Opening Statement

Like most cinephiles, I break out in cold sweats when someone asks me what my favorite movie is. I often change my answer depending on my mood and how much hand-wringing I feel like doing. But more often than not, the answer I give is All About Eve – by Felicia Elliott, February 27, 2017

And the True Villain Goes To...

Much of the literature surrounding the film would lead you to believe that Anne Baxter's Eve is a conniving, villainous woman who'd lie, cheat, and steal to get ahead. While that's not necessarily untrue, I think the film explicitly and implicitly sets up Eve to be a rather sympathetic individual – by John Gilpatrick, February 28, 2017

Framing the Feud

In using him as a narrator, Mankiewicz uses Dewitt as a foil—a foil for his co-narrator Karen, who is an unselfish if not perfect friend to Margo, but also one for the style of the film itself, which is so democratic. One of the things that makes All About Eve such a masterfully staged film, one whose snappy dramedy is surely as effective today as it was in 1950, is this use of multiple voices – by Patrick Brown, March 1, 2017

Life Imitating Art: Performance, Ego, and Artifice

We want actors to lie to us, manipulate us, reflect our best and worst qualities, and make us tear up even when we know it’s all a ruse, a con, a parlor trick dressed up in nice dresses that sparkle under the limelight. We look to the movies for answers and truth, missing the irony of just what an illusion such stories are – by Zachary Davis, March 2, 2017

Re-thinking the 23rd Academy Awards

The 23rd Annual Academy Awards took place on March 29, 1951 during a tense political climate, not unlike the one which has pervaded the awards season this year. 1951 was just before the peak of the Blacklist, and the sense of paranoia and suspicion is evident in many of the films nominated that year – by Felicia Elliott, March 3, 2017