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Post by notacrook on Mar 18, 2018 14:01:10 GMT
Which iconic performance is better - Swanson in Sunset Boulevard or Davis in All About Eve.
I think both films and both performances are marvellous. Swanson is heartbreaking and terrifying in equal measure, while Davis is full of fire and razor sharp wit. For me, Swanson gets the slight edge - how she manages to be so dramatic without ever feeling hammy, I don't know. But really, if ever there should have been an Oscar tie...
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Post by Viced on Mar 18, 2018 15:14:44 GMT
Bette. Swanson is great but a lil bit hammy for me.
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Post by stephen on Mar 18, 2018 15:19:12 GMT
Swanson is all-time great. Davis is very good but Baxter is better in her own film, and I prefer Parker and Holliday over the both of them.
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Post by pupdurcs on Mar 18, 2018 15:30:09 GMT
Swanson is all-time great. Davis is very good but Baxter is better in her own film, and I prefer Parker and Holliday over the both of them. Really? I thought Baxter was kind of wooden. It's a style that was common at the time, and didn't hurt the film overall, but contrasted with Davis dynamism and charisma, Baxter never seemed that impressive to me. As for the actual comparison, I'll go for Davis over Swanson. Both highly entertaining, but Davis felt just a little bit more real than Swanson's slightly over-the-top characterisation. |
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Post by stephen on Mar 18, 2018 15:41:27 GMT
Swanson is all-time great. Davis is very good but Baxter is better in her own film, and I prefer Parker and Holliday over the both of them. Really? I thought Baxter was kind of wooden. It's a style that was common at the time, and didn't hurt the film overall, but contrasted with Davis dynamism and charisma, Baxter never seemed that impressive to me. As for the actual comparison, I'll go for Davis over Swanson. Both highly entertaining, but Davis felt just a little bit more real than Swanson's slightly over-the-top characterisation. I just found Margo Channing to be the least fascinating character of the film's main trinity (if we include George Sanders, who wholly deserved his Oscar). I think there's a whole lot going on under the surface with Baxter's performance, but because she doesn't get the razor-sharp witticisms that Davis gets in spades, she winds up being overlooked. I'm also not really big on latter-day Bette Davis; I really started to turn on her in the mid-1940s or so, as almost everything she did afterward left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. |
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Post by countjohn on Mar 18, 2018 16:52:01 GMT
Definitely Davis for me. Swanson is good but Davis in AAE is an all time great performance.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 18, 2018 18:31:11 GMT
After a recent rewatch of Sunset Blvd I wasn't as impressed with Swanson as most people here seem to be. I rarely forgot that I was watching a film character but it was certainly a fun performance, mostly due to her great presence and line deliveries.
Bette Davis's performance on the other hand is one of my all-time favourites in her category.
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Post by ibbi on Mar 18, 2018 23:39:49 GMT
It's funny how the roles themselves are so relatively similar as much as anything else. Ultimately I think Davis is just so easy and natural a star. She's one of the great, great, great ones, and she shows it here maybe more than she ever did anywhere (It's maybe my key problem with the film. She's too good) Swanson was very effectively cast in that role, but it's almost too ridiculous. Would it have worked as well if she had played it as effortless as Davis does? Probably not, but there's a reason she never really made out of the silent era, and Davis is one of the great movie stars of all time.
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Post by ingmarhepburn on Mar 19, 2018 8:58:38 GMT
Davis for sure. Probably the best performance that AMPAS didn't award.
I think I might prefer Baxter to Swanson too actually.
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