A celebrity is not a person known for his/her talent or achievement, but an individual recognized for his/her reputation created by the media. The phase of stardom is slippery, and media may choose to represent celebrities varying from exaggerated admiration to mockery. The three texts chosen, movie "Sunset Boulevard", feature article "Over the Hilton" and television show "Celebrity Uncensored Six" are texts presenting different perception of celebrities than their usual images - either corrupted by the encircling media, overloads oneself with self-indulgence, or just mocks celebrity in a broad spectrum. Such media items empower and impresses the audience by perceiving celebrities as people who pay the price of privacy to gain well knowness, signifying the vanity of stardom from the commonly accepted images.
Sunset Boulevard is macabre movie designed for mature audiences who would be able to acknowledge the emptiness of a fallen celebrity, the vanity of stardom and insights of the movie industry. It features the transitory nature of fame, a pessimistic perception of Hollywood and the corruption of a celebrity with the example of a once legendary actress - Norma Desmond. Through the movie, audiences identifies with an alienated celebrity.
The female fatale Norma Desmond, starred by Gloria Swanson, is a distorted version of the actress herself - who had been largely absent for almost 16 years when she performed in Sunset Boulevard. Norma Desmond is the typical example of a celebrity living in the netherworld between the passed stardom and reality - "I am big, it is the pictures that got small." In the entire Sunset Boulevard, Norma is always performing as if constantly watched by fictional audiences. Her dramatic movements, s...
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...filmed are often filming celebrities while they are not noticing the presence of cameras, or if they have noticed, they are pushing away the camera. This filming technique supports audiences with the idea that the celebrities cannot hide their privacy away from the media even if they try.
In conclusion, all three texts "Sunset Boulevard", "Over the Hilton" and "Celebrities Uncensored Six", supports the highlighting of the vanity of stardom - how celebrities do not possess their fame - their fame belongs to the support from the media. Norma Desmond only possesses fame when the public chooses to watch her movie, Paris Hilton has no talent or intelligence - her fame only came from outrageous partying, and various other celebrities being mocked by the paparazzi. Audiences separate celebrities from the images they were initially alienated for with such representations.
For many of us “regular folk”, we dream of visiting California and seeing celebrities or even being one. We see Hollywood as a heaven or even a holy bubble that we all want to be in. This is not true for all, but it is for most. We as a society do not generally think of the negative impacts Hollywood and fame has on an individual. Carrie Fisher, with her wit, humor, and extreme honesty, takes us inside her life and gives us her insight on Hollywood based her upbringing. After going through multiple triumphs, tragedies, and revelations Fisher writes about it all in her book, Wishful Drinking, along with three other novels she has written. Now you see why I used the term “regular folk,” because Fisher is the opposite of a “regular folk.” Even
Many people say that what makes a film good is how it can be distinct enough from other films to be groundbreaking and original, while staying true to the style it was made to be. If one believes this, they could easily say that Sunset Boulevard is an amazing Film Noir. Despite having a far from traditional story for the Film Noir style, Sunset Boulevard uses character types such as a hardened male protagonist and a femme fatale, along with the classic Film Noir visual style, to create a unique film that definitely fits the definition of what a Film Noir is. The truth is, Hollywood is not as bright and happy of a place as it may seem, and Sunset Boulevard goes above and beyond to represent this using the Film Noir style.
Released September 29, 1950, Sunset Boulevard is a film noir of a forgotten silent film star, Norma Desmond, that dreams of a comeback and an unsuccessful screenwriter, Joe Gillis, working together. Ultimately an uncomfortable relationship evolves between Norma and Joe that Joe does not want a part of. Sunset Boulevard starts off with an establishing shot from a high angle shot with a narrative leading to a crime scene from a long shot (a dead body is found floating in a pool), this narrative throughout the film establishes a formalist film.
The noir style is showcased in Sunset Boulevard with its use of visually dark and uncomfortable settings and camera work, as well as its use of the traditional film noir characters. In addition, the overall tone and themes expressed in it tightly correspond to what many film noirs addressed. What made this film unique was its harsh criticism of the film industry itself, which some of Wilder’s peers saw as biting the hand that fed him. There is frequent commentary on the superficial state of Hollywood and its indifference to suffering, which is still a topic avoided by many in the film business today. However, Sunset Blvd. set a precedent for future film noirs, and is an inspiration for those who do not quite believe what they are being shown by Hollywood.
“Posts.” Fame is a dangerous Drug: A Phenomenological Glimpse of Celebrity.” N.p. ,n.d. Web 15. Feb 2014
The star text of a celebrity can help to decipher their image and transitions they may undergo. In order to better understand these transitions, one must know the definition of a star text. A star text is the sum of everything we affiliate with celebrities, which includes their body of work, promotion, publicity, and audience participation (Jackson, 08/09/16). One must note that “celebrity doesn 't happen because someone has extraordinary qualities – it is discursively constructed by the way in which the person is publicised and meanings about them circulate” (O 'Shaughnessy and Stadler 424). Destiny Hope Cyrus, “an American singer and actress, became a sensation in the television series
Sunset boulevard was to show the legendary silent film star Norma Desmond's deluded, and declined career that came with the sound. Which leads into the
A new edition to the course lineup, this week's film classic, Sunset Boulevard. This film will focus on the culture and environment of the Hollywood studio system that produces the kind of motion pictures that the whole world recognizes as "Hollywood movies." There have been many movies from the silent era to the present that either glamorize or vilify the culture of Hollywood, typically focusing on the celebrities (both in front of and behind the camera) who populate the "dream factories" of Hollywood. But we cannot completely understand the culture of Hollywood unless we recognize that motion pictures are big business as well as entertainment, and that Hollywood necessarily includes both creative and commercial
From the lavish mansions of Hollywood stars to the cigarette smoke filled offices of broke screenwriters, the 1950 noir movie Sunset Boulevard remains a timeless classic with a stunning story of an actress gone mad, and a screenwriter just trying to squeak by. This film is the first pre-1960’s flick that has left me with a feeling of awe. The first word that comes to mind after the credits begin to roll is just“wow!”. I was struck by the intriguing plotline and brilliant execution of the story. Not only is the film a classic for its gripping story, and twisted power dynamics, it also shows amazing camera work and brilliant acting.
The complex web of half-truths and false impressions that give the diegesis of Sunset Boulevard its convolution manifests in the visual imagery and physical attributes of a house at once lavish and decaying. The home of Norma Desmond embodies the actress’s own mental disassociation and emotional fragility, displaying an outward dilapidation held separate from the intimate glamour within. The two faces of Desmond’s estate exist in a visual disparity that mirrors the former star’s own dissociation and the private delusion of celebrity and high regard in which she wraps herself. Desmond’s belief in her own significan...
It has always been a quest for individuals to achieve fame and success. In this day and age a community exists where many people have this intent to achieve this desire for attention and wealth. Hollywood can be interpreted as this mindset and life style. For those who succeed in this community of publicity seekers, include the usual benefits of success, wealth, power, influence and fame. But for the majority of people in Hollywood their quest for the luxuries of fame go awry. Hollywood to put plainly is a vulgar cut throat business, it is a dog eat dog world out there in Hollywood. For those who do not achieve their quest to be in the lime light, they often used, stabbed in the back and theoretically cast away in a dark rainy alley, like bag of garbage or a typical film-noire hero. Sunset Boulevard is a satisfyingly humorous film-noire film about the inner workings of the vicious “jungle”, that one would know of as Hollywood. It was perhaps the purposely over acted antics of antagonist Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), that makes Billy Wilder’s black comedy so memorable. Sunset Boulevard fits the definition of film-noire thanks to Wilder’s use of the typical film-noire style characters, the all too familiar storyline and Wilder’s visual style of the film itself.
Sound was first introduced into film by the film The Jazz Singer (1927). The transition for silent films to talkies was an experimental period in film history considering that, “[m]ost of the early talkies were successful at the box-office, but many of them were of poor quality - dialogue-dominated play adaptations, with stilted acting (from inexperienced performers) and an unmoving camera or microphone” (Kirk). When film was transitioning into sound a lot of silent film aspects disappeared. Many of the early talkies lacked in visuals because most of the filmmakers' attention was on sound. Another aspect of silent film making that was lost were the stars. Some stars transitioned into talkies; while others did not transition. The character Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard reflects the struggle many of the silent film actors and actresses faced because of talkies. There are many reasons as to why some silent film actors didn’t transition into talkies. Some reasons actors did not transition include: audiences did not like actor’s voices, actors did not like making talkies, and some actors could not speak english. In Sunset Boulevard, there are many silent film stars who did not transfer into talkies such as, Buster Keaton and Gloria Swanson.
I will begin my essay by looking closely at the narrative of Sunset Boulevard to see where and how the film represents the Hollywood Studio System. At the beginning of the film the audience is introduced to Joe Gillis, a script writer who is struggling to pay his rent as he in unable to sell his scripts to the ‘majors’ of Hollywood. The film follows Joe to ‘Paramount Pictures’ one of the major studios in Hollywood, which the film pays a large self reference to as the producers of Sunset Boulevard as well as representing the studio system.
Havrilesky, Heather. “Stalking Celebrities.” Remix: Reading and Composing Culture. Ed. Catherine G. Latterell. 2nd ed. Boston/New York: Bedford/St. martin’s, 2010. 446-450. Print.
Movie stars. They are celebrated. They are perfect. They are larger than life. The ideas that we have formed in our minds centered on the stars that we idolize make these people seem inhuman. We know everything about them and we know nothing about them; it is this conflicting concept that leaves audiences thirsty for a drink of insight into the lifestyles of the icons that dominate movie theater screens across the nation. This fascination and desire for connection with celebrities whom we have never met stems from a concept elaborated on by Richard Dyer. He speculates about stardom in terms of appearances; those that are representations of reality, and those that are manufactured constructs. Stardom is a result of these appearances—we actually know nothing about them beyond what we see and hear from the information presented to us. The media’s construction of stars encourages us to question these appearances in terms of “really”—what is that actor really like (Dyer, 2)? This enduring query is what keeps audiences coming back for more, in an attempt to decipher which construction of a star is “real”. Is it the character he played in his most recent film? Is it the version of him that graced the latest tabloid cover? Is it a hidden self that we do not know about? Each of these varied and fluctuating presentations of stars that we are forced to analyze create different meanings and effects that frame audience’s opinions about a star and ignite cultural conversations.