16-08-10

Watched Sunset Boulevard. Tremendous.
Things I liked - opening shot - comparing Hollywood to a 'murder scene'. The emotional turnaround by the end is big enough to make you forget, for it to be a surprise again.
Sober narration - infused with a wry cynicism.
The main character is the 'everyman', an archetype that the audience can get hooked on - financial difficulty being a very strong point of identification - even for just 300 bucks. Relief when he turns up at Norma Desmond's house.
Sheldrake and his 'set of ulcers' - no one gets away clean. Believable.
Honesty of the female lead - again an archetype of the optimism of the young that Hollywood destroys.
Use of contemporary events to increase realism ('naked and the dead', 'gone with the wind'.
Narration continues at a steady pace whilst the plot thickens and plays on emotional involvement.
Use of mystery and the unexplained - melodramatic lead performance. Subtle musical embellishment and cinematography - wide open sets.
Gradual building up of subtext and tension.
The use of the 'new years scene' to provide a relative contrast on 'reality'
Sly humour and knowingness that this is a reflection upon the grand culmination of all of Western civilization and it's ultimate failure and futility - the descent into radical honesty.
The horror organ is great - plus the 'waxworks' and the pool and the monkey and the Chaplin impression with the out of tune piano, the lighting during Max's revelation - very eerie.
Exactly like Miss Havisham.
This film is totally fat free - everything leads into everything else. It all follows the emotional beats that are set up and is utterly relevant, right up until the point where it's spelt out. The actors know this, and play it just the right side of melodrama. The subtle inferring of Joe whoring out his services never has to be shown like it is nowadays, because it's all about the gaping hole in these people's characters and their desperate attempts to plug the hole before they go down with the ship.