All About Eve (1950)

[Hiyo]

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This movie is pretty darn close to perfect so I'm not sure if it should ever be remade.

I don't think it needs to be remade either. But hey, it worked for A Star is Born, so I wouldn't put anything past Hollywood these days...

[caracas1914]

On 7/17/2017 at 8:44 AM, Yokosmom said:

My only problem with the film is the "a woman is nothing without a man" trope that it embraces fully.  Definitely of it's time, but still annoying.  Other than that gripe, fabulous film.  Very well written and acted.  So many memorable scenes.

The famous car scene where Margo (Bette Davis) says to Karen :

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" Funny business, a woman's career - the things you drop on your way up the ladder so you can move faster. You forget you'll need them again when you get back to being a woman. That's one career all females have in common, whether we like it or not: being a woman. Sooner or later, we've got to work at it, no matter how many other careers we've had or wanted. And in the last analysis, nothing's any good unless you can look up just before dinner or turn around in bed, and there he is. Without that, you're not a woman. You're something with a French provincial office or a book full of clippings, but you're not a woman. Slow curtain, the end."

I agree that it is of it's time, but  there's the trope  that success without someone to love and share it with is a less complete life.  Of course we acknowledge that not all fulfilled people share that sentiment, but many do.  So I take it that Margo wanted to love and be loved  and that was her way of articulating that she didn't want to be defined completely just by her career.     (The annoying part is that you are not a complete woman whereas a single successful  man in that time period is still a man, so yeah  sexist).   Today we realize that both women AND men come to realization that  their life choices have consequences which leaves them less than satisfied.   So I think Margo's dialogue  still strikes a chord with how many think  about life, love and career and the balance of it all, so I don't think it's just sexist tripe  Margo is expressing but what she genuinely wants out of life, or her concept of a complete life. 

I dunno, I never got the impression Margo felt compelled to completely  give up her career or Bill was asking her to do it.  

 

Edited April 11, 2022 by caracas1914

[caracas1914]

14 minutes ago, caracas1914 said:

 

 

Edited April 11, 2022 by caracas1914

[caracas1914]

On 7/21/2017 at 12:48 AM, voiceover said:

...Having said that, I'm at a loss to understand this reading.  There's some strong, clever people of both sexes in this story.  Every single character could rightly be declared "manipulative"; some are more successful at this, in the parameters of the plot, but even Lloyd (arguably the weakest) is no pushover.  He comes back hard at Margo (their fight after Eve's audition) by making the eternal Writer's Argument: Do it the way I wrote it, because I know this story better than you, because I wrote it, bitch...

 

In hindsight Lloyd is an even bigger tool.   My biggest issue with Lloyd is that the film sets up that he is this brilliant playwright and that Margo is practically the Queen of the stage and they have had  successful collaborations for years...

And yet...somehow writing for her he can't conceive beyond a 20 something year old character for his 40 year old leading lady, and this is hammered home when he basically says (paraphrasing) how refreshing it is to have a part played as he conceived it  when the younger  Eve  auditions to be Margo's understudy.

Hello Lloyd,  you're a playwright , why don't you write a role suited for Margo's age, you idiot.   

 

Edited April 12, 2022 by caracas1914

[kiddo82]

You'd have to age up the character a bit, something that I would think would be a necessity to tell this story now anyway, but I would pay hella good money to see Donna Murphy's version of Margot Channing.  I think she'd be delicious in that role.

Edited April 13, 2022 by kiddo82

[Bastet]

On 4/11/2022 at 12:03 PM, caracas1914 said:

 (The annoying part is that you are not a complete woman whereas a single successful  man in that time period is still a man, so yeah  sexist).

Yeah, if the script substituted "person" or "human" for "woman" it still would be wholly inaccurate as a universal truth - since some are perfectly happy if they don't wind up with a romantic partner and some (including me) actively do not want one - but at least it wouldn't be sexist.

[Suzn]

21 hours ago, caracas1914 said:

In hindsight Lloyd is an even bigger tool.   My biggest issue with Lloyd is that the film sets up that he is this brilliant playwright and that Margo is practically the Queen of the stage and they have had  successful collaborations for years...

And yet...somehow writing for her he can't conceive beyond a 20 something year old character for his 40 year old leading lady, and this is hammered home when he basically says (paraphrasing) how refreshing it is to have a part played as he conceived it  when the younger  Eve  auditions to be Margo's understudy.

Hello Lloyd,  you're a playwright , why don't you write a role suited for Margo's age, you idiot.   

 

I wonder why I never thought of that in the hundred times I've watched this movie!

I'm thrilled to see a current discussion of one of my all time favorite movies.