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Core ideas (critiquing hollywood)

• Sunset Boulevard functions as a critique of Hollywood as an industry that manufactures artificial identities, exploits ambition, and discards individuals once they lose profitability.

• Wilder exposes how Hollywood confuses fame with self-worth, conditioning individuals to believe their value exists only through public validation.

• Norma Desmond is not constructed as a villain, but as a symptom of Hollywood’s systemic cruelty and emotional negligence.

• Her assertion that “I am big. It’s the pictures that got small” reveals how the industry deflects responsibility by framing personal collapse as individual failure rather than institutional abandonment.

• Through Norma’s psychological deterioration, Wilder suggests that Hollywood creates identities it cannot sustain, then refuses accountability for the damage left behind.

Narrative Structure + Framing

• Joe Gillis narrates Sunset Boulevard from beyond the grave, immediately signalling the inevitable tragic outcome of the story and framing the audience’s focus on why events occur rather than what occurs.

• By opening the narrative with Joe’s death, the film removes suspense surrounding plot outcomes and instead emphasises moral inevitability, reinforcing the idea that Hollywood is a closed system in which economic dependence and moral complicity inevitably lead to destruction.

• Although he is an unreliable narrator, his retrospective perspective allows him to critically observe the corruption of Hollywood, Norma’s delusion, and his own moral compromise, as he reflects, “I was her possession” and “I was earning more than I ever dreamed of, and hating every minute of it.”

• Joe Gillis’ line, “It’s hard to keep the pool from getting polluted when the water’s that stagnant,” metaphorically critiques Hollywood as a corrupt and stagnant system that inevitably forces those within it to compromise their morals.

• While Joe appears trustworthy, he minimises his responsibility by presenting himself as trapped by circumstance rather than as someone who actively chose comfort, using humour and cynicism to soften the perception of his guilt.

• This demonstrates that awareness of corruption does not prevent downfall, and that complicity and reliance on others for survival make tragic outcomes unavoidable.

Norma as a construct not just a character (delusion and fame)

• Norma Desmond functions as a construct as well as a character, representing the destructive nature of Hollywood’s obsession with fame.

• As a former silent film star, she is emotionally frozen in the past and psychologically dependent on external validation.

• Her sense of identity is inseparable from her fame, exemplified when she declares, “No one ever leaves a star.”

• In her mind, reality itself must be wrong rather than her self-image, as she cannot imagine herself becoming irrelevant.

• She actively reshapes reality through fan letters from Max, Paramount’s call about her car, and Joe’s presence, reinforcing her delusion.

• Norma’s condition is not simply madness; Hollywood teaches her that her value is derived from audience approval, which she received as a young actress.

• When the industry abandons her, she is unable to adapt and fractures, demonstrating that her delusion is the logical outcome of a system that equates identity with fame.

The mansion as a metaphor with film techniques

• The mansion in Sunset Boulevard functions as a visual metaphor for Norma Desmond’s mental state and her relationship with Hollywood.

• Its darkness mirrors her inability to move forward, her retreat from reality, and her separation from the modern world.

• The decaying condition of the mansion reflects the expiration of her fame, which she clings to desperately, and physically embodies the collapse of the illusions that dominate both her life and her mind.

• The mansion is frozen in time, filled with silent film memorabilia and old portraits of Norma, illustrating how her physical environment forces her to live mentally in the silent film era and prevents her from adapting to change.

• Film techniques reinforce this symbolism: low-key lighting, with deep shadows and strong contrasts, dominates the interior, particularly around Norma’s face and the grand staircases, creating a gloomy, oppressive mood that suggests secrecy and psychological instability.

• Heavy shadows distort faces and create a sense of menace, making Norma appear ghost-like, simultaneously present and absent, like a relic of the past.

• The mansion’s baroque mise-en-scène, with its overdecorated, excessive, and theatrical elements, such as the massive staircase, heavy drapes, grand piano, and portraits, overwhelms the frame and suffocates the viewer, visually representing Norma’s inflated self-image and exaggerated sense of past grandeur.

• This excessive, tomb-like atmosphere suggests that fame inevitably leads to stagnation, and that the past, when clung to obsessively, becomes a psychological prison.

Joe gillis - artistic ambition vs economic survival

• Joe Gillis represents the modern creative navigating Hollywood, illustrating the tension between artistic ambition and economic survival.

• As a screenwriter, he is talented but unable to secure recognition or financial stability through merit alone, showing how the industry often rewards commercial appeal over creativity.

• His eventual reliance on Norma Desmond’s wealth demonstrates how economic pressures can force artists to compromise their integrity and moral values, prioritising comfort and security over independence or ethical choices.

• Through Joe, Sunset Boulevard critiques Hollywood as a system that commodifies art, making survival dependent on exploitation, compromise, and the manipulation of others rather than purely on talent or hard work.

the pool as a symbol

• In Sunset Boulevard, the in-ground pool acts as a symbol of both Hollywood’s glamour and the dangers that come with pursuing wealth and status.

• During the era, such pools were seen as markers of luxury, closely associated with the lifestyles of movie stars and the elite.

• Joe Gillis links the pool to personal ambition and desire when he reflects that he was “a poor dope” who “always wanted a pool,” showing it represents his longing for comfort and success.

• Yet the pool ultimately becomes the place of his death, after he cannot free himself from Norma Desmond’s control, highlighting how the pursuit of status and entanglement with Hollywood’s elite can have fatal consequences.

• In this way, the pool symbolises the seductive yet destructive power of fame and material desire.