1954 Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Has-been director Harry Dawes gets a new lease on his career when independently wealthy Kirk Edwards hires him to write and direct a film. They go to Madrid to find Maria Vargas, a dancer who will star in the film.
Humphrey Bogart Ava Gardner Edmond O'Brien Marius Goring Valentina Cortese Rossano Brazzi Elizabeth Sellars Warren Stevens Franco Interlenghi Mari Aldon Enzo Staiola Bill Fraser Alberto Rabagliati Maria Zanoli Renato Chiantoni John Parrish Jim Gérald Diana Decker Riccardo Rioli Tonio Selwart Margaret Anderson Gertrude Flynn Bessie Love John Horne
La condesa descalza, A Condessa Descalça
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I live for that scene where Bravano tells off Kirk. He openly admits to being a parasite, and his honesty rips off the American-dream-mask Kirk wears. It's not the full excoriation of the bourgeoisie it could be, but it comes so close in such an unexpected place that I thrill to experience it. My preview review speaks of how this film is Maria's story told through the views of the men around her, and that remains a quality that has its cons. It serves as an interesting way to critique Hollywood, but it underserves Maria as a character. Still, the film shows her power undeniably, and that is something that few films manage when tackling this kind of story.
If you wanted to pinpoint a moment where director-screenwriter Joseph L. Mankiewicz - master of dialogue and discussion - began mistrusting his own capacity for words... it’s “Barefoot Contessa.”
“All About Eve” was the pinnacle of Mankiewicz’s brand of movies that consisted primarily of groups of interesting actors sitting around tables and talking with one another. Mankiewicz - with very little physical incident - managed to rotate through each costar in their turn to give them a moment of oratory glory. And that was enough. More than enough. “Eve” is an immortal classic.
But after that - something in the director changed. By the time he arrived at “Contessa,” he seemed to think his solid script needed training wheels.
On…
The Barefoot Contessa is one of those films that had me constantly thinking, “what if this was written by a woman?” The entire script is about Ava Gardner’s character, but we never really know her beyond the first act— she’s just an idea that exists through the eyes and lips of the men around her. This type of narrative structure isn’t necessarily bad, but Ava’s character is one that interests me a great deal, so it’s a bit frustrating not being able to grasp at the crux of her characterization without the male voiceover interruptions. There are some great moments that give us just a peak at her free soul, her drive, her desires, but much of the film is…
an exquisite hollywood tragedy that contains so many subplots and POVs (including at least one instance of a camera angle switch in a replay scene) but always anchors itself back to the mesmerizing maria aka the barefoot contessa (ava gardner), who, in a film full of allegories, very literally says, "i hate shoes."
35mm. Film Forum.
This is the type of film that at the end feels like there was so much more potential than where they ended up.
I enjoyed Bogart in this one. It was Avery different take for him as he is basically the contessa’s confidant and dear friend. That is his role and he plays it like the pro that he is.
Ava Gardner is great as the title character but they never really give her any depth. She is a mysterious character but we don’t ever really learn anything as the film goes on. I think they needed way more time with her and maybe not bounce around as much as they did, but it…
The first release from Joseph L. Mankiewicz then newly established production company, Figaro, sees the four-time Oscar winner writing and directing this fictitious ill-fated life of a Hollywood movie star named Maria Vargas (Ava Gardner) as told mostly by pessimistic screenwriter and director Harry Dawes (Humphrey Bogart). Bogart’s portrayal of Dawes proved to be a substantial role for the veteran actor, who was in the latter part of his career, and his character manages to salvage both his own livelihood as well as to bring fame to the flamenco dancer and fiercely self-sufficient Vargas. His performance is the highlight of the film, and he incontestably outperforms the vastly more inexperienced Gardner, who was one of the top stars of the…
Bogart and Gardner have an interesting relationship in this film. As this is a classic Hollywood flick from the early 1950s, one might reasonably expect the two to share a romantic relationship on screen, but instead, the film depicts the two as mentor/student, almost, or perhaps big brother/little sister. It's an interesting pairing simply because it defies convention. As the story of a dancer plucked out of obscurity to rise to superstardom, its subversion of conventional narrative is one of its greatest strengths. Nothing here works out the way the repeated references to Cinderella suggest it might.
The film opens, for instance, at the funeral of the titular character, and is told in flashback by four men who had some…
99,9% dos críticos de cinema da atualidade não são capazes de analisar narrativa, e nem mesmo de pensá-la, nestes termos.
Really unusual, I think. Not so much concerned with classic structure, plays more like an accumulation of acts in the spectacle of social life: speeches, entrances and exits, always on the verge of a restart, even the same scene, everything can be triggered by the magic of meeting someone, a new beginning. A compendium of personal impressions reveals itself full of poetic moments that make for so much of great cinema: bits of wisdom that can only be shared between two friends, an exchange of looks across the field or a beautiful face bathed in moonlight.
Theres more to talking than just words
First time watch: June 2021
Source: Sony Classics
The Barefoot Contessa is the 1954 drama written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. The film stars Humphrey Bogart, Ava Gardner and Edmond O'Brien in a story of fictional dancer Maria Vargas who becomes a star.
With strong themes that focus on the struggles that come with fame and an exploration of flawed characters The Barefoot Contessa had plenty of quality to its narrative but overall I was left unfulfilled with some characters needing more development and performances lacking a spark. Humphrey Bogart looked worn down and was disappointing in some ways that I'm not used whilst the constant quick location changes didn't help provide…
Painfully slow. I’m amazed I didn’t fall asleep, lol. They didn’t give Maria much depth, the movie was almost 2 1/2 hours long and in the end I didn’t feel like I knew her character at all.
Well I learned nothing about directing or relationships or the mystery of people, but I learned a lot about what happens when a screenwriter gets lost in the weeds of his words. Rivette was wrong about Minnelli, but totally right about Mankiewicz: the dude prided cleverness and virtuosic words at the expense of a visual style, and as a result much of this feels like an extended info dump with people stuck in starchy place like stick-puppets declaiming without hiding, evading, or sensuality. Rivette: “Every intention was underlined in red, and it struck me as a film without a director. His films are cut together any which way, the actors are always pushed towards caricature and they resist with only…
