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Lebenswerk (9874 words) by Selena
Chapters: 8/8
Fandom: Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Norma Desmond/Max von Mayerling, Norma Desmond/Joe Gillis
Characters: Max von Mayerling, Norma Desmond, Cecil B. DeMille, Noah Cross (Chinatown), Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Joe Gillis, Mabel Normand
Additional Tags: Backstory, Obsession
Summary:
Sunset Boulevard is still THE "Hollywood on Hollywood" movie, never matched in its bite-yet-humanity and brilliance. Billy Wilder was one of the best scriptwriting directors ever. Was I intimidated as the prospect of dabbling in that universe? Was I ever.
I still couldn't resist doing it, obviously. Having a go at the Sunset Boulevard backstory - the rise and fall of Norma Desmond and Max von Mayerling - was such a great opportunity to combine several of my loves of which the Wilder film was but one silent movies, shifting relationship power dynamics, obsession. As Wilder himself had done, I used bits and pieces of the real life careers that Gloria Swanson and Erich von Stroheim, the actors portraying Norma and Max in Sunset Boulevard had. (One reason of a thousand why any SB remake would be utterly pointless: no one will ever have the advantage Billy Wilder had, using actual silent movie actors and in Stroheim's case actor/directors, and letting their style clash with the then modern performances of 1950s actors like William Holden.) Without, however, using their personalities; Gloria Swanson was a very un-Norma-like survivor who adapted with the times, and was never married to Erich von Stroheim. No, the personalities owe it all to extrapolation from their older selves in Sunset Boulevard. How did they get to that point? What happened between them en route? (And how many cameos of both historical and invented celebrities of their age could I work in? *g*)
Lebenswerk is one possible reply, and I felt a bit like an award winner myself when it got the response it did.
( The rest of the days )
Chapters: 8/8
Fandom: Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Norma Desmond/Max von Mayerling, Norma Desmond/Joe Gillis
Characters: Max von Mayerling, Norma Desmond, Cecil B. DeMille, Noah Cross (Chinatown), Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Joe Gillis, Mabel Normand
Additional Tags: Backstory, Obsession
Summary:
Eight movies Max von Mayerling made with Norma Desmond. Max, Norma, and the camera: their story from the beginning to the end.
Sunset Boulevard is still THE "Hollywood on Hollywood" movie, never matched in its bite-yet-humanity and brilliance. Billy Wilder was one of the best scriptwriting directors ever. Was I intimidated as the prospect of dabbling in that universe? Was I ever.
I still couldn't resist doing it, obviously. Having a go at the Sunset Boulevard backstory - the rise and fall of Norma Desmond and Max von Mayerling - was such a great opportunity to combine several of my loves of which the Wilder film was but one silent movies, shifting relationship power dynamics, obsession. As Wilder himself had done, I used bits and pieces of the real life careers that Gloria Swanson and Erich von Stroheim, the actors portraying Norma and Max in Sunset Boulevard had. (One reason of a thousand why any SB remake would be utterly pointless: no one will ever have the advantage Billy Wilder had, using actual silent movie actors and in Stroheim's case actor/directors, and letting their style clash with the then modern performances of 1950s actors like William Holden.) Without, however, using their personalities; Gloria Swanson was a very un-Norma-like survivor who adapted with the times, and was never married to Erich von Stroheim. No, the personalities owe it all to extrapolation from their older selves in Sunset Boulevard. How did they get to that point? What happened between them en route? (And how many cameos of both historical and invented celebrities of their age could I work in? *g*)
Lebenswerk is one possible reply, and I felt a bit like an award winner myself when it got the response it did.
( The rest of the days )
