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Post by Jorji Costava on Sept 9, 2015 8:43:17 GMT -6
Probably the most important film Hollywood has ever made about itself, aside from being one of the bleakest. Perhaps it would be easy for modern audiences to see Gloria Swanson's performance as aging silent film star Norma Desmond as over-acting, but the character, every bit as much as the actor playing her, is constantly performing for an audience (one that for Desmond, no longer exists). Desmond is perhaps the saddest noir antagonist ever put to screen. In addition to being a seminal exploration of Hollywood ageism, the film is a case study in adaptive preference formation: We tend to shape our preferences around the options available to us, even when these are very limited, and as a result, we often find ourselves wanting to be in the situations which we cannot escape from. On some level, Gillis actually prefers basically being confined in Desmond's gloomy mansion. He spends his entire life following the path of least resistance, and by the time he takes action to actually do the right thing, it's too late.
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