From my perspective, Sunset Boulevard is a formalism which exaggerates or even forges facts to render reality subjectively. As a famous director in last century Hollywood, Billy Wilder showed to the audience his understanding and perception about the tragedy of old-fashioned actresses from his own experience. As professor Drew Casper mentioned, “formalists impose on reality”. Sunset Boulevard is the bravest step for Billy Wilder on the road of cynicism and noir tragedy.
We see the formalism factor in the movie from the very beginning. It is an awkward and abnormal way of showing the road and road name “Sunset Blvd”. Cameras are of high angle, the words are in a diagonal line and the title is advancing towards the audience. It creates a sense to the audience that something strange is going to happen. Then it did. A voice starts to talk about the progression of his death to the film viewers. Then the camera moves to the dead body and goes down to the water to show the face of the main character, who died by being shot but still talking behind the scene. Cameras at that time could not film in water, so Wilder was, in fact, capture the image refraction by the glass he put under the water. The cracked image in refraction increases the formalism of the movie. The achronological beginning emphasizes the noir side of the film.
Norma Desmond, the representative of the silent film era, is an exaggeration of the cruel changes in the Hollywood. The audience who experienced the sounded revolution at that time can understand Norma. Although there is no actual news of a Norma, it is not hard for film viewers to feel many Normas in that period. There are other embodiments of formalism in the film: the funeral of Ms. Desmond’s friend, an orangutan, the fact that Max is Ms. Desmond’s first husband, all the images of Norma in her room, and all the fake fans letters forged by Max. In the classical ending scene, the extreme close-up Norma’s face—dark lips and big staring downside-looking eyes, along with her “I am ready for my close-up”, arouses the tension of the audience. Billy Wilder tells life in Hollywood in his eyes in the form of formalism by applying all these awkward elements in this noir film to address viewers’ attention and leaves a strong impact on them.
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