Sunset Boulevard Film Noir

Sunset Boulevard is a classic black comedy/drama, the most acclaimed, but darkest film noir story about Hollywood and what happens behind the scenes written by Billy Wilder. It shows the true deceitfulness, emptiness, the price of fame, greed, narcissism, and ambition it really takes to be an actor or actress during the 1950’s in Hollywood. Norma Desmond was one of the main characters and she showed viewers how easily they can perceive their characters on screen for their real life and get them twisted. In the 1950’s fans of the film wanted the actors to be just as perfect as they appeared on screen. The classic, tragic film was highly regarded at its time, honored with eleven Academy Award nominations and the recipient of three Oscars: Best

Sunset Boulevard used a lot of high-contract lighting which also known as low key lighting, for example, in Norma’s house, the lighting are low key and because of this lighting, it creates dark shadows which is also one of the characteristics of film noir (Film Noir, 2013). This helps the director depict the dark side of fame to viewers, along with the help of the characters, Norma and Joe. Another example of how lighting sets the mood is the living room where Norma is dancing to entertain Joe, the bedroom of Norma and Joe, the ballroom where Norma is dancing with Joe during the New Year’s Eve and the place where Norma writes her script. All of these spaces are dimly-lit and there are a lot of items in these rooms, showing that their lives are chaotic and the characters can get lost in their settings. The film also contains some German-expressionistic elements such as the oblique vertical and horizontal line, for example in Norma’s house; viewers can see a lot of lines which are in oblique vertical and horizontal line (Film Noir, 2013). There is also the representation of mise-en-scene in the movie, Norma has a way of pretending and interpreting certain items and actions into imaginary actions and