Intimate Portrait: Bette Davis
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Product details
Actor: Bette DavisEditor: Patrick Sayers
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog
Format: Black & White, Color, NTSC
Running Time: 60 minutes
Release Date: 1999-02-23
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: Unapix / a-Pix Ent.
Studio: Unapix / a-Pix Ent.
VHS Movie Reviews of Intimate Portrait: Bette Davis
Movie Review: Great Contrast to A&E's Biography of Bette Davis
Summary: 5 Stars
"Intimate Portrait: Bette Davis" is indeed that where A&E's biography, "If Looks Could Kill," focuses almost entirely upon Davis' fabulous acting talent and 60 year career. I enjoy the contrast between the 2 biographies because of their different focal points. When I watched "Intimate Portrait," I wanted to know more about the woman instead of her acting career. Who better to convey herself but Bette Davis and her beloving son, Michael Merrill? Only Davis herself could know the true stories behind her movies scenes. I found it important to know that Davis was so invested in being a great actor that she wouldn't stop even when she was dying of terminal cancer. Today, her work ethic is a rarer quality than not. Even when the great actor knew she didn't look 'attractive' she went on acting, giving public performances, and traveling to give out acting awards to others. By defying public standards that a great actor had to be beautiful, Bette Davis became the best should could be; so, why should she stop simply because age and very poor health made her look like an elderly woman in poor health?! The point is, no matter what she looked like, she still had all it took to draw a crowd as well as entertain and please them. She was more than a great actor. "Intimate Portrait" focuses on the fact that she was a great lady.Movie Review: Standard Attempt To Retrace A Great Career.
Summary: 4 Stars
A characteristic lightly gossipy Lifetime Productions outlining of a well-known woman's career, this 45 minute affair is abundantly used for portaging around that in which most viewers will be interested: the cinema performances of the actress who received ten Academy nominations and two Oscars. There are some brief film snippets, including her best-known performance in ALL ABOUT EVE, her final film WHALES IN AUGUST, and extraordinary moments from OF HUMAN BONDAGE, but most of this documentary's footage is used to explore relationships between the petite star and her family and spouses. Perhaps the most interesting moments are slices from a Dick Cavett television interview, where her elegance and comic timing are evident, and where we are privy to her confession that she turned down the role which was later given to Vivien Leigh in GONE WITH THE WIND. Narrated at intervals by Lauren Hutton, the work's largest amount of screen time is given to Michael Merrill, adopted son of Davis and fourth husband Gary Merrill, whose colloquial comments are genial but as presented lack any interpretive element as to what motivated the actress' birth daughter B.D. to write an ignobly unpleasant memoir of her mother. The primary substance of the included information is focussed upon revelations of her unexceptional broken home as a child, her four marriages (three which ended in divorce and one wherein she was widowed) and her very real feud with Joan Crawford, her co-star in WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? Bette Davis dominates most of her films made during her 18 year tenure under contract with Warner Brothers, but we are given mainly stills of these, while presented with details of her many health problems (cancer, stroke, mastectomy, et alia), interesting in their own way, one might suppose, but more emphasis upon her acting life would be more gratifying.
Movie Review: A Great 'Get to know Bette better' flick
Summary: 5 Stars
An indepth look at one of the most enthralling, captivating, legenary women of not only our time, but all of time period. Beginning with Bette's humble roots from a divorced family, through her rise to success and the clssic movie role she turned down, to her battle with breast cancer and death, this gives the story behind the famous "Margo Channing," and what made her a truly strong willed, independent woman. If you want to know what made Bette Davis, Bette Davis, this is your source.Movie Review: Must see this one!
Summary: 5 Stars
come on, Bette Davis' fans, this is a brilliant and very moving tribute to our star's star. You'll laugh with her, she'll make you smile and she'll make you cry. It's a wonderful tribute to Bette, thank you to amazon for proposing this particular title.
Summary of Intimate Portrait: Bette Davis
Margo Channing's famous line, "Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night," characterizes well the actress who played her in All About Eve--the inimitable Bette Davis. In fact, Davis's son comments in Lifetime's Intimate Portrait: Bette Davis that watching Margo Channing is much like watching Bette Davis.Davis's film career spanned six decades, in which she starred in 112 films, receiving 10 Academy Award nominations and 2 Oscars. Yet her life was not always the charmed one of a starlet; from a broken home, herself three times divorced, once widowed, betrayed by her own daughter's scathing biography, Davis found solace in her work, which didn't always come easy for her. When she first approached Hollywood in 1930, the studios didn't know what to do with such an odd beauty. This portrait of the actress covers a lot of ground, and occasionally leaves you wanting more. However, the snippets of an older Davis giving an interview on the Dick Cavett Show are a wonderful glimpse into the regal queen of the screen.
Intimate Portraits skillfully weaves together film clips, interviews with friends and family members, and clips of Davis in later speeches and interviews, making this video a solid overview of one of the first ladies of cinema. --Jenny Brown
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