Mildred Pierce

Oh, Mama. Living life as a housewife raising two daughters in a middle class humdrum existence and not knowing any better, Mildred Pierce's conventional and routine existence is overturned by infidelity, a breakup and immediate necessity. Needing and seeking a job in a trying market she lands one and lives out a plain to riches story that culminates in an odyssean drama of intrigue, familial betrayal and murder. An adaptation of James M. Cain's novel of the same name, "Mildred Pierce" is Old Hollywood convention dipped in reality's grime. Michael Curtiz's ace direction brings out impressive performances especially from the supporting cast, delivering a naturality rarely seen in modern cinema, heightening the tense and unsettling scenes that mark the movie. The vintage fashion and interior and exterior spaces existing in luminous B&W coupled with the film's brisk pace elevate the film further to peak viewing experience. Pockmarked by inconsistencies the flick trips in unexpected places. I was compelled to view the film after recently seeing the first season of "Feud" and decided to familiarize myself with the work of its leading protagonists. One of the source of the "feuds" in the series is the criticism on Joan Crawford's acting, her looks a compensating contrast to her shaky thespian capabilities, glaringly exposed in the light of rival Bette Davis' less aesthetic facial symmetry but more adept acting skill. In the lead here Crawford shows she's no Meryl Streep, with a scene popping here and there where her bright, naive-looking eyes betray her lack of consistent immersion into her role. But she carries herself generally well as the tough, no nonsense matriarch with a flair for business that matches her inexplicable pathology in her relation to her offspring. Speaking of which, the narcissistic inhabitant of a kennel played by a pretty but erratic Ann Blyth who is as charming as she is odd. While evil wields its mask skillfully as its diabolic nature, Blyth's performance here is a strange mix of lovable familiarity and infernal-spawned callousness. Nowhere does one get the underlying sinister menace and darkness that's barely concealed underneath the facade of normalcy that brands the malignant, a failing which chips away at the basic premise of the film. One interesting and possibly inspired projection is the depiction of the bizarre, even unhinged nature of the family shown. The casual and breezy attitude towards the father, the muted reaction to the younger daughter's death; all seem to point to a dysfunctional family destined to tragedy. Winner of an academy award with Best Actress for Joan Crawford and preserved in the Library of Congress for historical importance, "Mildred Pierce" is one of the best pre-1950 wartime films from Hollywood's Golden Age. With its successful tackling of middle class struggles, familial dynamics and parental fallibility the movie will always endure in relevance with its hard-hitting portrayals and the artistic quality that brings those to life onscreen.

¡Una gran película! Me gusta ver cintas donde la protagonista es mujer, ya que en general no hay muchas y se siente refrescante. Además, se presentan historias diferentes. Aquí, por ejemplo, se muestra el amor tóxico de una madre; tóxico en tanto que el amor en la crianza no es solo dar todo por los hijos, sino también poner límites, y mientras más rápido, mucho mejor.Algo que me disgusta es que el personaje principal en ningún momento evoluciona. Es decir, los errores que comete al principio parecen que ya no los va a volver a cometer, pero luego sigue siendo igual, incluso en los tramos finales. Eso es algo decepcionante, pero aun así es una buena película.