A sort of a Halloween post: Meet the Norma Desmonds

I wasn't planning a Halloween post, but given the subject I believe that the story of Sunset Blvd and her star Norma is creepy enough to be fitting!

A few weeks ago, I suddenly realized that Tecla (Daria in her James Bond incarnation) looks a LOT like a young Gloria Swanson

same (bitchy) blue eyes, pointy chin, the same "morsus inversus", and big teeth! LOL
Don't misunderstand me, I love Gloria Swanson, and the fact she became such a huge star and sex symbol in spite her being anything but perfect and barely 5 feet tall!!!
She had a magnetic presence on screen and she had a great sense of humor.
So, getting back to Lucrezia, I decided to dress her up as "the greatest of them all": Norma Desmond,
from Billy Wilder's maserpiece Sunset Blvd.

I tried to update a bit the outifit, as in the movie Norma wears in fact a day Pijama complete with a long Dressing Gown (by Edith Head), I made a shorter gown and added a pair of stretch pants. On ebay I found this leopard cotton fabric, which had these very small spots. Being cotton it wasn't easy to accomodate with the black jersey, but Disegual taught us that no fabric mixing is tecnically impossible, so here she is:

. 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.

There once was a time in this business when I had the eyes of the whole world! But that wasn't good enough for them, oh no! They had to have the ears of the whole world too. So they opened their big mouths and out came talk. Talk! TALK!

I'll be up there again, so help me!

But of course, Norma cannot exist (in my mind) without Joe, so Enrico got a new outfit, and he really looks the part. He looks it perfecty, as my doll came with a head constantly turned upward so he seems to be avoiding Norma on purpose.

I did my best to recreate the atmosphere of the movie, well the director of photography was a genius called John Seitz (the guy who "invented" the noir cinematography) ..... but I really did my best to recreate the darknes and grain of the picture

Joe: You're Norma Desmond. You used to be in silent pictures. You used to be big.
Norma Desmond: I *am* big. It's the *pictures* that got small.

The stars are ageless, aren't they?

no male doll with the gorgeus Bill Holden's face?

Joe: There's nothing tragic about being fifty. Not unless you're trying to be twenty-five.

As you guessed Sunset Blvd is my all time favourite movie, and the Norma Desmonds are going to be a fixture around here, as soon as I have time to sew them some more appropriate fashions!

Kisses

Sunset Blvd: opening title sequence