Double Features: All About Eve & Black Swan
By Corinne Cordasco and Emily Aycrigg
Published in In Earnest Magazine in 2014
All About Eve
“Imagine, to know every night, that different hundreds of people love you.” —Eve Harrington
Why It’s Worth Watching
Written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, All About Eve (1950) tells the story of Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter), a girl intent on achieving stardom who worms her way into an elite theatrical circle by befriending aging icon Margo Channing (Bette Davis). Ranked #28 of the AFI’s 100 Greatest movies, the story explores the intersection of the personal and professional lives of women in the theater. It features memorable performances in three choice female roles, as well as several substantial supporting ones (young Marilyn Monroe appears), making it a vehicle for actresses and the men opposite them. One of the film’s strengths lies in combining urgency and winsomeness to captivate viewers. It comes as no surprise that All About Eve won six out of its 14 Academy Award nominations.
Where to Watch It: Instant streaming on Netflix, rent on Amazon Prime or iTunes for $2.99
Black Swan
“Perfection is not just about control. It’s also about letting go. Surprise yourself so you can surprise the audience. Transcendence...very few have it in them.” —Thomas Leroy
Why It’s Worth Watching
Darron Aronofsky’s psychological thriller Black Swan stands on the shoulders of Tchaikovsky’s classic Swan Lake, a myth of love, jealousy, and betrayal; Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) lands the role of the Swan Queen, comprised of the pure White Swan, as well as the sensual Black Swan. Her struggle to embody the Black Swan and to cope with the expectations of others is compounded by the eagerness of her understudy, Lily (Mila Kunis), for the role. Released in 2010, it was nominated for multiple Oscars, and Portman won Best Actress. Unlike All About Eve, Black Swan’s genius lies in how unwatchable it is, highlighting the physically and psychologically grotesque world of professional ballet. Seeking a visceral reaction from its audience, the film first alienates its characters, making many difficult, if not impossible, to like.
Where to Watch It: Rent on Amazon Prime or iTunes for $2.99
In Tandem
Though both women are artists, Nina and Eve appear so different that it’s hard to compare them. However, these films highlight the insecurities of performers completely devoted to their crafts; Nina and Eve are nothing if not insecure. Nina has spent years achieving technical perfection as a dancer but has plateaued, while Eve materializes in New York City, desperate to escape her provincial past. In pursuit of their professional goals, both women realize their limitations. They have chosen careers where youth is the ideal and admiration fades with charms. Faced with the reality of aging and desperate to advance, both characters use their sexuality strategically.
Although the audience is the ultimate arbiter of talent, access to the stage is restricted by gatekeepers: directors, writers, choreographers. In these films, as is often the case in life, men hold these roles and must be satisfied before performers ascend the stage, pitting women against each other and encouraging the use of seduction. Eve proves her skill as an actress by playing the ingénue offstage to win the attention of the prominent men that her new friends are attached to. She starts her career with an immediacy that would otherwise be impossible, while Nina’s virginal devotion to art has limited hers. The common tragedy at the center of these films is that, while both women have the talent to be worthy of an audience’s admiration, the process of gaining access to the stage destroys their integrity and sense of self.
The question “Can women have it all?” has been asked repeatedly, and these films look at the lives of women who don’t. They achieve their professional goals, but their stories focus on the cost, examining what’s next for their characters. In Black Swan, Nina’s predecessor, facing the end of her career, cannot live without the validation of her art. Margot chooses not to compete with upstarts like Eve and instead, by marrying, plays a different game, the “one career all females have in common—being a woman.”
For discussion…
Does it make a difference that both films were written and directed by men? Do they offer more than a male perspective on a female problem?
Whereas the stories of the past (Clarissa, Les Liaisons Dangereuses) depict seduction directly, these films portray the attack on virtue as passive, with Nina and Eve denied rewards until they abandon their virtue. Is this change more effective? More dangerous to women?
How culpable are Addison Dewitt and Thomas Leroy in the falls of Eve and Nina?
Assuming that a retreat to the home is not the right course, could these women have acted virtuously in devoting themselves wholly to art?