themes (SAC 1)

Question 1

Reality and Illusion

Answer 1

• Sunset Boulevard blurs the distinctions between fantasy and reality.
• Norma can no longer detach herself from her former onscreen persona
• She has fooled herself into believing she is still a massively adored star
• Norma’s delusions have become so entrenched that she refuses to believe the truth from Joe and soon murders him.

Question 2

Death

Answer 2

• Joe’s body floating in the pool (Immediately introduces audience that something is wrong)
• Death of the chimp (Opens a role for Norma’s companion which Joe takes over)
• Norma has had many attempts at suicide
• Normas career is dead (She can’t go back and make films again, She belongs to the past)

Question 3

Love

Answer 3

• Wilder suggests that love is unattainable in the soul crushing world that is Hollywood.

JOE AND NORMA
- She confesses her love for Joe throughout the film
- Although this relationship benefits him it is not what he wants
- He abandons the party without hesitation (shows his inability to distance himself from Norma)

MAX AND NORMA
- Max loves Norma so much that he dutifully abandons his filmmaking career
- He becomes her butler
- His actions help to convince the audience that there is something worth loving in Norma.

Question 4

Lies and Deception

Answer 4

• Deception affects the exterior relationships of these characters, as well as their internal selves.
• Max deceiving Norma - forging her fan mail to feed her delusions.
• She uses tactics (gifts, suicide attempts) to make him feel guilty, he feels guilty and becomes Norma’s lover built on the deception
• Demille talks to Norma like she is still famous, and he will help direct her script even though he won’t, and that her script is good
• Joe deceives Betty into thinking he lives a normal, un-extraordinary life. (By hiding the information about his relationship with Norma)
• Norma also deceives herself that her grand re-entrance into film is inevitable.

Question 5

Hollywood

Answer 5

• The word “Sunset” in the title represents the downwards trajectory (the sun starts shining high in the sky and then eventually goes down) (Norma and Max’s career, they start as famous movie star and director and then Norma drastically falls out of fame and Max follows)
• The title shown in the gutter at the start of the film (dark, dirty, disgusting representing the dark and untidy side of Hollywood)