On the Intersection of Theme and Structure in Sunset Boulevard Anonymous College

Billy Wilder’s 1950 film Sunset Boulevard--today an acclaimed staple of the noir genre--chronicles the demise of screenwriter and narrator Joe Gillis at the hand of Norma Desmond, a silent film has-been clinging desperately to Hollywood relevance. Although she forges quite a complex relationship with Joe--first as his employer, then his breadwinner, then lover, then killer--perhaps the most important function that Norma fulfills is a symbolic one: she represents the outdated, vain, and purely visual side of an audiovisual film. Opposite her is Joe’s other, much younger suitress Betty, who gave up acting for writing and who of course personifies the relatively recent auditory or verbal aspect of film. The dynamic among the three, then, transcends the hackneyed love triangle trope and presents a much newer (and somewhat meta) issue beneath the surface: in an era of talkies, does cinematography or sound dominate? Turning to the structure of Sunset Boulevard itself--which relies heavily on Joe’s internal nondiegetic sound--and analyzing that structure in conjunction with a narrative that vilifies the visually-obsessed Norma Desmond, viewers are ultimately left inclined toward the latter.

Throughout the course of the film, not only...