Sunset Blvd

Plot Summary

The film is majorly consistent of a flashback, which initially starts with Joe Grillis’ body floating on the pool. The film writer (Billy Wielder) enables the audience and viewers to rediscover the culmination of activities that led to the death of the main character in the play. Joe, on his way back after handing over script to a Paramount pictures producer, coincidentally meets with Norma Desmond; a faded and almost-forgotten film star of the early years. She would later become his girlfriend and a source of his death. Norma highly insists for Joe to move into her apartment, which he does without a careful thought. Eventually, he becomes highly dependent on her for the basic as well as financial needs. As the film progresses, Joe becomes self-aware and make an attempt of becoming independent by moving to live with his close friend. In addition, his love for Betty -- an engaged girlfriend to Artie-- gradually develops. Discovering this love development from the scripts, Norma is obliged to make a desperate move of  killing Joe by shooting, signaling the flashback end. The police and reporters stream into the scene of the incident. Norma is convinced that the reporters’ cameras were  there to film the Salome Screenplay (Staggs, 1-24).

Film Noir

Film Noir is a term especially used in the cinema scenes to describe primarily the dramatic scenes of the Hollywood films that usually end up in crime and has a greater emphasis on the motivation of sexual activities that the characters engage in. Also, attitudes that are cynical in nature are usually featured as film noir (Conard et al, 26). In Sunset Blvd film, Wielder significantly utilized the trait, given that the major characters were entangled in a deadly love triangle.

Use of Black and White

Armed with the knowledge that film was shot during a time when the colored filming was a rare technology and also quite expensive, Wielder and the producers of the film tactically employed the use of less expensive black and white colors in filming to serve various purposes. Usually, the black and white is utilized in filming to sensitize on recall and memories of the past activities. In this case, the film is majorly composed of a flashback of activities that led to the death of Joe. Thus, the use of black and white effects was necessitated to enable the viewers to fully understand the nostalgic events of Norma and the subsequent death of Joe. Additionally, death and funeral mood is often associated with dullness and darkness. With this realization, Wielder preferred a dim lighting and black and white to appreciate the death of the main character in the film (Kuhn et al, 33). Apparently, the theme of nostalgia for the long lost glory of Norma as an actor is well represented by the use of the monochrome colors.

Femme Fatale

Femme Fatale is the use of a female character in filming that is attractive and often seductive to the male characters. Usually, such female characters are the main cause of the disasters that the men attracted to her seduction end up being victims (Mainon et al, 14). Normally, there is a deadly end often associated with femme fatale. Norma Desmond is a Femme Fatale in the film. She is an attractive formerly successful film actor who seduces Joe into moving into her mansion, makes him overly dependent on her and in the end, kills him by shooting three times. Further, the theme of ‘The Beauty killing the Beast’ is evident in the film. Additionally, Nostalgia is attributed to be the causative agent of the murder, especially when Joe unknowingly convinces her into believing that her star in the film industry has significantly deteriorated.

L.A Setting

As the name suggests, the film was set up in the Sunset Boulevard in the Los Angeles region. This geographical location for decades has been notoriously famed for cinematic activities. The location was chosen by Wielder especially to sensitize on the glamor of filmmakers such as Norma and Joe. Additionally, the location is usually associated with the films that are themed in sex and crime activities, thus the necessity.

Deep Focus

Wielder tactfully made use of the rich Hollywood history through the utilization of an authentic screenplay setting. Additionally, she is well regarded to represent a majority of film characters of the time that were fading and deteriorating in acting career.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Norma’s nostalgic wish to regain her status as a film star led her to lose the touch of reality by killing her boyfriend and her thought of participating in the ‘Salome’ Screenplay.

Work Cited Page

Conard, Mark T, and Robert Porfirio. The Philosophy of Film Noir. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2007. Print: 12-56.

Kuhn, Annette, and Guy Westwell. A Dictionary of Film Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. Print: 33-36.

Mainon, Dominique, and James Ursini. Femme Fatale: Cinema's Most Unforgettable Lethal Ladies. New York: Limelight Editions, 2009. Print: 1-142.

Staggs, Sam. Close-up on Sunset Boulevard: Billy Wilder, Norma Desmond, and the Dark Hollywood Dream. New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2003. Print: 1-33.