Sunset Boulevard

Question 1

Hollywood description (ideological)

Answer 1

Hollywood is part of the ideological apparatus of the modern capitalist state

Question 2

Hollywood description (star system)

Answer 2

Sunset Boulevard makes the case that the star system has something cruel and inhumane at its center

Question 3

Hollywood description (mass production)

Answer 3

…organised according to industrial standards of mass production

Question 4

Hollywood description (dream factory)

Answer 4

Wilder systematically dismantles notions that Hollywood is a dream factory

Question 5

Hollywood description (sustained)

Answer 5

While ostensibly a depiction of the crime of a deluded individual, the film, on closer analysis, offers a sustained critique of…

Question 6

Hollywood description (culture)

Answer 6

…culture of stardom and celebrity…

Question 7

Hollywood description (scandal)

Answer 7

perverse fascination with scandal

Question 8

Hollywood description (manufactured)

Answer 8

…a society that has become mystified by the manufactured - a highly profitable - fantasies of Hollywood…

Question 9

Hollywood description (pitilessly)

Answer 9

…carefully manufactures and then pitilessly abandons

Question 10

Hollywood description (exploits)

Answer 10

… ruthlessly exploits youth and beauty

Question 11

Hollywood description (reduce creativity)

Answer 11

a system that seeks to reduce creativity to restrictive, predictable and profitable formulas

Question 12

Hollywood description (examination)

Answer 12

an unflinching examination of

Question 13

Hollywood description (female stars)

Answer 13

Sunset boulevard also comments directly on the exploitation of female stars for their beauty, a finite resource in each individual female star, but one that merely needs to be replaced when the time comes

Question 14

Hollywood description (flourish)

Answer 14

it is away from the systems of control that real creativity can flourish

Question 15

Hollywood description (escapist)

Answer 15

escapist entertainment for people stuck in the illusion that the world is unchangeable

Question 16

Hollywood description (creative artefacts)

Answer 16

Wilder begins the film by revealing that films are not merely innocent, creative artefacts but products of Hollywood, a capitalist business that creates commodities to be consumed by audiences for a profit

Question 17

Hollywood description (Brechtian fashion)

Answer 17

In Brechtian fashion, Wilder dismantles the traditionally realist film set and its illusions of reality. Thus, the viewer no longer a passive consumer of “reality”, but rather one positioned to critique…

Question 18

Hollywood description (capitalism’s depredations)

Answer 18

More than a critique of individuals, or even Hollywood, Sunset Boulevard is a critique if capitalism’s depredations on art, the ways in which it…

Question 19

Norma description (archaic figure)

Answer 19

Norma is rendered an archaic figure from the past because she has lost the precious commodity that once made her a female star - feminine youth and beauty

Question 20

Norma description (mise en scene)

Answer 20

… the creation of a dark and claustrophobic mise en scene

Question 21

Norma description (grotesque)

Answer 21

Norma’s grotesque fascination with her ageless self-image

Question 22

Norma’s mansion description (palazzo)

Answer 22

Wilder depicts Norma’s palazzo as a grotesque world in which time has seemingly been arrested…

Question 23

Norma description (staring back…)

Answer 23

staring back at Norma is not so much an image of her former youthful self, but that of a highly manufactured celebrity, a fantastical product of an industry that manufactures illusions to conceal its exploitative machines

Question 24

Norma description (Joe’s departure…)

Answer 24

Joe’s departure awakens Norma to her utter abandonment - by fans, by the industry

Question 25

Norma description (max and demille)

Answer 25

Both DeMille and Max comment on the very young age in which Norma was discovered; she is variously referred to as just a girl when she rose to stardom. The image of Gloria Swanson in Queen Kelly that Norma and Joe watch together is one of radiant youthfulness and beauty. The star system is viewed in Sunset Boulevard as a system for exploiting such youth and beauty, qualities which Norma clearly possessed to a rare extent and which directors such as Max and DeMille identified as the precious material for their films. Max observes ‘she was just sixteen when I discovered her’ the idea of star’s discovery comparable to the discovery of precious metal. The cruelty of this system is revealed in the film as one that is based on an elaborate deception.

Question 26

Joe description (voiceover)

Answer 26

Joe’s voiceover amounts to a confession of both his victimisation and guilt from prostituting himself to Norma and to Hollywood. Death, therefore, is like a penance.

Question 27

Joe description (car)

Answer 27

The loss of Joe’s car signals the loss of his independence. He is then emasculated as he is driven around by Norma

Question 28

Joe description (capitalistic ideology)

Answer 28

The capitalistic ideology which underpins Hollywood is, somewhat paradoxically, embodied in Joe - the very man in which this ideology entraps

Question 29

Joe description (opening scene)

Answer 29

The opening scene of the film is an attack on the romantic ideology of the inspired individual artist, with Wilder presenting Joe as…

Question 30

Joe description (end of film)

Answer 30

At the end of the film, Joe’s language reflects that of a film pitch, a brief and predictable synopsis. He cant’ escape the Hollywood scene. He sees life and relationships as predictable as modern film, the commodities of Hollywood.

Question 31

Joe description (fantasy)

Answer 31

Descending into the fantasy world of theatre, Joe tells Betty to ‘look for the exit’

Question 32

Joe description (cynical opportunism)

Answer 32

…conforms to the cynical opportunism of those around him…

Question 33

film technique description (pace)

Answer 33

…frenetic pace of…

Question 34

film technique description (visual aesthetic)

Answer 34

Wilder employs a visual aesthetic that reveals the crude psychic reality that lies beneath the carefully manufactured face of Hollywood sophistication and glamour

Question 35

film technique description (spectacle)

Answer 35

…an atmosphere of theatricality, artifice, performance and surreal spectacle

Question 36

film technique description (familiar conventions)

Answer 36

Wilder plays with familiar conventions of film noir, presenting us from the outset of the film with a murdered man who is also the text’s narrator. Thus, when Joe says that he will ‘give the whole truth,’ we suspect that the object of his investigation is not merely the identity of the murderer, but rather, the broader social and psychological of modernity

Question 37

film technique description (linguistic and visual)

Answer 37

The film’s language - both linguistic and visual - is replete with industrial language, evoking imagery of machine-like ‘grinding’, pervasive ennui, and the general degradation of human feeling