I saw "All About Eve" at the Chelsea Clearview Cinema in New York City. I'd seen it once or twice before in its entirety, and I've also seen clips at the American Museum of the Moving Image in Queens. The wit remains razor sharp and I loved the movie, as always, but this time I really noticed the ravages of time on Bette Davis's face. I was just two rows away from the screen -- and far to the side -- so there was some distortion forced by that angle. Then again, I'm older now than I was and maybe more sensitive to these things than I was before.
The movie-watching experience itself was also a trip, as it turns out. I'd been wondering whether it might be a campy gay set-up, given that this is a classic movie showing at a mainstream theater in Chelsea. Sure enough, the drag queen Hedda Lettuce was there to introduce the film, give out random door prizes along with a running commentary on the event, the decor, the prize winners and the prizes themselves. Miss Lettuce was perfectly fabulous, of course, and very funny. The audience was involved but respectful (applauding at favorite scenes rather than, for instance, throwing things at the screen or reciting all the lines or providing running commentary).
A closing thought - "All About Eve" follows the same formula as many romantic comedies in that the heroine does and says all the wrong things, but still wins her man in the end. If only life were like that.
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