ALL ABOUT EVE
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OVERVIEW About the director Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1909–1993) was a successful American film director,screenwriter and producer; he is still the only director to have won back-to-back Oscars for both direction and screenwriting. Mankiewicz first went to Hollywood as a young man to join his older brother Herman, who was also a distinguished screenwriter (he wrote Citizen Kane). Joseph Mankiewicz’s eclectic Hollywood career encompassed a wide variety of genres – from the incisive social commentary of A Letter to Three Wives (1949), to the musical Guys and Dolls (1955), the sombre drama of Suddenly Last Summer (1959) and the extravagant historical epic of Cleopatra (1963). His last film, Sleuth, was made in 1972. All About Eve (1950) was written and directed by Mankiewicz and is generally regarded as his finest film. Critically praised and commercially successful at the time of its release, it has endured as a classic of American cinema. It was nominated for fourteen Academy Awards and won six, including Best Picture. Of particular note was the fact that it received four female acting nominations, cementing Mankiewicz’s reputation as a brilliant writer of complex, multi-dimensional roles for women. Many of Mankiewicz’s key concerns – the idea of the theatre as a societal metaphor, the masks people adopt, dynamics within male–female relationships and the ways in which ambition corrupts – are explored in All About Eve. The film also demonstrates Mankiewicz’s interest in revisiting and reappraising the past, often using a flashback narration, which became one of his signature techniques. After working in Hollywood for many years, Mankiewicz became increasingly disillusioned with the political conservatism of the film industry, ultimately relocating to New York to found his own independent production company. Synopsis As Eve Harrington, Broadway’s newest star, is honoured with acting’s most prestigious award at the annual Sarah Siddons Society dinner, various theatrical personalities witness the ceremony. They include director Bill Sampson, playwright Lloyd Richards and his wife Karen, star of the stage Margo Channing and theatre critic Addison DeWitt. DeWitt muses on Eve’s remarkable rise to celebrity, but it is clear not all her colleagues approve of the young actress.Karen Richards, Margo’s closest friend, then describes her first meeting with Eve, eight months before, and for the remainder of the film the events unfold from this flashback. As the long flashback begins, Karen is approached by Eve outside the theatre where Margo’s play, Aged in Wood, is being performed. Eve presents herself as a devoted fan of Margo’s and Karen decides the two must meet. After hearing Eve’s sad history, Margo offers friendship and employment to the young woman.Margo is initially delighted with her new personal assistant. However, she becomes concerned after her friend and employee Birdie expresses her mistrust of Eve, and soon Eve’s efficiency and unfailing desire to please start to grate. Margo’s insecurities rise to the surface and she suspects Eve of having designs on her lover, Bill. Things come to a head the night of Bill’s welcome-home party. Margo becomes drunk and abusive,arguing with Bill and the Richardses, as well as targeting Eve. However, before retiring to bed in a maudlin huff, she asks her friend, producer Max Fabian, to give Eve a job. In the meantime, Eve harbours other plans and solicits Karen’s influence to help her secure a position as Margo’s understudy. Max has also promised Claudia Casswell, Addison DeWitt’s latest protégé, an audition for a small part in Aged in Wood and Margo has agreed to read with her. But Margo arrives late and Eve, as Margo’s understudy, reads instead, dazzling Bill, Lloyd and Addison. Margo, furious, dismisses Eve’s explanations, fights with Lloyd and accuses Bill of being more than professionally interested in her former employee. Bill cannot allay her fears and, with regret, breaks off their relationship. Later, after listening to the still-angry Lloyd, Karen decides that Margo needs a lesson. She phones Eve to alert her that she may have to step in as Margo’s understudy sooner rather than later. The Richardses and Margo go away for the weekend and, unbeknown to Lloyd, Karen empties the fuel tank, impeding their journey home. Margo misses the play and Eve gives a memorable performance in her stead. Eve herself had notified a number of critics of the change in casting and, subsequently, Addison writes a spiteful review, praising Eve and disparaging Margo. Eve’s hypocrisy and her underlying agenda are now clear to Karen. Bill, who has been propositioned by Eve, also recognises her duplicity and returns to comfort the devastated Margo. Foolishly, Lloyd continues to make excuses for Eve.The Richardses join Margo and Bill for dinner where the latter couple announce their decision to marry. Coincidentally, Addison and Eve are together at the same restaurant. In the ladies’ room, Eve blackmails Karen, threatening to tell Margo of Karen’s ruse unless she is given the part of Cora in Lloyd’s new play. Shaken, Karen returns to the others and, with great relief, welcomes Margo’s unexpected announcement that she no longer wants the role. Eve does get the part, but rehearsals for Footsteps on the Ceiling are volatile and stressful, with Bill and Lloyd arguing bitterly. Karen fears that Lloyd is attracted to Eve. The night before the play premieres off Broadway, Addison confronts Eve in her hotel room. He makes it clear that he expects to be her lover and when she tells him that she intends to marry Lloyd, he blackmails her. Addison has discovered the truth about Eve’s past and will hold it over her head. The show opens and Eve gives ‘the performance of her life’.This phrase returns the narrative to the Siddons banquet. Eve accepts her award, receives cursory congratulations from the Richardses, Margo and Bill, but refuses to go to the party being held in her honour. Back at her apartment, she is surprised by a young woman, Phoebe, who slipped in while the maid wasn’t watching. Phoebe is a fan with aspirations of her own; the cycle is about to start again. |
Genre - theatre du filme
Mankiewicz’s literate, witty screenplay, a ‘story for grown-ups’ (a phrase used by Margo), has been called one of the best to come out of Hollywood. It features fast-paced dialogue, sharp observational humour, double entendres, intertextual references and some memorable one-liners. Despite creating only 20 feature films, Joseph L. Mankiewicz explored a number of genres and styles in his work he often combined genres within a single film. No matter the work, however, the one genre shared by all his films is what French critics termed théatre du filmé. théatre du filmé Théatre du filmé was the genre Mankiewicz created and perfected in order to ‘approach human beings analytically…in depth’. This genre pays equal attention to the verbal, the visual, and the human, carefully crafting and interweaving all three elements in order to achieve maximum effect—both expressively and analytically. Most importantly, théatre du filmé is a self-conscious genre populated by self-conscious characters. Mankiewicz overlaid this personal genre on top of conventional genres popular at the time of filming. In this fashion, he arrived at his unique style of filmmaking: Mankiewicz movies do not look, sound, or speak like those of any other director.’1 1 Dauth, Brian http://sensesofcinema.com/2005/great-directors/mankiewicz/ Black comedy All About Eve is primarily a drama aimed at a mainstream audience, but it is also very witty and could be described as black comedy. The comedy comes purely from the repartee and Margo’s biting one-liners. In this sense it draws from the theatrical genre of the comedy of manners (“comedy that satirically portrays the manners and fashions of a particular class or set”), something that further emphasizes how closed the world of the film is. Backstage drama/ ‘showbiz’ film “All about Eve remains the definitive movie about backstage life ‘backstage being defined as anything in show business that the audience isn’t supposed to see. Morality Fable In keeping with the instructive entertainment style audiences of the 1950s expected, Eve is punished for her duplicity. Her rise to fame carries a hefty price tag and the final view of her without her friends and with only a drink, a cigarette and the ambiguous Phoebe for company, warns of the dangers of unchecked ambition. There are clear parallels between Phoebe and Eve and the sense that a similar story is about to recur. All About Eve is an example of a very different style of film making from what modern audiences are used to. The dialogue is made up of ‘delivered’ lines rather than natural conversation and the camera movement is driven by what the characters say, rather than by story and action. In constructing the film this way, Mankiewicz is asking viewers to observe this strange world from the outside, as if we are watching a wildlife documentary. The theatricality of the way the characters speak and behave – as if they are always on stage – highlights how separate they are from the rest of their fellow human beings. They could be considered to have their own language. Although Eve is the consummate performer. Her outsider status is demonstrated by her incapacity to engage in repartee. The “reaction shot” is a shot that cuts away from the main focus of the scene (in this case the awards presentation) and shows the reaction of a character or, as in this case, a number of characters. |
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