| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 524.1 | FWIW | 17617::MAYNARD | The Front Row Kid | Tue Apr 19 1994 09:07 | 4 |
| The Butler was played by Eric Von Stroheim, a very well known,
avant-garde, silent film director...
Jim
|
| 524.2 | | 5468::J_TOMAO | | Tue Apr 19 1994 10:19 | 16 |
| I love this movie!!! BTW, I believe the character's name is Nora, not
Norma.
Wings recently did a spoof on the begining scene of William Holden
floating face down in the pool - and whoever saw the Carole Burnett
spoof can not forget her entrance as she came down the staircase with
*those eyebrows* :^)))))))). (mumble mumble Harvey) played the
Stroheim character, complete with the German boots and slapping a
riding crop......
The only part of the original SB I didn't car for was the bit about the
dead monkey.
I would love to see the Broadway version of this classic movie.
Jt
|
| 524.3 | | BEDAZL::MAXFIELD | | Tue Apr 19 1994 11:01 | 15 |
| I recently read an interview with Billy Wilder, the director of
"Sunset Boulevard" (the movie ;-)) and he hadn't seen it again
until recently. He was pleased with it, felt it held up, and
wouldn't change anything about it.
And sorry Joyce, the character is definitely Norma Desmond.
Glenn Close beat out Patty Lupone to play the role of Norma
in the Broadway production of the musical. Lupone had been
playing it in London, Close in L.A. Interestingly, Meryl Streep
is taking over for Close in the L.A. production (Streep has
a lovely voice, actually).
Richard
|
| 524.4 | That butler part.... | GALVIA::HELSOM | | Wed Apr 20 1994 09:25 | 33 |
| This is also one of my top 20 or so....
Re: 0, implausibilities in the plot: it's both better and worse than you think.
The relationship between Norma Desmond and the butler mirrors that between
Gloria Swanson and Stroheim very closely: they were married, he directed her
films, they divorced and (I think) continued a close but odd relationship.
Gloria Swanson obviously knows a great part when she sees one, but it's very
difficult to see what could have induced Stroheim to play unless he really was
subservient to Swanson in some way.
On the other hand, the William Holden character and associated plot is straight
out of a million films noirs (I suppose is the way to spell it). The attractive,
opportunistic and completely stupid stranger wreaking sexual havoc and general
mayhem occurs in, for example, the Postman Always Rings Twice, and (with the
twist that he's Fred McMurray and looks respectable) in Wilder's own Double
Indemnity.
Apropos of not much, Sunset Boulevard has Wilder's most up-front talking corpse.
Wilder actually wanted Holden sitting up in the morgue, but the studio made him
make do with a voice-over and the body in the pool. (In the interests of
shortening the film rather than taste, as far as I can tell.) Wilder really
likes talking corpses, and their total inability to tell the truth even when it
doesn't make any difference.
I didn't see anything about this in his "autobiography", which is really an
extended collection of his anecdotes. I could guess that he really liked
Rashomon, which came out in the early 1950s. Or that it was one way of
expressing the total absurdity of the Holocaust, when people he once knew well
are dead and there's no sensible story why, only a grotesque and absurd set of
memories. Does anyone out there have any ideas or information on this?
Helen
|
| 524.5 | Films noir | 54291::GARLICK_N | | Thu Apr 21 1994 03:04 | 5 |
| I had always understood that the reason he kept the corpse in the mortuary
scene *out* of the film was because preview audiences laughed it off the
screen. Does his book tell another story?
Nick
|
| 524.6 | Corpsing... | GALVIA::HELSOM | | Thu Apr 21 1994 05:13 | 10 |
| Re: -1,
That's probably right. I had the impression the studio had a hand in it. My
German's not that wonderful, so I may have missed the point. I can imagine that
if the film got as far as previews with the talking corpse, the audience would
have laughed loud. Since all the morgue material would have been extra, it would
have made for a very long film as well. Wilder probably agreed with the studio
after the previews.
Helen
|
| 524.7 | | 29052::WSA038::SATTERFIELD | Close enough for jazz. | Thu Apr 28 1994 19:11 | 13 |
|
re last couple
In an interview on AMC Wilder relates that the first preview he attended with
that scene the audience laughed and generally evinced displeasure. He left
the theatre and was sitting on some steps in the lobby feeling depressed with
his head in his hands. A lady walked by and, apparently in an attempt to
commiserate with him, said "Wasn't that the biggest load of **** you've
ever seen" (or something like that). Wilder agreed with her.
Randy
|
| 524.8 | They cut that bit out...... | GALVIA::HELSOM | | Fri Apr 29 1994 04:56 | 9 |
| Re: -1
Was that the Fassbinder interview (the one that went out in 3 one hour segments
on UK TV)?
I'm sure the gist of it is true, but I think Billy Wilder is still inventing
stories. I wish somebody would let him make a film again...
Helen
|
| 524.9 | | 29052::WSA038::SATTERFIELD | Close enough for jazz. | Mon May 02 1994 19:25 | 12 |
|
re .8
No, it was one of the monthy AMC interviews called "Reflections on the Silver
Screen" with ? Brown. Most are half hour interviews but some, including this
one with Wilder, are an hour. Brown mostly asks the standard questions for
whoever he's interviewing, seldom covering any new ground. Wilder is one of
the more entertaining, his wit is still sharp.
Randy
|