Sunset Boulevard and Some Like It Hot Viewer's Response
1. Sunset Boulevard is categorized as a film noir. Given your understanding of this genre, do you agree or disagree with this label? Please support with specific references to the film.
2. As an audience member, are your sympathies with Joe or Norma? Do you feel for either of them?
3. Director, Abraham Polonsky says that film noir “reflects the general sense of jeopardy in life.. as a representation of the anxiety caused by the system.” Does Sunset Boulevard fit that description?
4. Billy’s screenwriting tips: *
1. The audience is fickle.
2. Grab ‘em by the throat and never let ‘em go.
3. Develop a clean line of action for your leading character.
4. Know where you’re going.
5. The more subtle and elegant you are in hiding your plot points, the better you are as a writer.
6. If you have a problem with the third act, the real problem is in the first act.
7. A tip from Lubitsch: Let the audience add up two plus two. They’ll love you forever.
8. In doing voice-overs, be careful not to describe what the audience already sees. Add to what they’re seeing.
9. The event that occurs at the second act curtain triggers the end of the movie.
10. The third act must build, build, build in tempo and action until the last event, and then—that’s it. Don’t hang around.
* From Conversations with Wilder by Cameron Crowe
Pick one of these tips. Apply it to Some Like it Hot or Sunset Boulevard. Does Wilder follow his own advice?
5. Sunset Boulevard and Some Like it Hot are co-written and directed by the same person, Billy Wilder. What thematic, writing and directing similarities do you see? What are the differences?
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6. As a contemporary viewer, is Some Like it Hot a daring, risk-taking comedy that explores gender perceptions and expectations or an inherently problematic film rooted in transmisogyny?
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