Stardust: The Bette Davis Story (2006)

the leading man is my tpye

Boring

A Brilliant Conflict

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

I learned a great deal about Ms. Davis from this movie. Certainly there was a lot to learn. This is a woman with a 50-year film career, with 2 Oscars and 9 other best actress Oscar nominations; with four marriages, three children, numerous affairs, and drama-packed relationships with nearly all her relatives and studio heads. There is enough material in this for several movies, or at least a serious mini-series. And here it is all jammed into 90 minutes! It's an ambitious project.I'm glad to have seen it, but I can't pretend there are no flaws in it. First, as suggested above, there are a lot of events to cover and it's hard to do them all justice in this short a time, or even to present them in a logical sequence that the viewer can actually follow. The movie's chief sources of informational footage are film of public appearances by Ms. Davis and her relatives and contemporaries during her lifetime, and more recent interviews with surviving relatives and acquaintances. But we are repeatedly told that these are not all reliable narrators. Indeed they can't be, as they often disagree with each other. As for public appearances by Ms. Davis, studio heads, and other film industry people, filmed from the 1930's into the 1960's, suffice it to say that they are necessarily full of diplomacy, promotional intent, and courtesies which might be completely sincere or completely the opposite. The movie opens with footage from a "This Is Your Life" episode honoring Bette's mother, Ruth Davis. You can imagine how much sincere exploration of their relationship came out on that occasion.At this point it would be good to have a sense of what Mr. Jones, the auteur of this work, really thinks. But his presence is hard to discern. His words of course are being delivered by Susan Sarandon. He also may have been affected by the obligations he incurred in gaining access to Ms. Davis's papers and convincing her children, widows of ex-husbands, and other connections to sit for interviews. Anyway, it's hard to make out how he selected what to show and what not to, or who he thought was reliable and who he didn't. I got the feeling he was just dumping out a box of information on the tabletop in front of us and letting us make sense of it if we can.Where he does provide words of interpretation, I'm not sure where they came from. As an example, he refers at one point to the warm support Ms. Davis's absent father gave to her movie successes. But all we have really seen of this is a few thrifty ten-word telegrams of congratulation, including his full name as three of the words.Now, someone could of course say: "What do you expect? The narrative is jumbled because Ms. Davis's public and private lives were jumbled and full of contradictions. The witnesses disagree because their experiences were different at the time and because their recollections now after forty are fifty years are different. There's no real way to determine the 'real truth' about all these things, so the pile of information on the tabletop is the only way to go." That may all be true, but I would like to have heard it explained by Mr. Jones. At the end of the day it's worth seeing, of course.

As with any Silver Screen documentary co-produced by Turner Classic Movies, you would expect nothing less than an account of the highest quality, and STARDUST: THE BETTE DAVIS STORY does not disappoint. One of the most well-balanced accounts on the actress I've ever had the pleasure of seeing, it manages to be surprisingly subjective by presenting a portrait of one of Hollywood's most celebrated legends warts-and-all, complete with archival footage, sound clips and close-up interviews with friends, fans and those people still with us who knew her best.By turns it's funny, amazing, amusing and very sad - showing a woman who was as complex as the best roles she played, and as someone who worked tirelessly to make sure that her performances (and in some cases the performances of her co-stars) were never "phoned-in", and how consumed with a passion for the work, she payed a terrible price by all but sacrificing the quality of what could and should've been a wonderful personal life.But rather than go more deeply into the sordid details of affairs, failed marriages and rivalries with contemporaries and studio execs - especially her "surrogate father", Jack Warner, the doc spends a lot more time reviewing some of Ms. Davis's most lauded (and rightfully so) performances from such greats as NOW, VOYAGER, THE LITTLE FOXES, JEZEBEL and one of my personal favorites, THE LETTER. Bette Davis was not a conventional Hollywood beauty. But then again, she wasn't a conventional anything. And thank goodness that writer/director Peter Jones saw fit to tell her story in anything but a conventional way. I think she would've really appreciated that.

...And how it Broke Bette's heart.I became very interested in Bette after seeing this the first time in 2006 when I came out... Not that I did not already love her as one of my favourite actresses... But because of this documentary, I have changed my opinion of Miss Davis, as not just one of the best, but The Best Actress, ever.And as such, she was never really left a moment's peace in her personal life. However, this documentary shows, that fact never affected Davis work ethic, and she plod on regardless of what was going on with her life.I think the documentary ought to have had a bit more to say about The Hollywood Canteen, a pivotal point in her career, and one that awarded her the highest civilian honour in real life, even above Bob Hope. It is almost like I am proud to be a Davis fan because of what she did for our Servicemen in WWII.A lot of people always measure Davis by the Joan Crawford Yardstick... And the documentary maker here also does that, to a small degree. I think in reality, Davis probably never had the slightest Crawford, but Crawford, who was always combative with the other high profile stars at her studios (aka, Norma Shearer at MGM) - It is almost as if, Since Norma Shearer, who beat Crawford hands down at MGM, retired in 1941... Crawford targeted Miss Davis as her new "antagonist"- Something which I don't think Davis thought of at all, as any Crawford/Davis feud (Or Crawford/Shearer feud) was always more so on the part of Crawford. It is a sad laughable thing about Crawford, not that it makes me disrespect Crawford for it, but Davis just wasn't like that at all, Miss Davis was always more interested in the health of the Film (to the point of micromanaging things) to deal with petty Crawford Feuds.The documentary maker of this, I think could have used better wisdom collecting the filmed anecdotal items: Such as those comments from Davis Former Husband William Grant Sherry's wife (who used to be Davis' nanny - I forget her name, but her name is unimportant, as, the PERSON is unimportant) - I can't believe that the documentary makers would use that particular source of footage- INCLUDING the footage where the woman, if I could loosely use that term woman, just about makes a blanket statement that Bette had something to do with Arthur Farnsworth's untimely death.I appreciate the clips from Bob Osbourne and James Woods... And it is important to show all aspects of the person, but Betty was as complicated as anyone- The film does however show the high level of disrespect of BD Hyman toward her mother, something that shocked me, especially as how Hyman considers herself not just a Christian, but a Minister: And As Such is a very Poor example of one.The tragedy of this documentary are the clips from BD, whose betrayal must have hurt Bette more than anything done to her by anyone else in her lifetime.I am glad that they showed the BD clips, as they show this Girl/Woman, whom Davis loved more than anything... What an inconsiderate Phony "Christian" she was and is, using a "Mommy Dearest" attack to accumulate 100,000 dollars (which is more than the usual sum publishers forked out in those days) which she claims to have used to Christian Ministries: And if I were to tell this BD Hyman anything, it would be that money obtained from the public Disrespect of one's blood Parent... Is NOT money that God has blessed and has put His hand on.This documentary shows this disrespect, and not in a flattering light toward Hyman.Hyman did not consider, that good ministry, IS looked at by the public, and if Hyman's anti-Mom books are considered by Hyman as something God either WANTED, Ordained, or Supported: That She is WRONG and as a Christian I want nothing to do with THAT God, who would allow parental disrespect as a means to access money for so-called Christian Works, and any Minister or Ministry that is FOUNDED on such.I am glad that the original book was laughed off of the shelves by the critics. - Hyman was revealed as a Hypocrite who needs to either shut-up or make it right with her Mother.BD, Your Mother loved you, and you can actually make it right even now.

And yet--having given that title to my commentary--I have to say that not everything depicted here paints BETTE DAVIS with a rosy glow. It's an accurate, no holds barred sort of documentary of her life on and off the screen--and some of it has a "warts and all" kind of truth to it that does away with gushing fan worship that some seem to prefer their favorite stars bathed in. For those fans, this is an eye-opener.Instead, it's a penetrating look at the kind of Yankee upbringing the actress had, how she craved from her father the kind of attention she only got from her mother "Ruthie"; how her father's indifferent attitude toward her career as an actress was something she was never able to overcome; how the main influence on her life was the mother who doted on her rather than her less strong-willed sister; and, finally, how she developed into a strong and determined young woman who was not about to let anyone stand in the way of the sort of career she felt she fully deserved.All of this is accompanied by interesting family still photos, excellent film clips, and, occasional remarks from co-workers or friends on how they see Bette Davis, the person and the actress.While much of the material has been presented before, it has never been examined with such precision and understanding, giving a clearer portrait of the actress than ever seen before.Peter Jones is to be congratulated for writing an excellent expose. It's not a gushing fan tribute, but an extremely sharp and penetrating look at a woman who had many admirable traits, but whose ambition and self-absorption (an ingredient necessary for a successful actress), left her with some bitter memories of a not altogether successful personal life.