All About Eve Gender Roles
“..and, in the last analysis, nothing is any good unless you can look up just before dinner or turn around in bed – and there he is. Without that, you’re not a woman” Is this the message of the film? Made in 1950, the film ‘All About Eve’ screen written and directed by Joseph Mankiewicz, was deliberately engineered to entice women back into their homes after WWII had forced many to assume working roles in the outside world. The film focuses on publicizing the importance of the image of a nuclear family and traditional gender roles and how finding love is endorsed as the ‘proper’ course for women. This is evident through the roles and character development of the three main women in the film; Karen Richards, Margo Channing and Eve Harrington.
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Mankiewicz establishes that females who rise to the top of their profession are only to be faced with the glass ceiling of the patriarchal status quo. This is apparent in the character Margo Channing, a ‘great star’ whose days as Broadways reigning star are numbered as she is at the peak of her career, at the age of 40. Although she is ‘talented, famous [and] wealthy’ Margo is insecure that when she retires from the theatre she’ll be alone, without a career and without a man to love her. Marriage is offered as a solution for Margo, and only once she makes the decision that allows her to ‘get back to being a woman’, do we see a gradual shift from Margo being an actress to being a ‘proper’ married women. The gratification from marriage is highlighted through the use of camera lighting in the cub room scene after Bill and Margo announces that they’re getting married. A close up shot of Margo’s smiling face and relaxed manner with radiant lighting similar to Karen’s indicates true happiness as she has achieved the role of housewife. Through portraying her positively, the film asserts this will provide her with the happiness and ‘sentiment’ she had been actively rejecting. In short, the use of Margo’s growing happiness as she transitions from professional career for marriage, the film positions the audience to view domesticity as providing ultimate fulfillment for
Mankiewicz establishes that females who rise to the top of their profession are only to be faced with the glass ceiling of the patriarchal status quo. This is apparent in the character Margo Channing, a ‘great star’ whose days as Broadways reigning star are numbered as she is at the peak of her career, at the age of 40. Although she is ‘talented, famous [and] wealthy’ Margo is insecure that when she retires from the theatre she’ll be alone, without a career and without a man to love her. Marriage is offered as a solution for Margo, and only once she makes the decision that allows her to ‘get back to being a woman’, do we see a gradual shift from Margo being an actress to being a ‘proper’ married women. The gratification from marriage is highlighted through the use of camera lighting in the cub room scene after Bill and Margo announces that they’re getting married. A close up shot of Margo’s smiling face and relaxed manner with radiant lighting similar to Karen’s indicates true happiness as she has achieved the role of housewife. Through portraying her positively, the film asserts this will provide her with the happiness and ‘sentiment’ she had been actively rejecting. In short, the use of Margo’s growing happiness as she transitions from professional career for marriage, the film positions the audience to view domesticity as providing ultimate fulfillment for