The film Mildred Pierce (1945) is an American standard collection of The Criterion Collection Blu-ray Edition cover
Mildred Pierce (1945), directed by Michael Curtiz (1886-1962), who made Casablanca Casblanca, is a 1945 work that not many fans have seen today. However, at the 18th Academy Awards in 1946, Joan Crawford (1904-1977) won Best Actress for her brilliant rendition of the protagonist Mildred Pearce. The film's screenwriting is relatively weak, and the performance of the highlighting star should not have been filmed by Billy Wilder (1906-2002) if it was Billy Wilder (1906-2002), but this treatment left more room for the actor to play and send Joan Crawford to the podium. Although the story of this film is a typical soap opera, the script is written sharply and literarily, does not let ethical affection flow into abuse, and also strictly controls the depression and touching atmosphere of the plot development, so it is known as one of the best ethical popular dramas in the history of American cinema.
A clip from the film Mildred Pierce (1945).
"Desire for the Sea" is about a woman's blood and tears struggle history in the consumerist society, when she managed to build a corporate kingdom of her own, that is, flying up the branches into a phoenix, but because of her excessive thirst for untouchable things and people and collapsed, like a meteor stone into decadence. In addition, the protagonist Mildred Pierce (played by Joan Crawford) in the geographical space, feelings and lust and other three aspects of confusion disorder, experienced the joy of the million watts into gold, but also encountered the ten thousand gold into the unbearable, perhaps in the occasional dream awakening, from the Colonnado Avenue to Pasadena's chic orange bush road, she will teach the hurricane-like surprise and loss, under the shining aura of california dreams, I was shocked to see that the road is full of traps and traps, although the advertisement always seems to tell you: there is gold everywhere, A full load is an opportunity.
In the studio of the film Mildred Pierce (1945), Joan Crawford and Ann Blyth knit sweaters
In the prototype of the film noir, the "snake scorpion beauty" is a must, and the stupid tough guy who sacrifices for the snake scorpion beauty. However, in Sea Of Lust, Mildred Pierce is a stupid tough guy, while her daughter Vader (Ann Blyth) takes the position of Scorpion Beauty and toysses Mildred Pierce. The men in the movie, in a way, are also the male version of the snake and scorpion beauty (or the male version of the fallen city), which brings disaster to the female tough guy. And Mildred Pierce seems to have a kind of envy for the idle and well-behaved men, as if it were an elegant gesture. In the case of her two husbands, one unemployed is unwilling to bend his waist, the other is unwilling to work and earn money for his high social dignity, and finally he is reduced to being taken in turn by mother and daughter. The perversion of gender roles is obvious: Mildred Pierce swept her first husband, Bert, out of the house to support her husband on her behalf, and the way she pampered her daughter Vader was like a rich entrepreneur who sprinkled money on his mistress and offered her to buy all kinds of luxuries to show off her wealth.
She then married playboy Monty Bellogen to elevate her social status and promise to renovate Monty's dilapidated mansion in Pasadena. The woman is working hard to support the family outside to make money, the man is busy decorating the love nest, like a little daughter-in-law asking Mildred Pierce's opinion on the interior decorations, wallpaper, furniture, as if she married him, the female outside and the male inside.
In a way, the character of Mildred Pierce can be seen as a feminist striker, a woman who lives out of her own time. But she is more like a female reversal of the cold male characters in Kane's novels, unable to resist her animality, and desire is like a magnet that cannot be shaken off, allowing it to be slaughtered and given. This intensely masochistic/masochistic master-slave relationship has a certain degree of unsentimental pathology, nakedly revealing the dark side of human nature. Perhaps, in hardcore novels or film noir, there is a certain degree of preaching: people with excessive and inappropriate desires are to accept the punishment, and Mildred Pierce finally loses her graceful figure, her self-esteem, her hard-earned career, and suffers the rout of the millions of dollars, is it all because her coveting of her daughter violates the traditional social norms?
On the set of the film Mildred Pierce (1945), director Michael Curtiz (right) and Joan Crawford (left) talk
Hidden in the dark corners of human nature is the uninhibited madness, the unstoppable eagerness at a certain end, and occasionally, the momentum of the madness rushes to the heroine, and in a flash, she has fallen into the net of conspiracy and betrayal, and the overflowing emotions are woven into an intricate mystery that traps herself in it and cannot escape.
To use the crude Freud logic of popular culture, Kane's novel is pan-sexual Libido like a gluttonous beast that throws its head in blood for sex, or replaces it with a subversive emotional violence. The protagonist's behavior is always guided by an absurd self-destructive mechanism, as if he/she had to use this way to vent the volatilization of the dampness generated by the subliminal inhibition of Libido.
Originally written by James M. Cain, a novelist of the same name by James M. Cain, an important figure in literary history, his Double Indemnity (1944) and The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) were also adapted into Hollywood films. Compared to Billy Wilder, who directed Double Reparations, Michael Curtis is less obsessed with tough guy style and film noir and more deeply involved in moral dilemmas and emotional entanglements.
Poster for the American version of the movie Mildred Pierce (1945).
Joan Crawford experienced four consecutive years of annual box office glory from 1933 to 1936, and suddenly became the box office poison in the mouth of theater owners in 1938, and this hat was difficult to get rid of. Greta Garbo (1905-1990), who had won the lottery at the same time as Joan Crawford, chose to fade out of the screen, while Joan Crawford, who had been thrown into the second-tier production, couldn't bear it in 1943 and decided to terminate her contract with MGM. This was an important means for the star to negotiate terms with the studio, and Betty Davis (1908-1989), dissatisfied with Warner's arrangement of some unskilled home movies, forced Warner to offer "Tears marked woman" (1937) and "Red Shirt Tears Jezebel" (1938) and other masterpieces in 1936. However, MGM, which has more stars than in paradise, did not say anything to Joan Crawford.
Stills from the movie "Mildred Pierce" (1945).
The freed Joan Crawford began to search for a role of her own, and Warner Bros. decided to start filming the best-selling novel adaptation of the film "The Sea Of Desires", and they also took a fancy to Joan Crawford and decided to let her star, directed by the well-known director Michael Curtis. But Michael Curtis was so reluctant to work with Joan Crawford that he shouted in his office: "Let me direct that woman with a quirky temperament, even if I desperately want to do it!" Let her walk away with her uncanny flamboyance and that damn shoulder pad! Then Joan Crawford put down the shelf and approached Michael Curtis and told him, "Let's try it?" Michael Curtis reluctantly agreed. In order to fight for the role, Joan Crawford lowered her posture to Michael Curtis to suggest that she audition first, but the result was so good that both sides were convinced of each other. The film eventually sent Joan Crawford to the Oscars, the heart of all Hollywood stars.
Greta Garbo and Norma Shearer (1902-1983) disappeared one after another, and time cleared her of strong competitors, the year she got the little golden man, Hollywood renewed interest in her, allowing her to continue to enjoy the camera and applause, adopted daughter Christina wrote in Joan Crawford's biography "Dear Mommy Momme Dearest" (1981), you can hate her relentlessly, you can love her unreservedly , but you must not ignore her.
It is worth mentioning that the character of Mildred Pierce in "Sea Of Desire" originally belonged to Betty Davis. At that time, Betty Davis did not see this role, but was "leaky" Joan Crawford seized the opportunity to shine, but Betty Davis pushed off the role to take over another film "Splendid Future The Corn Is Green" (1945) did not even get the nomination, this "liangzi" was also concluded.
Stills from the movie Mildred Pierce (1945).
In 1946, after Joan Crawford won an Oscar for "The Sea Of Desires," Betty Davis sent her a congratulatory telegram with only one word— "congratulations." Joan Crawford thanked him in the newspaper and suggested that the two collaborate on a film. Betty Davis's response was, "Then wait until hell freezes." ”
Joan Crawford's performance gives a very strange feeling. It has always been believed that only a few actors can perform several different feelings,—— no matter what he plays, an expression and a frown raise his hand and turn around, there is always his own temperament. There is a tragedy of "a thousand faces". And the reason why Joan Crawford is amazing is that the weakness, helplessness, sincerity, and vulnerability of her roles after the age of 40, and the arrogance, strength, beauty, and aggressiveness of her twenties and thirties, are all so real that people feel that she has been such a character and temperament all her life. Except for the same face, it seemed as if it were two people. Beyond that, the heaviness of the film and the attack on the parasitic life of the fallen nobility are not to be said.
Luckily for Joan Crawford in 1945, Joan Crawford's acting career had fallen to a low point, and her appearance in "The Devil of the Sea" was her last chance, and if she failed again, she would quit the entertainment industry forever. This time, Joan Crawford's dedication touched director Michael Curtiss and everyone in the crew. The producers of "The Sea of Desires" suggested that gossip columnist Heda Hopper write an article pointing out that Joan Crawford's acting skills were enough to win an Oscar. The proposal was implemented, and the 1946 Academy Award for Best Actress was awarded to Joan Crawford. It was the first elaborate Academy Awards campaign that Joan Crawford won an Oscar for, marking the Oscars forever.
Use the popularity and acting characteristics of the actors to win the bargaining value of the goods, and select stars from among the crowd that satisfy the seller's market to participate in the system of survival of the fittest. It doesn't matter if the idol himself exists or not, how strong the vitality of the image is. The so-called packaging is the essential root of the commercial society.
In the 1940s, a role like Mildred Pierce in The Sea of Desire was hard to play. You can feel Joan Crawford sacrificing herself, desperate to put all the love she is a mother for the sake of her daughter. In fact, after Mildred Pierce's marriage was broken, she put all her love into her daughter — she worked hard to make money, arranged dates with people she didn't love (for financial gain), opened a chain of restaurants, and even blamed her daughter for murder. Her only wish is to win her daughter's love for her, but unfortunately her daughter is a selfish person.
Joan Crawford accurately interprets this sympathetic mother. She shows two sides of the character: she is cold-blooded and strong to outsiders; she is gentle and strict with her daughter, caring and teaching. Joan Crawford's performances are always powerful: she performs reprimands to others, a tone of great boldness (among actresses only Betty Davis can compete with her); she does not cry out in pain, but tears of sadness and despair, which is the embodiment of her fierce and weak conflict.
The most difficult is a scene at the end of the phone call. Joan Crawford's inner contradictions were at their extreme, and she struggled bitterly between calling the police and not reporting them—tears in her determined expression, trembling in a low tone; she hesitated in tension, sadness, love, and despair, as if she were about to collapse at once... Her heart was torn in half by her daughter, and Mildred Pierce received sympathy from everyone.
Joan Crawford is no ordinary actress, to be precise, she is a movie superstar. The difference is very important: she rarely appears in top films, and her films are rarely called "outstanding", regardless of the material, but she is the most successful actress in film history and the longest actress in her acting career.
She was born charming, a person on top of people, and her star temperament is simply innate. Everything about her, from her history of going from nothing to being worthy, and all her tireless efforts to be under the flash, made her the best material for Hollywood's DreamWorks. Her daughter's book about her autobiographical nature brazenly reveals Joan Crawford's eroded private life, allowing her to truly "earn her posthumous name."
The movie "Mildred Pierce" (1945) original album cover
Does "Lust for the Sea" have such a special place in film noir? Its influence on pop culture has left a mark on Bibidge, with Joan Crawford playing Mildred Pierce in the 1940s being used as the subject of a drag show by the gay queer culture that rose in the 1960s, learning joan Crawford's hairstyles and shoulder-padded suits in films.
Of course, Joan Crawford is beautiful for her atmosphere (face, facial features, tall man, and world-famous shoulders), and her film noir is even more beautiful in this film noir, "The Sea Demon". But her beauty didn't hide her acting skills, and Joan Crawford overcame Ingrid Bergman (1915-1982) in The Bells of St. Mary's (1945), the Oscar-winning little golden man. Although she did not arrive at the award receiving site and was afraid of failure.
It is said that Joan Crawford herself did not expect it at the time, and did not participate in the award ceremony under the pretext of holding illness, and later sat down on the bed to take this famous photo of the little golden man with a hand, as a satire on Betty Davis Bette Davis