Bette or Joan?

[darklinensuit]

I really don't care for either one of them & have no desire to see more of their films than I already have. In my defense, they (especially Joan) were usually slotted into the so-called "women's films," which hold little appeal to me.

Bette, in particular, makes me cringe. The face, the voice, etc. This is a backhanded compliment, but I guess I respect her for accomplishing so much with so little sex appeal at a time when other women performers were forced to go the other way.

When I first saw All About Eve I did not get the fuss. Her performance seemed hammy & mannered. Much later I found out she was basing the character on TB, and in that context, of course she did well. Even so, it's hard to sit through that one - a bit soapy for my taste (and as a fan of Stevie Nicks's music, I assume my threshold for that is high).

I do think that Joan's acting chops are underrated whenever she's compared to Bette. There is that one account of a director telling Joan to cry, and her asking which eye he wanted her to cry out of. Joan is usually first & foremost examined in the context of stardom. I took a grad class on celebrity & there were more readings on her than on any other female figure. One documentary - I'm sure some of you know it, is it called Stars? - argues that her real genius was in changing her face so many times over the decades. That was interesting, but it still does not make me want to sit through her films.

- Jake