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| What makes you a woman? |
Margo is being driven back to the theater in the city after having spent the weekend upstate with friends Karen and Llyod Richards who unbeknown to her have emptied the gas tank just enough run out of fuel on the way back. They've had it with Margot's bratty bad temper and feel it's about time she learn a lesson by making her miss the first show of a play she's starring in written by Lloyd.
The scene in which Lloyd leaves Margo in the car with Karen to see about getting some gas a few miles ahead is a scene which is perhaps the most somber and lacking in high drama and theatrics of any in the film but it is one of my favorites because it expresses a universal and modern theme of career woman all over America which is that somehow, no matter how much you achieve in this society professionally as a woman, you're still not perceived as being whole or complete without a man. In this particular case of course, Margo totally buys into this idea and longs to have the completion she feels a husband would provide despite the own great personal success. The role of Margo Channing actually mirrors Bette Davis' own life very similarly. As a huge hollywood star she lived to regret the compromise she surely made in her commitment to career over her commitment to her children and failed marriages. But she wanted it all. And like a good friend of mine always says, as a woman you can have it all, just not all at the same time.
Next Friday: Before Sunrise
