Gloria Swanson makes emphatic acting persuasive by keeping the need for attention visible beneath it. In Sunset Boulevard, her grand gestures make us laugh without concealing Norma Desmond's fear of being forgotten.
Fi1m perspective
In Sunset Boulevard (1950), Gloria Swanson widens her eyes and gestures as though compliance ought to be automatic. As Norma Desmond, she lets us see how absurd such self-importance can look. We were unsettled by how sorry we felt for Norma, because Swanson makes her need to be watched apparent even at her most intolerable. This is emphatic acting, but the fear of being forgotten gives those demands a reason beyond simple vanity.
Her shoulders and hands matter as much as her face. Her silent-era roles were often glamorous and worldly, with Cecil B. DeMille's Male and Female (1919) among the early films that established her stardom. Elaborate costumes and settings were part of the attraction, but the physical expressiveness matters more to our understanding of what she does in Sunset Boulevard. It would be a mistake to treat Norma's exaggerated manner as all Swanson had to offer.
Her independent work included producing and starring in Sadie Thompson (1928), with its more vulnerable central character. Queen Kelly (1929), directed by Erich von Stroheim, remained unfinished and set back those production efforts. The Trespasser (1929), however, brought a successful move into sound, with natural dialogue delivery and singing. That successful adjustment is worth remembering when looking at the decline in her film work through the 1930s and 1940s.
Billy Wilder gets the most out of that expressive style by letting it be conspicuous. In Sunset Boulevard, Swanson deliberately exaggerates silent-era acting; the danger is that Norma will become merely a joke about an obsolete performer. She makes the wish to be taken seriously understandable, however tiresome Norma's demands become. The writing sometimes insists on its cleverness, but Swanson keeps Norma's distress credible without asking us to approve of her. Start with Sunset Boulevard, then make time for Sadie Thompson.
Biography
Gloria Swanson was an American actress. Born Gloria May Josephine Svensson, she began her career as a teenager in silent films, appearing in shorts and features for studios including Essanay and Mack Sennett before becoming a prominent star of the 1920s under directors such as Cecil B. DeMille.
She received Academy Award nominations for Best Actress for Sadie Thompson (1928) and The Trespasser (1929), the latter marking her successful transition to sound films. In 1950 she played Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, directed by Billy Wilder, earning her a third Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe Award. She later appeared in films such as Airport 1975 (1974) and worked in theatre and television.
