A Hollywood Story – 1

Last week we talked about the challenge of writing films that portray Hollywood, in all its wild and crazy glory. And even if you don’t live in L.A., imagine writing your own story about this fabled town. What would it look like? Who would the characters be? What story could you tell that hasn’t been told before? Its title? A Hollywood Story.

And I really don’t think you have to BE here in Hollywood to write about it. The old wisdom is “write what you know about” but I’m not a fan of that POV. If writers only wrote what they knew about there would be no Star Wars, no Watership Downs no Harry Potter and no Hogworts… film and literature are populated with places writers imagined, so even if you’re not in Hollywood, use that imagination and see what you can come up with as we explore the genre of Hollywood films.

Let’s begin our discussion by looking at one of the most iconic of films, Sunset Boulevard [1950]. Here’s a film that was no doubt made before most of us were born, yet it stands up today, no matter how you examine it. The film was written by Billy Wilder & Charles Brackett and it’s pretty cynical in its look at the movie business.

It’s important to realize that this film was written at a time when the studio system was just beginning to die out. The big studio heads, the movie moguls, were almost over and the movie stars that were bigger than life were starting to disappear as a new generation came up through the ranks. As famed producer/studio head David Selznick said in 1951, “Hollywood is like Egypt—full of crumbled pyramids. It’ll never come back.” Selznick had won the Academy Award for Gone with the Wind in 1939, so he’d seen the grand Hollywood he knew begin its decline.

So Sunset Boulevard certainly hit the right notes for Hollywood in 1950. Plus? The main character, Joe Gillis, is a screenwriter… so it seems appropriate to start there as we begin our look at Hollywood films.

Sunset Boulevard also defied convention by starting with a narrator who’s telling the story—and he’s dead… he remarks on his dead body floating there in the pool. And then we flashback to the day he was speeding along Sunset Blvd., trying to escape his creditors, when he had a flat tire and veered into the driveway of this old Sunset Blvd. mansion.

The mansion is inhabited by Norma Desmond, an old silent film star who’s obsessed with making a comeback. When she realizes Joe is a screenwriter she asks him to stay and write her comeback film. So there he is, with this creepy star in this creepy house with her even creepier ex-husband/butler… what else can happen but tragedy?

The film is about what fame, and the desire for it, can do to a person—how it can literally drive you mad. And what better place to set it than Hollywood?

At bottom, it’s the story of a screenwriter and a star, both hoping to make it in Hollywood… and both deluded and driven enough to keep banging their heads against the wall. Watching it is some of the best creepy fun you’ll ever have.

Copyright © Diane Lake

10Mar19

Email Diane a question to Diane@DianeLake.com