All About Eve(1950)

Decided to celebrate the start of pride month by watching this historic piece of gay idolatry. Absolutely mesmerizing film. Again I was locked tf in the entire time. I am realizing how dense the dialogue is in these old films - so much so that I started taking notes just to keep myself laser focused on every line. There is so much information, so much rich context-appropriate commentary on film, theater, and showmaking as well as being a woman in showbiz.

I did wonder for a bit if you are supposed to feel sorry for Eve. Watching old movies forces me to imagine what people from that era would have received it, and I always imagined pre-second wave feminism people in general were pretty unenlightened, that really was me being presumptuous. Even with her towering talent, unstoppable drive, and cut-throat killer instincts, Eve was not able to overcome the overwhelming oppressive force of a system that spares no one. That's one of the sharpest critiques of the picture business (and the patriarchy) if I've ever seen one. 70 years later you'd still need to stack The Substance on top of Barbie to get close to this.

Lots of things here are going to stay with me. Eve slipping up on her meek humble facade from picturing a world where she would feel secure in the knowledge she'd have the love of thousands because of her fans, but it would take her a life of pain and regret to find out that 1) wanting to be someone is not the same as loving them and 2) what she thought was her dream was yet another golden cage. In addition I will be looking for every possible opportunity to say "the general atmosphere is very Macbethish".

Must say that I felt very proud of myself for genuinely not being able to tell the men in this film apart. I guess one thing that Hollywood culture has changed in a positive direction (even if under warped incentives) is that men are now also forced to distinguish themselves in this business and they are way behind women who has had centuries of lead time in this race. There is a reason Keira Knightly looked exactly the same in that Red Nose Love Actually short while Hugh Grant had to make fun of himself for "looking like a scrotum". On that note, Happy Pride.