Riding Into the Sunset

On Friday, the Washington Post had a wonderful analysis article by Karen Heller titled, “The newly relevant relationship between Trump and ‘Sunset Blvd.’”  It’s subtitled, “As the former president’s misfortunes mount, comparisons to Norma Desmond and the movie he loves seem increasingly apt.”

Even if the article stopped right there, it would be worth it just for comparing Trump to Norma Desmond.  But it doesn’t stop there and actually has a lot of pretty interesting observations.  To be clear, this isn’t a joke piece, but fully serious.

Given that filmmaker Billy Wilder, who directed and co-wrote Sunset Blvd., escaped Germany after Hitler's rise to power, coming to Hollywood in 1932, and after WWII his job with the U.S. Army was on a board that dealt with deciding permissions for those applying for de-Nazification, it seems likely that Wilder would take a great fascination with Trump's obsession with his movie

It turns out that Ms. Heller is not alone in her point-of-view, and she references several other sources making the same reflections.  Early on, she quotes from a recent New York magazine story by Olivia Nuzzi who drew a pointed parallel between Trump and his favorite movie, describing it as being about “A washed-up star locked away in a mansion from the 1920s, afraid of the world outside, afraid it will remind him that time has passed.”

Initially, I thought that that would be as far as Heller would be able to go in her comparisons between Trump and Norma Desmond, but in fact, she goes deeper and writes –

“Norma’s baronial L.A. manor is a central character in the movie, “a big white elephant of a place” as Joe Gillis (William Holden) puts it, excessive, dated, dark and similar in style to Mar-a-Lago, whose main house is “an adaptation of the Hispano-Moresque style, long popular among the villas of the Mediterranean,” according to its website. Norma stuffs her rooms with images of herself. Trump favors a similar decorating scheme, framed photos and painted likenesses. He also views his likeness as a wise investment. This month, he began selling $99 digital trading cards featuring Barbie-like iterations of himself: Cowboy Trump, Astronaut Trump, ‘Top Gun’ Trump.”

And later, author Heller notes that “Norma has three husbands. Trump has three wives. Norma appreciates a younger, pulchritudinous partner in the dimple-chinned Joe, played by Holden, 19 years Swanson’s junior. Trump has a penchant for younger models, Melania nearly a quarter century his junior.”

There’s an interesting point, as well, when she quotes from Stephanie Grisham, who had been White House Press Secretary, and in her memoir wrote about having to sit through the evenings when Trump would screen Sunset Blvd for the staff.  (Again, keep in mind, that here is not only yet another comparison between Trump and Desmond, but from a White House insider who saw it all.) 

“Trump ‘could never sit still for anything,’ former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham writes in her memoir, but he sat ‘enthralled’ watching ‘Sunset Blvd.,’ among other movies. Grisham, who had never seen the seminal classic before, was ‘shocked at all of the similarities’ between Trump and Desmond, the latter ‘obsessed with her looks’ and ‘convinced that everyone loved her and lived in a fantasy world of her own making.’ Grisham notes, ‘I’m sure that Trump has no clue — like none — how similar to him she was.’”

None of this is especially meaningful in the great scheme of life, of course.  But given that one of the great fool’s errand of the current day is trying to figure out Trump’s thinking when guessing his motivation behind what he’s done or will do, it’s an interesting doorway into helping understand the near-understandable.  And given that Trump is renowned for “projecting” himself when ostensibly slamming others, his own love of Sunset Blvd. and Norma Desmond’s world add a layer of projection he may well be adding on his own.

“I’m ready for my close-up,” Norma Desmond famously says at the end of the film.  As a friend of mine wrote me, hopefully when Trump says it, it will be for his mug shot.

For those interested, you can find the article here.  It's well-worth it, going into more detail and commentary, including from the one featured member of the cast still alive, Nancy Olson Livingston.  (Fun Fact: she was married at one point to Broadway lyricist, Alan Jay Lerner when he wrote My Fair Lady.)  I have a subscription to the Washington Post, and articles may be blocked, but am entitled to a few “gift links” each month, so hopefully this will allow you access to the full piece.