Buster Keaton
Fred and Yasser’s Film Club: Week Seven, Part Two – ‘Sunset Boulevard’ (1950)
The Premise
Film fanatics and friends Fred Sullivan and Yasser Akram are on a mission 
to watch 25 of one another’s favourite movies. Each week they will watch one movie each and then get together to discuss what they have seen. No style of acting, direction or writing will be left unturned as two very different lists collide, ranging from silent comedy to martial arts movies.
Fred’s choice this week is a cynical look at the fleeting nature of fame. Did Yasser rate it or hate it? Find out below.
You can read the entires from previous week by checking out the archives on the left of the screen.
You can also access the lists so far by clicking here for Fred’s and here for Yasser’s.
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Fred: Okay Yasser. My choice this week was Billy Wilder‘s Hollywood drama ‘Sunset Boulevard‘. Had you heard of it, or anything about it, before you watched it?
Yasser: Yeah, it was on my ‘to-do’ list. It was something I was told to watch and I was inquisitive because of that famous last line.
FS: Well preempted! I was about to ask why it was on your ‘to-watch’ list.
YA: I’ve heard good things about it, and when people parody it, they do the melodramatic actress shit and reference it to ‘Sunset Boulevard’.
FS: Yes.
YA: She’s flippin’ bonkers, isn’t she?
FS: (laughs) Yes. I can confirm that Norma Desmond, played by Gloria Swanson, is bonkers.
YA: You would think she’s constantly off her tits, but she’s not on anything!
FS: She has known what it is to be the biggest and can’t handle that her crown has slipped. What did you make of Norma and Swanson’s portrayal?
YA: Norma was the first one to fly over the cuckoo’s nest. It’s her pride that causes her to leave the business she was in, the same pride that keeps her living in the past, and urges her to write a ridiculous script for her comeback. One of her first lines in the picture is dripping with pride and ego – “I am big. It’s the pictures that got small“. Yet she is an empty shell of the former self she’s trying so hard to keep up.
FS: That line really sums the whole character up. She was a huge silent star and when sound came along, as we know, a lot of careers were ruined very quickly, some of them due to this inability to adapt to what they saw as vulgar.
YA: I think you love that era. You’re infatuated with it.
FS: Well, I am a big lover of silent cinema. If ‘The Artist‘ gives any sort of boost to the popularity of silent films then it will have done something wonderful. My first love, cinema-wise, is Laurel & Hardy, who were the silent comedians who made the best transition to sound, so my love of films originates from movies of that period.
YA: Well ‘The Artist’ tells a similar story. Maybe Norma needed a small doggy.
FS: She had a chimp, but she fucked it to death.
YA: (silence) She didn’t, did she?
FS: (laughs)
‘Sunset Boulevard’
1950 – USA
Director: Billy Wilder
Starring: Gloria Swanson, William Holden, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olsen, Fred Clark
FS: Gloria Swanson – what did you make of her?
YA: Well, you know last week when we were discussing Faye Dunaway in ‘Chinatown‘? I said I hate over-the-top melodrama. Swanson plays it really well.
FS: Yes? You make me very happy.
YA: I hate that shit, but that is how her character is meant to be. It’s not one extreme to the next, it’s extreme all the time.
FS: She is always ‘on’, like there is always an audience.
YA: She is completely batshit.
FS: (laughs)
YA: There is something quite endearing about Max’s (Erich von Stroheim) loyalty to her, then it turned sickening when you discover his secret.
FS: Max – he is a bit of a tragic figure, as they all are really, but his loyalty is indeed touching. The lengths he goes to keep Norma in a sort of stasis, and then Joe (William Holden) gets tangled in the same web. On that subject, did you think Holden was the right man to play Joe Gillis?
YA: Yeah, he was a nobody. There was nothing exceptional about him. that made him right for the job.
FS: (laughs) That is the most back-handed compliment I’ve heard in a while. “You are nobody, that is why you’re so right for it”.
YA: He didn’t give an unforgettable performance. It wasn’t played poorly. It was fairly average – somewhat mundane – but that made it authentic.
FS: Right…
YA: I don’t know if that’s what he intended to do, but that’s how it felt he executed it.
FS: I think I see what you mean.
YA: Nancy Olsen‘s Schaefer was awesome. Finally, a strong, assured woman with her shit together. Rare in your movies. (laughs)
FS: (laughs) You were pretty happy with the standard of the acting then?
YA: Yeah, Cecil B. DeMille had a nice cameo as himself, as did others.
FS: The appearance of a few silent stars is another touch af authenticity. Did you like the way it was filmed.
YA: Other than ‘Sin City‘ and ‘The Spirit‘, I can’t remember a recent film noir. I love that type of shot and ‘Sunset Boulevard’ pulled it off very well. I also like the moody voiceover.
FS: It’s a brilliant example of how a voiceover should work. Not to describe everything, just to add a bit of flesh to the bones.
YA: You know what else was AWESOME? That 1931 Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8B Viggo Jensen Cabriolet D’Orsay. Oh my days!
FS: I assume that’s the car.
YA: No, it’s not the car, it’s THE car.
FS: (laughs) How about the script and the direction? Did you think they were well done?
YA: I didn’t give it much thought. It wasn’t awful enough for me to complain about it…
FS: (stunned silence)
YA: … and it wasn’t amazing enough for me to rave about it.
FS: Was it natural, then?
YA: Yeah, for that era it felt like it was the norm. The costume design was something to buzz about. Gillis’ evening garms were classy as fuck.
FS: Not quite up to your standard, from what I remember from the Christmas party.
YA: Arrrrrr… (laughs) what?
FS: (laughs) Tremendous. So the dreaded question… what didn’t you like?
YA: Hmmm… I didn’t like the way Schaefer slipped into love with Gillis. That was more of a tangent than I would have liked. There was chemistry between them and she was the sort of woman he needed, but when the romance emerged again in the final act of the movie I just blinked.
FS: Do you not think it was important to heighten the sense of how unreal and unhealthy his relationship with Norma was?
YA: I’d have liked it better if they kept flirting and his feeling had developed. Then he’d question his life.
FS: He’s always thinking that his relationship with Norma will be just a few weeks and then he can get back to reality, but he gets sucked in.
YA: Other than that it was good and, at times, great. Why do you love the film?
FS: Where to begin? First of all, Billy Wilder is one of my cinematic heroes and this is him at close to his peak. His films all have a streak of cynicism through them, but this is very dark.
YA: Go on…
FS: Secondly, as you touched on, it is about Hollywood. It’s nice to see a brutally honest view from the inside.
FS: Finally, and with great deference to William Holden, Gloria Swanson is mesmerising. I can’t think of a performance by an actress that I think is better… ever! Her way of acting is at first so alien, all exaggerated faces and big gestures but that is how silent stars acted.
YA: Okay, I’ll sum up now. I loved the style of the film, the era, the houses, cars… it was classy. Holden… the boy done good. He downplayed his role for the character’s essence. I liked the supporting characters too, especially Olsen until the romantic bullshit. Norma – the role was skillfully acted and the movie would have fallen apart if it was done differently. Swanson was faultless, but it was also annoying to watch sometimes. I was constantly thinking ‘Oh get over yourself, you dozey bint’. i wasn’t bored but it wasn’t as good as ‘Chinatown’ so it’s a high 7/10 from me.
FS: That’s good. Norma wouldn’t be happy though.
YA: Tough shit, lady.
FS: You’ll be floating face down in a swimming pool, narrating your own demise in no time, mate.
Next Week: Roman Polanski and Charlton Heston return to ‘Film Club’ as ‘The Pianist’ and ‘Touch of Evil’ get the once over.
Next Stop… Hollywood
Currently, at the cinema, you can catch the Goonies/E.T./ Close Encounters… throwback ‘Super 8′ (2011) which is not only highly entertaining but also includes one of the most spectacular train crashes I’ve ever seen in a film. In its honour, here is a short guide to all things locomotive in the movies. See what you think and if there are any train-related scenes or movies that you think should have been included let me know by clicking on ‘Leave Comment’ next to the title.
NB: Invariably there is going to be the odd spoiler among these clips. I’ve marked any that I consider to be particularly spoiling (endings or really key plot points) with a star and italics eg. ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’*. Please don’t cry if I’ve fucked up your ‘Love Film’ wish list – you have been warned.
1) ‘Super 8’ has perhaps usurped ‘Knowing‘ (2009) for the best CGI train crash, but as recently as 1993’s ‘The Fugitive‘ they were crashing them (or at least life-size models) for real. The crash in ‘The Train‘ (1965) involved three real locomotives, but in all honesty they don’t seem to be travelling that fast. The same can’t be said of those speeding trains clipping other vehicles in ‘Runaway Train‘ (1985) and ‘Unstoppable‘ (2010). Special effects of a different kind can be seen in 1952’s Best Picture Oscar winner ‘The Greatest Show on Earth‘, but even that model shot is nowhere near as bad as that in ‘The Cassandra Crossing‘* (1976) where the train and the weak bridge vie to be more obviously unreal. Other railway bridge collapses can be seen in ‘Around the World in 80 Days‘ (1956), ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai‘* (1957) and ‘Avalanche Express‘ (1979), though not all of the trains come a cropper and none are as devastating as the finale of ‘Silver Streak‘* (1976)
2) ‘Silver Streak’ was heavily influenced by the movies of Alfred Hitchcock. Key train sequences in the works of the master of suspense can be found in ‘The 39 Steps‘ (1935), ‘Shadow of a Doubt‘* (1943), ‘Strangers on a Train‘ (1951) and ‘North by Northwest‘ (1959). ‘The Lady Vanishes‘ (1938) takes place almost entirely on a cross-european train.
3) Another figure from film history who took regular rail journeys is James Bond, though given these near-identical sequences in ‘From Russia with Love‘ (1963), ‘Live and Let Die‘ (1973) and ‘The Spy Who Loved Me‘ (1977) you’d think he’d have taken alternative methods of transport. Even as late as ‘GoldenEye‘ (1995), 007 was still having bad experiences on locomotives.
4) The history of trains in films is as old as films themselves. On December 28th, 1895 the first known paying audience came together to watch short films by the Lumiere brothers. The first of these was ‘L’arrivee d’un train a La Ciotat‘. Equally important is ‘The Great Train Robbery‘ (1903) which was the first american movie to have a plot and a close-up. Silent melodramas made plenty of use of railways to endanger damsels in distress, but it was Buster Keaton who showed large steam locomotives could be used to help create something more sophisticated in his greatest production, ‘The General‘ (1926). The western genre in particular made great use of stories of railroad pioneers, though it was a train due to arrive at ‘High Noon‘ (1952) that may be best remembered given the film’s political significance. Other classics with significant train sequences include David Lean’s ‘Brief Encounter‘ (1945), Billy Wilder’s ‘Some Like it Hot‘ (1959) and ‘The Titfield Thunderbolt‘ (1953) from Britain’s famous Ealing Studios. Wallace and Gromit were involved in one of the most tense train chases in animated cinema in ‘The Wrong Trousers‘* (1993) and the relationship between railways and movie-making was taken to new heights with Shane Meadows’ ‘Somers Town‘ (2008).
5) Trains have been used as the setting for musical numbers on a number of occasions. ‘42nd Street‘ (1933) and ‘The Music Man‘ (1962) are two notable examples and it was on board the circus train in ‘At the Circus‘ (1939) where Groucho Marx sung of ‘Lydia the Tattooed Lady’. The trains in ‘Dumbo‘ (1941) and ‘The Harvey Girls‘ (1946) even have songs sung about them. However, my favourite music to accompany a cinematic train comes in the 1974 adaptation of Agatha Christie’s ‘Murder on the Orient Express‘.
6) As we’ve seen, some great films have featured rail travel for all sorts of reasons, but the best film ever to feature a train might just be this little gem from 1936. With music by Benjamin Britten and poetry by W.H. Auden, I give you ‘Night Mail‘.
Look on My Works 