Saturday, November 6, 2010

The Final Conclusion - Best Actress 1954

About the field: Wow, this was quite probably the most interesting line-up so far. It's far from being the best, but it was so colorful and I had much pleasure in it. Too bad that nowadays it's more about Garland vs. Kelly and they forget the other great nominees. My ranking was not as easy as I thought when I finished reviewing the ladies. There was one good, two very good, one very-very good and a timeless, amazing performance. My pick was very easy and I understand why people hate that loss. But the ranking:

On the one hand, she's painfully miscast and in the beginning she has no weight. On the other hand, in the end her presence and effect is quite strong and is worthy of my praise. Not easy to judge it, but I myself missed her mysterious persona from her other movies, in other words, the essence of Grace Kelly.

This may not be Audrey Hepburn's best work, but I was utterly charmed and perfectly entertained by it despite its lack of great character development. But I laughed, I was moved, I cared about Sabrina and most of all, I had some kind of an emotional connection to her

Jane Wyman gives a satisfying, emotional and very moving performance, which however lacks depth. It might be also due to the weak points of the screenplay, but she wasn't able to be towering and truly impressive. Although everything is where is should be, the achievement is a bit too thin. Very strong work, though.

I must admit that I was totally charmed and mesmerized by the magnetic presence and extraordinary beauty of Ms. Dandridge, who gave a very exciting, wild, sexy and attractive performance as a very complicated woman. A great achievement by a great talent.

If you travel 1000 years in time and see which performances people still remember, Judy Garland's in A Star Is Born will be one of them. Judy Garland's acting achievement is really one of a kind, a true and eternal classic, one that cannot be forgotten or overlooked by anyone who loves movies. This might be a performance for the ages.

So I can proudly announce
that my winner is...
Judy Garland in A Star is Born
Don't be that surprised! :)

About the next year: Picking was so hard. I wanted to do two other years, but I did not get the movies after all and I was incredibly mad. So I was forced to find a year, which is interesting to me. So finally I found a fine year to do. The clues:
  • Friendship forever
  • #1 annoying fanclub for an actress and a nom
  • (L) Tortured artists (L)
There was one right prediction from Joe, which was a bit late, but I just mention it.

So what do you think? Any observations, thoughts, request for the next years?

5 comments:

Fritz said...

Great work and no surprise here! But I am sad that Grace is only fifth...

About the next year...I have no idea. Maybe 1991 or 1977...

Anonymous said...

It sounds like 1989, but I really hope not, since I guess I'm a member of Michelle's annoying fanclub :/

Louis Morgan said...

Good job, although not surprising.

The next year is a little hard to determine from the clues, and I cannot decide on a guess.

joe burns said...

Yay! I knew she would win, and she deserves it.


I think the next year is 1977, but we'll see.

dinasztie said...

Wow, Sage you found it out, but I don't mean you, I hope you're not angry :). I cannot do this year though as I found out, because I cannot get Camille Claudel. So I'm gonna give clues to another which I have already picked.