Remember when you want to watch a movie but you can’t have the time, or simply just haven’t. Then when you finally can, the story happens to have the same situation as yours? As if universe wanted you watch it at the right moment. Maybe I was meant to watch All About Eve (1950) in this moment, just few months after tying the knot. Pardon me if this post is a little bit more personal. (This post might contain spoilers, so brace yourself, or read at your own risk)
All About Eve tells what big actresses suffered today. During their youth, they rise. People couldn’t get enough of them. The big roles and success just come pouring like a river. But as years go by, same as their age, their youth fades and young potentials just hungry to take their spot.
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.It’s been said that All About Eve was based on a short story, which was based on true events. Which makes it inspired by real story. Which creates more horror. Imagine that you’re in the place you dreamed of and you’re on top of the world for some time, and one day a person claim to be your number one fan, only he/she wants to steal your spot?
Some ambitious types might see it as failure, or a step back, but after years of crazy career, one might get tired of it and ready to settle down. For Margo, the career almost running half of her life. It’s a classic and common choice to settle. But sure is a surprise turn if you’re always considered yourself a modern woman. Maybe you don’t have to necessarily giving up your career all the way, but sure you will for a period of time, when you run the house, taking care of your husband and perhaps building a family. I’m not 40 yet, like Margo perhaps, or have an Eve tripping my feet, but I am just as new as her in marriage by the end of the movie. I imagine for her, it’s a big relief to finally let go of something that isn’t present anymore (her career). Deciding to let Eve gets what she wants, to forgive her. And that’s what makes All About Eve really classy.
What’s also classy is the group of friends, the two power couple; Margo and Bill, Karen and Lloyd. I enjoyed seeing them interact, their chemistry was so perfect and match seems inseparable and not at all forced. And to see the newbie version of Marilyn Monroe as the new star Miss Channing was actually a real surprise, I couldn’t believe her since she looked quite unripe.
All About Eve was so fitting. The script, the casting, the drama, Anne Baxter as Eve Harrington, the friendship between Margo and Karen, the ending shot with another Eve seeing her reflection in the mirrors, Bette Davis. I can’t quite compare the actors with their other performances since I’m myself a newbie on classic movies, but they are all spotless. But if you ask me what impressed me a lot, it was Margo Channing.
Slow curtain, the end.
Movie Score :
