Mankiewicz’s All About Eve Getting out of the portrait frame

A shot of Joseph Mankiewicz’s All About Eve (1950) shows, on a wall of the apartment of the great actress Margo Channing, Sir Joshua Reynolds’ portrait of a famous welsh tragedian of the eighteenth century, Sarah Siddons. This allegorical portrait plays a paradoxical role in the film: if it is linked to a few traits of Margo Channing, the film strives to liberate the character from her portrayal and reflects on the delusion of the image and on the differences between proper noun and real self.