All about Eve Review

Number 86 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 1950 All About Eve.

Margot Channing (Bette Davies) is a fading Broadway star who is about to turn 40 thus marking the end of her career.  After a performance one night, Channing meets Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter) a superfan who inserts herself into Channing's life threatening her career and personal relationships, especially with boyfriend Bill Sampson (Gary Merill) and maid Birdie (Thelma Ritter.)

In light of today's celebrity culture, this was a great film to watch.  Celebrities have absolutely no privacy nowadays.  Case in point Brangelina's divorce hitting newspapers across the world.  However, it's not just the papers that celebrities have to worry about, but also fans.  You also hear stories about fans tracking down their favourite celebrities for autographs and photos, but sometimes for more sinister purposes.  For example, Britney Spears was bombarded with lover letters, David Letterman had a fan who thought they were together and Selena Gomez received death threats when she started dating Justin Bieber.  Especially with the advent of the internet, celebrities are never out of the limelight and this is a film which perfectly captures on this point.

Although it seems that Eve Harrington is just a slightly overzealous fan, she soon turns into something far darker.  She tells a questionable sob story about why she loves Margot Channing so much before progressively taking over her life.  First of all she replaces Margot's dedicated maid Birdie, before slowly breaking up Margot's relationships and scheming to supplant her by training as her understudy and making her miss performances.  As such this made the film a great commentary on the idolatry of celebrities today and also the superficiality of fame.  Margot knows that her youthful looks are fading and thus she fears that she will be replaced by a younger, prettier actress and this is exactly what happens.  Margot becomes continually unhinged, as Eve starts to supercede her.

This also makes the film a great portrayal of the pressure of living in the public eye and staying relevant.  As I was saying relevant, Margot fears getting older as she knows that everyone could soon forget about her.  In a sense, this film is a little like Sunset Boulevard.  Obviously, I'm no expert, but considering that this film was released in the Golden Age of Hollywood, where studios were all rushing to make as many films as possible, it wouldn't surprise me if this was what life was like for some Hollywood starlets.  I watched this with my Dad who told me about how Alfred Hitchcock described actors as cattle who just recite lines.  Judging from this film, I think this is right.

At the film's conclusion, Eve, who is starting to become the next big thing, encounters her own superfan in her dressing room.  This was a great way to end the film, as it once again accentuates the superficiality of fame.  There's every chance that this superfan could do to Eve what she did to Margot.

My dad told me that Bette Midler was always type-cast as cynical, battle-weary characters like Margot Channing and such played this role well.  Whilst this film wasn't always the most engaging or easy to follow, there were times that I did drop off and miss a few bits, I did really like the messages behind it.  This is especially because they're so pertinent with how celebrities are idolised today.

"In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes." Andy Warhol