Frictions in Fiction. La rappresentazione dell’invecchiamento femminile nella serie televisiva Feud: Bette e Joan.

Abstract

The focus of the article consists in the analysis of the ways frictions and crises linked to aging are depicted in the first season (Bette and Joan) of the TV series Feud (2017-2024, FX), through the story of two cinema icons, Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. On screen the aging process is narrated at a critical moment for Hollywood at a time when women after the age of forty were no longer deemed suitable or interesting for movie making. The narrative modulation recalls the set of problems connected with sexism and misogyny, quite present in the film industry of the time. In Feud: Bette and Joan (2017) Bette Davis and Joan Crawford are in their turn played by two other important protagonists of the cinema industry: Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange. The presence of these two great actresses further define an additional level of textual interpretations, linked to contemporaneity. The complexity of the storytelling therefore provides the audiences with the opportunity to move on, and around, several levels and frameworks, as Feud: Bette and Joan recalls differing time frames, making them overlap. On the one hand, an ‘archival’ model is being used through fragments which are remakes of past excerpts, and open up to a specific and shared historical memory for parts of the audience. On the other hand, there are different jumps which lead viewers elsewhere, closer to the present from the central focus of storytelling. In essence, reality is constantly recalled, in a form similar to docu-fiction, thus expanding the possibility for the TV series to establish ties with contemporaneity as well. A feature emerging from the analysis of Feud: Bette and Joan refers to the use of the Hollywood setting as the metaphor of a bigger space-world than the mere cinema industry, thus promoting a reflection on the issue of women’s aging more broadly. Therefore, the sparks caused by fiction-friction give rise to discursive explosions capable of bringing new light – and new values – to aging, becoming part of the broader debate at a socio-cultural level.