The Culture of Hollywood Overview 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
Sunset Boulevard Revisited When the film Sunset Boulevard premiered in Hollywood in 1950, the picture caused a riot in the theatre after the feature finished. Director Billy Wilder commented, “I’ve never seen so many prominent people at once – the word was out that this was a stunner, you see. After the picture ended there were violent reactions, from excitement to pure horror”(May 570). Wilder did whatever he could to keep the plot of Sunset Boulevard a secret outside of the walls of Paramount
Sunset Boulevard directed by Billy Wilder in 1950 is based on how Norma Desmond, a huge Hollywood star, deals with her fall from fame. The film explores the fantasy world in which Norma is living in and the complex relationship between her and small time writer Joe Gillis, which leads to his death. Sunset Boulevard is seen as lifting the ‘face’ of the Hollywood Studio System to reveal the truth behind the organisation. During the time the film was released in the 1950s and 60s, audiences started
Alex's Restaurant, an ethnography The Wiseguys (scene one): *These four old guys (definitely into their late sixties, early seventies) sell cars at one of the dealerships on the boulevard. I would bet fifty dollars that they all work for Cadillac. They come in once a week, on Friday afternoons. They love me. They like to give me a hard time, ask why I don’t love them anymore, when I’m going to run away with them, etc, etc. They are caricatures of car salesmen but are obviously unaware of this
according to their overall fun factor. For a calmer atmosphere and a few good frothy ales, head straight to Antibes’ “Vielle Ville” where you will find an authentic Irish Pub. Otherwise known as The Hop Store, it is located near the marina at 38 Boulevard d’Aguillon and serves a variety of Irish beers on tap as well as tasty little tidbits for the hungry drinker. The bar is also fully equipped with many different types of liquor and wine to cater to any taste. It is a good place to go to for after
America, in thy shiny car in the night?" -Jack Kerouac, On the Road Roll the windows down, turn the music up, and drive slowly. Now you're cruising. Cruising is the art of seeing and being seen, and in Tucson the center of this art is Speedway Boulevard. This six-lane street runs east to west through Tucson and is one of the busiest thoroughfares in the city. It hosts a mix of commercial and private buildings: small shops, offices, restaurants, grocery stores, apartment buildings and older homes
History of the Drive-In Movie Theater The story of the drive-in movie theater begins with one man. That man was Richard Milton Hollingshead, Jr., born on February 25, 1900, the "father" of the drive-in. The drive-in got its humble beginnings in the driveway of Hollingshead’s Riverton, New Jersey home, at 212 Thomas Avenue. This is where his first experimentations took place. Setting a 1928 Kodak projector on the hood of the family car, he projected the film onto a screen he had nailed to a
unwittingly go on to become the label for the expatriates from the United States and England who had rejected traditional American and British conventions for the more appealing lifestyle of Left Bank, Paris. Congregating in cafés located along the Boulevard Montparnasse to drink, talk and watch the crowds pass by, the Lost Generation was comprised of exiles who had spurned the pre-war values of love, romanticism, optimism, prosperity and hope that they had grown up believing in, all shattered by
The Thematic Intentions of Sunset Boulevard The film Sunset Boulevard directed by Billy Wilder and staring the main characters of Norma Desmond, Joe Gillis, and Max Von Mayerling is ideal example of how important film making techniques help depict a movie’s core theme intentions with vivid clarity. Classic Hollywood is the first thing that comes to mind when one speaks about this film’s style. This signature category combined with the visual style of realism and it’s continuity editing; detailed
Cultural Report: Hollywood 1900-1940 Since even before its inception, the idea of “Hollywood” has been consistently concerned with a single underlying concept: spectacle. The earliest movies belonged to what film historians like Tom Gunning call a “cinema of attractions.” Primitive films, the earliest shorts from the late 1890s to the early 1900s, were directed at an audience looking for a new form of entertainment. The first films were screened as the final attraction of a vaudeville show