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
from watching silent films in which she previously starred in. Her entire house is covered in portraits of herself, and she believes that people still send her fan mail. In reality, the fan mail she receives comes from her ex-husband who poses as a fan and begins to send Norma mail in order to prevent another one of her suicide attempts. Norma’s hunger for love strengthens when she deals with the death of her pet monkey. She replaces this pain with yet another drug, this drug we come to know as Joe. For Norma, Joe is just someone to have around because she has never really had to be alone. She fears being isolated and not having someone at her disposal. For this reason, Norma showers Joe with expensive gifts and allows him to stay in her home. However, Joe begins to want more than to just be Norma’s escort and starts to slip away from her when he meets Betty Chauffeur. Norma realizes this and decides to contact Betty. Norma’s plan backfired when Joe decided he still wanted to leave so in turn she killed him. Norma is a mentally unstable character, and so the murder along with her need for recognition caused yet another distortion in her reality.
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
fame. Former silent film star, Norma Desmond’s need for recognition, acceptance, and love influenced most if not all of the choices she made in her adult life. Norma chose to pay for love, recognition and acceptance by spoiling a man who could have cared less about her and then murdering him. The need for love, recognition, and acceptance leaked in her mind creating a pool of instability and distortion.