Mildred Pierce (1945) (2nd time)

After her husband leaves her, Mildred Pierce proves she can become independent and successful, but can't win the approval of her spoiled daughter. [imdb]

Nominated for 6 Oscars:

Best Picture
Best Actress: Joan Crawford (WINNER)
Best Supporting Actress: Eve Arden
Best Supporting Actress: Ann Blyth
Best Writing, Screenplay
Best Cinematography, Black-and-White

I was quite young when I saw Mildred Pierce on TCM one night, and I was really impressed by it. Now, many years later, I'm not as crazy about it as I used to be back then. It's easier to notice the flaws, but even so it remains an interesting film. It has a great leading role, and Joan Crawford delivers one of her classic performances, though also not as flawless as remembered.

The performances are ok, the direction is good and the cinematography special, definitely helping with the noir mood of the film. The one element stopping the film from being great is the screenplay, which feels very rushed at times, not exploiting enough scenes with a lot of dramatic potential. And it's a pitty, because you can tell there's a lot of juicy stuff here. But at one point it just becomes a succession of scenes and actions.

My rating for the film: 7.5/10. I would've given it an 8, but Mildred lost Best Picture to The Lost Weekend, and that one got a 7.5 from me; so now I'm thinking that I'm not really sure if Mildred is a better film. They're very different.

It's worth mentioning that I've seen only 5 minutes of the Winslet mini-series, and have no clear intention of giving it a try; I hate the character Veda, so 5 hours of something that annoys me doesn't seem like much of a treat.