Joaquim da Silva Fontes, Significação e Estabilidade do Género no ...

Sunset Boulevard (1950) takes us on a lurid journey through the decay and
dementia surrounding an aged silent film star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), and tells
the story of young screenwriter, Joe Gillis (William Holden) who stumbles into her web.
The film opens with a scene from Norma’s palatial mansion and the swimming pool (in
which we see Gillis’s dead body floating, face down with his eyes open) which set the
scene for the whole film (fig. 53 above). This particular image still remains a source of
inspiration in cinema from a technical viewpoint and testifies to the director’s greatness.
Wilder uses an unsettling low-angle shot, the “fish’s eye” shot of Joe, taken from
underwater. At that time, this visual perspective was incredibly difficult to be achieved and
John F. Seitz (director of photography) and his team considered it would not be viable to
balance the light perfectly in and around the pool itself. The same problem was found
regarding the surface of the water which would operate as a mirror and obscure the people
above it. They eventually managed to film the scene by placing a mirror on the bottom of
the pool and filming the protagonist’s reflection from above with the policemen standing
around the swimming-pool and forming a backdrop.
Just like Double Indemnity, the film plays around the protagonist’s voiceover
narration, sometimes in a cynical style, at others in ironic amusement, and the story flashes
back to six months earlier with the depressed Joe, who feels completely dejected about not
being able to sell any of his scripts. Sunset Boulevard emphasises the boundaries that exist
between reality and dream. The element of dream already gives a noir tone to the whole
film, with the camerawork helping to accentuate the concluding images of a delirious
Norma Desmond descending the marble staircase, and announcing maniacally to the
camera (and Mr. De Mille) that she is ready for her close-up (fig. 54):
I can’t go on with this scene! I’m too happy! Mr. De Mille, do you mind if I say a
few words? Thank you. I just want to tell you how happy I am to be back in the
studio making a picture again! You don’t know how much I’ve missed all of you.
And I promise you, I’ll never desert you again because Salome will make another
picture, and another picture. You see, this is my life. It always will be! (In a
whisper) There’s nothing else – just us- and the cameras – and those wonderful
people out there in the dark. All right, Mr De Mille, I’m ready for my close-up.
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