#bettedangerous

[maewestside]

WHAT WOULD BETTE DAVIS DO? And Other Life Lessons from the Golden Age of Hollywood... by heidi siegmund cuda, aka @maewestside

CHAPTER THREE: “Now, Voyager”

Nothing could prepare me for my first viewing of “Now, Voyager,” a 1942 film I saw for the first time (ironically) on Mother’s Day.

I’d been sputtering around on reserves in the months since I’d walked away from my career. But as I absorbed the brass of Eve, the cautionary tale of Mildred’s arrogance, and the complete ballsiness of Bette’s Baby Jane, I started to realize I was gaining life lessons from each performance. Lessons from the actress herself in the tremendous courage it took to play these parts but also in her choices. She was turning me on to some of the greatest writing that had ever graced the screen, and I was learning a great deal about the craft of filmmaking.

Studying her I realized, Brilliant Bette could play both hard and vulnerable in the same split second. Witness the moment she lays eyes on Henry Fonda's bride in "Jezebel." Best split second of acting ever.

Her performance in “Now, Voyager” releases women and men everywhere from the self-pity that lingers from a brutish childhood. It takes a viewing or two of “Now, Voyager” to really understand the crippling effects of a Truly Dominant Matriarch. Actress Gladys Cooper played Sado-Matriarch with a definitive cruelty: keeerack! thwack! words as machetes, while mother sharpens her tongue on child’s pained soul. 

From the moment you first see dear Bette onscreen, dowdy and unplucked, your heart aches. Her performance has the ability to release grown adults of childhood pain because no one should have to endure the sturm und drang of a mother incapable of nurturing.

That she is saved by the love of Paul Henreid and his unloved daughter is the stuff of La La Wood. In addition, Claude Rains, her future husband from Mr. Skeffington, plays a shrink who nurses her into self awareness and gives her tools to find self worth.

No one will ever forget the beauty of the final scene: As Paul Henreid lights two cigarettes, they don’t dare ask for the moon. They have the stars.

******

Author Heidi Siegmund Cuda is a producer, screenwriter, filmmaker and free press activist.

(end chapter three)

to read the first installment go to: http://maewestside.tumblr.com/post/152703087681/what-would-bette-davis-do-and-other-life-lessons)

for second installment:

http://maewestside.tumblr.com/post/155748935056/what-would-bette-davis-do-and-other-life-lessons

and for part three of bette: http://maewestside.tumblr.com/post/155790933986/what-would-bette-davis-do-and-other-life-lessons)