276. The Barefoot Contessa (1954)

Directed By Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Synopsis

A group consisting of a rich and sociopathic producer, an amoral clammy PR, a down and out director and scriptwriter and an actress go out searching for a "new face" for a film and they find Maria Vargas. Maria has more to her than meets the eye and soon is the greatest star in the world. Rags to riches usually ends well, well not here.

Review

I have mixed feeling about this film, while I quite liked it, thought some of the direction was very good and parts of the script were truly inspired, I also thought that some of the actors (yes, I am talking to you Ava) were not as good as they could be.

Ava is, of course, stunning, but she is playing a Spanish woman who seems to talk some kind of Swahili, because it sure as fuck is not the same language the other Spanish people use in the film. I found it particularly funny that she berates another character for not speaking good Spanish... that was hilarious. Another problem I had was with the music, the Hollywood recreation of Flamenco music and eventually Gypsy music was far off the mark, next time you find a Gypsy with a clarinet let me know.

Putting aside Hollywood's typical insularity in what comes to other cultures, it was a good film, but I can't help but be irked by these details that help ruin you experience of what would otherwise have been a pretty interesting flick, particularly with it's changes in perspective from character to character going almost Rashomon on you, but not quite.


Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

For his performance, O'Brien won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Mankiewicz was nominated for an Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay.

Mankiewicz is reported to have based the film's central character of Maria Vargas on part-Spanish movie star and one-time dancer Rita Hayworth.

Trailer: