All About Eve vs. Sunset Boulevard

[Mercury]

I guess the question of this thread is: Which film is greater? Which do you like more? These 2 films will forever be linked due to somewhat similar themes, one from the perspective of an aging Hollywood film star (Sunset Blvd) and one from more the angle of an aging theater star (All About Eve). The tones of the movies and the really the movies themselves are very different. But it's also interesting they went head to head in the same 1951 oscars.

I just today was in a lazy mood and sat down watched them both back to back. Both amazing. Anyway, it's a subject that's been on my mind all day now I wanted to see what the community thinks.
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[Applerill]

I actually hate All About Eve. I know it's an all-time classic, and I don't have anything against people who love it, but I just feel like the movie's so mean-spirited and cold when I watch it.

[HazeyTwilight]

[nutso42]

Without question Sunset Blvd. As classic as All About Eve is, Sunset Blvd just overpowers it with its performances. Eric von Stroheim and William Holden are good enough as it is, but Gloria Swanson put in what is probably my single favorite film performance ever. The only thing that can even come close to matching it is Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia.

[Skinny]

Sunset Blvd, all day, every day.
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[badseed]

Throughout my teenage years I always preferred Sunset Boulevard. However, somewhere in the last few years I decided that All About Eve is the better film. They're both great films. But saying Swanson's performance makes it better is kind of blind. Even when I preferred the Billy Wilder film by a great deal I never once thought that. It's a masterfully hammy performance, but doesn't stand up to that of the queen of ham Bette Davis in the opposing film. To compare it to music, it's like saying Band A put out the song of the year, despite the fact that Band B made a much better track, simply because Band A finally made a masterpiece while Band B has been putting out high quality songs for their entire career. It just doesn't work that way. Bette Davis is the greatest American actress of of the pre-Brando era, and All About Eve is her magnum opus. Outside of that, the supporting cast in Eve is way better and Mankiewicz' camerawork is superior. I'd even say the screenplay was better too, in spite of the fact that Sunset is probably still one of the top 20 screenplays of all time itself. There's not really much to argue, though. I remember being much more passionate when I preferred Sunset Boulevard. I guess I've gotten weak in my old age.

<edit> I always hate coming across as hostile. I wasn't calling nutso blind nor do I devalue his opinion; I simply have similar feelings about Davis' performance being near the top of the all time list, though it's still a solid step behind The Passion of Joan of Arc.