Review of All About Eve (1950) by Athena N — 04 Dec 2012

All About Eve: After a staggering 14 nominations, it is not incomprehensible to acknowledge that the charm of 'Eve' is due to its perfection in every categorical cinematic junction known to man. Truly terrific.

All About Eve is without a shadow of a doubt Bette Davis's most acclaimed film. With such a starry cast, including an unknown Marilyn Monroe and such dialectic script, these characters before us live out in the greatest story about the industry ever told. Margo Channing (Davis) is a star, pure and simple: she's good and she bloody well knows it. Due to this she takes for granted everything around her. Her love, her friends and her career. When Eve makes an appearence, apparently an avid obsessed and stupendously modest fan with a sob story that would reduce Simon Cowell to handing her a record deal, Eve begins to spin her deceitful web of lies to secure an infiltration into replacing Margo. Eve, it has to be said has to be the cinema's biggest 'BITCH' (they should have replaced the alien queen with her at the end of Aliens). Margo discovers and quickly reverts her initial warmth towards the girl and sets about trying to convince others she's up to something. The multi-stranded plot is so expertly paced out by Mankiewicz that our four nominated actresses compell and bind us to the screen, that George Sanders' evil critic turns to good eventually lulling Eve into a sense of security. What I loved about this film was the transformation of Anne Baxter's character, it's a development shared in depth with Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood. She turns into a colder, even more self-sure actress than Margo does, and after discovering a fan of hers in her room it seems as though the process is about to repeat itself. This for me was absolutely F-ing brilliant storytelling and structurally it is virtually impossible to sink All About Eve, its the ultimate Oscar film (that is worthy) and renewed success for Davis that would again peter out after 'The Star'. The dialogue is so razor sharp and Davis' touch 'It's going to be a bumpy night' only increase a performance that encapsualtes Davis herself. All About Eve is a deep film, but not unscrutable like Citizen Kane's waves of symbolism or shallow like any of todays Oscar contenders (The Hurt Locker has little depth or perspective into the war. Avatar is blockbuster at its best but shallow. Up In The Air flies too near Indie to really be a cinematic marvel. Inglourious is too disjointed and ranging in its degree's of brilliance to truly deserve.) This is the golden age of cinema, a more creative studio production that for fans of 'real movies' to enjoy. Outstanding. Top ten film? Maybe...