Obvious , but if you haven't seen it yet, DON'T READ THIS.
Watched it now; kinda of a busy week.
First of all, I must say that was a very good choice LemonMelon.
Second, I haven't read any of your thoughts before posting this, and I'll only do it after I've finished writing this.
Third, well... thoughts then: Of course, there's some
Sunset Boulevard echoes here, the whole show business decadence and how fame can be destructive to a person's mind. How acceptance among our peers can control our actions and feelings. And those echoes are very good to me. However it doesn't go further on those echoes and it doesn't try to replicate what was already perfectly put onto screen on
Sunset.
Instead
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? goes on to be broader on the matter of feelings; how a moment of rage can determine all of our future lives, how we deal with guilt, hate, love, vengeance and all of our strongest emotions.
Blanche wanted to get affection when only Jane did and in the end, when Jane taked that so long desired affection for only a night, she did what she did. And she spent her whole life after that taking it on herself accepting all the abuse she suffered. She didn't believe she had the right to be loved again. She hated Jane, and she hated to feel that way. Her attempts to escape were frivolous because of that.
And Jane had that affection taken away for her whole adult life; she didn't ran that car into Blanche, but all those feelings on the film are what she feels anyway. She wanted to be that little girl again, on which her sister was dependant to get what she wanted. She wanted back the moment Blanche "took away" from her. That's the obvious part, but the twist at the end is what makes all this impressive. The thing is thar nothing ever happened to Baby Jane, she was there all the time. She wanted her ice cream.
It's a film about our desire to be loved and accepted, after all. All of us, from the lonely piano player to Jane and Blanche.
Of course, Davis' and Crawford's acting should be forever saved for posterity. Both are amazing here, and if I had to pick my favorite it would be Crawford. Her acceptance to all, and how she acts that so perfectly makes you wonder for the whole film what goes on in her mind. Amazing.
On the directorial matter I believed it was rather good. The best shots on the movie being the car accident and Jane's first scene on the beach. Blanche tied to the bed was rather shocking and well shown too, as her phone call to the doctor. Script was good, the twist at the end was believable and made it all come together. We might all be the victims of our villain feelings.
An excellent film, not
that much, but still excellent. Sad that this is a much less remembered film than so many others.
For future reference, I don't tend to talk about points which I felt weren't that good or any good at all.
Score: 9,1/10,0
Reference for the score:
Below 5: not good, and not rated below that. It's simply bad.
6,0 / 6,5: Variations of average.
7,0 / 7,5: Variations of good.
8,0 / 8,25 / 8,5 / 8,75: From very good to great.
9,0 to 9,9: Variations of excellence.
10,0: Goodfellas
(It's 3 in the morning here, ignore weird sentences.
)