writing for years, of which she is going to use to make her "return" (she doesn't like the word "comeback").
She tells him to read it. His response: "Sometimes it's interesting to see just how bad bad writing can be. This promised to go the limit."
She decides to pay Joe to fix it up for her but refuses to let the script leave the house, offering him the room above the garage for the night. Max the butler tells stories of Norma's (former) greatness.
Joe critiques the faded unkempt tennis court and rat-infested pool (symbolism) and watches the "last rites of that chimp performed with the utmost seriousness as if she was laying to rest a first child." More symbolism.
The chimp = her only friend outside of Max.
Yeah, finals do suck.
There is something indescribably creepy about seeing someone's fingers moving that fast and that close to the screen. It's like two Things from The Addams Family putting on a show.
She likes to sit surrounded by pictures of herself. Not at all weird.
She offers him a job to continue working on the script while she sits around reading fan-mail, signing pictures, and bothering him to not delete any scenes with her in them.
Every once in a while they watch her old movies.
The great thing about Swanson in this movie is how she plays Norma like she is constantly in a silent movie. Everything is drama. Everything is facial expressions and hand gestures. This particular hand gesture says a lot. As does Joe's reaction to it.
Hang on. I need to step into my crazy light with the smoky backdrop for EMPHASIS!
Joe starts actually leaving the house with her when she decides that his clothes are trashy and he needs to get something more high-end that she will pay for.
Norma then moves Joe into a bedroom in the main house right across from hers. I'm sure that was an innocent suggestion.
Max tells Joe that there are no locks in the house at all per the doctor's suggestion. Norma is on constant suicide watch. Max also says that the fan-mail that Norma gets is written by him to keep her spirits up. Talk about sad.
On New Year's Norma throws a party. She is unaware how pathetic it is.
After giving Joe a solid gold cigarette case, Joe gets angry at her for trying to essentially hold her hostage out of loneliness. Norma takes it well.
Artie: "Fans, you all know Joe Gillis, the well-known screenwriter, uranium smuggler, and Black Dahlia suspect!"
This is how I'm going to introduce all my friends at parties from now on although obviously I will tailor it slightly to fit them.
Joe runs out to meet up with his friend Artie at a rocking party where he meets his new girlfriend.
Shocker! Artie is dating Betty who apparently dug up some of his old scripts and found 6 pages of one of them that she actually liked.
Betty discusses building a movie around those 6 pages and Joe promptly starts seducing her with film lines which she is able to complete. They are quite cute together because they are both so witty and biting without being mean.
Buzzkill comes in the form of a call to Max who says that Norma tried to slit her wrists and Joe, in guilt, rushes back to the mansion.
Joe has 50s-fade-to-black pity sex with her and they pretend his runaway thing never happened.
While stopping at the drugstore to buy Norma some cigarettes, Joe runs into Artie and Betty. Betty tells him that the studio is interested in their movie idea but Joe tells her he can't help her.
Back at the mansion, Norma tries to amuse Joe with her Charlie Chaplin impression. It's not the turn-on one might expect.
Norma hears from the director Cecil B. DeMille and, assuming it's in regards to her script, she pops over to the lot to find that the guard actually DOES remember her and allows her inside when everyone else turns her down.
While there a lighting guy who she knew shines a spotlight on her, drawing interested cast and crew to her side. Obviously, she's in heaven.
Joe: "Psychopaths sell like hotcakes!"
Betty: "This is a story about teachers, their lives, their struggles!"
Seeing Betty on the lot, Joe rushes over to her office and says he would like to work on their new idea and they start shouting out thoughts.
Also, I call *meta-alert* on Joe's quote.
Joe and Max find out that the studio only contacted Norma because they wanted to use her very old car in a movie. They don't tell her and she starts getting crazy beauty treatments (i.e. plastic surgery) to prepare for her "return."
Norma starts to get suspicious of the fact that Joe is leaving the house a lot more than usual. The death grip on his head says it all.
Joe: "It's from a middle aged lady. Very foolish and very generous."
Betty: "Oh, the old familiar story. You help a timid little soul cross a crowded street and she turns out of be a multi-millionaire and leaves you all her money."
Joe: "That's the problem with you readers: you know all the stories."
Betty tells Joe about how she comes from a family of people in the film industry and that she was encouraged to act only to be told that her nose is crooked. After fixing it, they told her her acting sucks and she decided to follow another path in the business.
Joe says he likes her nose and cuteness ensues.
A buzzkill comes from the revelation that she is 22, a bit too young for Joe but not scandalously so, and he decides it's best things remain platonic. Sorta.
Max discovers him sneaking back inside and reveals that he was once a great director and Norma's first husband who voluntarily gave up his career to watch over her. I think I find Max to be more deserving of my sympathy than Norma, honestly. Dude's hopelessly in love and has to watch her screw around with her boy-toy in front of him.
Dun, dun, dun! Norma finds the script!
Betty revels that Artie wants to get married and Joe doesn't get why this is a problem.
Then he figures it out.
Norma makes a call to Betty threatening to tell her things about Joe that she doesn't know. Joe walks in, grabs the phone, and tells Betty to come over and see for herself, much to Norma's dismay.
Norma: "Don't just stand there hating me! Shout at me! Strike me! But don't hate me! Say you don't hate me, Joe!"
Joe shows Betty the house and tells her the whole situation, playing the I'm-just-a-gigantic-douche-you-don't-want-me card because he thinks it's what's best for her. She leaves in sadness.
Norma shows Joe the gun she bought to off herself with while he packs to leave. He admits the truth about the fan-mail and her movie script's failure.
Joe: "Oh, wake up, Norma, you'd be killing yourself to an empty house. The audience left twenty years ago."
Norma: "Did you hear him [Max]? I'm a star!"
Joe: "Norma, you're a woman of fifty, now grow up! There's nothing tragic about being fifty. Not unless you're trying to be twenty-five."
Serious words to live by there.
Joe tries to leave and is shot and killed by Norma, causing him to fall into the pool. We have come full circle.
The police try to interrogate Norma but at this point her mind is so gone that all she can talk about is preparing for her movie.
Achieving her wish, she is back on camera again preparing to act her movie role to a newsreel as she says her final lines through increasingly Gaussian filtering.
Norma: [to newsreel camera] "And I promise you I'll never desert you again because after 'Salome' we'll make another picture and another picture. You see, this is my life! It always will be! Nothing else! Just us, the cameras, and those wonderful people out there in the dark!... All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up."
This is a classic of cinema and in particular, film noir.
Seriously, go watch it.
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