"All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up.”
This quote—the last line of the film, and by far its most famous—cements Norma’s full engrossment in a delusional state of mind and final descent into insanity. While she did have some loose grasp on reality in previous scenes, this quote signals the complete vanishing of any remaining glimmer of self-awareness. Norma literally reverts back to the mindset from the glory days of her past, even mistaking Max for the director Cecil B. DeMille. Her words illuminate the intrinsic, all-encompassing evolution of her fantasy world.
"You are, are you? Writing words, words, more words! Well, you’ll make a rope of words and strangle this business! With a microphone there to catch the last gurgles, and Technicolor to photograph the red, swollen tongues?"
According to Norma, the emphasis on words over images crippled the motion picture. Norma addresses this diatribe to Joe—a screenwriter—who she initially views as the manifestation of Hollywood’s downfall. While Norma points to the the presence of sound, dialogue, and Technicolor as detrimental to the artistry of film, this dismissal is disingenuous. Norma is more worried about her own nonexistent stardom than the state of film itself, using the technological advancements of the medium to account for her own obsolescence. She refuses to confront her repressed feelings of inferiority and irrelevance; blaming the medium and living in denial is remarkably less straining.
"The poor dope—he always wanted a pool. Well, in the end, he got himself a pool, only the price turned out to be a little high."
Here, Joe points out the irony of his death and reveals via voiceover that the dead man floating at the top of the pool—himself—always wanted a pool. Swimming pools were an iconic image of early Hollywood glamour and an appropriate metaphor for Joe’s dreams of becoming a successful screenwriter upon moving to Hollywood. As noted by this comment, the price for Joe’s “pool”—fame and fulfillment—were much too high, and a doomed Joe becomes drowned in them. Like many members of the industry, Hollywood never offers Joe a place to successfully pursue his ambitions, but rather leads him to frustration, a lackluster career, exposure to insanity, and death.
“We had faces!”
Throughout the film, Norma expresses pride about silent film, in particular its stars and style of acting. Often featuring dramatic gestures and movements, silent film acting relies more on acting with the face to convey meaning than contemporary talkie films, which depend on dialogue. Norma believes the introduction of dialogue and sound destroyed the power of the face in films. This quote also applies to her personal career decline: as a young star, she was taught that her face was the essential attribute of her career and self-worth by extension. Now that she has aged and her face has been deemed unfitting for lead roles, Norma has little choice other than to clutch onto the youthful face that made her famous; without her superficial self-image, her life is completely meaningless. She clings onto her own face, filling her house with hundreds old photographs of herself and privately screening her older films. Like a museum, these items document her formerly glorious career, as they represent a bygone era where the film industry once had a use for Norma’s face.
"Audiences don't know somebody sits down and writes a picture; they think the actors make it up as they go along."
Here, Joe expresses his frustration with audiences’ lack of awareness concerning the filmmaking process. According to him, the role of the screenwriter is undervalued: though the writer is usually unknown to general audiences, he provides the blueprint for every film. Screenwriters are significantly less celebrated than directors and actors, which underlines Joe’s frustration. He previously dreamed of achieving fame with his career, but this is unattainable as a screenwriter. Even when scripts are adapted into popular films, the screenwriters remain anonymous shadows subservient to the real “faces” of the film: the actors.
"I am big, it’s the pictures that got small."
Norma makes this dramatic declaration when she first meets Joe, and it is emblematic of her entire persona. It hints at her own delusions: still viewing herself as a star, she doesn’t blame her age or herself for her career stagnation, but rather the contemporary film industry, which she views as unworthy of her stardom. Gloria Swanson’s casting as Norma adds a certain resonance to this famous line. Like Norma, Swanson’s career diminished after the advent of sound film, and both worked for Paramount. Wilder admitted that “she [Swanson] had already been abandoned, she was a death knell...she had lost a lot of money on the Paramount lot. But I insisted on her.” While this quote demonstrates Norma’s self-absorbed illusions, it also illuminates how contemporary film destroyed the careers of many once-beloved silent actors, Swanson included.
“Hog-Eye, turn that light back where it belongs.”
After Hog-Eye shines the spotlight on Norma and a crowd excitedly forms around her, DeMille commands him to take the spotlight off of her. This quote encapsulates Norma’s star status and her attempt to reprise her fame, which is ultimately doomed at the hands of the misogynistic film industry. While he treats her with a sincere kindness, DeMille refuses to grant Norma a comeback and direct her Salome script. It is DeMille and the powerful male studio executives who have the sole power to decide where the light “belongs”—who deserves to be a star.
“You know, this floor used to be wood but I had it changed. Valentino said there’s nothing like tile for the tango.”
Norma shares this with Joe when convincing him to dance with her on New Year’s Eve. This quote functions as one of Sunset Boulevard's several self-referential allusions to real Hollywood figures. In this case it’s referencing Rudolph Valentino, an iconic silent film actor known as the first “Latin lover.” It’s not entirely impossible that Valentino actually made a comment like this—not to Norma, but to Gloria Swanson. They starred in Beyond the Rocks (1922) together, where they danced a tango. The film's allusions effectively evoke a powerful realism and blurs the lines between art and life, and this quote exhibits Norma’s frequent romanticizing of the past. Instead of living her life in the present, Norma insistently reminds Joe of the grandeur of her heyday; remaining firmly rooted to her glorious past is much more preferable to confronting her lonely, forgotten existence.
"That is my job. It has been for a long time. You must understand I discovered her when she was eighteen. I made her a star. I cannot let her be destroyed."
Feeding her illusions and forging fanmail, Max views himself as Norma’s protector, a preserver of her lost fame. However, while he goes to fierce lengths to keep Norma blissfully unaware of the truth to avoid her chances of suicide, his lies provoke her evolution into insanity. This quote points to the contradictory nature of Max: his motivations are purely out of love and devotion for Norma, but they end up worsening her condition and endangering herself and Joe.
"I'll fill up the pool for you!"
Norma says this comment to Joe while offering her overblown plans for the New Year, which additionally include opening her house in Malibu and sailing to Hawaii with Joe. This quote indicates Norma’s growing infatuation with Joe, but it also foreshadows his death, which creates a dismal dramatic irony. The audience knows the refilled pool is where Joe’s corpse will float once the police and press arrive to investigate his murder, but Joe is obviously unaware of his future at this point. Norma declares her intentions to further lavish him with luxurious items and vacations with a keen enthusiasm, but little does she or Joe know that the refilled pool will become the quintessential image of Joe’s tragic death.
