All About Eve… and Margo… and Karen…

All About Eve is told almost entirely in flashback. From the moment Eve accepts her award at the beginning of the film, she hangs there suspended while we figure out how we got there.

Even though the story is about Eve and Margo, Eve doesn't get a say in her story. Instead, we have theatre critic Addison DeWitt and playwright's wife Karen Richards narrating in voiceover, as well as a few reminiscences from Margo herself. Addison and Karen are arguably the outsiders of all the main characters—they're not actors, writers, or producers—yet they're the ones telling us the story. This technique puts a distance between us, the lowly viewers, and the true celebrities— the actresses, the writer, and the director.