This is a very good American drama, although it is dubbed "American Tear Story", but everything it tells is far more than the ripping off of two out-of-date female stars.
Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, two Oscar winners, a pair of rivals. What is it that makes them hate each other so much? After reading a lot of comments, some say that male-dominated production companies and unscrupulous gossip reporters are trying to sow discord for commercial purposes, while others say that they just want to use challenges to attract each other's attention and win each other's respect. Of course, these are all right, but I always feel that there is actually something else, something hidden in their past life experiences, that we have not discovered.
After all, in the words of Olivia de Havilland, played by Catherine Zeta Jones in the play, the old enemy has nothing to do with resentment, the old enemy comes from pain - and the source of pain is often an unbearable past.
In the first six episodes of this play, probably all the audience's balance will be tilted towards Betty, because she is too much like the elite women who are in the workplace today. She is independent, confident, and self-improving. She can sleep with a man for a moment of pleasure, but never Because you have an affair with a director or producer, you feel that you should get all the roles that are suitable and unsuitable, or play big names on the set. As for Joan, she is inferior and arrogant, and she is vain and vain. In order to appear under the spotlight of the Oscars, even if she didn't win the award, she would be a presenter, and she even offered to help the young actor receive the trophy, just to experience the thrill of "winning again". This look will not look much better than today's "blanket stars".
But when I saw the seventh episode, I saw Betty before having sex with director Bob, she said sadly that she actually envied Joan's beauty, she didn't need to say lines or show her acting skills, she just stood there and could Upside down all beings; and the former herself, when she was twenty-two years old, because of her mediocre appearance, no man was willing to have a relationship with her. At that moment, I realized that Betty also had pain and lack of self-confidence in her heart. She was so disgusted with Joan because, in fact, Joan was born with something that she could not get with all her efforts.
Joan was drunk, missed the return time, was forgotten by the entire crew in the RV in the suburbs, and returned to the hotel late at night after several rounds. All her disgust and hatred for Betty broke out at this moment. After a quarrel, Betty seemed ashamed, and she asked Joan a question--
How does it feel to be the most beautiful woman in the world?
Joan was stunned for a moment, and then answered defiantly, that is the happiest thing you can think of, but others will never be enough.
Joan asked Betty, how do you feel as the most gifted and talented woman in the world?
Betty suppressed the sadness of being stabbed in the sore spot by Joan, and answered arrogantly, great, and it is also never enough.
After seeing this, I realized that they became enemies not because of resentment, but because of pain. The reason for the pain is that they saw in each other the perfect self that they wanted to be, but were never able to reach.
Joan's childhood was unfortunate. She was mistreated by her mother, violated by her stepfather, and lost her virginity at the age of eleven. Before entering Hollywood, she cleaned toilets, danced hot dances in nightclubs, and did the most bitter and lowly business in the eyes of all people. Don't you see, when the well-born Olivia de Havilland mentioned Joan's early experiences, the corners of her eyes flashed with contempt and disdain.
God gave Joan her beauty and natural charm, so she tried her best and made every effort to climb to the top of the glitzy world of Hollywood, almost unscrupulously. She became the modern goddess in Fitzgerald's heart and the Oscar queen. However, she was not really happy when she became famous. The lack of self-confidence brought by the shadow of childhood, and the lack of security, accompanied her long life.
She lives in a man-dominated world of gold dust. They said that you can change roles by color and body, and she did it; they said that she could be more photogenic by pulling out her teeth and changing her appearance, and she did it; To become an Oscar-winning actress, she did the same. When all this was done, she thought she was finally perfect, at least in everyone's eyes. She just needs to find a good man to marry, and then sit back and enjoy flowers and applause and become another Hollywood legend.
But unexpected circumstances, her wealthy husband died, leaving her a lot of trouble and debt. She wanted to use her former popularity to return to the big screen to support herself, but at this time, all men, all men who really had the capital and the right to speak, looked at her with cold eyes. You're old, they say, and Hollywood needs young goddesses.
She tried her best to polish herself into a dazzling and perfect diamond, but at this time, the chasing light that hit the diamond went out. She was left in the dark with no one watching. Long nights and loneliness after the light is more unbearable than never being illuminated.
She has always wanted to be a better person in the eyes of others, more beautiful, more attractive, and more acting. She gained fame and applause for this, but her happiness did not come from self-confidence and self-knowledge, but from pomp and vanity. And when the prosperity dissipated, she also lost her happiness. As for truly firm self-confidence, she has never had it, just as she has never had real warm family affection.
In the play, her contemporary actress Joan Browndale told a metaphor. She said, for example, you go to a restaurant all your life, you are a good customer, you tip generously, the waiters like you, and you spend your life savings here; but suddenly one day, They are no longer enthusiastic, treat you with cold eyes, and don't even let you read the menu; at this time, can you resist the urge to shred the tablecloth?
Under such an impulse, Joan Crawford decided to fight Betty to death. She gambled on her credibility and professional integrity by feigning sickness and sabotage in an attempt to drag off Betty's role as a producer in a movie in which she starred. Of course this irrational, desperate revenge won't work. Betty invited her friend Olivia to play the role of Joan Crawford, so Joan's acting career as a big star came to an end, and she could no longer star in big productions and good films.
In the final analysis, she is not revenge on Betty, but revenge on the world that has been unfair to her, oppressed her and abandoned her. Sadly, she wants to take revenge on all her haters in Hollywood, but everything she's done before, and all the standards she's asked herself to meet, have been made and shaped by those haters. Ironically, she seems to have a bit of luck in her crazy revenge. These enemies can see her sorrow and pity her. Once they shake hands with her and make peace, she can let go of it.
However this is not possible.
As a woman involved in the roulette wheel of the male-dominated world, she can only end up losing all the games - if she can't jump out of this vicious circle and enter an environment where she can control the rules of the game to a certain extent.
So, would Joan be happy in today's society without the injustices brought about by patriarchy?
I don't think so.
She is always envious of things that she can't get, such as her extraordinary acting skills, but she turns a blind eye to the beauty and temperament she already has - don't think that she is more diligent than Betty to maintain her beauty, and beauty is just a bargaining chip for her to gain status and respect , and this cold stack of chips has never brought her true self-confidence and happiness.
In the final analysis, she is a diamond that wants to be a pearl. It is dazzling enough, but she yearns for the tempered luster.
But who says a woman has to be perfect? Are you truly happy when you are your perfect self? Isn't true happiness accepting one's own imperfection and living peacefully with it? In the war between you and yourself, the only one who can make peace is you. Reconcile with yourself and accept the flawed self, and then you can gain true self-confidence and happiness.
Back to Betty.
Like Betty, she had an unhappy childhood. Her parents divorced, and her mother sent her to boarding school for a living. However, the days there taught her to be brave and strong, and fortunately for Bijoon, she had a mother who loved her until her death, and she felt that her mother was her best friend and a strong backing for her pursuit of ideals. Although in the final episode, we find that this is not the case, but everything that her mother gave to Betty in the past has been enough to give her the strength to face all the difficulties - very simply, her mother's love and support has taught her to believe this. beauty in the world. The sense of security and belief built since childhood prevented her from being knocked down and swallowed up by the despair brought about by the shadow of childhood, like Joan.
And Betty is a failed mother, not because she is too selfish, but because she is too selfish. She wanted too much to instill the law of the jungle into her daughter BD, so as to protect her from harm in this world where men have the right to speak, but she forgot that the real powerful self-protection comes from the love of beauty and faith. Unconditional belief is the so-called sense of security. An insecure child is destined to have many difficulties in the future pursuit of happiness.
Compared with the dazzling light of Joan's diamond, Betty is indeed a pearl that has been cultivated through untold hardships. She regards all the pain and inferiority as the deepest gravel of pearl, wrapped layer by layer. When she finally became a round pearl one day, she almost forgot the existence of those past scars. In the journey of life, she has been saddened, but she is self-reliant and she will always wipe away her tears and continue through trials and hardships. Her talent and diligence can be touched with her hands even in the dark, so she is not afraid of the cold nights in her life without chasing the light, and she always moves forward bravely.
Betty's tombstone is engraved with a sentence - "She chose a hard and diligent road."
It is true, and she has walked the path she chose, overcoming obstacles and without regrets.
In the second year of Joan's death, Betty's detective suspense film "Murder on the Nile" was released, in which Betty played the kleptomaniac Mrs. Van Schuyler. At that time, her face was full of wrinkles and vicissitudes, and her figure was no longer as slender as she was when she was young. Only the powerful aura brought by her talent and accumulation was beyond the reach of any young and beautiful female star.
The lady she played has a line, which I believe is familiar to anyone who has seen this movie. And this line also happens to be about pearls.
"Necklace is so beautiful, it's amazing - do you know how it changed? A grain of sand got into a clam shell and turned into a beautiful pearl..."
She said the line with a confident smile on her face.
I think she should like how she looks after years of polishing.
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