All about eve; all about desire

All about Eve, All about Desire
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.—Charles Dickens
All about Eve, a film produced in 1950s, has covered a long way through history and sheds light upon the current situation in the entertainment circle. It tells the dirty secrets about Eve, about how Eve becomes famous at such an incredible speed and they are also the dirty secrets of many women nowadays.
We have been taught, maybe from the beginning of our life, to work hard, to set a goal and try to achieve that goal, to become somebody in a certain area. However, one thing seems to be forgotten—we have attached so much weight to the goal that we neglect how we should do to reach that destination. And this is where Eve’s tragedy lies. There is no reason for us to blame her dream to be an outstanding actress, but her way of achieving that goal is contemptible.
There is a conspicuous gap between Margo and Eve, from the very beginning to the very end. Appearing as a homeless poor girl with 「pure」 admiration for Margo, Eve successfully wins sympathy from all the people and gets the chance to live with Margo, which brings her the opportunity to learn from Margo, to know more people in entertainment industry, and to fulfill her ambition to be an actress. Finally she succeeded. There is no denying that Eve is a gifted actress, both on stage and pathetically, in real life. Driven by desire, she made use of the conflicts between Margo and the Richards couples, conspired to make Margo late for her show so that Eve could fill in for Margo. She tried to seduce Bill but failed. She manipulated Dewitt as an effective tool for media relation. Worse still, she even tried to damage the marriage between the Richards couples. Driven by her desire, Eve has gone a long way toward her dream to be a famous actress. However, Margo, who behaves anxiously and noisily at the start, tells us about her understanding of desire. Stuck in the car in the countryside, Margo says, 「funny business, a woman's career. The things you drop on your way up the ladder, so you can move faster. You forget you'll need them again when you go back to being a woman. That's one career all females have in common - whether we like it or not - being a woman.」 In the end, Margo gives up the role Eve desires so much—to her, love and life is more important than leading roles on stage.
Sometimes I wonder—maybe I have misunderstood Eve. What if Eve is a real lover of acting? What if what she does, even if hurting other people, is out of her love for her career? Personally, probably these hypotheses are not true. If one is whole-heartedly devoted to a career, a hobby, or even someone else, these things must be very precious, and even sacred to him or her. How can we use dirty approaches to achieve our most sacred dreams? Real love lies not only in the thing we love, but also in how we treat them, how we obtain them.
This film reminds me of the novel Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser. In this novel, Carries is also driven by her desire. Born and raised in a poor family, the longing for a decent life stimulates her to achieve more material enjoyment at the cost of her virginity and even her lover’s life. Carrie says, 「Who would not grieve upon a gilded chair? Who would not suffer amid perfumed tapestries, cushioned furniture, and liveried servants? Grief under such circumstances becomes an enticing thing. Carrie longed to be of it.」 Don』t you think it sounds familiar? Maybe Manuo, the girl who claims that 「I would rather cry in a BMW than smile on a bicycle」 is not alone; at least Sister Carrie shares a similar dream.
The sarcastic truth with feminism is that when we talk about feminism, we have already regarded women as a special group put to an inferior position. The weird situation in Chinese film industry makes me confused—more and more people are interested in films or TV series focusing on the intrigues against each other among women, and to cater to such a need, the entertainment industry produces more products on this topic, for example, the Gongdou play. The first question bumping into my head is:」 Why women?」 It is probably true that women are put into the stereotype of gossiping, vulnerable creatures who care much about power. It is just the lack of power and the sense of vulnerability and insecurity that make many women try to intrigue against other people to gain the power or guard the power in their hands. But to achieve that goal, women need to focus on how to improve our knowledge, how to make ourselves more capable for our work, how to convince others with our wisdom, our broad mind along with our communicational skills rather than to hurt other people because of the selfish desire. If women are tangled with intrigues, our limited energy and attention would be occupied by such dirty trivial things. How could we possibly open our mind or broaden our view in that way? How could we possibly focus on the things we love, or the things we claim to love? How could we tolerate the contradiction between our most cherished things and those disgraceful approaches?
Another thing I am interested in is how we perceive our desire. In many cases, we are working so hard to be 「somebody」 else. Eve works hard and hurt other people for her desire to be as famous as Eve; Carrie sacrifices her virginity for her desire for a decent life of urban people. The women in Gongdou plays rely on lies and sometimes even kill people to satisfy their desire for power. Many people desire to live other people’s life, and with that desire, they lose their individuality. They forget who they are, what they used to love, and how they cherish their friends and family. When all these things are lost or forgotten, what is the meaning of an individual’s life? What do fame, money, power mean when you have no one to share them righteously or frankly? Very pathetically, those people merely become sacrifices for their own desire. And when they are engaged in such sacrifices, they are so deeply attracted that they could hardly realize what they are doing. When they consider themselves as the ones fighting for their dreams, they no longer consider the possible consequences, especially the damages they might cause to other people. Quite on the contrary, they are proud for their 「』talent and perseverance」 in tormenting other people, which reflects the dark side of human beings.
The most attractive thing about film is, in my eyes, that we are watching someone else’s life, but we are reflecting on our own life, reaffirming some of our belief, as well as reshaping other belief. From Eve, I learn the power of desire, and more sigfinicantly, what that desire mean to me, and how I could be its owner, not the slave.