Text: Overnight flowers
When entertainment consumption became a part of public life, the discussion about the "sea of stars" has not stopped, and there are countless Hollywood movies on this theme, and the four versions of "The Birth of a Star" alone are enough to connect the film history of nearly a hundred years, but such themes are often reduced to a stereotyped routine.
In essence, the truth of "spending a hundred days of red" is plain and simple enough, for the audience" is often a kind of talking point, with mass entertainment, through the worship, viewing, and discussion of stars, making the plain life full of fun; and for actors and stars, the ups and downs of star fortune and career crisis are serious and heavy topics, and many times are covered up and avoided.
Therefore, there are very few who can clearly explain this theme and are regarded as classics. By Joseph M. Directed by L. Mankiewicz and starring Betty Davis, "Comet Beauty" won the 23rd Academy Awards for Best Film, Director, Screenwriter and other important awards, which is a perfect interpretation of this theme.
Written by Joseph M. Thompson, who started the screenwriting and then directed the work, L. Mankiewicz is not known for his stylized audiovisual characteristics and authorial video means; unlike "telling stories in the language of the lens", he pays great attention to the text, lines, language and the performance, recitation and interaction of the actors, which is evident in films such as "Julius Caesar" and "Summer Obsession". Therefore, the significance of "Comet Beauty" to the history of Hollywood film development lies mainly in the satire of its text to the entire theater industry, the film industry, the entertainment industry and even the entire pan-entertainment industry ecology.
As the world's most influential base for "making dreams", hollywood's spirit of "self-examination" has always run through the creative attitude of filmmakers. From "Sunset Boulevard" to "Moulin Rouge" and "Chicago", Hollywood practices the theme of dream-making, but also tells the audience: how many idealists have been snuffed out and how much integrity and goodness have been destroyed by the illusory dreams built by money and fame.
The film "Comet Beauty" won the Oscars, with more specific factors of the times.
First, the development and reform of film technology, sound films have banned silent films, eliminated some workers, and derived new film work departments;
Second, the maturity of the film industry ecosystem, publicity, release, review, creators (filmmakers), consumers (audience), communicators (media) between the formation of a subtle brake, a complete and systematic pan-film industry "ecological chain" formation, filmmakers jointly pursue commercial (box office), art (awards) two aspects of achievements;
Third, from the Great Depression to the Second World War to the relative stability after the war, the aesthetic trend brought about by the changes in the economic environment and the changes in the psychology of the audience. The back wave pushes the front wave, and the new person replaces the old person. Generation after generation of young audiences, after all, prefer more modern, cutting-edge, fashionable cultural and entertainment products, and the products of those specific eras will inevitably be forgotten and placed in archives.
In the public's memory, most of the mediocre works are forgotten in the process of "eliminating the old and establishing the new", but the "gold" after the big waves and sand and the polishing of the years are rare. In this way, Hollywood filmmakers feel more cruel. The film "Comet Beauty" not only examines the entertainment industry as a filmmaker, with a full self-examination and self-deprecating spirit; at the same time, it is inevitably assimilated by the worldly dyeing vat because of the fear of obscurity and the pursuit of success, and the universality of this life metamorphosis in all walks of life makes the film resonate widely.
01
The movie "Comet Beauty" uses concrete, personalized, and clear character images and the portrayal of the relationship between them to metaphorically an abstract, typical, widespread and universal ukiyo-e and sentient beings in the film industry.
The film adopts the structure of two heroines (Margo-Eve) who are "mirroring each other", which is also the true meaning of the title "All About Eve".
Margo is a female star at the peak of her career, a talented and beloved actress. She symbolizes the star-making products of the hollywood studio period and represents the "idol myth" of the golden age. Those big stars with unlimited scenery and charm in the spotlight, they have become the object of worship of the audience, the stars from the public's perspective, integrating beauty and mystery. She is confident, competent, straightforward, and fierce, but also arrogant, arrogant, brash, and arrogant.
Eve is one of many ordinary people who aspire to be a star, and unlike others, she has the ambition to become the next "Margot" and puts it into action, she uses Margot as a blueprint for success, speculates, and tries to replace her as a superstar by imitating her words and deeds. So she began to make up lies to win sympathy and get opportunities through her wrists. Eve, who is full of honey and swords and is old and sophisticated, finally approaches her star dream step by step through various means.
Everything about Eve, from the most direct story, is about Eve's metamorphosis, from a dreamer with a dream to a real star; and from the extension of the "mirror structure": Eve and Margot, more like two stars, two stages of an actress's life than two specific people - everything about Eve is everything about Margot, everything about a superstar (starting to prosper - to the peak - to the end - to the fall) is everything.
The birth of a star corresponds to the disappearance of a star.
Therefore, the mirror relationship between Margot and Eve reflects the career and life rules of any star. In the film, Bertie, who has been a theater superstar for more than a decade, has become Margot's housekeeper, which is the situation of tomorrow's yellow flowers; and the rising star played by Marilyn Monroe is a metaphor for the continuous continuation of the "star myth".
Addison, as a critic and columnist, is similar to Hollywood film critics and critics. As a drama critic, he plays a pivotal role in the chain of communication between the director, screenwriter, actor and audience. As a so-called "authoritative" drama critic, his ability to guide and manipulate public opinion is self-evident. Therefore, young actors and the new generation of theater have won the reputation of the audience by co-opting, flattering, flattering and flattering critics.
The result of the drama critic Addison's circling between different actors and playwrights is that he has cultivated the skills of dancing ink, manipulating right and wrong, clever tongue, and inciting emotions, relying on the tricks of opportunistic drilling and fishing in muddy waters.
02
Borrowing the "theater industry" metaphor for the "film circle" is a common means used by Hollywood directors, and the wonderful thing about the movie "Comet Beauty" is that it is not only a mirror presentation of the "insider" of the film industry, but also shows the multiple dilemmas faced by "actresses".
First of all, as a mass entertainment consumer product, the audience pursues timeliness and trends, so stars need to strictly control the shape, plan the image, and stay in the appearance to retain the audience's love.
It is true that female stars have a goddess aura in the public perspective, and are the object of worship and admiration, but when "female stars" become a kind of talking points that are used for entertainment, entertainment, and boredom, "female stars" become an object of "being watched" and "being examined".
Secondly, actresses are weaker than the dominant male directors and producers, and they are weaker under the gender order controlled by male discourse power.
This "unfairness" and "inequality" is reflected in the creation of female characters. On the one hand, the stereotyped, conceptualized and flattened female characters such as "snake scorpion woman", "gold worship woman" and "blonde girl" popular in Hollywood imply the "misogyny" of male creators - through dwarfing, repression, depreciation and other means to dispel the inner worries about the elevation of women's position and women's awakening;
On the other hand, female characters in male screenwriters and filmmakers are often imprisoned in the shackles of housewives, mothers, and wives, and their values end in raising children, returning to the family, and redeeming men, while women's self-needs are in a state of "aphasia" under the male discourse.
Whether in any language or cultural environment in the world, middle-aged and elderly actresses are always facing a more severe test than male actors of the same age, which has the problem of role distribution: taking the classic Hollywood era as an example, middle-aged male actors can freely walk in various types of films, both as heroes of Westerns and gangster films, as well as romantic films and melodramas; and the roles provided to middle-aged actresses are nothing more than mothers and housewives.
The heroine Margot's panic about age, the helplessness of aging, and the difficulty of controlling her lover are the embodiment of the actress's multiple "aphasias". And Betty Davis's interpretation of Margot is a kind of irony and rebellion against the dilemma faced by actresses.
As the second of the top 100 star actresses in the 100 years selected by AFI (Film Institute of America), her own image is a kind of rebellion and resistance to the dilemma of actresses being objectified.
Unlike Joan Crawford, who shows herself as a delicate and gorgeous and well-groomed star, Betty Davis's own image is anti-standard sweet and delicate, but has always used deep and broad role shaping ability and excellent business literacy to set a benchmark for actresses in Hollywood.
More crucially, Betty Davis' self-personality to film image is a manifestation of the values of independent women. Back in 1940, in William Wheeler's "Tears of Incense", the heroine played by Betty Davis shot and killed her treacherous lover. Throughout his screen career, he resisted the distortion and alienation of women by male rights, and pursued women's self-expression and spiritual freedom.
Betty Davis's performance is more conceptual and flat, and the image he portrays is close to the natural plainness and three-dimensional richness of modern performance aesthetics. Margo's arrogance, arrogance, and arrogance, Margot's vulnerability, anxiety, and loneliness are intertwined, showing a multi-faceted personality charm.
03
The kaleidoscopic scene reflected by the multiprism at the end is an enhancement of the film's structure. The relationship between Eve and Margot constitutes the birth and disappearance of stars, and the multi-prism reflects thousands of sentient beings who are doing "star dreams" walking in the star ups and downs of "Eve Margot".
Is it to achieve fame, the brilliance of flowers and applause, unscrupulous, at all costs to obtain?
Or is it to follow the rules, to abide by the rules, and to choose to become a mediocre and bland "majority"?
The movie "Comet Beauty" does not try to make judgments and give choices, nor does it become a simple accusation of attacking the world's customs, people's hearts are not ancient, and moral degeneration, nor does it deliberately flaunt the reproduction of tradition and respect the loyalty, thrift, and goodness in classical values.
Success at the secular level requires a price; after stepping out of the ivory tower, integrating into the big dye vat, and stepping onto the "way of success", the simplicity and original intention of the past have slowly changed.
Whether it is to go with the flow, to be burdened by fame and fortune, or to be loyal to the heart, to stick to oneself, not to bend over for the world, or to use cynical, game-like ways and ridicule, and jokes to fight the corruption of civilization and the degeneration of human nature, you need to pay the price and take responsibility for the relevant life choices.
The significance of the film "Comet Beauty" for the entire Hollywood film is the most worthy of deep consideration in the film, not so much as satirizing and criticizing the behind-the-scenes aspects of Hollywood, but rather as a reflection and criticism of the creator's identity as a filmmaker (the function of artistic creation and cultural dissemination).
The reconciliation between ideal and reality, the compromise between art and entertainment, and the devouring of the original intention of art by secular materialism are always staged in Hollywood. When the external glitz and brilliance obscure the enthusiasm for creation and the sincerity of dreams, how to realize the value of filmmakers? It's a matter of endless thinking.