...melodramatic traits in Sunset Boulevard “All right Mr. Demille, I am ready for my close up.” Norma Desmond acts out the words as she moves down the stairs, hypnotized by the gorging lights, camera sets and a room full of audience, towards the view. Parallel cuts of a broken Max, her butler and the tearful gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, the organ playing the finishing score in the background as the larger than life image of Norma Desmond dramatically dissolves into white. A scene so aptly melodramatic as the silent era empress slowly descends into reality of cameras, sets and popularity once again for some kind of finality as Max, her faithful butler prepares her onslaught , reminding the scene definition once again for her (as the presence of room full of audience in her deserted mansion for twenty years has quite overwhelmed her). The 1950 Billy Wilder film, “Sunset Boulevard” starring William Holden as Joe Gillis and Gloria Swanson as the silent film actress Norma Desmond is a classic amalgam of Gothic Melodrama and Film Noir. The film starts off with jolt, initially a track shot of the sunset boulevard road as the police rush towards the crime scene followed by the fishing out of a bullet ridden body from the swimming pool. The pilot scene leads the audience as to expect a murder mystery Film Noir number but ultimately emerges as a melodramatic form. The over expressive, tragicomic Norma Desmond against a mere...
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...Film Noir and Romance: It’s No Fairy Tale Baby Film Noir may not seem like a very romantic subject considering how many of the couples in the films are eventually lead into their death or a prison term. There are some romantic aspects to these type of cinema. Even if a couple does have a tragic end, there is always some sort of romance in the middle. It could be lust or love, but it is usually there. While all Film Noir never ends as fairy tale, an audience can look at most of the films and see how love, or lust, can drive people to do despicable acts of crime. Before describing how romance and the many varying types of love appear in Film Noir, it is important to understand the different gender roles each character plays. The male protagonist paired with a femme fatale is the usual leading roles in a Film Noir, but that isn’t a hard set rule. Men can play the male victim, damaged men, a private eye, a psychopath, or a homme fatal, (Spicer 85). Women can also play a variety of roles such as the nurturer, the good-bad girl, the female victim, or a femme fatale, (Spicer 90). Male victims can be a protagonist who just gets trapped in the web of lies weaved by a beautiful woman, a femme fatale. The damaged man is usually a veteran who has a hard time adjusting to society after war or a police officer who loses control. After seeing so much violence it is hard for some men to see the world as a happy place. These men are usually paired with a nurturing female character. A private...
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