This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Disturbing yet enthralling

A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

An oddity for a decade prone to fairy tale type movies. After all, the build-up is that of a fairy tale coming true for peasant girl Maria (Gardner). In stages she's lifted from poverty-- first, by a film director who gets her a screen test; then, from a successful test she becomes a successful star; after which, she blossoms into a popular super star. From those heights, however, she unwisely marries a rich man (Goring), who soon proves intolerably abusive. In a ballroom showdown, she's happily rescued by a handsome Prince Charming (Brazzi) who spirits her to his European castle to be married. But there, just as her Cinderella tale seems to be coming true, she finds out her Prince's secret, a word that unfortunately could not be used in 1954. So we're left to infer the problem and the movie's crux.Small wonder the story's told in a series of flashbacks from Maria's graveyard funeral. Thus, interest is aroused from the start as to why a girl so young and wealthy could possibly be dead. On my view, the movie's really a modern fairy tale turned into a tragedy. For example, consider a recurring theme; namely, Maria's constant attachment to bare feet over shoes. That I take as an underlying desire for a naturalness stripped of the kind of social pretensions shoe styles can convey. Thus, her struggle, on this view, is really between the stark reality of feet and the societal contrivance of shoes. Extrapolated a bit, it can also convey the importance of foundations to a person's well-being. Perhaps that's why she seems reluctant to accept her fairy tale climb-- it goes against a deeper instinct. Be that as it may, in view of the ending, it's too bad she doesn't stick with instinct rather than temptation.All in all, the indie production was a biggie of that year, featuring two marquee stars, a lavish production, and Hollywood honcho Mankiewicz in charge. Unsurprisingly, it all led to some Oscar go-rounds. Never mind that Hollywood doesn't come off looking very good in the persons of tyrannical producer (Stevens) and sycophantic public relations man (O'Brien). There's still enough gloss, travelogues, and close-ups of the beauteous Gardner to keep us diverted. Happily, Bogie gets his trademark role as a cynical observer, while Gardner gets to show she's more than a pretty face, along with O'Brien who bathes in fast-talking. Not much really happens besides character development. So, credit director Mankiewicz for keeping things moving. Though dated, the movie's worth catching up with; that is, if you can stand the taboo word "impotence", which the 1954 movie obviously couldn't.

Written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, this slightly above average drama features the Academy Award winning Supporting Actor performance by Edmond O'Brien (the first of his two nominations in the category); original story and screenplay writer Mankiewicz was also Oscar nominated.Humphrey Bogart plays a washed up director who gets a new opportunity from a millionaire (Warren Stevens) that wants to make a film starring his girlfriend (Ava Gardner in the title role), a Spanish beauty peasant who dances the flamenco provocatively.O'Brien plays a press agent. Gardner's character becomes a star after three films with (a fatherly) Bogart; she then runs off with a millionaire playboy played by Marius Goring. Later, she marries a Count (Rossano Brazzi) with a protective sister (Valentina Cortese) and a secret.The movie actually begins with the Contessa's funeral, with the story being told in flashback such that the audience eventually learns how and why she died.

"Life, every now and then, behaves as though it had seen too many bad movies". Coming from Joseph L. Mankiewicz, as accomplished a writer as a director, this remarkable preterition works like a clever warning: don't get too fast on accusing the script to be too formulaic, talky or hackneyed, "The Barefoot Contessa" is set in a world of pretension, from Hollywood to the European jet-set, behavior is dictated by predefined codes, by a person's aura or by a hierarchy that never tells its name, whose people are all characters guided by the writing and directing of a divine instance, called fate.But I must say I was disappointed when I learned that the story of Maria Vargas, "The Barefoot Contessa", was based on Rita Hayworth, or some actress named Anne Chevalier. It was too great a coincidence but I thought it was meant to be from and of Ava Gardner, and only Ava Gardner, for her biography is one of these peculiar cases when reality is strangely more fascinating than fiction, especially when the kind of fiction we're talking about is fairy tale. Now I even realize that "The Barefoot Cinderella" who'd have been quite a fitting title, if only to sustain the idea that this was a princess who had everything to triumph over adversity, looks, heart and that inspiring sparkle in the eye, but no Prince at all… and what more tragic than a Cinderella remaining barefoot? And Ava Gardner was that kind of Cinderella-figure. She was uniquely beautiful; she was revered as one of the most beautiful actresses of the world, if not the most. And despite all the looks she had, and the stardom she was brought to, she never felt totally happy, she had only three men, no children, and left the silver screen with mixed memories. How can a woman blessed by such a voluptuous body and illuminating face, kept such a miserable opinion on a success served on a silver, no, golden plate? That's the kind of mystery "The Barefoot Contessa" tries to give answers, and if seriously, they didn't think about Gardner before writing the story, then her casting, is quite a strike of genius.The film opens when producer Kirk Edwards comes to a Spanish bar with his publicist Oscar Muldoon (Oscar-winning Edmund O'Brien) and director-writer Harry Dawes (Humphrey Bogart) to find a new face. They heard of a beautiful dancer named Maria Vargas but she trusts neither of Edwards or Muldoon. It's to Dawes that she finally opens her heart, expressing her fear of success, her eagerness to keep her feet on the dirt, as if the heights of success would make her dizzy. She likes movies though, but she doesn't trust herself, nor her capability to find love in this world, let alone there. This is not the little girl from Madrid slums talking, this is the earthy daughter of North Carolina who loved to go barefoot before luck brought her to MGM. But Cinema for Dawes is as unimaginable without Maria than ours without Ava, he convinces her give happiness the benefit of the doubt.The relationship between Dawes and Maria is particularly poignant and given the two actor's age more acceptable than Bogart with Hepburn in the film of the same year "Sabrina". Maria is a beautiful flower waiting to bloom and Dawes her guardian angel. But after three movies made together, she was able to fly with her own wings, and became a star among the stars, as admired as envied. The story is told from flashbacks during her funereal from Dawes, Muldoon and Maria's two lovers, a frivolous Latin American playboy Alberto Bravano (Marius Goring), and Count Vincenzo Torlato-Favrini (Rossano Brazzi). And what is interesting is less the relationship she has with these men than the way she gets into and out off one's arms, before her tragic ending.All through the film, we never know to which extent Maria lead her destiny, she's indeed a fairy-tale heroine with enough determination and courage to seize the situation but still guided by destiny. She was reluctant to go with Bravano, but only because Edwards forbid her, she challenged him. Then she challenges Bravano, by turning her back on the decadence of casinos and jet-set, and still dance on the mud near a Gypsy camp and this is where the Count meets her. The Counts has everything of a Charming Prince, but seems to hold a terrible secret, which would ultimately seal Maria's fate, the one that kept Cinderella forever barefoot, and to which the erected statue plays like a poignant epitaph.It's true that some choices, some actions are questionable given the context of the film, and their purposes seem to be their convenience to a plot leading to its tragic conclusion, but it's all in the 'bad movies' line as if Maria's life was in fact, the worst movie she ever made, and when every now and then, someone utters a kind of corny line, it's like the screenwriter apologizing in advance. That whole intricacy between reality and fiction is cleverly handled, which is not surprising coming from the director of "All About Eve", whom the film borrows some elements through the opening and the different perspective of Maria's life from the others' perspective. "All About Eve" remains superior if only because it had the perfect balance between action and talk, I must admit in "Barefoot Contessa", Mankiewciz took our patience for granted, which didn't leave much screen time to the most dramatic and poignant parts. Appreciating "The Barefoot Contessa" is understanding some bits of Ava Gardner, an unusual star who despised her stardom because she felt there was more to life than playing the star, and incongruously, that kind of attitude made her an even more glorious star, because paraphrasing Bogie, that's the stuff great movies are made on.

The movie starts with the funeral of a relatively young woman. Her story is told in flashbacks. You keep watching because you want to know how and why she died.She is not a particularly interesting person, more a china bust with a frozen smile. She is supposedly a spectacular dancer but does only one rather embarrassing dance routine that reminded me of my mother dancing when drunk.She is surrounded by interesting people e.g. screenwriter Harry Dawes, played by a very mellow and likable Humphrey Bogart.Kirk Edwards is a gum chewing billionaire, who makes his life miserable by bullying everyone just for the fun of it.Alberto Bravano is a South American tycoon, who is perfectly candid about his own selfishness. His honesty and lack of hypocrisy makes him extremely charming.The movie makes clear how wealth and fame can most of the time get in the way of happiness. It shows how they seduce and corrupt. It pokes fun at the airhead wealthy who descend on the Riviera each year to gamble.The movie also explores jealousy, how pleasant life can be when it is in check and how miserable when it is not.It is a quite slow paced, somewhat boring movie. Not much happens. It just meanders around to its rather surprising conclusion.