As we watched Sunset Boulevard I stayed confused about what genre of movie I was watching. My brain kept sending me into horror movie mode. The lighting, camera angles, and the flawless performance of Norma were all perfectly molded together into quite the creepy film. The dark shadowy mansion along with the intriguing role of the servant Max gave the film a very dark and mysterious tone. I was shocked when Max revealed himself as Norma's first husband. (even though I knew he was interested in her) Sunset Boulevard is one dark creepy movie.
Like many other students, I was puzzled at first by Joe's motives at the end of the film. Why did he basically tell Schaffer to get lost? Why did he swear loyalty to Norma? Why did he make himself out to be, well, the coward that he was? As all of these things processed in my brain, I came to the opinion that Joe was doing it for the good of everyone. He needed to get out of the house and be his own man. He had to let Schaffer go because of his loyalty to Artie and because of her innocence. He had to tell Norma that her life is a total lie and that the movie was never going to happen. Although it drove her to murder and insanity, the deed had been done.
Certainly, there will be several opposing views to mine about Joe's motives and about his success in accomplishing his goals in that whole sequence. The great thing about movies (especially this one) is that two different people can gather two totally different things from the same sequence of events. One of the things that make great movies great is their ability to be interpreted by the viewer. One example I can think of is the movie Deja Vu with Denzel Washington. The ending of Deja Vu is very interesting. It ends in somewhat of the same way. Does Denzel Washington remember saving the girls life? Does he remember the time travel and what happened in his parallel life? There are little clues at the very end of the movie. But they are definitely up to viewer interpretation.
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If the film had been in color, I wonder if it would have still seemed as creepy. I agree that at times Joe seemed a coward (his surrender to Norma's relationship pressures!) but in the end I thought he was brave to tell Norma how he really felt about her ignorance, and to tell Betty to leave and do the right thing with Artie.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the film would have the same feel at all if it were in color. So much of the creepiness and the suspense comes from the use of shadows and light, and you lose that when you add color to the equation. I've seen B&W Hitchcock films that were colorized, and they aren't as good as the original.
ReplyDeleteGood examples! Not all films leave as much up to interpretation or feature ambiguous motives. Can you think of genres or stories where that wouldn't be an asset?
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