1. What is the significance of Salome's music in Sunset Boulevard?
Salome's music in Sunset Boulevard holds significant importance as it serves as a compositional model for the film's score. The ghoulish music for Salome's thirsting for the severed head of John the Baptist inspired graphically neurotic instrumental trills in the film's score. The Dance of the Seven Veils from Salome provided a model for Norma's final demented performance, with Waxman composing a climactic distortion of a sultry habanera. This connection to Salome's music highlights the film's exploration of the artist as a created selfhood, a concept familiar to Wilder from his Viennese literary hero Karl Kraus. The use of Salome's music in Sunset Boulevard also reflects the Hollywoodstar principle, as Norma Desmond's characterization is rooted in kenosis, a complete emptying or lack of an original selfhood. Overall, Salome's music in the film serves as a symbolic representation of Norma's artifice and her pursuit of an ageless star image.
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