ESSAY: SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950) and MANK (2020) by Janina Brewer, Maria-Chavez Zapien, Tyler Kirkpatrick, Christopher Ramirez, & Ava Meade-Scarpitta

As Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) of Sunset Blvd. visits her old set one of the workers cries out, “You’re Norma Desmond. You used to be in silent pictures. You used to be big.” The metaphorical dying star replies, “I am big. It’s the pictures that got small.” With this swiping response the audience of the film is shown the weight of the industry upon the workers within such. Sunset Blvd. provides a glimpse of this calloused cinematic world through the lens of the dead silent pictures of old. In similar way, the modern Mank does something akin to such as a film on film by showing the ruthless inner world that somehow, despite all odds, produces the masterpiece script for Citizen Kane by Herman J. Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman). Both films contemplate the wondrous magic that is produced by a cruel and unforgiving industry that is motivated and moved by the dollar. Seeing Mank in light of Sunset Blvd. provides a running commentary on the nature of the American film industry through the decades of its existence.

Both films choose to take a black and white aesthetic that embellishes the time period in which both of the films are taking place which is this 1940’s/50’s golden era of film. For Mank this is much more striking to the modern audience. To choose this approach is to elicit a certain tone from a given time period which is unfamiliar to the regular film attendee. Color pictures had not been around long when Sunset Blvd. steps into the picture. This reveals that it was an active choice of the filmmakers to take this black and white aesthetic approach. Nostalgia is created through this technique especially when coupled with the use of narration. In this way, both films conscientiously choose to evoke an older world that in many ways, ironically, is not so different than our own. The black and white serves to accentuate the comparison. A world that may seem dead (black and white) to the audience is brought to the eye to be examined once more.

Sunset Blvd.’s approach to narration is unique even for today’s standards. At the opening of both films we see similar shot tracking cars. Within the Sunset Blvd.’s shot this sets up our narrator who will soon reveal that he is dead. Thus, we find a kind of rotating omniscient/limited perspective narrator within the film. At first he seems to know the world clearly. However, within the set up of his death we retain a limited perspective. Mank breaks from this perhaps trying to avoid simply imitating older films here. A series of flashbacks are used from beginning to end to orchestrate the narrative push. This is done to great effect though it can be slightly confusing and off-kilter at times. By Sunset Blvd. playing with their flash back at the beginning the audience is prepped for what’s to come. The film then becomes an unfolding of the how this death occurred. Mank on the other hand can be a little disorienting when one considers both the narrative flashback structure combined with the dueling narrative theme. What is set up to be a story about the birth of Citizen Kane ends up spending a remarkable amount of time on a political examination. This approach is daunting. How much is true to the life of Mank versus simply a comment from the producers of Mank is sometimes hard to tell. A little of both is at play. With this, both films bring something fresh to the table as they reflect on film. Sunset Blvd. comments as one who speaks from the dead. Given the subject matter of the death of silent films, this choice becomes particularly relevant. Mank utilizes intertwining flashbacks in a film that is itself reaching deep into the past to reflect on the nature, shifts and growth of the writer’s relationship to film with one of the greatest films (Citizen Kane) of all time at the forefront. This nonlinear approach is appropriate given the film under consideration. Thus, Mank’s narrative approach signals both a callback to Citizen Kane and a reference to world decades later reflecting on film.

It should also be noted that not only are both films reflective on film but they also feature writers for protagonist and thus become reflections on writing within the industry as well. Of note within Sunset Blvd. is the relationship between writer and actor. There is a grandiose examination of this volatile relationship. Within the world of the film the rise of dialogue has given newer place and prominence to the screenwriter whereas the actor haas been axed if their voice was not worthy of the talkies. Mank also features a struggling writer, though it is one who is now closer to the end of his his career rather than the beginning. Mank must fight for his voice in a world that is trying to control him on more than one plane. Altogether, both films in examining film, choose to highlight the struggling writer as a lens by which they might see anew the industry of the past and comment subtly on the world in which the film is received. There seems to be a notion of utilitarianism in both films. Writers and actors and whomever else may be under consideration are only of value inasmuch as we can know their utility or usefulness. Should they prove to be useless then they may be discarded.

Acting wise, Gary Oldman dominates the screen with his eccentric Mank. His character is intriguing in sobriety and drunkenness. A world is passing him by but Oldman shows us a man who singularly preserves his own voice even if it costs him his name. Gloria Swanson, though not the central protagonist, is clearly the more memorable performer. There is a melodramatism to her that perfectly draws upon the importance of the body and face in communicating before talkies. Such takes on a level of eeriness and even horror as one begins to learn of the truth of Swanson’s own career in light of the film. Her literal descent and madness captivates the audience for a final shot that is hard to forget. Swanson thus goes beyond the confines of Sunset Blvd. to make a living comment on the industries relationship to her stars. That which once created and sustained a production company has now become a byword and left on the side of the road. 

Altogether, a taking in of the aesthetic approach, narrative technique and acting performance, reveals tightly woven films that speak beyond the confines of their opening and closing credits. This comparison draws into question Andrew Sarris take on Billy Wilder as a director. Sarris sees Wilder as one who “declines in retrospect because of visual and structural deficiencies” (166). While this may be true of the totality of his work Mank seems to help a film like Sunset Blvd. to age well because of the timeless examination of an industry that does not care. Mank shows a political world surrounding our protagonist that is just as cold as the industry around him. The writer is left in solidarity. Sunset Blvd. does something similar by inviting the audience into a post-silent film world. The industry has no use for dying star. The rapid rise of the star is met only by the rapid descent of the discarding. As ScreenPrism notes in reflection on Sunset Blvd. Norma Desmond is left as “an image with nothing behind it.”