The Barefoot Contessa
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Year Released: 1954
Rating: 1.5
'Cinderella's' (Ava Gardner) funeral scene keeps being revisited in this Mankiewicz picture, which expects you to see her as a tragic figure but I was left feeling completely unaffected. Her appeal is lost on me: like the heroine of Children of Paradise, what we're supposed to like about her is never explicitly stated or shown by her action or warmth - she merely stands there and poses (or is the 'appeal' merely physical: just another attractive body?). Plus, she is less of a 'victim' of male patriarchy than a cunning social climber, always running off with the highest bidder (billionaires only, please). The use of multiple narrators is supposed to give several male perspectives of this 'enigmatic' and 'special' person, though I found the switching back and forth to be distracting.
