:29:10
I didn't argue with her.
:29:12
You don't yell at a sleepwalker.
He may fall and break his neck.
:29:16
That's it. She was still sleepwalking
along the giddy heights of a lost career.
:29:21
Plain crazy when it came
to that one subject: Her celluloid self.
:29:26
The great Norma Desmond.
:29:29
How could she breathe in that house
so crowded with Norma Desmonds?
:29:33
More Norma Desmonds
and still more Norma Desmonds.
:29:41
It wasn't all work, of course.
:29:43
Three times a week,
Max hauled up that painting
:29:47
presented to her by some
Nevada chamber of commerce.
:29:50
And we'd see a movie,
right in her living room.
:29:54
So much nicer than going out,
she'd say.
:29:58
The plain fact was
she was afraid of that world outside,
:30:02
afraid it would remind her
that time had passed.
:30:07
They were silent movies, and Max
would run the projection machine.
:30:12
Just as well.
:30:14
It kept him from giving us
an accompaniment on that organ.
:30:20
She'd sit very close to me,
and she'd smell of tuberoses.
:30:23
Not my favourite perfume,
not by a long shot.
:30:27
Sometimes as we watched,
she'd clutch my arm or my hand,
:30:31
forgetting she was my employer,
:30:34
just becoming a fan, excited about
that actress up there on the screen.
:30:40
I don't have to tell you
who the star was.
:30:44
They were always her pictures.
That's all she wanted to see.