10 Minute Oscars

… from Alex.

I love that you included William Holden’s moment of being shot from Sunset Boulevard. You’re so right – there’s so much in that moment. Billy Wilder praised Holden for what an athlete he was – that he was able to do that moment, physically, in one take – He had grace, yes, he was able to throw his body into that moment – but he also was a marvelous actor, so he was able to act what being shot by her in that moment meant. Think of all the shoot-em-up scenes we see now, and how horribly actors do them. By “horrible” I mean “empty”. They’re just playing bang-bang you’re-dead games. Empty. But watch Holden’s body language in that scene. It’s astonishing, first of all from an athletic physical point of view – it’s all done in one take, there are no cutaways – it is clearly Holden doing all of this – so you think: “Wait … did I just see him make his body do that??” Wilder was blown away by Holden, blown away by what he could command his body to do. But it’s not just physically amazing that moment – it’s also amazing from an acting point of view. It’s devastating. I mean, we know from the beginning of the film that it’s coming. Because the first shot is the dude face-down in the swimming pool. He is narrating. The film is narrated by a dead man. So it’s not a surprise that it’s coming. But the execution of the death scene? Actors EVERYWHERE should study that scene, to see how it should be done. Marvelous stuff.