Word: swansons
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...Hollywood tragedies and scandals to some friends, and they'd never beard of these stories, so they encouraged me to put these in book form Hollywood reacted to the book surprisingly benignly. I've never been sued by any of the celebrities I wrote about except for the Gloria Swanson...
Perhaps the only person who would be uncowed by the challenge of following Kane is the indomitable Norma Desmond. Nothing can beat the sheer eerieness (and glorious camp appeal) of fading silent screen diva Gloria Swanson "playing" fading silent screen diva Norma Desmond on film...
Though Holden and von Stroheim are powerful foils to Swanson's persona, Wilder and his camera wisely sweep them to the edges of the screen to focus on Norma. Swanson's performance is something beyond acting; her Norma lives every moment on two planes, in the mundane world and on celluloid. She has a habit of pausing almost unnoticeably as she speaks, giving the effect of a flickering silent film, posing briefly for the camera, then continuing...
...Swanson's eyes are still the reflective pools they were when she was "the greatest star of them all." When Joe suggests gently that perhaps her movie script should include more dialogue, she snaps back, "Why? I can say anything I want with my eyes...
Wilder's camera is generous to Swanson, playing with the copious material she gives him to create confusion between light and shadow, cinema and life. The camera chills, not only with beautiful photography, but with inspired editing which creates a dialogue of images, blending forms from one scene subtly into another...