玉女奇男

Unfolding as a triptychal recollection of a Hollywood bigwig producer Jonathan Shields (Douglas), Vincente Minnelli’s THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL is a quintessential, sharp-edged critique of the studio system’s problematic modus operandi, with an egocentric producer ruling the roost, who is always getting his own way to produce a movie by hook or by crook, creating clashes and dissensions with a director Fred Amiel (Sullivan), a movie star Georgia Lorrison (Turner) and a screenwriter James Lee Bartlow (Powell), respectively.

Through sequentially trifurcating streams of flashback, Jonathan’s unscrupulousness escalates in every stage, he betrays Amiel to produce the latter’s pet project with a more eminent director in the helm, since that is the terms for the studio to green-light the deal, it is an underhanded maneuver, but if Amiel’s credit is given a fuller acknowledgement, they might still maintain on speaking terms.

For Georgia, Jonathan is keen to make her a legitimate star, as he sees her mainstream appeal even though she might not fully realize that, getting wimped out before her breakout role accorded by him, Georgia is somewhat a damaged good desperately needs the nourishment and affirmation of romance to plough on, and Jonathan astutely seizes the opportunity, playing the prince charming to woo her during the production,he is patiently panders to all her whims, only to elicit the best performance of her, then, after the movie’s successful premier, a new star is rising, but a bogus romance fizzles out inevitably, as for the ilk like Jonathan, who has been in the glitterati since day one (he is the son of a notorious movie producer), going to the altar with a high-maintenance movie star is a crying clichéand he rather prefers another sort of female companion, the low-hanging fruit.

Finally, a good script for a producer is like honey for a ravenous bear, after successfully cajoling Bartlow, a university professor, into the Tinseltown to write for the film adaptation of his bestselling novel, Jonathan smells blood that James Lee’s southern belle wife Rosemary (Grahame), who is inconveniently tagging along, retards her husband’s writing process, so it doesn’t take him much seconds to ask a rakish matinee star, the Latin lover Gaucho (Roland, a pleasurable skirt-chaser) to sweep her off her feet, so that James Lee can be glued in front of his typewriter without her incessant interruptions, but when a catastrophe occurs, he has no guts to confess his complicity in it to James Lee, only to let up a Freudian slip in a later time, that closes the deal of their friendship.

Be that as it may, what makes the film stand out from the crowd is that it also elucidates a trenchant message, through the mediator Harry Pebbel (Pidgeon), a B-movie producer who gives Jonathan a crack in the business and later cunningly rides on his coattail as his business partner, that the careers of three of them, Amiel, Lorrison and Bartlow, embark on an easy ride after the bumpy start with Jonathan, which avows that although they all have been at the receiving end of some form of deception from Shields (but at the very least, he doesn’t leave them in the lurch or being blood-mindedly vengeful), it eventually stands them in good stead, indeed, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, which graces the film a topical sagacity that we are not always able to divine what is a blessing in disguise or a real hammer blow.

Notably winning 5 Oscars among its six nominations, the film still holds the record of the most win for a film is denied the top honors (neither BEST PICTURE nor BEST DIRECTOR), Gloria Grahame’s BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS victory looks like a fluke in retrospect, a stock impression of a shallow, corn-fed wife that doesn’t have enough screen-time to pack a more profound punch except for being completely hailed from a different planet from the rest of cast. In fact, it is Lana Turner who bowls audience over in a tailor-made character that makes the best of her swinging between self-destructive and heartbroken out of her usual poised glamor, only the first-billed star cannot humble herself to contend in the supporting actress category, as in those bygone days, star powers prevails over the size of a role.

The late Kirk Douglas, received his second Oscar nomination, is in his usual macho, forceful screen image and emotes grandly in the key scenes, facing off a devastated Turner, Shields is a ruthless go-getter whose monstrosity is rooted deeply in the fact that he is born into and fed off on the money-seeking business, there is no humility left in him to be empathetic to others, as his botched attempt as a director acutely attests,only the unquenchable appetite for fame and profit and a disproportionately deflated ego are his lifelong companion, though the former is a touch-and-go one. Supervised by Minnelli’s dexterity in the rein, and emblazoned by a streamlined mobility of the camera and David Raksin’s enchanting jazz standard theme song, THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL might rightly be Golden Age Hollywood’s best self-reflective melodrama of its own business, warts and all.

referential entries: Minnelli’s FATHER OF THE BRIDE (1950, 7.1/10); Robert Altman’s THE PLAYER (1992, 8.2/10).

年度十佳。明耐力导好莱坞小品、三段式闪回叙述，关联风流女妖、玉女奇男与费城故事、大玩家和三妻艳史。好莱坞编剧有关的原电影、类比改编剧本与好莱坞式结局。女星、想成为导演的编剧、制片人，原著作者四个切片的好莱坞。电影是个自私的东西，为了电影，要放弃你的女人，你的爱。

拉纳特纳崩溃驾车，好莱坞就是如此雷电交加，光影背后的意义就是如此南辕北辙。曾是大学教授，成了通俗西部片的编剧。最后本来拒绝再次合作的三人却又选择了再听听这个电影疯子在四美分每分钟的长途电话中滔滔不绝的的新的疯狂的电影设想。影片就在这样一种确定的不确定中戛然而止，但是对于有电影强力意志的人，这个故事肯定还没有结束…原本道格拉斯的角色是要给盖博演的，不过或许是因为此片影射DOS的关系，盖博拒绝了。而老道的角色应该是是DOS、奥胖和Val的混合体。拉纳特纳那个出身世家的二流醉鬼女演员的发迹史，显然是以戴安娜·白瑞摩为原型的。迪克鲍维尔那个大学教授，后来成为畅销书作家和好莱坞编剧的角色，据说是以北卡罗来纳大学教授Paul Green为原型的，他有着类似的职业轨迹。

第一遍没怎么认真看，到第二段故事的时候被道格拉斯和拉娜迷的神魂颠倒，然后又从头看了一遍，如果这段一个单独的故事多好，如果他俩结局圆满多好，呜呜呜。

道格拉斯看着个子不高还腿短，但完全不影响他散发魅力啊，叼着笔认真创作的时候，穿梭在一摞摞书本中的时候，灵感迸发满脸欣喜的时候，拍摄时一丝不苟谨慎严肃的样子，把野心写在脸上，从容自信胸有成竹。声音也好听的不行，连着问拉娜几个why那里苏死了🥲脆弱与疯狂共存在一个人身上真是太美妙了。

他不爱任何人，只爱创作，爱电影，爱制片。在拍恐怖片那里，他抱起那个尖叫的小女孩儿说你是我的第一个明星。演员，剧本，一切都是他的作品，他的试验。

中间他和小浪蹄子丽娜（丽娜也好美啊）就有点苗头，当然这也是他的消遣。拉娜特纳陷入爱情的样子太可爱了，和我想象中的雍容华贵蛇蝎女人完全不一样。想想她当时咖位应该挺高的，在片尾的致谢她是最后一个，但应该是男主戏最多，拉娜真是个优秀的女人。

面瘫跳舞的树懒美女长得好像金诺瓦克，神经兮兮怪可爱的。我喜欢的格洛莉亚在这里是惊喜出现，她在这部里真的真的好像蔡明老师，不是说蔡明老师不好看，只是不得不承认幽默质真的很折美女氛围

这两位不知道还有没有其他合作了，好虐的感情。

他是才华横溢野心勃勃的知名制片人

她是初出茅庐演技生涩的小小演员

他在人群中一眼选中了她，培养她，包装她，引导她，鼓励她。

她却日渐迷失在他的温柔与热情里。

她越来越爱表演，也越来越爱他，她告诉他，这爱意越浓，越让她害怕。

从此他便知道了如何控制她。

他的成功了，她成为了万众瞩目众星捧月的大明星。

她逃离了派对，一如她当年逃离了片场。

周围的人，阿谀奉承她，嫉恨嘲讽她，羡慕拉拢她，只有那个人才知道她灵魂的模样。

当她手捧香槟欣喜若狂，想与他分享这一切荣耀时。

另一个女人出现了。

那一刻她才回想起他说过的话：

我要和你做一个试验，我们都会收益。

我不需要一个妻子，我需要的是一个巨星。

致我新的巨星，乔治亚，一位让我骄傲万分的巨星。

自始至终，他是她的星探，伯乐，导师，朋友。他在她的生命中扮演了很多角色，却没有一个叫做爱人。