This movie won the Best Picture Oscar in 1950. It stars Bette Davis as an aging grand dame of the theatre, Margo Channing, and Anne Baxter as Eve, her usurping younger rival. We wanted to watch a well known and respected big studio motion picture.
Kamala: I just can't understand why a thousand alarm bells didn't go off as soon as Eve spoke.
Emily: She was damn creepy. Something sinister about her from the start. I really enjoyed the witty dialogue, and Marilyn Monroe's cameo was choice as she was pretty much playing herself.
Kamala: The final shot through the mirror was great...more about that later.
We thought the movie was about women and their struggle to succeed despite the natural process of aging. Bette Davis has several phenomenal monologues about losing her idea of herself, about the difference between "Margo Channing" and "me" and her insecurity regarding her age and attractiveness. Margo's boyfriend represented both aspects of her fear of againg--she worries that she is no longer attractive to him and that she may no longer have a place in the theatre world he represents as her director.
Emily: I think that because it is about the theatre the movie also is somewhat about fakeness, and the deception that is inherent in acting. The first voice over is Addison, the first voice the viewer trusts turns out to be the most duplicitous.
Kamala: Now that we are talking about the end... I thought the starting over concept was interesting, but detracted somewhat from the focus on Margo and Eve. But I guess the point, and especially with that last shot in the mirror is that for every woman there are always innumerable younger, prettier, more ambitious girls out there just waiting for their chance.
Emily: And the scene where Margo gets drunk at her party is hysterical:
Kamala: I just can't understand why a thousand alarm bells didn't go off as soon as Eve spoke.
Emily: She was damn creepy. Something sinister about her from the start. I really enjoyed the witty dialogue, and Marilyn Monroe's cameo was choice as she was pretty much playing herself.
Kamala: The final shot through the mirror was great...more about that later.
We thought the movie was about women and their struggle to succeed despite the natural process of aging. Bette Davis has several phenomenal monologues about losing her idea of herself, about the difference between "Margo Channing" and "me" and her insecurity regarding her age and attractiveness. Margo's boyfriend represented both aspects of her fear of againg--she worries that she is no longer attractive to him and that she may no longer have a place in the theatre world he represents as her director.
Emily: I think that because it is about the theatre the movie also is somewhat about fakeness, and the deception that is inherent in acting. The first voice over is Addison, the first voice the viewer trusts turns out to be the most duplicitous.
Kamala: Now that we are talking about the end... I thought the starting over concept was interesting, but detracted somewhat from the focus on Margo and Eve. But I guess the point, and especially with that last shot in the mirror is that for every woman there are always innumerable younger, prettier, more ambitious girls out there just waiting for their chance.
Emily: And the scene where Margo gets drunk at her party is hysterical:
Margo:[in front of her boyfriend, Bill] I love you, Max. I really mean it. I love you. Come to the pantry.
[She leaves]
Max Fabian: [to Bill] She loves me like a father. Also, she's loaded.
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