Monday, March 17, 2014
Extra Work
A My Little Pony created for my roommate, Deanna, based on her personality and appearance.
Lab 8
Create a website for Meals on Wheels
Create strictly for 975px by 720px view. Please Use the Rule of Thirds. Please create all your own images.
Color Palette
Website Screen Shot
Monday, March 10, 2014
Sunset Boulevard Essay
My 1500 Word Paper for Cinema Studies.
Write a reaction to an american noir film, not viewed in class.
Include outside sources, quotes, and an original analysis.
Write a reaction to an american noir film, not viewed in class.
Include outside sources, quotes, and an original analysis.
American Noir Cinema and Sunset Boulevard
Sunset
Boulevard is a 1950’s American noir film.
It was directed by Billy Wilder and released in the summer of 1950. Wilder is a well-known film noir director for
his films Double Indemnity (1944) and
The Apartment (1960). He was originally born in Germany but moved
to Hollywood before the Nazi takeover.
He was one of many German filmmakers came to come to Hollywood during
that time period and he was also a German émigré. It makes sense that there was an American film
noir movement that has a heavy basis in German Expressionism when there was an
increase in German people in the American film industry. Sunset
Boulevard is a take on the, at the time, current, 1950’s state of
Hollywood. This is because Sunset Boulevard is a movie within a
movie; a movie about writing a movie. Although this movie is on the cusp of the
years of noir, it still possesses the important traits of the noir style of
cinema.
Simply put film noir is a Hollywood crime
drama. Usually these movies are
characterized with cynical plots and the eventual downfall of the main
character. The film noir movement
started as a response to the end of World War 2. The world did not know how to act, nor did
the film industry at the time. These
movies, Sunset Boulevard in particular
are categorized by complex and cynical plot lines. Although there is a serious tone, there are some
lighter moments such as Norma pretending to be Charlie Chaplin for the pure amusement
of Joe.
The movie is for the most part
filmed in a mansion, which is unusual for Hollywood films of that time. Filming on set was so expensive that it
became more cost efficient to start filming on location. Why spend tons of money creating a version of
something when you could just go and film there for a cheaper price? There were downsides to filming in possibly uncontrollable
situations such as natural lighting and sound.
All and all it was a benefit to Hollywood to move towards filming on
location. The film industry was in crises because people were watching
television at home instead of going out to see movies. One of the ways they kept people coming was
changing pictures to be filmed in color; although Sunset Boulevard was shot in black and white. The black and white film
creates a different atmosphere than a color film. There is something very old and cluttered,
yet beautiful about the mansion in which the film takes place. It also keeps with the theme of having an
older feeling cinema. Even though the
movie was filmed over sixty years ago, it has a slightly timeless feel to it.
The lighting of the piece is always hard
and there is usually a clear distinction between white and black instead of a
consistent mixture of gray. This is a
very classic type of lighting in American film noir. The character’s motives, contrary to the
lighting, are very gray. Both Norma and
Joe have things that they want from each other.
Joe wanted a place to hide is car and make enough money to catch up on
his bank payments. Norma wanted company
and sometime to help her correctly complete her script. And as they develop feelings for each other
those motives change and become even grayer.
The film keeps with the classic noir theme of using other people to
further yourself in the world. This
theme is also very prevalent in the actual world of Hollywood as well.
Norma Desmond, was played by Gloria
Swanson who like Norma, was an aged movie star trying to make a comeback. Both Desmond and Swanson were aged Hollywood
stars who were left in the dust once the invention of sound and voices in
cinema. “Gloria Swanson was coaxed out
of long retirement to portray the pathetic, forgotten film queen, Norma
Desmond, and now it can be said that it is inconceivable that anyone else might
have been considered for the role” (Pryor, Thomas M.) This is proven in one of the last scenes when
Norma descends down the stairs to her moment of fame. Swanson is able to give a real
performance because she fully understands the way Desmond is. The eccentricity of Norma Desmond makes her
craziness believable. The way she talks,
acts and even walks on camera is exactly the way you think an actor would move
around. She wasn’t trying to be anyone but
herself.
The final scene of her descending the
stairs shows that Norma has finally accomplished her dream, a dream of finally
being remembered. The entire movie she
is trying to make her come back and when all the cameras arrive after the
murder she is put in a trance. She is
not a murderer but a women beginning a scene.
Descending the stairs as a princess Norma feels as though she is finally
there, her dreams come to life. The
decision is like a moment frozen in time, all of the craziness of the reporter’s
stops as she has her final moment of glory.
Just like Wilder’s other film, Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard questions the actions and stability of the main
character. As deranged as Norma is, as a
viewer we still love her even though we know reason is with Joe Gilles, played
by William Holden. From the beginning
Norma is a strong weak character, which means she is strong in the way she
carries herself yet weak from her need to once again rise to stardom.
The protagonist is arguable throughout
the entire movie. Yes, Holden is billed
first, and he plays a character that we see in every scene although we have no
emotional attachment to him. It is Norma
who we love and think about. She is not
in every scene yet when she is absent “her presence is felt like the heavy
scent of tuberoses which hangs over the gloomy, musty splendor of
her memento-cluttered mansion in Beverly Hills.” (Pryor, Thomas M.) This ambiguity of protagonist adds to the
noir style of the movie. America is in a
state of uncertainty, as is the viewer that is trying to decide who they most
care for. We care more about Norma than
we do Gilles. As shocking as his death
is, nothing matters more than Norma’s final moment of fame. Classic American Noir has a main character that
eventually falls from grace. In this
case both Joe and Norma do yet in different ways. Joe is shot dead, a physical demise. Norma’s death is more symbolic. She finally gets the attention she wants
because she becomes so out of it. To
her, the reporters trying to figure out if she is a murderer are press for her
new movie. However, it is Gilles who does the voice over narration throughout
the movie that is another staple of noir cinema (Trowbridge, Katelin.)
This movie has more important things,
besides plot, that the viewer has to figure out on their own. There is no closure at the end of the
movie. It just ends with the viewer
wondering the fate of Norma while is strides towards the camera. This unsettling ending is characteristic of
noir cinema. The ending leaves the
viewer curious and not with the classic Hollywood happily ever after
ending. The movie would not have the
same lasting effect if it ended happily with Joe and Norma in love and making a
movie.
There is something remarkably loveable
about Max, the butler and first husband of Norma. When compared to the other characters of the
film, he is the most likeable because of his ability to care deeply for the
well being of Norma even after divorce.
He cares for Norma in a way that no one else does and in a way that Gilles
never would or could. Gilles was too
self-concerned to ever love someone the way Max loves Norma. It is a shame that there is no real true love
in this film. That is also popular in
American Film Noir. There is no true
love or happily ever after. The ending
is bleak with no sign of a positive, or even possible, future. It seems as if he is always around, similar
to the idea of the big brother always watching.
He is always one step ahead, which is crucial to the stability of Norma.
Noir Cinema is important to the
development of Hollywood. Billy Wilder
was an important director of that movement and Sunset Boulevard is a great example of noir cinema. Even on the cusp of the movement’s end, the
film still possesses the many traits that make cinema noir.
Works
Cited
Pryor, Thomas M. "Sunset
Boulevard." The New York Times 11 Aug. 1950: n. pag. Print.
Trowbridge, Katelin. "The War
between the Words and Images." Literature Film
Quarterly 30.4 (2002): 294-303. Academic Search
Complete. Web. 20 Feb. 2014. <http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=30ca33e7-b6d7-4366-9b52-0 c167bfcd2b9%40sessionmgr4005&vid=4&hid=4102&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3 QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=8948084>.
Sunday, March 9, 2014
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