How The Distortion Of Reality In Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard

Her liver became immune to the poison that transfused through her entire body.
The leaves she inhaled transported her to a place so high that even birds dared not to go. To say she was drunk or high would be an understatement. She had overdosed. The green leaves permeated the smell of a skunk. The alcohol created a wildfire in the back of her throat. You see much like drugs, the need for recognition, acceptance, and love is an addiction and can very often influence the choices we make. This is depicted in the 1950 film, Sunset Boulevard , written and directed by Billy Wilder. Drugs can often cause a distortion in the addicts reality. For aging former child star, Norma Desmond, the need for recognition led to distortion within her own reality. Norma lives in the past, and feeds off what she was, as well as what she believes she is destined to become. For Norma, the only entertainment she gets, comes
When the police and news camera crews arrived at her home, she believed that she was shooting a scene in a movie. In fact this was the only way the police could get her downstairs, by playing along in her distortion of reality. When Norma arrives outside she says some of the most famous lines of the film, “I can't go on with the scene. I'm too happy. Do you mind, Mr. DeMille, if I say a few words? Thank you. I just want to tell you how happy I am to be back in the studio making a picture again. You don't know how much I've missed all of you. And I promise you I'll never desert you again because after Salome we'll make another picture and another picture. You see, this is my life! It always will be! Nothing else! Just us, the cameras, and those wonderful people out there in the dark!... All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up.” Norma’s last words further prove that she is still living in the past and feeding off old