Thalia Film Classics presents DIVAS! Legendary ladies of the silver screen in double features from Hollywood and abroad.

Pandora's Box

Girls Behaving Badly

“Eve”
Starring Jeanne Moreau and Stanley Baker
Directed by Joseph Losey
Symphony Space
The Run is over

Reviewed on August 27, 2005 by Caroline Smith

The young George Clooney look-a-like, played by the strappingly handsome yet stiff actor, Stanley Baker, fought hard to keep up with the queen of drama, Jeanne Moreau, in the 1962 French/Italian film Eve, directed by Joseph Losey. Through clouds of endless smoke and lipstick, a money hungry diva seduces the prominent Welsh writer (Baker) and puts an end to his marriage with Francesca, actress Virna Lisi.

Though the film is not always abundantly clear in plot, it depicts a very distinct style of filmmaking. The exaggerated length of camera shots and endless episodes of melodrama studded the film like gemstones on this sultry tale. One thing to be said is that Eve (Moreau) keeps you enthralled. The heavy black eyeliner outlining her cat’s eyes never smudged, even through luxurious baths, chain smoking, and fits of tears. Films today are just not shellacked with that layer of glamour. And there’s appreciation to be had of a woman who always gets what she wants, despite craziness and idealism. Oh, and her clothes? Fantastic.

It is clear why Tyvian Jones (Baker) falls for Eve. Her cat and mouse game successfully kills his already failing marriage with the sweet, naïve Francesca. Eve is French, he is Italian and their attraction becomes an insurmountable sexual obsession. However, it’s difficult to say who Moreau was more enamored by, Baker or the camera. I believe it’s the latter and even so, her performance is shattering.

You might say that the records she plays are the emotional soundtrack to her involvement with Tyvian. She plays music in times of stress or when she’s fervently plotting her next move. But the most compelling stage of this film is the revelation. Tyvian exposes himself as a fraud, no longer carrying off his brother’s writing success as his own. He is dressed in a garish silk, striped bathrobe when he reveals this to Eve. The stripes in the robe closely resemble a jail and Tyvian is in fact, trapped in a destructive relationship with Eve.

The rest of this sad romance can only be summed up as shellacked staircase spiraling downwards. A portrait of style and grace, this film is composed of continuous dramatic vignettes coated in black mascara.

Symphony Space 95th & Broadway / www.symphonyspace.org

“Pandora’s Box”
Starring Louise Brooks
Directed by G.W. Pabst
Symphony Space
The Run is Over

Reviewed onAugust 27, 2005 by Caroline Smith

This silent German film from 1929 is a trapeze act starring chorus girl, Lulu (Louise Brooks), and her many pursuers. She’s a femme fatale who destroys every man she’s with until she fatefully falls under the hands of Jack the Ripper.

With a haircut similar to Amelie or Catherine Zeta Jones from Chicago, I thought Brooks gave a cutesy performance rather than a steamy one. Out of all her relationships, one with the doctor, and one with the doctor’s son, the most arresting was the one with the Countess. Although it was considered controversial in its time, her relationship with a lesbian stirred very few people in today’s audience.

Despite it’s silence, the film was wildly animated and exaggerated. Directed G.W. Pabst kept the gestures larger than life even though they grew tiresome after time. But just as a trapeze artist takes risks and occasionally falls, Lulu risks it all with Jack the Ripper.

Symphony Space 95th & Broadway / www.symphonyspace.org