All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950)

Although I doubt anyone is actually reading this, if you are reading this, I will assume that you are a fairly big fan of films. I will also assume that you, like many other film-lovers, put a great deal of importance to different DVD releases of films. Sure, the golden treasure for all film-lovers it the Criterion Collection, but since they only release a limited amount of films, and are Region 1 coded, European film-lovers are always looking out for good Region 2 releases. This is not always easy; as there are plentiful of average releases out there, perhaps most prominent are the Artificial Eye series. While it is commendable that they release art-house films and fairly rare films, the point is that they don’t always give the films they release the proper treatment, Dersu Uzala (Akira Kurosawa, 1975) being a good example of this.

That is why my discovery of Cinema Reserve is such a great one. They only release films by 20th Century Fox, but these treatments are genuinely good, and you really get a sense that the people who worked on the DVD really cared about the film. The first one I acquired was The Fly, and although I didn’t mention this in that review, I’m going to mention it now. Compared to some other DVD releases of Cronenberg films, the Cinema Reserve release is superior, with great restoration of the picture quality, really bringing forth the vivid colours of the cinematography which might have been less prominent in a weaker release. The audio is also great, not to mention the hours of extra content, such as an interesting 2-hour documentary and audio commentary by Cronenberg himself. Now what does this all have to do with All About Eve? Well, this is the second release I’ve bought by Cinema Reserve, and again I am impressed by the quality of the transfer. I know it is unusual to rant so much in a review of a film, but I am always delighted by discovering new companies who release good versions of films, and especially considering that all Cinema Reserve releases contain 2 DVD’s with tons of extra material, and at the same time are quite cheap (I haven’t found one on Amazon costing over 10£), it is a really genuine treat, and requires mention.

Watching and writing about tons of foreign films, art-house films and such, one can at some point forget about American films. Hollywood is receiving quite a bit of criticism today, particularly from film-lovers who do watch all these foreign films. It’s easy to forget that in the golden era of Hollywood, they actually made some of the best films around, some of my personal favourites being The Apartment (Billy Wilder, 1960), Letter from an Unknown Woman (Max Ophüls, 1948), Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock, 1946), In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray, 1950) and Sunset Blvd (Billy Wilder, 1950). But I still feel that the classic Hollywood era is fairly unexplored by myself, so my first attempt at filling the gaps was watching the classic All About Eve, and I have to say, it will stand as one of my all time favourites among classic Hollywood movies.

One thing that’s so special about All About Eve is that it is so unlike most other Hollywood films. I initially thought it was going to be a drama, but in fact it turned out to contain very little drama. It is in essence a truly chilling dark comedy, with some of the slyest humour I’ve ever seen in any film. This is supported by the wonderfully self-conscious screenplay. It’s an observation of the theatre culture, but it can easily be mirrored to the film industry. What makes it for me though, is the dialogue. The characters are almost aware of the fact that they are in a film, and constantly dramatise their dialogue. At first I wasn’t sure what to make of it, but as the film went on, I started to understand the writer’s intention, and from there on the dialogue was pure joy. The humour is subtle, but very funny, and there is also a then unknown Marilyn Monroe as a dim blonde actress, but is very funny. Again, this is a very untypical Hollywood film; there is no linear love story, although there are elements. We are never quite sure exactly who the protagonist is, and the story is structured in a manner rarely seen in Hollywood. It is hard to categorize this film, I know some are reluctant to mark it a dark comedy, but that’s the way I see it. The film is quite devoid of any classical drama, although there are moments that are sad and in no way funny. But still, the way the film and screenplay chooses to approach the characters and the narrative, makes it hard to seem like a drama.

I was very surprised and delighted, and will continue to watch Classical Hollywood films for some time, as they hide so many gems. This is one of the true classics though, one of the giants of the golden era of Hollywood, and in its own right a masterpiece.