With the recent boost of movies being made in Ohio, what with The Avengers finishing its shoot in Cleveland, Corbin Bernsen is making a movie in Akron. The movie will be called "3 Day Test" and it will be about a man who loses his family to technology, so he tests their relations by living without power, electricity, and water. This will bring with it great opportunities for local actors to take advantage of, as well as boost local businesses. Movies, as well as other community investments in the arts, just might save the economy, as well as other "neglected" industries that have been on the back burner for so long.
Of course, while one could take in a show at a local theatre (like the Weathervane Playhouse or Actor's Summit Theatre), see a concert of local musicians, visit a galley featuring local artists, people find going to a movie to be the easiest way to appreciate art. Not that these other venues aren't accessible (because they are), people think it is easier to escape the realities of their lives by going to a movie. In fact, the movie industry profits the most by providing an escape through high-octane action movies and overdoses of special effects. For the culture, there is following gossip through tabloids, entertainment news, and other means of industry speak. But, it has been said that after a while, even the stars believe the rumors said about them in. This is the case for Norma Desmond in 1950's Sunset Boulevard.
For those who have yet to see the movie, Norma Desmond was a silent screen queen, played tactfully by Gloria Swanson in a comeback role (and a former silent screen queen herself), looking for a comeback. One day, a down-on-his-luck screenwriter named Joe Gillis, aptly played by William Holden has a flat tire and parks his car in her driveway at her mansion on Sunset Boulevard. Since she left the cinema (or as she puts it the cinema left her), Joe finds the mansion a strange place to be. Norma is a recluse and watches her old movies, and she lives with her butler and former husband Max von Mayerling( Erich von Stroheim), who keeps this illusion up for her. Seeing how Joe is also in a tight spot, in debt, nothing going for him career-wise, he agrees to move in and write her comeback screenplay. Of course, when she is asked by Cecil B. DeMille to borrow her car for a movie he is shooting, she takes it as a sign for a comeback. When Cecil does not confirm it so, she seduces Joe who becomes her lover and somewhat gigglo. However, Joe, who is tried of the illusions and escape from reality that Norma thrives on, finds his own escape with a a young, aspiring writer Betty Schaefer, played by Nancy Olsen. What will come of Norma?
This movie was made in 1950, at the height of the studio system. It was considered very controversial amidst its excellent performances of the way it dared to look at the dark nuances of the movie industry, and though rewarded with nominations, didn't win a lot of awards because of this daring look. What the film manages to show is that to escape with an illusion does not always have its benefits. And, though we come to the movies to escape, there are plenty of movies of great artistic value that confront the problems we face today, or at least encourage us to look. The author is not suggesting that we should not partake in escapism in the movies we go to see, because even a little bit is good, but too much is a bad thing and we have so many problems we need to face openly and honestly, as well as realistically. Though Norma Desmond is a juicy role to play, her character is not one for emulation. Think about it.
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