Film Breakdowns - Sunset Boulevard (1950)

Film Breakdowns - Sunset Boulevard (1950)

To become the best, we have to learn from the best.

"I'm ready for my close-up." 

Sunset Boulevard is a story about a writer who, through a series of money issues and a stroke of luck finds himself living in the home of a washed up movie star and her dangerous possessiveness over him. 

Let's begin breaking down my favourite frames from the film that encapsulate what I think are some of the pivotal points of importance in the story. 

Let's get started!

Our presumed hero is floating face down in a pool and has been drowned by persons unknown. A voice over starts off with some exposition which usually would be boring but in this case we are so fixated on how did this happen, that it adds to the mystery. How can a dead man reminisces? Is he really dead? Wait and see!

Shot through an opening, it looks like the world is closing in on this struggling writer. His car is a symbol of his hopes and stature in his own world. He is struggling to pay the bills and is starting to reach the end of his bank account. The frame and the world he is in is crushing him and is about to take everything from him.

The frames within frames really encapsulate the sense of isolation throughout this movie as he always seems in a tight situation but now, he is literally in a tight situation. He is being clamped by the door and he is shrinking in the frame. Something has to happen, his life will be turned upside down and a challenge will be presented. 

The leading lady in the film in both reality and character makes her debut as a queen upon her balcony addressing the lowly peasants of the kingdom. Without knowing the story, her body language and the composition of the shot tell you exactly who she is. A washed up has-been who thinks the world should kneel at their feet. 

The long perspective coupled with the caged doorway shows us the sense of captivity this house has for the writer. This is now his prison and he is walking into the cave of despair and regret. He is literally walking into his challenge. The interesting use of symmetry makes me think he will have to obey strict rules and forced to conform.

While she isn't even in the shot, she is still watching him. She is always watching him. She has such a hold over him and he is so restricted in his lack of freedom that she is this symbol for oppression for him. She represents the sacrifices and demands of the Hollywood life that sucks out your soul and leaves you a husk of a person.

She is literally under the magnifying glass. Seen by everyone with ruthless precision. This is one of the sadder moments in the film when you realise that the Hollywood life has done this to her. She has been corrupted and shaped into this figure of desperation and obsession by the demands of a star. We see her humanity for the first time. 

Getting in late when you've gone out to meet with another woman is never easy, especially when the woman you're returning to is keeping you in her own personal prison. The cage of the gates and the light rays cast combined with the darkness just show a real sense of foreboding over the coming storm he will find himself in. 

Sunset Boulevard is a classic. It is one of those movie that everyone can quote without knowing where what they are saying came from. Not your typical film noir in that the central mystery isn't about a murder, the woman can't hardly be called a femme fatal as she doesn't lie and cheat the hero in a shady backstory. Film noir or not, it's worth a watch. Are you ready for your close-up?