Simply right now, I rewatched “Sundown Boulevard.” Clearly, Norma Desmond is murderous. We begin off with the voiceover from her sufferer. Because the film progressed, and possibly as a result of I’m older since I noticed it final, I see her, and identical with Alex, as such tragic figures the place they have been becoming themselves into all of those expectations of them—learn how to be a star, learn how to be a profitable unbiased girl within the America of the Eighties. After which they grow to be so fragile as a result of they’re stretching themselves so skinny with all of this that when the time comes with that push, with this one man that they’re obsessive about, they go off the rails. And it doesn’t make me hate them as characters. It makes me actually really feel for them. So, I might agree with Glenn Shut. I believe Alex is a very sympathetic character.
You lined so lots of my favourite films within the e book. And one which I used to be significantly blissful to see as a result of it’s not very well-known is “Feminine” (1933) with Ruth Chatterton as a lady who heads an vehicle firm and sleeps with the good-looking males who work for her. However that character was solely doable within the pre-Code period.
Effectively, there are such a lot of films that I might point out, however I wished to particularly carry that one to consideration, as a result of typically now we have this faulty notion that every part was a lot worse up to now, and silent Hollywood and previous Hollywood feminine characters have been very strict, very conservative, they didn’t have company, they didn’t have any energy. And that’s not true.
Watch these movies, particularly the pre-Code ones like “Feminine,” just like the Mae West movies. Anybody watching Mae West movies—“I am No Angel,” for instance—watching now and considering, “That is outrageous, even by 2023 requirements. How is she getting away with this?” And the identical with “Feminine.” , you have a look at Shiv Roy in “Succession” now. It’s as a result of it’s a portrait of company ambition, proper? Of financial ambition, of climbing the social and financial ladder. But it surely appears virtually extra provocative now that it’s a lady that prioritizes cash and monetary success over relationships.
