tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37163585.post2212918194770814597..comments2024-02-17T01:48:18.042-08:00Comments on Alex in Movieland: Alex Constantinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09940311552608814201noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37163585.post-24039939481063208952012-06-27T21:39:09.789-07:002012-06-27T21:39:09.789-07:00I couldn't agree more with absolutely everythi...I couldn't agree more with absolutely everything you said. This is my all-time favorite performance, even though I know that several are technically more sound and better achievements in acting (Leigh as O'Hara immediately comes to mind, I wonder why). I discovered the film about 1.5 to 2 years ago and have seen it 3 times since. Baxter is decent, Ritter is sweet, Holm is really quite good, the men are almost uniformly atrocious with an honorable mention going to the uniquely unfortunate Gary Merrill, and then you're left with my two favorite performances in their respective categories, George Sanders and Davis. Sanders's sardonic, condescending delivery is intoxicatingly venomous and alluring simultaneously. Davis is my absolute favorite actress, too. I don't really know why she is, seeing as I'm just now starting on my own Oscar quest and I've only ever seen her in Jezebel, Now, Voyager, and All About Eve, but she is. Maybe it's because she's unfailingly entertaining as the melodramatic wife. Most likely, though, it's her tremendous gift for sarcastic, cynical wit, a that she and I share, and nowhere is her gift for delivering said wit put to better use than in Mankiewicz's absolute masterpiece of a script. It's amazing to me to think that he wrote such an astoundingly beautiful and acidic screenplay. When it comes to such adaptations, he's essentially writing an original screenplay. He showed his immense promise just the year before with A Letter to Three Wives, showing in hindsight that probably his biggest mistake was attempting to make movies with central characters that weren't relatively normal women (therefore Cleopatra doesn't count). His script absolutely superb, perfect if I were tempted to go out on a limb. His speeches are brilliant, especially Sanders's deconstruction of Baxter at the end, Sanders's voice-over at the beginning, and Davis's expose of fire and music. Great actors and actresses can elevate a middling screenplay to respectability and an dismal one to, well nevermind, but it takes somebody special, really special to elevate a near, if not absolutely, perfect screenplay to the heights that All About Eve attains. Sanders succeeds. Davis succeeds even more, her delivery of each and every line being spot-on. Her scene in the theater in the theater is full of fire, while her scene in the car near the end rings with music. Therefore, with everything she did right in this masterpiece, when she tells everyone to fasten their seatbelts because "it's going to be a bumpy night," I have an immense amount of trouble believing that anything sub-outstanding is going to be coming my way.Michael Patisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03660402132708891205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37163585.post-58138794465332676922011-01-18T12:17:25.474-08:002011-01-18T12:17:25.474-08:00Those who possession of to the standard faiths cal...Those who possession of to the standard faiths call that the expert of their reliance rests on uncovering, and that pronouncement is presupposed in the pages of books and accounts of miracles and wonders whose features is supernatural. But those of us who take protracted discarded the belief in the miraculous quiescent are in the self-possession of revelations which are the purpose of faith. We too entertain our revealed religion. We from looked upon the clock of men and women that can be to us the symbols of that which is holy. We enjoy heard words of divine reason and truth oral in the human voice. In of the milieu there set up be involved a arise to us these occurrence which, when accepted, allow to us revelations, not of supernatural creed, but of a natural and sure faith in the clerical powers that animate and labour in the center of [a person's] being.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37163585.post-59161078702296170352010-09-06T23:52:47.128-07:002010-09-06T23:52:47.128-07:00no, the next one will be Miss Parker.no, the next one will be Miss Parker.Alex Constantinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09940311552608814201noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37163585.post-102694164368839292010-09-06T12:21:21.020-07:002010-09-06T12:21:21.020-07:00Yes! A great review..... And she's one of my T...Yes! A great review..... And she's one of my Top 5 favorite nominees, perhaps even number one. She'll win your vote, I think. <br /><br /><br />Is Anne next?joe burnshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01987519630654592530noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37163585.post-37657997079450717932010-09-06T12:10:13.307-07:002010-09-06T12:10:13.307-07:00I never have loved Bette or LOVED her performance ...I never have loved Bette or LOVED her performance in this but this is lovely to read.<br /><br />(I usually find it easier righting a good review than a pan.)Andrew K.https://www.blogger.com/profile/01104647944747041277noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37163585.post-87545297431015266032010-09-06T11:51:01.592-07:002010-09-06T11:51:01.592-07:00thanks guys! :)
it's always harder to do even...thanks guys! :)<br /><br />it's always harder to do even a bit of justice to the ones you really like. disliking is generally easier :)Alex Constantinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09940311552608814201noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37163585.post-1054013559154625662010-09-06T08:14:38.838-07:002010-09-06T08:14:38.838-07:00great writeup. a great performance: so much going ...great writeup. a great performance: so much going on in it and so entertaining to watch.MrJefferyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04657422824565425948noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37163585.post-57809246268684369392010-09-06T05:47:11.147-07:002010-09-06T05:47:11.147-07:00I was very much looking forward to this review bec...I was very much looking forward to this review because it's always nice when people write about their favorites and you certainly showed your love for this performance (and Bette) very well!Fritzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03291268052797806635noreply@blogger.com