Meta: Before Meta was Meta

The idea of a "Meta" experience in film is usually one where the film either on purpose or by accident resembles real life or the real life events in the film. A quick recent example would be where Charlie Kaufman wrote himself into the script of Adaptation...it then creates a film that can be seen as a comment on books, film, making books, making film, etc. Sunset Blvd is a great film, it also is one of those films that as it tells a simple story of a crazy Hollywood past her prime actress, comments on the fact that it is played by a "past her prime Hollywood actress"...it also stars Cecil B. DeMille as "Cecil B. DeMille"...etc...

I was turned onto this film by an interview with David Lynch. Lynch was asked to name his most influential films. Lynch being a bit older and a clearly surrealist filmmaker chose some eclectic films, but also older classic films. These films are listed below:

Rear Window
8 1/2
M Hulots Holiday and
Sunset Blvd

I had not seen any of these films, but then added them to my Netflix Queue....I have a problem with old films that everyone else does...they are old...and in most cases film ideas repeat themselves and nothing is really original. When the first AFI top 100 films came out about 12 years ago I started to watch as many of those films I had not seen as possible. There were gems like Lawrence of Arabia and North by Northwest, and then there were trials on my patience and my soul like Casablanca and The Wild Bunch. I mean a film like The Wild Bunch is important because the level of violence is amped for the first time in American films and it's gritty...ok but in the days of The Matrix and post 80's action films, this movie is a slog of a watch.

So back to Lynch...I liked Rear Window, but had that feeling of "here we go again"...this film was the first to do what?...have a twist ending?...I mean come on we have all already been blown away by The Usual Suspects....

But then I saw Sunset Blvd...This is a must see...it features old has-beens playing old has-beens, it has a director playing a director...Cecil B DeMille has a great voice...and his films may be over the top and old style Big Hollywood spectacles...but his acting was awesome...at one point he accepts the old washed up silent film starlet named Norma Desmond into his set "where at the time Director Billy Wilder actually shot DeMille on the set of his current film at Paramount studios directing Samson and Deliliah...DeMille talks with Desmond and just pays her no real attention, he really wants to use her car in a film...but she thinks they will work together and she will make a great come back...DeMille then gets on his PA system and while the light man in the studio has shown the light on Desmond, DeMille insists that "place the light where it REALLY belongs"..on the real actors...

This is a sad story told in a sad way...but is thrilling like a car crash to watch...Buster Keaton is old and plays himself..the Butler of Desmond plays her first husband and first Director...and in real life was one of the first directors of the actress playing Norma Desmond..that film was called Queen Kelly, which was a disaster and ruined both their careers in real life and in this film.

Norma Desmond is played by Gloria Swanson...she is amazing...even 60 years later this performance is scary and weird and awesome. Swanson plays Norma and at the same time she plays a version of herself...sure she wasn't crazy but the film uses clips from her real old movies and Billy Wilder uses hundreds of her old silent film photos to adorn her old mansion. She has all those great lines you know, but you never saw this film "I am big, it's the pictures that got small"..and the classic "I am ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille"...but in the context of the film...it's even greater.

William Holden plays a broken down screenwriter, and the object of Norma's sick love. He is ok...just ok...his performance is the one that seems old and you have seen it a million times in these old films...the rest is greatness

I saw this and thought of connections with many of David Lynch's films...the mood, the idea of odd characters, odd emotional moments, Hollywood, stardom, a surrealist look at film and filmmaking and his films such as Inland Empire, Mullholland Drive, and Lost Highway are easily recognizable within the confines of Sunset Boulevard. Even one character named Gordon Cole in Sunset Blvd who speaks on a phone, is used by Lynch for a character he plays in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, named Gordon Cole...who speaks in a phone. I think Lynch even has a story where he realized that driving on the real Sunset Blvd in California, he saw where Billy Wilder got the idea for the character named Cole...there is a street on the way to Paramount studios named "Cole"...