The theater color of this film is very strong, the background is theater, the narrative method is theater, the extremely witty and wonderful dialogue is even more theater, but the delicate character characterization and performance are also film. The character creation is extremely skillful, and the second half shows more depth. Reducing it to the story of the high-ranking careerist, the crisis of middle-aged women, the satire of success, and the metaphor of the situation of women all underestimate the film.
It's a film about drama and self-identity: Margo struggles to navigate the duality of actor and self. She worries that her lover only loves the radiant superstar but not herself, and she worries about the dislocation between her 40-year-old self and her 20-year-old character. She is a lively woman who is endearing for her authenticity, even if she has a fiery temper.
But Eve is more complicated, and the point of understanding her lies in her opening self-statement: she can't tell the truth from fiction. When she makes up the story of Bill falling in love with her and Lloyd marrying her, she confuses reality and fiction, and reshapes reality and fantasy. Eve who is low and small, Eve who has exhausted his organs, and Eve who is on stage and off stage are all acting all the time, freely sliding from one character to another, changing from one mask to another. It's pointless to ask what she really is, because Eve doesn't have an ego that exists outside of the play. Or, according to her real background, her self is constructed from the fantasy of drama and the realization of fantasy. (The pathological diagnosis may be histrionic personality disorder with antisocial features)
Her ilk describe her most accurately: 'You're an improbable person, Eve, and so am I. We have that in common. Also a contempt for humanity, an inability to love and be loved. Insatiable ambition and talent… We deserve each other.'From this point of view, it is very appropriate for Eve to win the award, because she is a real actress and does not need to work hard as a natural performer and pretender. The end of the film is also quite subtle, but the subtlety is not only in the loop of the story. The last picture freezes when the new girl is surrounded by countless mirrors. This mirror is Eve. Unlike Margo, who has a strong personality and a stable core of self, one of the main reasons Eve is annoying is because she is empty, inhuman, and mirror. The barrage asked: Why didn't she keep vigilance against the new girl and drive her out? Can't she see the bright contrast? We don't know what happened after that, but Eve was already an award-winning superstar at this time, and she entered a new role.
Just finished watching it, a short short commentary with passion.
View more about All About Eve reviews
