Feud: Bette and Joan. The representation of ageing in TV series between crisis and wardrobes

Abstract

The article’s goal is to analyse the ageing-related crisis in the TV series Feud (FX 2017) through the story of two entertainment icons, Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. On-screen, advancing age is narrated as a critical moment for Hollywood of the period. In those years, women after the age of 40 no longer appeared attractive in the movies. The narrative complexity therefore recalls the set of issues related to sexism and misogyny present in the film industry of the time. That is, age challenged the very aura of celebrity, accentuating a rivalry towards the antagonistic actress as towards a younger self. In the television series, Bette Davis and Joan Crawford are played in turn by two other major film personalities: Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange. On-screen, the two leading ladies express their personalities already by the clothes they wear and the colours they favour, which refer to specific meanings and values. The presence of these two great actresses also defines a further level of interpretation of the text, linked to contemporaneity. The advancing of age, so well highlighted in Feud as a source of crisis, capable of creating a path of lonely struggles in the narrative, becomes off-screen in the current landscape, an opportunity for confrontation and complicity among many actresses and women.