Sunset Boulevard

Watched for school in the ACMI Theatre, Fed Square. Not often where I appreciate a film watched for school this much but for Billy Wilder I’ll make an exception. The blurred, deluded reality of the Hollywood industry in the awakenings of “The American Dream”, purposefully misportrayed by Wilder through this distorted, dream-like fantasy, in revealing not the ‘truth’ but the disillusion between the lies. Its parallels with Lynch’s white picket fences incessantly came to mind. This suburban, idyllic facade, masking the dark, ominous existence beneath the surface, which Wilder depicts exceptionally well through this 50’s cynically stylised noir genre. Looking back at the parallels made by Lynch with Sunset Boulevard through Mulholland Drive, it pieces together much more clearly Lynch’s directorial intentions, in Norma and Diane’s retreating into a dream world of their own making, both women, unable to cope with reality. Wilder’s utilisation of set piece design was magnificent, portraying Norma as a prisoner to her ambitions in her inescapable mansion of false reality. Wilder’s unique witty style came to fruition, in removing all locks from the doors in the house, metaphorically symbolising Norma’s deluded reality as the real locks, trapping her from escaping into the harsh reality outside. Again, Lynch drawing inspiration from this in Mulholland Drive was extremely eminent, with Diane’s ambitions surfacing the deluded reality around her and obstructing her from fleeing from it. William Holden was exceptional as usual.