Sunset Boulevard… and the Rest of L.A.

The first film studio in L.A. opened on Sunset Boulevard in 1911—and the street's been at the center of the movie business since then, cutting straight through L.A. and Beverly Hills. That makes it the perfect setting—and title—for a movie about the film industry. And we get that point right away: During the opening credits, the camera tracks down the pavement of Sunset itself and films the name of the street stenciled on the curb. We immediately know where we are.

A World of Sun-Soaked Decay

We must admit: There's something vaguely disturbing about the name "Sunset Boulevard." On the one hand, it makes perfect geographic sense because it's on the West Coast and is where the sun sets. But there's a note of decline and decay in the title—remember: the Ancient Egyptians traditionally viewed the west side of the Nile as the land of the dead and buried all their dead there.

Joe makes this clear when he calls Norma's house a "grim Sunset mansion." Hollywood isn't just a place where dreams get made—it's a place where dreams get destroyed or discarded, too. Norma's house? It's is a shrine to those kinds of dreams: old pictures everywhere, rats in the pool—it's practically haunted by faded dreams.

Joe compares the mansion—and, by extension, Norma herself—to Miss Havisham, who was jilted by her fiancé and spent the rest of her life feeling bitter and angry about it:

JOE: A neglected house gets an unhappy look. This one had it in spades. It was like that old woman in Great Expectations—that Miss Havisham in her rotting wedding dress and her torn veil, taking it out on the world because she'd been given the go-by. 

Of course, it's not a fiancé who's abandoned Norma—she's already been married three times, and has taken Joe as a lover to boot. It's the movie-going public and the movie business that have stopped caring.

Killing Independent Joe

Sunset shows us around the rest of Hollywood, too. For instance, we see Schwab's Drug Store where Joe hangs out, which really was a hip destination for actors and movie people back in the day. When Joe runs into Betty and Artie there, he feels extremely awkward, dressed in the fine outfit that Norma has bought him, as Norma waits outside. The bright world of Schwab's is colliding with the decaying and corrupt world of Norma Desmond, and Joe feels weird. To paraphrase George Costanza from Seinfeld, "World are colliding! You're killing Independent Joe!"

Joe describes Schwab's a little something like this:

JOE: After that, I drove down to headquarters. That's the way a lot of us think about Schwab's Drug Store. Actors and stock girls and waiters. Kind of a combination office coffee-klatsch and waiting room. Waiting, waiting for the gravy train.

Yeah, that gravy train? It ain't comin'.

Sunset also takes us to other important Hollywood locales. A nice golf course where Joe's agent is playing, the office of the Paramount producer, Sheldrake, and, of course, Paramount Studios itself—the site of all the great moments that Norma wants to recapture and the place Betty adores as her own home. When Norma actually visits to try to get a part from DeMille, we get to see how all the old Paramount people react to her return with surprise and wonder. Her dream of celebrity is still (partially) alive there. But not for long…