Let’s look at a VCE English and EAL essay prompt for the film, Sunset Boulevard!
Sunset Boulevard is one of the most popular VCE texts for Year 12s across Victoria, so much so it feels like every second student is tackling this classic film directed by Billy Wilder!
So let’s look at an essay prompt and unpack how students can tackle the question, and highlight some common traps that students might fall into.
Sunset Boulevard ultimately shows that truth exists as a spectrum rather than a black and white reality. Do you agree?
As I mentioned in an earlier post, ‘do you agree’-style questions will always have areas of grey, where an idea or issue can be debated. Students wanting to score well in Section A of the VCE English/EAL exam will need to find that grey area and discuss both sides before coming to a conclusion.
For this Sunset Boulevard essay prompt, the key phrases are ‘ultimately’, ‘spectrum’ and ‘black and white reality’. It means that students are asked to consider and examine the nature of truth (and by extension, lies), and come to a conclusion about how is truth constructed in the film.
Now, of course truth is a slippery notion in the film – what each character believes to be true is not necessarily what another character believes. For example, it is objectively true that Joe is a screenwriter, but Norma believes that he is much more successful at this than he really is. Issues like this abound in the film – something can be objectively true or false, but the version of this truth differs between characters. So the question in the essay prompt has no clear-cut answer!
A successful student must untangle this intricate web of truth, reality, outright lies and deception, and individual perception in order to answer the question: does truth ultimately exist as a spectrum in the film?
Whatever the conclusion, you should devote one paragraph to discussing a counterpoint to your contention. That means if you are going to conclude that truth is a spectrum, you should spend some time discussing the very end of that spectrum where truth and deception are objectively real. If you are going to conclude that truth is not ultimately a spectrum, then you should spend some time discussing how truth could be constructed as a spectrum.
In addition, because this is a film text, a high-scoring essay needs to discuss the way truth is constructed through the use of various cinematic devices. CAMELS is a useful acronym to help you find and incorporate cinematic evidence into your discussion: Camera angles, Acting, Mise en scene, Editing, Lighting and Sound.
I hope this helps! Here’s our full video explainer on tackling this prompt:
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