The Oscar Nerd

Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady

2012-02-04T16:09:00.000+01:00

Another year, another nomination, another record. Meryl Streep received her seventeenth Oscar nomination for playing Margaret Thatcher, the controversial British PM in Phyllida Llyod's movie, The Iron Lady. Each and every year when Meryl is nominated there's a point (=the Golden Globes) where everybody believes that it's Meryl's year after all. However, there's always the SAG which she loses (I guess if she hadn't won for Doubt, she would have won for Julie & Julia) and then she misses the Oscar as well. Bafta may help her a bit, but I suspect that Michelle is a bigger threat for Bafta (and the Oscar) than we imagine. Still, the support for Viola is just too strong to be ignored.

The Iron Lady is heavily criticises as a movie, and while I see the point of the haters, I should also add that I actually enjoyed it while it lasted. Sure, Phyllida Lloyd has a lot to learn as a director, but her work improved considerably since her previous dreadful effort, Mamma Mia!. It's an accurate movie when it comes to historical facts though I'm not so sure about the scenes showing Thatcher's private life. Jim Broadbent plays the weirdest role you can possibly imagine.

However, the movie mostly felt like it was made so that Meryl can finally win her third Oscar. I really don't know, either what she has to do to win that award. There's always someone, who's more due or whose movie is loved more and somehow Meryl is forced to the second place. I think she should have won her third for her Julia Child (I know that many disagree, let's not get into that) at the very least. And here we go again, two years later, another biopic, another nod and another loss coming even though now she had what worked for everybody else: movie about a British politician.

Margaret Thatcher is already a divisive figure in politics: some consider her the greatest British politician since Churchill, some say she's the Antichrist. There's nobody who's immune to Margaret Thatcher and it was up to Meryl to use this. I suppose nobody can be indifferent to this performance. I suppose it serves the supporters and the haters of Mrs. Thatcher as well. Meryl's clearly not judgemental; she's trying to ignore politics as much as possible and we don't see a politician from a certain party, we actually see a woman who happens to be a politician. The centre of Meryl's performance is actually the womanhood of Mrs. Thatcher. The seemingly cold-hearted woman has a much softer side: it's a heartbreaking moment when she has to deal with the death of her soldiers and decides to write to the mothers. Meryl wonderfully shows the more sympathetic side of her character (or as some would say, the woman behind the monster).

From an actress of Meryl Streep's calibre, you would expect a complete transformation to the character she's playing. Meryl (as always) fulfills all the expactations in the technical part of the character: she nails the accent, the mannerisms, the walk, everything that you see on the outside of Margaret Thatcher. That's clearly no surprise considering Meryl's filmography, it was really the inner world of Mrs. Thatcher that was exciting and really challenging for her. We first get to see her as a broken-down old woman, shopping. She's slow, unable to keep up with the world (literally, too). And the best thing is when the technical and emotional side come together: she expresses so much with just walking.

The most wonderful thing about this performance was that Meryl Streep indeed disappeared in this part. As I was sitting in my chair, I actually had to remind myself that it's Meryl that I'm looking at. Her transformation is almost as terrific as Marion Cotillard's was (though Meryl doesn't get such a dynamite of a character). She's so incredibly authentic and believable as Margaret Thatcher that she's almost more "Thatcher" than the real one. :)

In this transformation, Meryl successfully hid her own joyous, fun and playful self. As Julia Child, Meryl was very much present (and some hate it, personally, I felt it made that character even more beautiful), but here we don't get to see the Meryl Streep we all know (and love). It must have been really difficult for her to play someone with absolutely no sense of humor.

The scenes with the old Margaret and her dead husband are incredibly painful to watch, especially their last scene together. Although they were written in a very chesy and sentimental way, I kept marveling at Meryl's skills to turn them into something utterly real and heartbreaking.

Meryl also successfully avoided being completely laughable in the "Iron Lady" parts where she shows Maggie as a ruthless and harsh leader. The "cowardice" and "I have done battle" scenes are on the verge of completely ruining all the things that Meryl achieved. Meryl, however, never went too much over the top with her and she was able to seem tough and really powerful instead of hysterical and bitchy.

Meryl amazingly develops her character. All the wonderful depths and layers that she shows are just magnificent. After watching this movie, you really feel like knowing Maggie Thatcher in person. Meryl lets us observe this woman along with her and it was just a fascinating journey along with her. I just felt like knowing such intimate details about her.

My only problem with this performance is that it's not groundbreaking or totally mindblowing. Although there are lots of moments of brilliance by which I was completely fascinated, I was never completely taken by her emotionally. That seems like a big problem, but Meryl made up for it with the overall fantastic achievement plus it's more of the movie's and the screenplay's fault as they didn't give her any scenes to be emotionally captivating. Viola Davis' part was easier that way: although she had less screentime, she constantly had the opportunity to leave a huge impact. Meryl didn't have the chance for that, despite the fact how showy this part seems (it's much less showy than I imagined). But I guess Thatcher is a very reserved person and it was right not to make her too emotional.

Overall, Meryl Streep gives a fantastic performance as Margaret Thatcher. Although it's high time she won an Oscar and this is terrific work, this one is bit far from being as great as some of her other works like Sophie's Choice or The Deer Hunter (but honestly, how could she get better than that?). Still, she's just brilliant in the technical part of her performance, nails the emotional scenes and she's just thoroughly impressive playing this very controversial and divisive character. Again, not one of her best, but fantastic anyhow and worthy of an Oscar win.

What do you think?

Viola Davis in The Help

2012-01-30T16:03:00.000+01:00

Viola Davis made history and became only the second black actress to receive two Oscar nominations. She received the honor for playing Aibileen Clark, a maid who helps out an aspiring young writer with some of her stories about her life as a domestic. At the beginning of the award season, Viola Davis was the absolute front-runner to win the Oscar and if I can be honest, I was really surprised that she didn't win the Golden Globe because this is really a performance that they usually love (I guess they love Meryl more). I guess the SAG love for Viola meant that she's clearly the front-runner once again (I wonder about how the BAFTA will influence the race).

Although The Help is not an amazing piece of filmmaking, it's a very entertaining and moving film with a cheesy story. Naturally, it's sentimental but it just adds to its charm. However, the film's strength lies in the almost all-female cast. Each and every actress gives a wonderful performance. Octavia Spencer and Jessica Chastain are both wonderful and deserving of the Academy Award but I'm going to root for Octavia because I think Jessica will have a better shot at winning in the future (and she will win as a leading actress, just a matter of time). I should also mention Allison Janney and Cicely Tyson who do wonders with their roles and provided some of the most moving moments of the film. I wish they had received more recognition for their work.

Four years ago, Viola Davis was a Tony-winning stage actress who got supporting parts in movies occasionally. However, along came Doubt, in which she outshone Meryl Streep with a six-minute-long, heartbreaking scene, where she gave a terrific performance and for which she should have won the Oscar. In the following year, her situation and parts did not seem to change: all she got was bit parts in action flicks and romantic comedies. Being aware of her talent, it's kind of shocking that she had to make do with those bit parts. No wonder Meryl Streep pleaded at the SAG awards to get Viola a movie. We all know how much Hollywood listents to Meryl and she got Viola that movie, but also got her main rival for the Oscar.

Gone with the Wind showed us the idealistic, happy house slave, Mammy who would sacrifice herself to help the family she's working for and her beloved Miss Scarlett. Some criticised Hattie McDaniel for playing these very clichéd images of a black woman but she said 'I'd rather play a maid than be one'. Seventy-two years later, we get to see a new and deeper (?) image of domestics in The Help. In a way, the characters of The Help are also clichés and maybe the products of white guilt, but somehow Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer solved this problem: Octavia with her wonderful comic skills and Viola with her dignified and gracious personality.

It's so interesting that The Help wants to be about social equality and yet it didn't have the courage to make a black character the real lead of the picture. In a way, the character of Aibileen is forced to the back of the bus to give the longer storyline to Skeeter's character. That's the reason why it's almost impossible to decide if Viola is leading or supporting character. She's co-lead at best and a sidekick despite the fact that she's far and away the most interesting and layered character of the film. I started to wonder if Aibileen is the most intriguing and heartbreaking character because of the writing or Viola Davis' enormous talent. Let's get this straight: if Viola Davis was a white woman, she would just flow in great parts and Oscars. I am not necessarily saying that Hollywood people are still as racist as the 1960 Mississippi but they still don't have the courage to make a black woman the real lead. They still think in white. But an actress of Viola's calibre would deserve to play all the great parts you could ever imagine.

I guess the fact that Viola is mainly a stage actress still helps her a great deal in her film acting. Her face is so expressive and her whole personality bursts with energy and emotionality. I think she's used to showing her emotions in a very big way and that's why we often get to see a huge amount of tears coming from her. I'm not suggesting at all by this that she's theatrical, far from it: she converts all the necessary stage "tricks" to the big screen, and the results are just wonderful. The reason why I love her so much is probably due to the fact that she reminds me of the greatest Hungarian actors/actresses. Here, it's stage first and then comes the movie and they clearly know the characters more than the film actresses. It's just that they would be able to play the whole thing at once and be just as great.

What we see about Aibileen is that she has a story. In every movement of hers, Viola is revealing something about her, tells a new story and reveals a new layer and depth. Viola wonderfully tells the background of Aibileen: the scene where she talks about her sons death is as heartbreaking as a scene can get (Oscar clip, watch out). What I was amazed at was Viola's ability to create something so natural and wonderful from such cheesy lines. Everything is pure and clean about her, she's free of fake behaviour and sentimentality.

But honestly, for me the most amazing thing about Viola was how well she showed the love and faith inside Aibileen. She's an embodiment and representation of everything that faith should be about: telling the truth and loving. Her face in the church scene is just wonderful, we just see how touched she's by the message and how she's trying to live according to it.

Another very touching aspect of Viola's performance is the way she shows Aibileen's relationship with her baby girl, Mae Mobley. She shows a very intimate and beautiful relationship between the to of them and I just refuse to believe there's anyone who can keep dry eyes during the last scene where she's saying 'You is kind. You is smart. You is important.' Again, a very cheesy, sentimental line that Viola makes wonderfully moving and wonderful.

However, Viola's performance is not only moving and loveable, it's also full of humor and gentle irony once she's in the company of Octavia Spencer. Their wonderful scenes cover a wide range of emotions: they are fooling around in the kitchen during the bridge party or comforting each other after Aibileen's character was running from the scene of a terrible murder (Viola portrays Aibileen's fear so heartbreakingly, she made her so vulnerable there). But honestly, it's their scene in the church in the end is the most moving of all: again, it's very sentimental, but somehow so loveable (that perfectly sums up the movie as well). When I first saw the movie and really got under its effect, I felt they were applauded for their future Oscar wins (silly, I know, but it felt like such a moment).

In the end, in a secondary part, Viola Davis is able to give the most layered and heartbreaking performance as Aibileen in The Help. In each and every moment of the film, she's endlessly loveable, showing so many emotions and faces of this character. Her incredible talent shines through this somewhat thin material and is able to be wonderfully moving, natural and funny at the same time. Beautiful, wonderful work for which Viola would deservedly win the Oscar.

What do you think?

The Next Year

2012-01-29T15:11:00.000+01:00

2011

So the nominees are:

Glenn Close in Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis in The Help
Rooney Mara in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams in My Week with Marilyn

So, another year has come and as of now, the race is very exciting. All of them have a more or less legitimate shot at winning (except for maybe Rooney) so we'll just have to wait until SAG announces (tomight) :).

But more importantly ;), who will get my vote? What do you think? Can Meryl get her third win from me (and become my first consecutive winner)? Or will I go with one of the four other fantastic ladies, including Great Glenn? Who's your pick? What's your prediction for my ranking? (I'm really interested in that) :)

The Final Conclusion - Best Actress 1982

2012-01-28T13:27:00.003+01:00

1982

So the much anticipated ranking is:

5. Julie Andrews in Victor Victoria

I'm not saying that Julie Andrews gives a bad performance in Victor Victoria. Although I was very amused by her occasionally, she didn't make her character as a fake drag queen very believable or interesting. It's not even really her fault, the part is just not right for her. She solves the comedy parts quite well, but she was not able to give a really layered performance.

4. Sissy Spacek in Missing

Sissy Spacek was able to get something out of her one-dimensional character. While her performance is far from dreary, she's not able to reveal as many layers of this character as she can with other roles. Although I appreciate the massive amount of talent and effort that she put into this part, I'm simply not impressed by her work in this movie. Something is really missing.

3. Debra Winger in An Officer and a Gentleman

Debra Winger is incredibly great in An Officer and a Gentleman, giving a deeply layered, very emotional and haunting performance that didn' cease to amaze me. She gets so much out of this seemingly one-dimensional character with the help of her wonderful, beautiful presence. She's just wonderful all around.

2. Jessica Lange in Frances

Jessica Lange is downright brilliant as Frances Farmer. Everything about her is just sheer perfection: her turbulent presence, her very emotional and passionate acting and her ability to keep control of her character. I'm not willing to say yet that this is her best work (I need to see more), but it's definitely a front-runner for that prize. Chilling, marvelous, terrifying, brutally amazing job from a great, great actress.

1. Meryl Streep in Sophie's Choice

Again, one of those performances. To say that Meryl Streep is brilliant in Sophie's Choice would be a major understatement. She goes beyond the boundaries of acting and completely becomes Sophie Zawistowska. While the technical part of this performance is brutally perfect, it's the emotional nature of Meryl's work that keeps you captivated. Nothing can compare to the horror and pain that Meryl displays on the screen. Unforgettable work, a real gift.

So I can proudly announce

that the winner is...

Meryl Streep

Sophie's Choice

My fifth two-time winner. :)

And the special award goes to
Jessica Lange in Frances

Final thoughts: Overall, a good year, with two brilliant performances. First I thought the choice would be a real Sophie's choice but in the end, Meryl was the clear winner, as much as I love Jessica (and I love her so much). I think I'm going to give Jessica a special award just like I gave it to Jane Fonda for Coming Home. I think the way they gave out the award in 1982 was a very wise decision. I really loved Debra though she didn't even come close. The other two were pretty much forgettable.

And congrats to heydeanie on the correct predictions! You can pick a year as a prize (though there are three such years that I have to do :-) ) from these available years: 1933, 1938, 1951, 1953, 1956, 1960, 1967, 1968, 1981, 1985, 1988, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1999, 2000, 2007, 2008

And now the clues:

Cowardice. Cowardice.
But what if you don't like what I got to say? :)

What do you think?

Jessica Lange in Frances

2012-01-27T19:03:00.000+01:00

Jessica Lange received her first Best Actress nomination for playing the tragic actress, Frances Farmer in the movie Frances. There are years when there are two such fantastic performances that it feels like a shame not to reward them both. 1982 is the definition of that year. Meryl Streep and Jessica Lange were basically going head to head but when award season began, Meryl started to win all the awards. However, the critics came up with a great idea: why not to reward Jessica in the supporting category for her turn in Tootsie? The Academy followed that and they gave her the supporting award. Teri Garr, her fellow nominee, said that Jessica deserved ly won for Frances (I think she deservedly won for Tootsie as well). For that reason, some might have even felt not voting for Jessica at all in the lead category thogh that idea is kind of silly considering what an acclaimed and hailed performance it was.

Frances is a pretty terrific and harrowing take on Frances Farmer's life. It's highly fictionalized, of course, but that doesn't take anything away from its great effect. Graeme Clifford's direction is passionate and he really found the right way to tell Frances' story. The acting and writing part of the movie is also very strong: I would particularly like to underline Sam Shephard's performance, which was somehow quite memorable for me. Kim Stanley, though many disagree, was not that great. Sure, she has her moments but she's far from being fantastic.

Over the last couple of months, Jessica Lange has become one of my absolute favorite actresses and I have become a huge, huge fan of hers, mostly thanks to her recent television appearances on American Horror Story. The main reason I was doing this year was to rediscover the performance that's said to be her absolute best, the one that I loved the most as well. I was also full of doubts if I would like her as much for a second time and if she would impress me just as much. It's a hailed performance for sure. At the time, one of the critics' called it the biggest triumph by an actress since Sophia Loren's Cesira in Two Women. True, the careers of these actresses are similar in many ways: both of them started out as sex symbols without any appreciation for their wonderful acting talents and thanks to huge, showy dramatic turns as tortured women they got the recognition both of them deserved.

When somebody gets naked on the screen, they have to get rid of every sense of shame and pride and show themselves the way they are: vulnerable, natural, scared or sensual and sexy. Jessica Lange gets more and more naked in each and every frame of Frances, figuratively and literally, too. She gets rid of her vanity, her shame and her glamorous, beautiful looks.

The thing that impresses me most about this performance is Jessica's transformation and the changes that she shows in the character of Frances. She starts off as a naive, a bit shy young girl with a weak voice and very teenage looks, then becomes the most beautiful person you can imagine and eventually ends up being broken down, disgusting, shocking and terrifying. She's on the verge of crazy, wild overacting but somehow she always manages to get back. By all means, her presence is turbulent. She dives deeper and deeper into the madness of Frances that you actually feel that even her, Jessica Lange, the actress suffers a nervous breakdown.

The scenes where she's shown at the asylum are the most brutal ones that you can imagine. If you thought Olivia de Havilland was shocking in The Snake Pit, just try watching Jessica in Frances. Watching her provides you with the most perverted joy: you can see a woman suffering a brutal breakdown. In the end, she becomes this unrecognisable, wild animal screaming and raging. The most amazing thing about these scenes is the fact that while they are showing total chaos, Jessica somehow was able to control her character. Jack Lemmon said that it's important not to let the character completely take over the actor and that's why it was difficult for him to play his character in Save the Tiger. However, in Jessica's case, I felt that Jessica conquered Frances Farmer and that lead to the greatest results.

However, I must admit that it's not the final scenes of the movie that I'm the most enthralled by. I was even more impressed by the period when we see Frances starting out in Hollywood and then when she's in decline. Although the scenes of Frances' complete breakdown are surely terrifying, it's the process that leads up to that point that was the more interesting part for me. She cleary feels like a fish out of water at the studio and Jessica showed the character's embarassment brilliantly. Frances just dares to ask why and say the truth without any pretence.

Jessica uses all her gifts in this part and her beautiful looks and original sexiness do wonders in the scenes where we can see Frances with the men in her life, who constantly let her down. Jessica's chemistry with Sam Shephard is just brilliant, it's no wonder they fell in love with each other on set (how sad that they split). The sexual tension between them almost sets the screen on fire. But Jessica works equally well with the actor playing Clifford Odets. Her tears and breakdown after their break-up is one of the most heartbreaking moments of the film.

Once Frances loses her idealism and is let down by everyone around her, Jessica's acting becomes incredibly dynamic. Her scene at the courtroom shows brilliantly how Jessica was able to keep the balance with this character. She doesn't overdo the raging and screaming and yet she shows how desperate and broken down this woman is.

The highlights of her whole performance are (and I have to narrow it down to two scenes) her dialogues with her psychiatrist. She portrays so many emotions and so perfectly and in such a thirlling way that I was completely speechless. Her fear, her defiance, her desire to live again is so uplifting and heartwrenching at the same time.

But that applies for the rest of her performance. Jessica Lange is downright brilliant as Frances Farmer. Everything about her is just sheer perfection: her turbulent presence, her very emotional and passionate acting and her ability to keep control of her character. I'm not willing to say yet that this is her best work (I need to see more), but it's definitely a front-runner for that prize. Chilling, marvelous, terrifying, brutally amazing job from a great, great actress.

What do you think? (The Final Conclusion comes tomorrow).

NOTE: I updated the post with two other pictures because a) this is a "3-picture performance review", b) I didn't find any good pictures until now, c) she's so damn beautiful, she's just a thrill to look at.

Julie Andrews in Victor Victoria

2012-01-26T20:31:00.001+01:00

Julie Andrews received her third Oscar nomination for playing Victoria Grant, a struggling soprano who pretends to be a drag queen to get a job. Julie also won a Golden Globe for her performance, which was kind of a comeback for her. That being said, I don't think that she was a serious contender for the Best Actress award next to Meryl and Jessica. Because of the comeback story and the lots of other nominations for the films, she probably got ahead of Debra Winger in the final voting but I'm not even sure about that.

I'm going to be perfectly honest and admit how much I dislike Victor Victoria. I don't want to offend the fans, but I found this movie to be incredibly predictable and even tiring to watch. The movie couldn't decide if it wanted to be a smart comedy on sexuality (failed) or an old-fashioned musical-comedy (failed). Sure, the music part is perfection (thanks to the great Henry Mancini who deservedly won an Oscar for his work here). But seriously the jokes are so lame despite the fact that they were intended to be raunchy. Seriously, I was just waiting for someone falling with a cake and guess what... The cast should be great, instead they are just OK: James Garner is somewhat bored, Robert Preston plays all the stereotypes possible and Lesley Ann Warren... I'm gonna shut my mouth about her.

Victor Victoria was obviously intended by Blake Edwards to showcase the talents of his wife, Julie Andrews. Andrews was the box office darling of the 60s, she couldn't make a mistake and suddenly came the 70s and the new generation of actresses like Jane Fonda took over and there was no place for Julie's benevolent, darling presence. Only four films of hers were released and the only thing that brought some attention to her was her breasts. She certainly reached the point where she desperately needed a great comeback role. Her prayers must have been heard... at least by her husband. But not even this movie could restore her old status as the biggest star of Hollywood.

I am actually quite fond of Julie Andrews as actress, after all, I made her my 1964 Best Actress pick (which, as I'd like to think, caused a kind of a stir among my dear readers). Her talent goes way beyond her perfect singing voice (just like Henry Mancini, I have a hard time believing that she ever made a false note), she's able to show innocence and goodness on the screen like nobody else, without becoming overly sentimental (OK, some really argue with that). She evokes some of my mostkindest feelings in me that while I'm watching her I feel like going back in time, which is kind of unusual for me with musicals as usually, I feel like commiting genocide and desroying my TV set after watching them (there are some exceptions, though). I can't help it.

With Victor Victoria something really went wrong. In the beginning, when Julie plays the real Victoria, she's a real treat to watch: she's obviously having fun with the character, she knows how to portray her struggles with a sense of humor and she instantly won me over. Her deliveries were just excellent, her chemistry with Robert Preston worked wonderfully and I was thinking I would see a very entertaining performance with a touch of irony.

Things really start to get worse when she becomes Victor Victoria. I'll just go out and say that she's as believable as a drag queen as Cher would be as a reverend mother. Although it's great that, unlike Robert Preston, she avoided only relying on mannerisms and stereotypes but that resulted in one awful thing: she remained a woman playing a woman, not a woman playing a man playing a woman or whatever. She performed those songs excellently, but really, it was Julie Andrews singing, not Victor Victoria. The thing is that this is no big problem when you watch this movie for the first time, but on repeated viewings, it's just not enough: I could get DVDs of her concerts and watch them instead of this movie.

The main problem is that this movie would have needed a more loud and over-the-top performer like Bette Midler in the lead. I'm not that huge fan of hers but I'd say she would have been the best option for this movie. Julie, as hard as she's trying, is not wild, loud and flambuoyant enough for such a character. I see that she was trying really hard, but honestly, the scenes where she tries to be seductive are the worst of all. There's nothing about her that would justify the attraction of James Garner's character.

Victor Victoria is also desperate to give a kind of message about the place of women in the society but Julie, in with her saint-like presence, is simply not a believable when she's predicting the feminist messages. Although there's sort of a depth (or a point) in her dialogues with James Garner, she still comes off as weak and really boring.

The silly comedy parts of the movie are the ones where Julie's at her best. Her comic timing works excellently and her presence is (as usual) really charming. Still, it's just not enough for her to have an effect on me.

What do you think?

Debra Winger in An Officer and a Gentleman

2012-01-25T19:42:00.002+01:00

Debra Winger received her first Oscar nomination for playing Paula Pokrifki, a girl falling for a man who's training in her town to become an aviator in the box office hit, An Officer and a Gentleman. When Debra received her nomination, her father went on record and said that they were very happy about her nomination and all of them (including Debra) believed that Meryl should win the Oscar. Since I can't officially agree or disagree with him (since I have two other ladies left), let me just say how cool it was to say that. Anyhow, I keep wondering how the Academy voted, especially in her case. Jessica was probably second (more on that later), but Debra could have been fifth, fourth or even third, considering the huge success of the movie. I suppose it was a tough one between Julie and her, but honestly, 95% of the votes went to Meryl and Jessica and they were battling out the rest.

To fully show what kind of a movie An Officer and a Gentleman is, let me just reveal the very last scene (SPOILER): Richard Gere takes out Debra Winger on his arms, while the factory workers are clapping around them and you can hear the famous, very 80s theme of the movie. (SPOILER OFF!) Are you f-ing kidding with me? Seriously, it's one of the lamest "romantic" endings I have ever seen (wonder where Titanic's ending came from). Overall, it's no wonder that this film was a smash hit in the early 80s. I suppose the same thing would happen nowadays. Louis Gossett Jr. gives a memorable performance, but that's no something I would give him an Academy Award (Supporting Actor was really weak that year; or isn't it every year?).

Where are you Debra Winger? OK, In Treatment and occasionally fighting with Anne Hathaway, but I am really curious what she would be able to get out of her parts nowadays, at this point of her life. Rachel Getting Married wonderfully showed all the potential she had inside, revealing tons of emotions in very limited screentime. However, thirty years ago she wasn't a real household name yet, despite receiving great acclaim and a Golden Globe nomination for Urban Cowboy. I suppose her Best Actress nomination came just like Rooney Mara's this year. Both of them had a praised supporting performance and along came a role in a box office hit that brought them an Oscar nod.

After providing E.T. with her voice, Debra played Paula, which I consider her finest performance that I've seen. Although An Officer and a Gentleman has basically no clue about how people and life work, Debra was able to turn in a beautiful, wonderful and deeply layered performance in one of the most one-dimensional role an actress can get. Obviously, it was Richard Gere who got the big, flashy scene (screwed up most of them royally) and Debra got the little screentime and the (sort of) unshowy part, which is considered a supporting role by many. Then how the hell is Debra so fantastic here?

I suppose Debra's greatness in this movie has a lot to do with the fact that she didn't have a very polished style of acting at the time. In Terms of Endearment, I sensed that she was playing for the tears and the effect, but in An Officer and a Gentleman, I felt purity, naturality and beauty coming from her presence. She had lots of confidence here and she almost bursts with the energy inside her. Her deep, throaty voice just adds up to the fantastic outcome of this performance. She's wonderfully sexy and completely irresistable.

When we first see her, she's not an otherworldy, beautiful creature one would expect in a romantic movie, she seems actually quite ordinary. She's a working girl (it kills me just to think about Melanie Griffith), waiting for the end of her shift. However, after a fast change in a car, she becomes a wonderful, beautiful, attractive woman, who's a radiant, irresistable presence. She doesn't overdue the tough worker act, she doesn't make Paula a loud, over-the-top woman (something that an actress of Melissa Leo's calibre would have done with Paula). She just makes Paula the most natural person in the work and as a result, it's just impossible not to fall in love with her.

What I most admire about Debra here, is her ability to communicate Paula's emotions with her wonderfully expressive. She gets dialogues and says her lines, but everything that's important is written on her face. She has an effect on you with some very delicate and subtle impressions. For instance, in the ball scene where she's doing nothing, really, except for flirting with Richard Gere. She makes her character so myseterious and wonderfully deep, it's as if she wanted to seduce the audience as well (she succeeded, brilliantly).

Debra's chemistry with Richard Gere is pretty miraculous and that leads to the most fantastic scenes of Debra, like the ones in the motel room. Debra basically shines in these scenes: there's something about them that still keeps resonating with me. I don't know if I felt sympathy or even pity for Paula but I sure had some intense feelings about her.

The highlight of her whole performance is her monologue about her real father and her (kind of) break-up with Richard Gere's character. She's just haunting in this scene, revealing the soul of this girl. Again, what's important is really on her face and not in what she says.

Many people ask the question: is she leading or supporting? Frankly, my answer is obviously leading. Despite the screenplay's intentions, she's the emotional centrepoint of this movie and she provides us with the most memorable moments of her so-so movie. I guess the only thing I could have against her is the fact that despite the wonderful, even haunting effect she had on me, she didn't hit me really hard. But frankly, with this role, she did way more than it could be expected in this movie.

All things considered, Debra Winger is incredibly great in An Officer and a Gentleman, giving a deeply layered, very emotional and haunting performance that didn' cease to amaze me. She gets so much out of this seemingly one-dimensional character with the help of her wonderful, beautiful presence. She's just wonderful all around.

What do you think?

Sissy Spacek in Missing

2012-01-21T19:34:00.001+01:00

Fresh off her Oscar win two years earlier, Sissy Spacek got another nomination in the Best Actress category for her performance as Beth Horman, the wife of a missing young man in the controversial Costa-Gavras film, Missing. I suppose in the gigantic fight between Jessica Lange and Meryl Streep for the Oscar gold made all of their fellow nominees spectators in their own race. On Inside the Actor's Studio, Sissy admitted voting for Meryl so I suppose she didn't have high expectations. I suppose she was fourth, based on the fact that her movie nominated for Best Picture (only one in the bunch) and she might have had some leftover love (though that could have been the reason for why she was last).

While I recognise how ambitious piece of work Missing is, I'm just not willing to consider it a great movie. It has some really harrowing and heart-breaking moments but the overall effect of it wasn't that strong on me at all. It just didn't attract my attention, especially in the scenes without Sissy Spacek and Jack Lemmon. Jack Lemmon gives a devastating, extremely heart-breaking performance, which tells us so much about the inner self of that desperate man. His famous speech in the stadium is actually much shorter than I remember but it's just spot-on: it really hits you hard with its emotional honesty and rawness. I also can't go by the fantastic score of Vangelis who had a great deal to do with making this movie as intense as it is sometimes.

I always considered Sissy Spacek to be an actress blessed with huge talent and great beauty. She's not beautiful in a very traditional sense (but, boy am I furious when people say she's ugly!), she has a very radiant presence and her face wonderfully expresses her emotions. I can only compare her to Michelle Williams from nowadays' actresses: both of them are like some magical pixies and have a wonderful, shining personality (it's just interesting how similar their careers are).

In Missing, Sissy gets to play the co-lead part of Beth Horman, a real-life person. She has a missing husband in Chile during Pinochet's coup and has to deal with her arch conservative father-in-law. This could have been a very meaty and showy role but Sissy's not given a truly interesting character so it's up to her knowledge and talent bring something memorable out of this sort of one-dimensional character. Also, Jack Lemmon gets a really deep multi-layered character and he uses every opportunity to shine in his part, leaving Sissy far behind. Honestly, the movie could be titled Missing: A Good Character for Sissy Spacek.

However, Sissy's talent and wonderful never lets her down as their's something about her performance that keeps resonating with me. She's fantastic at showing the idealism of this woman and her willingness to find out what happened to her husband. As I said she doesn't get any showy breakdowns or monologues unlike Jack Lemmon and it was a very brave decision from her to avoid the clichés of the suffering wife, yet it fell a little bit flat for me, for several reasons.

First of all, I never saw that Beth had a very complete development from the almost naive young woman to a more experienced but still idealistic person. Although the movie is constantly standing in her way, she could have shown more. It might be fact that I just can't stand performances with obvious highlights (that's true in a way), but I don't think, either that Sissy was creating something special here. There are impressive moments, like the one where we can see her fear after hiding at night or her small breakdown when she recognises the corpse of a good friend. These are memorable scenes, though I wouldn't exactly say that they are unforgettable.

Sissy and Jack Lemmon make up a very odd couple, to say the least but interesting enough, it all works. The only way in which this performance is almost spot-on, is the relationship of these two people: Sissy's Beth starts as the loyal opposition and eventually they turn out to be the most faithfully allies you can ever see. I felt the connection of two opposite generations with very different views of the world they live in (more precisely, they live in different worlds). Beth is the more progressive, idealistic and naive of the two, while Jack's Ed is the more down-to-earth, conventional man who likes facts but there's a special bond between them: their goal of finding a missing person. I was especially appreciative of the fact that the filmmakers were serious enough not write some one-liners in their fight scenes.

I refuse to believe that Sissy didn't give 100% to the role. It's not like watching a stage diva performing to students on a Thursday night. I actually saw her caring about her character, it's really just the nature and the obvious limitations of the part that prevent her from completely impressing me. However, as much as I'm trying to be impressed by her, I just can't be, which is especially weird, considering the fact that I was watching Sissy Spacek, one of my absolute favorite actresses.

Still, Sissy Spacek was able to get something out of her one-dimensional character. While her performance is far from dreary, she's not able to reveal as many layers of this character as she can with other roles. Although I appreciate the massive amount of talent and effort that she put into this part, I'm simply not impressed by her work in this movie. Something is really missing.

What do you think?

Who should be next: Debra or Julie?

Thoughts on the Golden Globes (and the award season)

2012-01-16T14:30:00.001+01:00

So the Golden Globe Awards were held yesterday (here in Hungary, it's today LOL) and I'm here with very mixed feelings. Really, what was going on? This was one of the worst shows EVER, but more on that later. Frankly, I was more excited and satisfied about the TV awards this year than the film categories. There was NOTHING really surprising and unfortunately everything went according to plan. Frankly, I was hoping that this award season will remain as exciting as it was till the Critics' Choice.

First let's see what I hated about the show:

1. Ricky Gervais: Let's face it, he was a disgrace last year but at least he was funny. He did NOTHING funny at all, whenever he came to the stage, he just said something lame and vulgar. Plus he barely had any time.

2. Madonna talking back to Gervais: Seriously, I appreciate her "bravery", but seriously, it was a clumsy try.

3. Utter boredom: absolutely no suspense, no star power, bored and boring presenters. They showed Dustin Hoffman several times almost falling asleep. Honestly, I don't blame him. Moreover, the speeches were absolutely boring and uninteresting.

4. Showing Viola's and Great Glenn's losing reactions way too many times: They were pretty disappointed about losing, they tried to keep a straight face, rather unsuccesfully (especially Viola). I really felt sorry that they couldn't keep their disappointment to themselves. I felt very sorry for them but it seems that the director of the show had some sadistic pleasure at showing their disappointment.

5. No surprises: Seriously, why did they have to pick these very obvious winners? As I said, I had much more fun in the TV categories than the movies.

But there were lots of things that I liked (there were quite a few, actually), but they weren't enough for me to be impressed:

1. Meryl winning: seriously, that woman is a treasure. It's HIGH time for her to win that third, it really is. But why is she raving about Viola in her own speech? OK, she's very gracious.

2. Jessica Lange and Claire Danes winning: Seriously, Claire Danes gave the performance of last year, TV, movie, theatre, whatever. I can't believe that she's not getting an Oscar movie. She has more talent than most of the Best Actress contenders of the previous years combined (Anne Hathaway, Ellen Page, Reese Witherspoon, Keira Knightley or even Natalie Portman {who was astonishing in Black Swan but frankly way weaker than Claire} cannot even hold a candle to her). Seriously what she did in Homeland was the best performance by an actress in TV since Edie Falco's Carmela Soprano (also Homeland is the best series since The Sopranos, IMO). And boy is she beautiful! Moreover, Jessica Lange's deliciously campy, creepy Constance won her a fifth Globe. I'm in love with her. That's all.

3. Modern Family's speech: Sofía Vergara was spot on. I feel kind of sorry for her but this was Jessica's year. Sofia was ROBBED last year, though.

4. Matt Le Blanc winning: I'm the biggest Friends fan and getting to see him winning a Globe was so cool (I always thought about the episode of Friends called "The One with Joey's Award"). Plus, he was terrific in Episodes.

5. Octavia Spencer: Seriously, that woman cannot be lovelier if she tried. End of the story. Love her.

But seriously, above all, I loved one moment (don't act as if you're surprised):

JANE FONDA PRESENTING: The absolute highlight of this awful night. a) She was the sexiest person in the room (along with Helen Mirren and Sofia Vergara) b) She was presenting Best Picture (which she will hopefully also do at the Oscars) c) She's f-ing Jane Fonda, the best ever, so shut up. :) She was really the shining light that I was longing for. Thank God! :)

OK, Jane made me VERY happy but I'm still disappointed. Frankly, I'm not feeling that award season madness and crazy, buzzy atmosphere that I so love. I was actually quite calm during the ceremonies, only Best Actress - Drama gave me some heartbeats.

On the prediction front: On Goldderby, I did brilliantly with TV predictions and I was 11th in the ranking, I'm so proud. I did shitty on the movie front but just because I dared to think we would get some surprises. And honestly, if I listened to my guts instead of others, I would have bet on Laura Dern and would have had a perfect 100% score in TV.

Frankly, I was looking forward to SAG but now I cannot be more neutral. Of course, we'll see Octavia, Plummer, Clooney winning with only minimal suspense in Best Actress. I guess it might be Viola after all but something tells me, Meryl will get the Oscar. But I won't believe it until I see it because I learned from past disappointments (shut up about 2009).

What do YOU think?

Bad news

2012-01-09T19:57:00.000+01:00

So after a very unlucky incident, I'm back. Yesterday, my blog was deleted and I suffered multiple heart attacks. :) I'm going to be much more careful in the future so I created a backup blog for myself here, which is identical. I will eventually upload my reviews there as well, you know, to keep them alive. I'm just asking my dear followers to click on the follow button there as well to show the support that I very much need if such a thing happens once again! Plus for some reason, my comments become spams so watch out, I didn't leave your blogs!

Thanks a lot!

P.S. : The next review comes on Thursday but please someone ask for a specific person (apart from Jessica) because I have absolutely no idea who to write about.

Meryl Streep in Sophie's Choice

2012-01-07T19:17:00.002+01:00

It's an honor and a privilege to write my first review of the year about...

Meryl Streep who received her fourth Oscar nomination and second Academy Award for playing Sophie Zawistowska, a very mysterious and beautiful Polish woman haunted by a horrible secret. Meryl's win, in my opinion, was very obvious. The Academy came up with the perfect solution to reward the two actresses whose performances were hailed by almost everyone: Jessica Lange won in the supporting category (though everybody feels it's also an award for Frances) and Meryl won in leading. One of those unfortunate cases were happening where two actresses gave their greatest performances. I don't think there was a way Meryl was losing that Oscar.

Sophie's Choice, in my opinion, is much better than most people think. It's certainly a bit symplified and some of the characters are not properly worked out, but for me it all worked. Although I don't think I want to see it again (for many reasons), it was a very emotional and unforgettable experience for me. Alan J. Pakula was a director who helped his actor deliver some of the very best performances of their careers (above all, Jane Fonda in Klute) and he works fabulously with his actors here as well. Kevin Kline gives a performance that was worthy of an Oscar nomination, but Peter McNicol has his moments, too.

You know there's a term I really like to use with performances that completely steal their movies and that's why I'm saying that Sophie's Choice is The Meryl Streep Show. Like Klute is The Jane Fonda Show or Tootsie is The Dustin Hoffman Show, Sophie's Choice belongs entirely to Meryl Streep, this fantastic performer. In one of her interviews, Jane Fonda told Rosie O'Donell that she believes Meryl is a gift from Heaven. Although sometimes I try to dislike Meryl, it proves impossible whenever I see her in an actual movie. Then I really believe what Jane says about Meryl. She's a gift. When I reviewed Meryl's wonderful turn in Ironweed, I mentioned that story of Jack Nicholson when while shooting her character's death, he touched Meryl and felt that she had no pulse. Meryl is a natural born chameleon.

She proves that in Sophie's Choice more than ever during her long, distinguished career. Meryl's hard work and long preparations are legendary, but she really outdid herself here. Because first, she speaks German and Polish so well that you actually refuse to believe that she's American (on a side note, I wonder how she would deal with the Hungarian language :-) ). Second, her accent (as always) is immaculate. Third, she has that very special type of radiant beauty that Polish women possess (this sounds a bit awkward but it's actually true). She perfected each and every movement of this character, timed her tears fabulously. As usual, Meryl solved the technical part of the performance perfectly. Some critics dismissed her performance at the time as way too technical and calculated (which is actually true but in my opinion, it only made her character even more authentic and believable) and Kate Hepburn also expressed how much she despised Meryl in general because of this. But for me, her very considered and careful acting is just a testament to how much she cherished her character. I always try to imagine Goldie Hawn or Natalie Wood in this part (as both of them wanted to play Sophie) or Ursula Andress, whom William Styron, the author of the book, had in mind while writing the story (though from what I've heard, the book's Sophie fits Ursula more than Meryl).

For me, however, it's the emotionality of this part that gets me each and every time. Last time, with Ironweed I described how much I was taken by Meryl's singing "He's Me Pal" where I felt completely taken by her genious (no wonder that the great Diane Keaton described Meryl as her generation's genious). I felt that very rare feeling throughout Sophie's Choice. I don't think it's coincidence that she reminded me of Jane Fonda in Klute (after all, they had the same director): both of them took me on a ride on a rollercoaster, which may not be pleasant at all, but fulfills you in every possible way. For me, it was unbeliavable to see Meryl showing so many facets of this woman from so many angles. She captivated my mind and soul throughout the movie. It's very hard to keep the attention of a person alive, but it was no problem for Meryl: even if I only look at her, I see she's a genious and that's enough to keep me interested. However, she goes way beyond that in this film.

At the beginning of the story, we get to know Sophie as a wonderful beauty that you instantly fall in love with. However, even there we can sense something distant, sinister and unpleasant about her character. Mystery is all around her. We can see that in small, sudden movements on her body and small gestures by Meryl. She's like a deep sea that you dive deeper and deeper into as the movie goes on. Meryl takes you along and leads you to the most beautiful places. I believe she's never been more beautiful than she was as Sophie. Her shining blonde her, her big and very attractive teeth (I know, it's weird), her soft skin on her thigs that we almost feel ourselves. Not only does she have great chemistry with Kevin Kline and Peter McNicol, but also with the camera and us, the audience. It's as if we were a part of a passionate romance. It's not voyeuristic love, it's the type of love that medieval knights felt for their ideal ladies. But it's also a very sensual and sexualised characterisation by Meryl.

As we get to see more of Sophie, we get to realise her horrible past. The scenes where she tells her story could have easily been ruined by overacting or being too subtle. However, with her tics and small gestures, Meryl is able to make you speechless. Her small movements, her looks, her tears are much more heartbreaking than what she says. It's not about what, it's about how. In the scenes of her past, we don't see her acting in English anymore. She used the Polish and German language so well that she was even able to play with the emotions. We often command actors for being able to speak two or three sentences in another language but the real achievement is when you can use all the benefits of another language. In the scenes at the concentration camp and the Rudolf Hess' house, you can see her most Oscary moments. It's interesting that you would expect some very loud and over-the-top acting and in the end, she ends up being way more subtle than you would expect. She's wonderful while taking a shower: the quiet desperation, humiliation and fear she displays there is just terrifying. What's even more interesting that she keeps her radiant beauty even when she's skinny, pale and undernourished: her beauty shines through the horrible situation of her character, which makes it even more thrilling.

It's her loud scenes are, however, that most of us remember: her desperation to save her son is played brilliantly by her when Sophie's on her knees, begging to Hess. She perfectly found the balance in that scene, which made incredibly heartwrenching and moving.

And the choice... The choice scene is hands down one of the three best acted moments I've ever seen. You cannot communicate your feelings in words. She did it in one take and I bet that if she had done another one, it wouldn't have been quite as effective. You know, that's one of those VERY rare moments when I feel divine powers working in a performance. We cannot possibly imagine the horror of that event and the small part of it that we feel is just unbearable. When I first saw it at the age of 13, I was just terrified and shocked by that scene. It's one of the most horribly painful moments in movie history. Nothing can compare to the tension that Meryl created. It's incredibly draining and unbearable to watch, to say the least.

In the end, Sophie becomes more of a ghost that occasionally comes and haunts you. Her last scene is incredible: we can see that she's become tired of living and yet it's more of cathartic than devastating.

Who should be next?

The Next Year

2012-01-01T00:00:00.000+01:00

1982

So the nominees were:

Julie Andrews in Victor/Victoria
Jessica Lange in Frances
Sissy Spacek in Missing
Meryl Streep in Sophie's Choice
Debra Winger in An Officer and a Gentleman

So after all, I did this year, which was really trending this time last year. There are many reasons why I'm doing it but it needs a long explanation.

What do you think? Who's your pick? What's your prediction for my ranking? :)

And with these five ladies, I wish you a very happy, succesful new year! Thanks a lot for your attention so far, writing for you is a real delight!

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-23T19:00:00.000+01:00

So another year has passed. It was really much fun to write for you and discuss Best Actresses. I'm really looking forward to the other races to come. :) So I wish all of you a merry Christmas! Get the best out of Christmas, enjoy it, have fun! I send you all my love and best wishes. I made this picture with the ladies I've selected so far as the winners to celebrate:

I want to wish you a merry Christmas with the usual picture as well (it's not the same without it) :D

And finally the ranking of the nominees so far...

Jane Fonda in Klute
Diane Keaton in Annie Hall
Ingrid Bergman in Autumn Sonata
Emily Watson in Breaking the Waves
Elizabeth Taylor in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction
Sophia Loren in Two Women
Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind
Liza Minnelli in Cabaret
Michelle Pfeiffer in The Fabulous Baker Boys
Kate Winslet in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Audrey Hepburn in The Nun's Story
Jane Fonda in They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
Jane Fonda in Coming Home
Natalie Portman in Black Swan
Charlize Theron in Monster
Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's
Anna Magnani in The Rose Tattoo
Halle Berry in Monster's Ball
Susan Hayward in I'll Cry Tomorrow
Sissy Spacek in In the Bedroom
Leslie Caron in The L-Shaped Room
Brenda Blethyn in Secrets and Lies
Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity
Penélope Cruz in Volver
Meryl Streep in Ironweed
Liza Minnelli in The Sterile Cuckoo
Judy Garland in A Star is Born
Anne Bancroft in The Miracle Worker
Bette Davis in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
Sissy Spacek in Coal Miner's Daughter
Sigourney Weaver in Aliens
Jennifer Jones in The Song of Bernadette
Ellen Burstyn in Resurrection
Liv Ullmann in Face to Face
Gena Rowlands in A Woman Under the Influence
Julianne Moore in Far from Heaven
Bette Davis in The Little Foxes
Glenda Jackson in A Touch of Class
Kathy Bates in Misery
Diane Lane in Unfaithful
Jane Fonda in Julia
Joan Fontaine in Rebecca
Anna Magnani in Wild is the Wind
Sissy Spacek in Carrie
Helena Bonham Carter in The Wings of the Dove
Frances McDormand in Fargo
Fernanda Montenegro in Central Station
Patricia Neal in Hud
Michelle Williams in Blue Valentine
Jane Fonda in The Morning After
Ellen Burstyn in The Exorcist
Barbara Stanwyck in Sorry, Wrong Number
Katharine Hepburn in Long Day's Journey Into Night
Geraldine Page in Interiors
Ellen Burstyn in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Annette Bening in Being Julia
Maggie Smith in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Isabelle Adjani in The Story of Adele H.
Julie Christie in McCabe & Mrs. Miller
Natalie Wood in Splendor in the Grass
Imelda Staunton in Vera Drake
Catalina Sandino Moreno in Maria Full of Grace
Jean Simmons in The Happy Ending
Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins
Julie Walters in Educating Rita
Judi Dench in Notes on a Scandal
Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth
Katharine Hepburn in Suddenly, Last Summer
Simone Signoret in Room at the Top
Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada
Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia
Glenda Jackson in Sunday Bloody Sunday
Gabourey Sidibe in Precious: Based On the Novel Push by Sapphire
Kim Stanley in Seance on a Wet Afternoon
Pauline Collins in Shirley Valentine
Irene Dunne in Love Affair
Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Ingrid Bergman in Gaslight
Meryl Streep in Silkwood
Faye Dunaway in Network
Anne Bancroft in The Pumpkin Eater
Meryl Streep in Postcards from the Edge
Cher in Moonstruck
Jessica Lange in Music Box
Lynn Redgrave in Georgy Girl
Emma Thompson in Howards End
Jennifer Lawrence in Winter's Bone
Goldie Hawn in Private Benjamin
Claudette Colbert in Since You Went Away
Carey Mulligan in An Education
Renée Zellweger in Bridget Jones's Diary
Barbara Stanwyck in Ball of Fire
Judi Dench in Mrs Brown
Irene Dunne in The Awful Truth
Geraldine Page in Sweet Bird of Youth
Mary McDonnell in Passion Fish
Catherine Deneuve in Indochine
Greer Garson in Mrs. Parkington
Susan Sarandon in Lorenzo's Oil
Olivia de Havilland in Hold Back the Dawn
Mary Tyler Moore in Ordinary People
Susan Hayward in I Want to Live!
Marsha Mason in The Goodbye Girl
Rachel Roberts in This Sporting Life
Jill Clayburgh in An Unmarried Woman
Diahann Carroll in Claudine
Liv Ullmann in The Emigrants
Doris Day in Pillow Talk
Irene Dunne in I Remember Mama
Helen Hunt in As Good as it Gets
Cicely Tyson in Sounder
Valerie Perrine in Lenny
Bette Davis in Mr. Skeffington
Sophia Loren in Marriage Italian Style
Nicole Kidman in Rabbit Hole
Faye Dunaway in Chinatown
Helen Mirren in The Queen
Kate Winslet in Little Children
Barbara Stanwyck in Stella Dallas
Kate Winslet in Titanic
Sally Kirkland in Anna
Eleanor Parker in Interrupted Melody
Greta Garbo in Camille
Lee Remick in Days of Wine and Roses
Shirley MacLaine in Terms of Endearment
Marlee Matlin in Children of a Lesser God
Dorothy Dandridge in Carmen Jones
Bette Davis in Dark Victory
Anouk Aimée in A Man and A Woman
Geraldine Page in Summer and Smoke
Piper Laurie in The Hustler
Michelle Pfeiffer in Love Field
Jane Wyman in Magnificent Obsession
Katharine Hepburn in Summertime
Holly Hunter in Broadcast News
Louise Fletcher in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest
Annette Bening in The Kids Are All Right
Jessica Tandy in Driving Miss Daisy
Jane Wyman in Johnny Belinda
Deborah Kerr in Separate Tables
Luise Rainer in The Good Earth
Diane Keaton in Something's Gotta Give
Ida Kaminska in The Shop on the Main Street
Debra Winger in Terms of Endearment
Greta Garbo in Ninotchka
Jennifer Jones in Love is a Many-Splendored Thing
Maggie Smith in Travels with My Aunt
Marie-Christine Barraul in Cousin Cousine
Carol Kane in Hester Street
Keisha Castle-Hughes in Whale Rider
Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina
Anne Bancroft in The Turning Point
Shirley MacLaine in Some Came Running
Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman
Helen Mirren in The Last Station
Olivia de Havilland in The Snake Pit
Jane Alexander in Testament
Ingrid Bergman in Joan of Arc
Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story
Greer Garson in Blossoms in the Dust
Joan Fontaine in The Constant Nymph
Marsha Mason in Cinderella Liberty
Anjelica Huston in The Grifters
Isabelle Adjani in Camille Claudel
Sissy Spacek in Crimes of the Heart
Nicole Kidman in The Hours
Elizabeth Taylor in Raintree County
Elizabeth Taylor in Suddenly, Last Summer
Natalie Wood in Love with the Proper Stranger
Vanessa Redgrave in Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment
Janet Suzman in Nicholas and Alexandra
Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge!
Greer Garson in Goodbye Mr. Chips
Ingrid Bergman in For Whom the Bell Tolls
Joanne Woodward in Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams
Judi Dench in Iris
Jean Arthur in The More the Merrier
Janet Gaynor in A Star is Born
Barbra Streisand in The Way We Were
Diane Keaton in Marvin's Room
Kristin Scott Thomas in The English Patient
Shirley MacLaine in The Turning Point
Ginger Rogers in Kitty Foyle: The Natural History of a Woman
Greer Garson in Madame Curie
Joanne Woodward in The Three Faces of Eve
Glenda Jackson in Hedda
Rosalind Russell in Auntie Mamie
Julie Christie in Afterglow
Kathleen Turner in Peggy Sue Got Married
Diana Ross in Lady Sings the Blues
Joanne Woodward in Mr. & Mrs. Bridge
Meryl Streep in One True Thing
Joan Fontaine in Suspicion
Geneviève Bujold in Anne of the Thousand Days
Grace Kelly in The Country Girl
Ellen Burstyn in Same Time, Next Year
Deborah Kerr in Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison
Shirley MacLaine in Irma La Douce
Lana Turner in Peyton Place
Vanessa Redgrave in Mary, Queen of Scots
Debbie Reynolds in The Unsinkable Molly Brown
Emily Watson in Hilary and Jackie
Bette Davis in The Letter
Martha Scott in Our Town
Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side
Talia Shrie in Rocky
Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby
Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love
Naomi Watts in 21 Grams
Samantha Morton in In America
Gena Rowlands in Gloria
Renée Zellweger in Chicago
Salma Hayek in Frida
Ann-Margret in Tommy

The Final Conclusion - Best Actress 1987

2011-12-21T18:58:00.000+01:00

1987

So the much anticipated ranking is:

5. Holly Hunter in Broadcast News

I was impressed by Holly Hunter to a certain extent, I wasn't as amazed by her as I was when I first saw her a couple of years ago. She still has a wonderful presence and she's a joy to watch but I felt something missing from her work. Very entertaining and loveable work but not something to fall in love with.

4. Sally Kirkland in Anna

I was completely impressed by Sally Kirkland's performance as Anna. She communicated Anna's despair brilliantly and she has an extremely powerful presence on the screen. Although her movie drags her down, she's still really great as the aging actress. Still, there's something in me that's preventing me from being completely taken by her.

3. Cher in Moonstruck

Cher succeeds in every possible way with the character of Loretta Castorini. Although this is not a towering performance for the ages, it's fantastic and incredibly entertaining anyhow and it displays Cher's talent brilliantly. Despite being relatively new to the craft, she was courageous enough to take a risk by being incredibly subtle. Each and every movement and delivery of hers is just perfect.

2. Meryl Streep in Ironweed

In an unbelievably amazing movie, Meryl Streep is unbelievably amazing as Helen Archer, a worn out, tired woman. She masterfully works with the emotions, brings the right amoung of commitment to the role and she identifies with the pain of Helen incredibly well. Not only is she wonderfully strange on the screen, but also really heartbreaking and disturbing. This unfairly rarely praised work of Meryl is just fantastic.

1. Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction

Great Glenn is just astonising in her iconic performance as Alex Forrest. She makes Alex a terribly human character whose actions seem to come from her desperation and not her evil nature. She brilliantly develops her character from a sexy, confident woman to a devastated wreck. She's chilling, heartbreaking and just unforgettable. A truly incredible performance by an amazingly gifted and dedicated actress.

So I can proudly announce

that the winner is...

Glenn Close

Fatal Attraction

Why don't you love me, Academy?

Final thoughts: What a great year! OK, it's basically Great Glenn, Meryl and the others. The win was obvious though Meryl came close (but then Great Glenn said she was not gonna be ignored :D). I enjoyed all of these wonderful performances, some more, some less. But you know it was really great to do a year that you were seemingly interested in. I was glad about the lots of feedbacks and arguments. I've wanted to do this year from the very beginning and now that it's over it all seems so cool, but I'm also a bit sad to let it go. :) This 1987 series was a dream come true for me. :)

Omissions: Maggie Smith in The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne; Stéphane Audran in Babette's Feast

About the next year: Well, I haven't decided it yet. It depends on a lot of things. First, I don't know if I have time to do a year till January unfortunately and I have to consider lots of other things. I haven't really decided it yet. :)

What do you think?

Meryl Streep in Ironweed

2011-12-21T17:23:00.000+01:00

Meryl Streep received her seventh Oscar nomination for playing Helen Archer, a very weary homeless lady alongside Jack in Ironweed. With hindsight and based on the Academy's love for Meryl Streep, her nomination for Ironweed could seem a very easy one but I wouldn't say that. Meryl didn't even get nominated for a Globe (which is stunning as they probably love her even more than the Oscars), she won no precursor awards and her movie wasn't that much of a hit, either. Moreover, with Sally Kirkland and Barbra Streisand campaigning tirelessly, Meryl's fair play behaviour could have seemed to take away attention from her. Nevertheless (thank God), she got her nomination for Ironweed. That being said, I think this might have been the only time when she was the fifth in the voting (OK, maybe also in 1998 and 1999). But who knows, when you get a nod without any precursor love that can mean a very strong support inside the Academy

Ironweed is an unbelievably great movie and definitely the best one that received a Best Actress nod in 1987. Hector Babenco's direction created such an intense atmosphere and the whole movie is so intense and wonderful. Each and every moment of it holds a punch for me. I was probably most impressed by it because I didn't expect to be. Jack gives a tremendous performance as Francis for which he easily should have won the Oscar. I strongly believe that it's one of his greatest works. He created a unique, unforgettable and haunting character and quite simply, I couldn't get enough of his acting. I was constantly amazed by his incredible presence and also the fact that he was able to put away his trademarks.

And of course, there's the marvelous Meryl Streep. Although once it came naturally, nowadays I have a hard time calling Meryl Streep one of my favorite actresses. I always try to resist her and sometimes I really succeed, but eventually, I fall in love with her again and again. Yes, she might be a little too technical and calculating, however, once you get affected by her, you're lost. There are moments when I say "She's a magician, a genious." For instance when she starts singing as Helen Archer in Ironweeds. She's shy in the beginning and she gradually opens up to the audience until we get to find out that was just her fantasy. Besides the famous choice scene in Sophie's Choice, that's the best acted scene I've ever seen by Meryl.

Meryl creates a suffering, weary woman who tries to escape somehow from the harsh, brutal reality of hers. The way Meryl displays Helen's emotions is just perfect: she doesn't overdo the tiredness and boredom of this woman, instead she makes her a very fascinating person. Helen dreams of being a star and actually, she becomes the star of this movie. Meryl is very often criticised for not disappearing enough into her character, however, I feel that this criticism of her is quite invalid in the case of Ironweed. Meryl Streep, the actress, is gone. There's Helen Archer and her life on the screen.

Many people are arguing that Meryl's performance as Helen really belongs to the supporting actress category but that's something that I refuse to accept. True, she doesn't get lots of screentime, but the impact of Helen's character on the story is undeniable. In fact, for a while, Helen even takes the spotlight from Jack's character. For me the definition of supporting characters is that the movie and the story can work perfectly without them, they only make it more colorful. And frankly, Ironweed without Helen would be completely different. She probably embodies the dark life of Francis' life in which he gradually disappears.

And Meryl plays Helen just like that: she often seems to be a ghost, a lost spirit who cannot find her way. Whenever she appears on the screen, her haunting presence captures our minds and souls. Once Meryl grabs you, there's no way to go. Meryl plays with the emotions so masterfully and it shows in this performance: she's incredibly disturbing, dazzling and puzzling (in a very good way).

She adds so many layers to the character and she underlines them in short sentences or just one looks. Her scene in the church is just amazing and tells so many things about her character: she's basically a good person, she just has to make some "compromises". Again, the emotionality of the scene is just unbelievable.

I just cannot ignore her scenes with Jack, though. The good relationship between the two great actors truly shows: they make up an incredible couple. The way they are supporting and holding each other (sometimes literally) is just amazing. I really felt that they didn't try to outact each other, they were just really supportive. And this paid off: they really inspired each other to be better, to push a little further and try a little harder.

SPOILER! According to a story, when they were shooting the death of Helen, Jack watched Meryl and he didn't feel her pulse. SPOILER OFF That's something I can easily believe: Meryl gave herself to this character so wonderfully, she was so committed to her that I couldn't have been more amazed if I tried.

What do you think?

The conclusion comes either today or tomorrow. :) I don't know. Stay tuned.

Holly Hunter in Broadcast News

2011-12-20T16:25:00.001+01:00

Holly Hunter received her first Best Actress nomination for playing Jane Craig, a neurotic television executive in the Best Picture nominated Broadcast News. In the very crowded 1987 Best Actress race, Holly was clearly the favorite of the critics' and yet I have a hard time believing that she was a very serious contender for the Oscar. I suppose she was fourth in the end or maybe third if she managed to get ahead of Sally Kirkland. I guess the fact that Broadcast News received a lot of other nomination might have given Holly the edge, eventually. The drawback of strong fields is that only one person can win the award. Something like that is about to happen in this year's race, too. It's full of great performances and there will be some left off or losing.

Broadcast News is a very entertaining and interesting movie though I wouldn't call it the masterpiece that everybody makes it out to be. Its screenplay is very witty and smartly written but sometimes it just gets too much and more annoying than it should be. I guess the ones who loved Network will be disappointed by it and those who disliked it will take lots of pleasure in it. William Hurt gives a shallow performance as a shallow person: that might have been the point but I still wasn't impressed by him. However, it's Albert Brooks who gives the best performance of the movie. Although his character is incredibly unlikeable and annoying, he just excels in the part. I'd say he deserved to win the Oscar for it.

Although Holly Hunter is a very talented actress in my book, there's something about her that's a bit annoying: her accent. It's a little bit too heavy for me and she has to overcome this obstacle to completely impress me. Not that she's not able to. In Broadcast News, however, she has to use all the qualities that I dislike about her the most. Therefore, it's very shocking that I liked her performance so much.

Jane is a very weird character, who's incredibly difficult to get used to, but eventually, you develop a certain amount of sympathy towards her. While Faye Dunaway's Diana Christensen was almost a caricature of a stereotype, Holly adds some soul to this typical 80s careerist woman. In one of her first scenes, we can see her being hysterical and breaking down in a hotel bedroom, which could have been a very depressing start, but Holly was somehow able to turn it into something really lovely. Holly nails the humorous parts of this character: her scene when her lecture becomes a complete failure is just priceless. She displays some irony besides the humiliation of Jane.

Holly's chemistry with both Albert Brooks and William Hurt is just wonderful (especially with Brooks). Holly showed wonderfully how differently Jane behaves in the company of both of these men. With Brooks' Aaron, Jane is more confident, humorous and their scenes give some of the best parts of the film. My favorite line of the whole movie is said in their argument (but that belongs to Brooks): "I think we have the kind of friendship where if I were the devil, you would be the only one to know." Hunter and Brooks play with each other so wonderfully that I just couldn't get enough og their scenes. With Hurt, things are a bit different. Whenever Holly is with him, her performance gets a little bit weaker and shallower. Her wittiness becomes a little bit annoying and I kind of felt she overdid those scenes.

The bitchy and unbearable part of Jane is, nonetheless, perfectly handled by Holly. The scene where she gets the chance to pick the person who's sent to Alaska is simply hilarious: her delivery of "Jennifer!" is just wonderful.

As I said, the comedy part of this character is just excellent and the same goes for her more dramatic scenes (her confrontation scene with William Hurt at the airport is just unforgettable), but there's just something that says to me that it's not enough. There's everything for me to completely embrace her: she's hilarious, she nails the dramatic moments, she develops a complete, multi-dimensional character, she has a luminous presence and yet it never becomes coherently amazing. By this I mean, she's amazing in bits and pieces but the whole thing doesn't reach the level of fantastic. However, I really cannot deny how wonderfully entertaining she is in certain scenes.

In the end, although I was impressed by Holly Hunter to a certain extent, I wasn't as amazed by her as I was when I first saw her a couple of years ago. She still has a wonderful presence and she's a joy to watch but I felt something missing from her work. Nevertheless, her line deliveries are pitch-perfect and her scenes with Albert Brooks truly make up for the weaker parts of her performance. Very entertaining and loveable work but not something to fall in love with.

What do you think? Meryl's review comes tomorrow.

Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction

2011-12-10T19:07:00.001+01:00

Great Glenn Close received her fourth Oscar nomination for playing Alex Forrest, a lonely, psychotic woman who's after a man with whom she had a brief affair in the movie Fatal Attraction. Considering the hit status of Fatal Attraction and the fact that Great Glenn had already received three Oscar nominations must have made her a serious contender for the Academy Award. However, unlike Cher she wasn't the sentimental favorite and unlike Sally Kirkland she didn't campaign as hell to win the award so she once again lost (and she's still Oscarless, what a shame on the Academy, it's disgusting). It's ironic that out of the five performances nominated it's only hers that became truly iconic and most frequently talked about. You know, time always tells which performances are really good.

Fatal Attraction is an excellent movie. It's not an art flick, it very much knows what the audience wants and serves it, but it's still just chilling and fantastic. Adrian Lyne is very talented at creating tension (in every way) and he's just great here. I think all the Oscar nominations were richly deserved for this movie and I guess Michael Douglas would have been deservedly nominated, too had it not been for his Oscar winning turn in Wall Street. Anne Archer, however, absolutely deserved to win the Academy Award for her excellent work as Dan's wife. In my opinion, Ellen Hamilton Latzen was also worthy of the nomination (I know, I know...)

But oh boy, this movie is about Great Glenn. And I love this woman, I truly do. I literally watch everything she's in (movie, television show and if I can see bits and pieces of her work theatre). She has an acting style unlike anyone that I know. There's something about her that draws me constantly, a kind of a special aura or radiation that keeps telling me all the time: "She's great. She's great. She's great. She's great. She's great.". And yes, she's Great Glenn and no I can't call her anything else. I might even say she's my favorite actress besides Jane Fonda. And according to most people, her finest hour was her work as Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction.

Fatal Attraction basically created a whole new genre with the crazy ex-girlfriend who's ruining happy families. And most of that is due to the marvelous and devastating performance of Great Glenn who's simply marvelous at communicating Alex's feelings and demons. The movie and the screenplay are quite standard and not very original (to say the least) and it was up to the actors (and especially Great Glenn) to elevate it to something really special. They all succeeded, especially Great Glenn who created one of the most iconic characters of all time.

If you have noticed, I just keep saying that Glenn is great and iconic but I don't give reasons why. The explanation is quite simple: no words can perfectly describe Great Glenn's gigantic power and force as Alex. From the first moment, her performance is just perfect. We get to see her for the first time at a party, being an ordinary 80s sexy woman. She presents Alex as a confident, smart and sexy woman with a sense of humor but also as someone who's very realistic about life. She's an incredibly seductive presence (I can only compare her to Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct) and you can easily see why Michael Douglas' character falls head over heels for her.

For me, the most wonderful aspect of this performance is the way Great Glenn develops Alex: she goes step by step, very carefully without being too obvious or forced in her acting. You can notice some small hints here and there so that you can say in the end "of course, that was the obvious thing for her to do." At first, she seems to be more and more proud, but she turns out to be a devastated, depressed person. SPOILER The scene where we see her attempting suicide is just perfectly played by Great Glenn. The amount of sadness and devastation that she displays in that scene alone is worthy of an Oscar, in my opinion. Thanks to her timing, it becomes just as shocking as it's dramatic. SPOILER OFF!

It's well-known how much Great Glenn prepared for this role and that she actually consulted with two psychiatrists about the part and played her according to the diagnosis. And she just chillingly shows the symptoms, actually, she does much better than the movie would have asked for. However, it's Great Glenn's careful approach to this woman that really paid off. Great Glenn realized that Alex is not just a woman who wants to take revenge on her lover, but a mentally ill person who's just desperate to have somebody in her life.

The movie, however, is constantly trying to drag Great Glenn down. With the famous rabbit and roller-coaster scenes, it's just trying to say that Alex is just a crazy witch but miraculously Glenn was able to play the character the way she deserved to be played. Alex seems like Ophelia who sinks deeper and deeper into mental illness. Her face is just devastating where Alex is turning the lamp on and off. I couldn't help feeling sorry for that woman and hate Dan for what she did to her. In a way, Alex's behavior is justified and Great Glenn emphasises that every story has two sides and unlike what we should believe, Alex is not a just a crazy bitch. She turned her very sexist movie into a really complex and fascinatig character study that doesn't cease to amaze the viewer. I guess that was the main ambition of Great Glenn and she more than succeeded. She makes the viewer compassionate about Alex's fate.

Alex's feeling are best shown by Great Glenn in the scene where we can hear her narration and watch her teary face in the car. Glenn (I always want to type Alex, that must mean something) is just chillingly brilliant there. I was naturally frightened by her but the whole thing was also deeply heartbreaking. She makes Alex so terribly human despite constant effort of the movie to make her the devil itself.

I guess that's why Glenn was disappointed that the original ending (where Alex commited suicide) was replaced by a showier, scarier ending, which would say that the movie won and Alex is a monster. However, Glenn was able to benefit even from this. She just kept up doing what she originally did and that's it. She did it as if it was what Alex would have done. She didn't overdo the craziness of Alex. and was a really haunting presence. However, I don't see the comparisions with Madame Butterfly this way which would have been so beautiful with the original ending.

In the end, I can say that Great Glenn is just astonising in her iconic performance as Alex Forrest. She makes Alex a terribly human character whose actions seem to come from her desperation and not her evil nature. She brilliantly develops her character from a sexy, confident woman to a devastated wreck. She's chilling, heartbreaking and just unforgettable. A truly incredible performance by an amazingly gifted and dedicated actress.

Don't tell me you were suprised! :)

Sally Kirkland in Anna

2011-12-09T07:19:00.000+01:00

Sally Kirkland received her only Oscar nomination for playing Anna, a forgotten Czechoslovakian actress having great difficulties in New York. Sally must have been really close to winning that Oscar. Before the 1987 Oscar race, she was an actress playing bit parts and being Shelley Winters' Goddaughter. Sally Kirkland started campaigning alone with the help of Winters to get her performance and movie recognised. However, things are not easy when you're practically unknown in a tiny film with no stars and when you're nominated with legendary actresses giving iconic performances. Sally pulled of a win from the Globes but she didn't manage to get the coveted Academy Award. I guess the Academy was too eager to give the award to Cher plus I think the second was Glenn with Sally being the fourth at best (I just don't see them voting for her, sorry).

Anna is an awful movie, simple as that. It's incredibly slow, boring, meaningless, unoriginal though it has some great moments. There was nothing in it that really caught my attention (OK, one thing) and the whole thing was just dragging along. Now compare this to the movie of the other nominees and you'll instantly see why Sally lost the Oscar. I mean there's Moonstruck, a wonderful movie full of heart, Fatal Attraction, the huge blockbuster or the wonderfully witty Broadcast News (haven't seen Ironweed yet but I'm sure it's better than Anna). I guess Academy voters were just as bored by it as I was and didn't want to watch it, not even for Sally. Honestly, this movie was one of the worst ones that gave a Best Actress nominee.

So Sally Kirkland. Honestly, I can't say a word about her. The performances of hers that I've seen from her were very bit parts in The Sting and The Way We Were so I really cannot judge her talent. She's almost completely forgotten by now and we could only see her arriving four hours early to the Oscars. She's become a symbol of agressive self-paid campaiging and is made fun of regularly because of that (at least they talk about her). I wonder why people didn't mention her when talking about Melissa Leo's idiotic self-promotion. The two ladies clearly have a lot of things in common.

Sally plays Anna, a forgotten, aging Czechoslovakian actress who takes care of a young girl, Krystyna from her country. Anna thinks Krystyna has the potential to become a big star and she indeed succeeds while Anna has to make do with being an understudy. Anna is typically a character that you feel really sorry for. She's really down on her luck, worn out and tired. In a way, she's like Margo Channing, with the exception that Margo was an acclaimed, celebrated actress and Anna has difficulties making it in America. She was a huge star in her home and it's actually quite painful to see her reminiscing about her days of glory. Sally is great at making the viewer sympathize with Anna. However, we also see that she leads a very miserable life and she's a rather pathetic person. Personally, I just wanted to go to her and do something about her career and shout at people: don't you see how much talent she has? Her audition scene is really heartbreaking. We can see that she's way above the things that she has to do.

Anna is typically a character who has a very tragic background story with the revolution, the dead baby and the alienated husband. Kirkland got very juicy monologues from Agnieszka Holland, the wonderful director who penned Anna's screenplay (surprising) and Sally used every opportunity to shine in this part. She puts an incredible amount of emotion into them and it's impossible not to be impressed by her determination to get her part right. It could come off as pushing for attention and in a way it's right but we must not forget how wonderful she is as Anna.

She works quite well with her co-stars and her scenes with Paulina Porizkova are just great. They are like a mother and a daughter, an older actress and a younger actress. In a way they are like Margo and Eve but there's a big difference. Anna and Krystyna are never bitchy with each other and they are much more genuine and supportive. That aspect of the movie is very poorly worked out unfortunately but the actresses were able to save it from being totally weak and forced.

My favorite part of the whole film is Anna's breakdown on the stage. It's a very loud, over-the-top moment that's solved by Sally wonderfully. She never completely overdoes it, only as much as the character required. All in all, I felt that Sally wonderfully identified with Anna's pain and sorrow.

I probably would have been much more amazed by Sally if she had been in a better movie. Unfortunately, Anna is such a bad movie that it's constantly trying to drag down Sally. In a great movie, she would have been brilliant, this way she's just really great, which is kind of annoying, considering how much more Sally could have given us.

But all in all, I was completely impressed by Sally Kirkland's performance as Anna. She communicated Anna's despair brilliantly and she has an extremely powerful presence on the screen. Although her movie drags her down, she's still really great as the aging actress. Still, there's something in me that's preventing me from being completely taken by her. However, it was a personal triumph for me to get the very hard-to-find movie that I had been looking for over two years. So I'm really content. :)

What do you think?

Cher in Moonstruck

2011-12-07T21:30:00.000+01:00

Cher got her second Oscar nomination and won the Academy Award for playing Loretta Castorini, a widowed Italian-American book keeper in Moonstruck. I can imagine that Cher's triumph was very much like Sandra Bullock's win two years ago: a beloved superstar got her due for an unshowy, lightweight role. Lilian Gish was actually quoted after failing to receive a nomination "At least I don't have to lose to Cher.". However, I see a big difference between Cher and Sandra. Cher actually gave a great performance, which was really lovely and that's probably (besides her superstar status) what gave her the edge over Sally Kirkland who campaigned as hell with the assistence of her Godmother, Shelley Winters.

I love romantic movies with traditionally huge families and boring, aging women turning out to be beautiful. That's the reason I go crazy for films like My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Moonstruck. Although they don't have much artistic value, they are masterfully entertaining without being overly sentimental, soappy or vulgar. They are nothing but good fun with great writing, directing and actors. John Patrick Shanley richly deserved the Academy Award he took home for Best Original Screenplay. I'd say the same about the nominations of Gardenia and Dukakis though I'm not 100% sure if I completely agree with the win of Dukakis (I guess I need to see the others, too).

What can you say about Cher? I mean, she's such a great performer and a legend in every possible way: she sings, she acts, what doesn't she do? Exactly. I can talk about her only in superlatives and it would be boring to talk about how great she is. I guess it was obvious that she would win the Oscar after losing to Linda Hunt back in 1983. She had a blockbuster on her side, she was loved by everyone, it was no wonder she received a huge standing ovation. Although fellow nominee Glenn Close's role as Alex in Fatal Attraction is the most iconic one of the group, Cher also managed to deliver a famous line "Snap out of it." while slapping Nicolas Cage (something that many of us wants to do nowadays).

Loretta Castorini is aging, she has an awful boyfriend who asks her to marry him and she's a totally unshowy character at first sight. It takes a very talented performer with a strong and interesting personality to make such a character really intriguing and that's why I feel that Cher was such a great choice to play her (it's hard to imagine the original choice, Sally Field as Loretta though it would have been really interesting). She brought the right amount of charisma to the movie and the result was something completely irresistable. I felt as if I was watching a flower blooming not an actress playing a part.

Nowadays it's kind of natural that famous singers star in feature films but I can hardly imagine Beyoncé or Christina Aguilera showing such talent and versatility as an actress that Cher did. She developed Loretta's character with such confidence and ease. It's just really amazing to see Cher seem so great and professional in this part while also preserving her "rough diamond" aura. She's very subtle throughout the movie and she avoids overdoing certain aspects of Loretta. She's a very "Italian-American" character, if you know what I mean but Cher plays her with very subtle mannerisms and she emphasises the lovely attributes instead of the stereotypes in her.

Cher gorgeously shows more and more layers of Loretta and becomes a totally irresistable presence. Loretta is a quiet and a bit reserved person but certainly not shy and she's not afraid of speaking her mind. Cher's nothing short of incredible in the very famous slapping scene: Cher immortalized the line "Snap out of it!". I loved that Loretta shows that she's a very down-to-earth person who doesn't believe in curses and yet she does everything bad in this movie just to avoid bad luck. Again, this could have been overdone by Cher and yet she found the perfect balance.

The "ugly duckling becomes a beautiful swan" storyline is one of the oldest and most boring ones every and yet Cher and her wonderful movie makes it all work fabulously. In her bit ironic and very humorous interpretation even the most cheesy things work. She did the best by not taking her character too seriously. I guess that's why she was such a great choice to play Loretta: she had much to learn as an actress and she turned out to be fantastic eventually. Moonstruck is a development story not only for Loretta but also for the amazing Cher (who went on to give one of my favorite performances ever in Tea with Mussolini; Why wasn't she nominated for that one?). She wasn't afraid of taking risks (nobody could ever accuse her of that) with Loretta. By underplaying her, she risked being lifeless and boring but her instincts were right: this was the best possible way to play Loretta.

Cher succeeds in every possible way with the character of Loretta Castorini. Although this is not a towering performance for the ages, it's fantastic and incredibly entertaining anyhow and it displays Cher's talent brilliantly. Despite being relatively new to the craft, she was courageous enough to take a risk by being incredibly subtle. Each and every movement and delivery of hers is perfect and we get to see wonderful acting that carries Moonstruck fabulously.

What do you think?

The Next Year

2011-12-06T14:22:00.000+01:00

1987

So the nominees were:

Cher in Moonstruck
Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction
Holly Hunter in Broadcast News
Sally Kirkland in Anna
Meryl Streep in Ironweed

A truly WOW year, that I've wanted to do ever since I started these reviews. I'm eager to watch and rewatch these performances and movies that cover a wide range. Careerist women, aging women, tired women and one of them doesn't like being ignored. Oh, I'm über excited!

What do you think? Who's your pick? What's your prediction for my ranking? :)

The Final Conclusion - Best Actress 1955

2011-12-05T23:55:00.000+01:00

1955

So the much anticipated ranking is:

5. Jennifer Jones in Love is a Many-Splendored Thing

I would be lying if I said I wasn't really moved by this performance. To some, this work of Jennifer Jones would be flat and uninteresting, but I really enjoyed every minute of it. Although it's not a grand achievement by today's standards, it's an incredibly moving and loveable piece of work. Jennifer excels at showing Suyin's humility and pure emotions. Again, this is nothing fantastic but something really lovely.

4. Katharine Hepburn in Summertime

In a role that's the least Oscar-baiting of her category, Katharine Hepburn excels. It takes some time to fully realize her greatness as Jane Hudson, but the outcomes are simply astonishing. Kate injected an incredible amount of charm into the character that made extremely loveable. And eventually, it's Kate's charisma and fascinating personality that makes her completely irresistable here.

3. Eleanor Parker in Interrupted Melody

Eleanor Parker's vibrant, wonderful performance as Marjorie Lawrence is a real treat to watch. She approached this character in a very odd way (for her time) and the result is something endlessly charming and impressive. She does way more than I expected her to do and gets the most out of this showy, interesting part. A really pleasant surprise coming from a hard-to-find movie.

2. Susan Hayward in I'll Cry Tomorrow

An unbelievably great performance, which I (sort of unexpectedly) loved from the very first minute. Susan is simply marvelous at showing Lillian's pain and struggle with alcohol and makes her film extremely disturbing and hard to watch. However, she also makes an unforgettable impression that hits you really hard in your guts. In her signature role and personal favorite work, Susan Hayward is fantastic. And she sings, too!

1. Anna Magnani in The Rose Tattoo

Anna Magnani is all around brilliant as Serafina Delle Rose. The intensity of her work is just amazing and you can't take your eyes off her. Her scene in the church alone deserved an Oscar, not to mention her whole work. She's highly emotional, over-the-top and theatrical and yet it all feels brilliant because of her extraordinary talent. Magnificent, unforgettable performance.

So I can proudly announce

that the winner is...

Anna Magnani

The Rose Tattoo

Anna has a hard time believing it... :)

Final thoughts: A great year with two amazing performances. Deciding between the two was incredibly difficult. My mind said Susan, my heart said Anna so I went with my heart. :) I was surprised by how great the others were. Yes, Jennifer is the weakest link but she was also really lovely. I've never really warmed up to Kate so after a few days my appreciation for her work cooled down a bit. Eleanor was, however, so wonderful but I need to be less generous with the grades. So the ranking was not that difficult in the last 3 places.

About the next year: All I can say is FINALLY! A year with at least two iconic quotes, one iconic character (or even more) and at least four brilliant actresses. I've been hunting (literally, well, almost) for one film for a long time and now I have it! I almost gave it up, my mind constantly said "Snap out of it!" but then the year said to me "I'm not gonna be ignored, Dan."

What do you think?

Anna Magnani in The Rose Tattoo

2011-12-04T16:08:00.000+01:00

Anna Magnani received her first Best Actress nomination and won her only Oscar for playing Serafina Della Rose, a devastated widow in the Best Picture nominee, The Rose Tattoo. Looking at the list of awards Anna won for this performance, I wonder why she was so convinced that she would lose the Oscar. I guess she must have thought Susan Hayward was the Hollywood darling who had to win. When she was told she won, she threatened to kill the reporter who informed her that she would kill him if it's not true. It was as true as possible and she even went to receive another nomination (and also should have won another Oscar).

The Rose Tattoo is an excellent piece of work by Daniel Mann, the same man who directed I'll Cry Tomorrow. It's funny that he played the midwife in the birth of the two finest female performances of 1955. Just like I'll Cry Tomorrow, The Rose Tattoo is endlessly intriguing picture with many interesting aspects. I especially loved the first part of the movie with the focus on Magnani's character but I liked the second half much more than I did last time. Sure, Burt Lancaster overacts as hell in his part as the idiotic guy falling for Serafina but he actually had to play an idiot. He wasn't as awful as I remembered. Marisa Pavan also improved on a repeated viewing.

However, the most important reason why the whole movie works is the wonderful, superbly talented Anna Magnani. I cannot judge Anna objectively because of the very fond memories of her. I've seen lots of her films when I was a child (she's my father's favorite actress) and I learned not to see her but feel her. Who cannot be charmed by her short scene as herself in Fellini's Roma. The way she says "Ciao! Buona notte!" is just incredibly and has such force with those two short sentences that just blows up the screen. She's 300% talent that shines through the screen even in the smallest part. So I ask again: can I judge Anna objectively? No, and honestly, in her case, you don't even have to.

Serafina is such a fabulous part which fits Anna Magnani like a glove, it's as if Tennesse Williams had written it for her. Wait, he did write Serafina to the wonderful Anna. :) It's funny that Anna is such a significant presence and her own personality always shines through the movie and yet she disappears in the character of Serafina. To such an extent that it's hard to imagine any other actress (including the wonderful Maureen Stapleton who played Serafina on Broadway) taking on this part. Anna made Serafina her own and she's just incredible at showing her emotions.

Whenever you see Anna Magnani in any movie, you experience something like an earthquake. Anna is neither like Meryl Streep in precision or Deborah Kerr in her subtlety and dignity. I felt she did what she felt was right and it always work. She was born to become an actress and her instincts came from a magical place, a place that's perfect. I can only repeat myself: what a force on the screen! She's incredible at showing the true love and afterwards the real desperation of Serafina. Just watch the scene when she gots the news of the death of her husband. The way she slowly touches her neck is just just gutwrenching. With this one movement shows so much and its truly a wonderful moment.

After her husband's death, Serafina goes into despair and she falls apart. Anna is wonderfully worn out in these scenes. She communicates Serafina's lack of interest in living without her husband. I guess it's a great thing that we never actually see her husband in full because that we he becomes more of a myth and a god just like Serafina always talks about him. That man brought all the happiness to her and Anna is so fantastic at showing Serafina's more tender side when she's about to reveal the news of her pregnancy to her sleeping husband who honestly doesn't listen to her. Like Serafina describes it to the priest in a wonderful monologue, she gave her "baron" husband glory despite being only a peasant girl. I think there's a not-so-strange parallel between Anna and Serafina. Anna herself had a very stormy relationship with Roberto Rossellini which ended after he impregnated Ingrid Bergman. Anna thought of Rossellini as an idol and started to write hundreds of letters to "the northern woman". Anna brilliantly used her own inner demons and pain to create this character and the result was something unbelievably intense. Intensity describes Anna's whole acting style that's rarely been better represented than in The Rose Tattoo (I think only Rome Open City and Mamma Roma, her two best performances did that).

The highlight of her work here is undoubtedly the scene in the church where she talks about her marriage and begs the priest to reveal to her what her husband confessed (I especially loved the former). The range of emotions she displays there is just unbelievable. It goes from pure love through bitterness to complete despair. She covers her head and she looks like a ghost who came back to haunt you - and I suppose that scene will haunt anyone who sees it for a long time. Its impact is indescribably strong, which only Anna can do, I think. And I figured that with any other actress, that scene would have been awfully over-the-top and theatrical.

Most people think that from there, her whole performance goes downhill. Although I admit that it doesn't reach the impact of that one scene, I felt it was just as intense as the beginning. It's also incredible - but in a different way. The tone of her work becomes lighter and much more entertaining. I guess it represents how Burt Lancaster's character has changed Serafina and made her feel great again. However, after a while, she returns to the original Serafina who's loud and incredibly devastated. The scene where she sees the rose tattoo once again is just marvelous: it evokes the best parts of the whole film and it really is a fantastic moment. Just like the one where sher confronts her late husband's lover at the blackjack table (=slaps her, I guess she must have thought of Ingrid).

The scenes with Marisa Pavan are, in my opinion, a bit useless for the main storyline but that doesn't prevent Anna from giving her best there, too. She uses them to emphasise Serafina's changes even more, plus they are incredibly entertaining, especially the one where she talks about her daughter's and her boyfriend's "innocence".

Anna Magnani is all around brilliant as Serafina Delle Rose. She gives the essence of her own very unique acting style and she plays Serafina to perfection. The intensity of her work is just amazing and you can't take your eyes off her. Her scene in the church alone deserved an Oscar, not to mention her whole work. She's highly emotional, over-the-top and theatrical and yet it all feels brilliant because of her extraordinary talent. Magnificent, unforgettable performance.

What do you think?

Note: The Final Conclusion comes on Monday or maybe Tuesday.

Susan Hayward in I'll Cry Tomorrow

2011-11-30T20:13:00.001+01:00

Susan Hayward received her fourth Best Actress nomination for playing troubled alcoholic singer Lillian Roth in the movie based on Roth's autobiography, I'll Cry Tomorrow. As you may or may not know, Anna Magnani was so convinced that she would lose the Oscar that not only did she refuse to attend the event, but she also refused to believe that she won. I guess Anna must have thought she didn't have a chance in hell of beating Susan Hayward's huge, over-the-top performance. If that battle between the two actresses took part nowadays, Susan would easily win the Oscar, with many people praising her work in this part. However, Anna was the clear front-runner based on the awards but I feel that Susan came really close to her.

I'll Cry Tomorrow is a very interesting movie, very much unlike the other films of that era. It's really dark and doesn't have a moment of real relief for the audience. Even when things seem to turn out to be right, the whole atmosphere becomes quite sinister. First, the fact that the movie was edited so unusually that you don't see the ending of the scene bothered me a little bit but I got used to after a while and I felt it was essential for the movie. Jo Van Fleet (I suppose) won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar also for this performance, too not only her shallow, one-dimensional job in East of Eden.

Although Susan Hayward is an performer who could be made fun of and criticised in a really hilarious way, I feel she's a really terrific actress. Sure, she liked to go (sometimes too much) over the top but I guess that's her trademark and also the best thing about her. Many are comparing her to Melissa Leo, which is just as justified as its inaccurate. Sure they have a very deep and strong voice and both of them like to chew the scenery, however, in Susan's case, I can rarely say that she's hammy (unlike Melissa who never seems to find the perfect balance between over-the-top and overacting). That being said, Susan is a stormy and huge presence on the screen and yet she doesn't destroy the movie. For sure, she took on very baity, typical Oscar roles and it's no wonder that she often played alcoholic and/or suffering women. She could display fear and anger like no one else and I'll Cry Tomorrow is arguably her finest hour.

Everything is given in Lillian that equals Oscar nowadays (and did even back in the 50s). Personally, I don't have a problem with Oscar baiting if the performance is really convincing and it's a great acting achievement besides being pure bait. Lillian is a wonderfully complex character whose layers are very difficult to reveal. She requires an actress who has very strong presence and can show emotions in a bit exaggerated but accurate and believable way. Really I can only think of the 30s Barbara Stanwyck who could have played Lillian besides Susan (and I would have probably loved her even more than Susan). However, under the circumstances, Susan was the obvious choice and this part became her signature role that she herself considered to be her finest work on the screen. And for a reason.

Susan took a wonderfully modern approach to Lillian and also alcoholic women. During the studio era, audiences mostly saw cheerful, male drunks and alcholics and in that case it was the source of amusement and light entertainment (though some like Thomas Mitchell in Stagecoach were able to add depth to such characters). And then came The Lost Weekend, where Ray Milland redefined what it meant to be an alcoholic. Along came a young actess called Susan Hayward who rocked in Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman and it must have been a real shock to people in Hollywood. The movie was, naturally, a flop though it managed to gain enthusiastics nods and even an Oscar nomination to Susan Hayward (Loretta Young, the eventual winner, actually admitted voting for Susan). I guess it's I'll Cry Tomorrow that gives the essence of Susan Hayward's now legendary "drunk" performances, which are, by all means, revolutionary in the way women are represented in Hollywood films.

In I Want to Live!, we see Susan Hayward as Barbara Graham, who's walking to the gas chamber. In I'll Cry Tomorrow we can observe Lillian Roth walking to an AA meetin for the first time. Two very different situations in life but two similarly breathtaking and chilling scenes acted to perfection by Susan Hayward. However, it takes Lillian Roth a long journey thtough booze, tons of husband and suffering to get to that point. And right there I asked myself like Diana Barrie after losing the Academy Award "Was I hit by a bus?"

I'm mostly impressed by the actual existence of great character development, however, in this case I was mostly mesmerised by the "how". Susan sort of roughly showed the changes in the character while being completely accurate and firm, too. She does it in a very tricky way and I almost didn't even notice it until I saw a broken-down addict instead of a cheerful, talented young woman. She shows the inner battles and traumas of Lillian in a very disturbing (because of how believable she makes it) and she completely disappeared in the pain of the character. It was just painful to see her being inconsolable after the death of her fiancé, David and how this tragic event started to ruin almost her whole life. The first scene where Lilian has booze is just unforgettable: Susan showed her like a child before taking the medicine that will later ease her pain. First, she's a bit hesitant and in a second, she begins her downfall.

Another fantastic aspect of this performance is how gradually we can see Lillian destroying herself. First it's just a bit of partying and enjoying herself and eventually, she lies unconsciously in front of a grocery shop. It's an indescribably painful journey that Susan takes you along with her and it's just as intense as a ride on a rollercoaster. Her eventual healing is as cathartic and uplifting as it gets and her final song at the end of it is simply a thrill. The wonderful (and sort of unexpected) thing is that we actually never see her say the lines "My name is Lillian and I'm an alcoholic." We just feel that Lillian has healed and she's going to do what she's supposed to.

And I haven't even mentioned Susan's wonderful chemistry with Jo Van Fleet and how awesome and wonderfully intense their scenes are. Although that aspect of the film is not emphasised enough, the two actresses were able to make their scenes extremely effective.

All around, this is an unbelievably great performance, which I (sort of unexpectedly) loved from the very first minute. Susan is simply marvelous at showing Lillian's pain and struggle with alcohol and makes her film extremely disturbing and hard to watch. However, she also makes an unforgettable impression that hits you really hard in your guts. In her signature role and personal favorite work, Susan Hayward is fantastic. And she sings, too! :)

What do you think?

Katharine Hepburn in Summertime

2011-11-20T10:00:00.001+01:00

Katharine Hepburn received her sixth Oscar nomination for playing Jane Hudson, a(nother) spinster, who spends her vacation in Venice and falls for a man in David Lean's movie, Summertime. 1955 was a very interesting field and given the fact that Anna won all the critics' awards, it's very hard to think about how much the Academy loved the other ladies. I guess Jennifer, Eleanor and Katharine were the ones who had the least chance, however, Katharine Hepburn was Katharine Hepburn and that might have given her the edge over the two other ladies or that might have been the reason why they didn't vote for her. Well, we'll never know for sure though it would be interesting to find out once.

Summertime is not the grand epic you would expect from the director of Lawrence of Arabia and The Bridge on the River Kwai, it's much more like the earlier works of David Lean though it's much less heart-breaking than A Brief Encounter, for instance. Summertime is very entertaining and that's the most I can really say about it. Although it's Lean's own favorite work, I can hardly see why. As I said, there's nothing really special about this film. It's very clear from the beginning that the biggest virtue of this film is the lead performance by Katharine Hepburn.

As it has been said many-many-many times before, Katharine Hepburn had her very famous "spinster period" when she kept on playing spinsters who find true love when they have already given up on the whole thing. They start out hardened, bitter and shy but in the end, they turn out to be stronger and more self-confident. As I might have said this, I'm not a fan of Katharine Hepburn. I can see that she was a fantastic actress (boy, she really was) and a fascinating personality and yet I still don't get the overwhelming amount of love she gets. I do think she's a bit overrated. And that applies mostly to her famous spinster period, which I just cannot seem to warm up to.

Or couldn't as (to my surprise) I really liked her performance as Jane Hudson. She makes her character very easy to sympathize with. Jane is a person whose only dream was to go to Venice, she saved up money for it and decided to enjoy her stay. However, things get complicated when she meets a man she eventually ends up falling in love with. The thing I dislike the most about Hepburn's spinster performances that the hardened women turn out to be beautiful violets in just a second and they also become really annoying once they experience love. However, Jane is a bit of an exception and that's probably why it's Katharine's most acclaimed spinster performance. The changes in Jane go gradually and Katharine carefully portrays the development of this character. As a result, she surprisingly avoided being as annoying as she was in other roles like this.

Kate uses an incredible amount of charm to create Jane and that's probably the reason why it's so easy to sympathize with her. We know that it's not going to work out for her and yet we just keep on rooting for her happiness. She will go back to America, being a spinster secretary but in Venice, she's a beautiful woman who's in love, not only with the man she met, but also herself. In many ways, she's just like Pauline Collins' Shirley Valentine, an unhappy, dissatisified woman who goes on holiday to have fun but ends up finding herself. However, unlike Shirley's development, Jane's changes are not that showy and the character is overall much less exciting. I don't know if it's the fault of the writing, Kate, or the character's nature. I tend to say all.

Still this doesn't change anything at all. Kate seemingly took this part very seriously (she even got a horrible eye infection because of this movie) and it pays off for sure. In each and every moment of the movie, she's simply adorable. There are lots of unforgettable scenes, like the one she goes to buy a goblet from Renato, the man who eventually becomes her lover. Hepburn portrayed the embarassment of Jane so wonderfully, I kind of felt that she would accidentally break that goblet. But I could mention the infamous moment when Jane falls into the canal.

However, the most heartwrenching moments were yet to come. Jane gets a flower from Renato and it accidentally falls into the canal, too and Renato is not able to catch it. It's such a wonderful, rich symbol of Jane. She's the flower falling to the canal after the short term of happiness and satisfaction. Kate wonderfully shows the quite breakdown in Jane there: the thing that represented a moment of happiness for her was gone. It's ultimately a very sentimental moment and yet it becomes so heartbreaking because of Kate's excellent acting.

To my utter astonishment, the ending turned out to be incredibly uplifting and much less soappy then I expected. It evoked the bitterness and sadness of Lean's earlier work, Brief Encounter. Kate was truly heartbreaking there, showing the disappointment of Jane and yet she also emphasised the fact that she became a much stronger and self-confident woman during her journey.

What do you think?

Jennifer Jones in Love is a Many-Splendored Thing

2011-11-20T09:37:00.001+01:00

Jennifer Jones received her fifth (and last) Oscar nomination for playing Dr. Han Suyin, a widowed Eurasian doctor falling for an American correspondent in the Best Picture nominee Love is a Many-Splendored Thing. Although nowadays most people would say Jennifer Jones was the last because she was a previous Oscar winner, I feel that the Academy really fell for her movie (it received eight nominations and won three of them, after all) and as a result, she was a serious contender for the Best Actress award. I think it was a very heated battle for the Best Actress award and despite the fact Anna Magnani won all the awards possible for her performance, the others were not far behind her.

Love is a Many-Splendored Thing won the Golden Globe for "Best Film Promoting International Understanding" and that perfectly sums it up. Although in 1955 it must have been a groundbreaking movie, nowadays the most "meaningful" aspect of it seems to be the most dated. Actually, there are many things about it that might have been very brave and even scandalous at the time, nowadays you just keep smiling at the fact that lighting a cigarette is the symbol of having sex. Despite this, I was surprised to see how much I enjoyed watching this film as there was something really interesting and human about it. At times it was really poignant and wonderful so my intial reluctant attitude towards this movie changed quite rapidly.

Jennifer Jones seems to be a very divisive actress nowadays who has devoted fans as well as people who find her acting incredibly weak. Personally, I'm very fond of her and her very clear and subtle style that's able to impress me at the most unlikely moments. Her performances are always so beautifully understated and that's very most of the hatred towards her might come from. Compared to her fellow nominee Susan Hayward's loud, in-your-face acting style, Jennifer is always so calm and silent. Probably that's what made her work as St. Bernadette a real miracle and Jennifer an overnight success. And as a side note, I love her last motion picture performance as Lisolette in The Towering Inferno (SPOILER!!! Darn, I still cannot believe those sadistic writers so cruelly killed her off! SPOILER OFF!).

I guess Jennifer Jones was born to play characters like Dr. Han in Love is a Many-Splendored Thing. However, there's one thing: despite her dark hair and hazel(ish) eyes, Jennifer doesn't really look Asian, or even Eurasian, though that seemingly didn't bother the producers enough not to hire her (or God forbid, hire an Asian actress!). Against this really obvious setback, it's a real miracle if Jennifer is able to be even believable, let alone memorable. Despite my resentment towards the decision of the casting directors, I found myself (once again) almost completely fall for Jennifer. Great actresses will be great actresses and is Jennifer great!

Nobody was able to display humility and kindness the way Jennifer did. To some she could seem extremely weak as Suyin but I was impressed by her presence all the time. I think she completely identified with the personality of Suyin. Although there is no showy development in her character (at least not very much), Jennifer at least shows different facets of this woman. She displays her emotions in a very charming and loveable way, which constantly fascinated me.

I probably love this performance more than I appreciate it. In a technical sense, it's not a masterpiece. Moreover, the political "message" of the movie comes from her mouth and the way she was talking about refugees felt really bored. However, Jennifer does what she's best at: showing the emotions of a character very quietly with lots of dignity. Sometimes, the quiet sufferings of Suyin evoked very fond memories of Jennifer's unforgettable and heart-breaking work as St. Bernadette. The wonderful purity and naturality, that made her Bernadette such a wonderful creation, is a bit transformed in this movie. She's much more Hollywood, she doesn't go that deep into the character. I also must mention, though, that this character is not even half as wonderfully written as her Bernadette. She simply doesn't get that much opportunity to shine with her part.

Love is a Many-Splendored Thing is a typical product of the 1950s and Jennifer just lived up to the expectations of her era. I suppose people wanted to be moved by a simple love story and I can just imagine typical 50s housewives crying at this movie on a Saturday night at the movie theater. Jennifer flawlessly did what she was expected to do at the time, but nothing more and actually, it shows.

Still, I would be lying if I didn't say I was really moved by this performance. To some, this work of Jennifer Jones would be flat and uninteresting, but I really enjoyed every minute of it. Although it's not a grand achievement by today's standards, it's an incredibly moving and loveable piece of work. Jennifer excels at showing Suyin's humility and pure emotions. Again, this is nothing fantastic but something really lovely.

What do you think?

The next review comes tomorrow or even today (I'd like to finish this year this week).

Eleanor Parker in Interrupted Melody

2011-11-14T19:23:00.002+01:00

Eleanor Parker received her third Oscar nomination for playing Marjorie Lawrence, an opera singer paralyzed by polio in Interrupted Melody. You know, speculating about the 1955 Best Actress field is a really hard task. It must have been between Anna Magnani and Susan Hayward but I have no idea where to place the other ones. Eleanor Parker seems to be a fourth, though I feel she might have even been third and fifth as well. We'll never, I guess, but I tend to say she was fourth because of the part and the character but she couldn't get ahead of Katharine Hepburn, in my opinion.

Interrupted Melody is a very enjoyable movie that is quite easy to watch. Although it's a typical 50s Hollywood with Paris at MGM and lots of driving in front of a screen, there's something orginial about, maybe it's the way it tackles some serious issues. Moreover, it was much less sentimental than expected and the characters were believable and credible. I might even say that the Oscar for the Best Writing, Story and Screenplay was a deserved one. Although Glenn Ford got the top billing here, nowadays he would be campaigned as a supporting actor (he's more of a co-lead, though). His work is decent despite the fact that his character was not that interesting.

Eleanor Parker, however, gets the opportunity to shine as Marjorie Lawrence. This would be a typical Oscar role even by nowadays' standards: truth to be told, the Academy has always loved biopics. 'But who's Eleanor Parker?' ask most of the people. Film buffs quickly say 'You know, the Baroness from The Sound of Music'. Oscar fans, however, say 'She's a three-time Oscar nominated, wonderful actress having her prime at the early fifties.' Thank goodness I was able to watch her some of her excellent performances. In fact, she's a really versatile performer. For her, it's no big deal to play the innocent prisoner girl, then a paralyzed opera singer and then a bitchy Austrian baroness. I felt that Eleanor was fully up to her task in Interrupted Melody.

When I first read the synopsis of this movie, two words instantly came to my mind: Greer Garson. I wasn't surprised at all to find out that she was actually the original choice to play Marjorie. I was sure she would have been wonderful but somehow I've become a bit hesitant to say that. First of all, Greer was 51 at the time and it would have been a bit ridiculous to see her as a young girl (that was a bit embarassing even in her fourties). Second, I doubt that anyone could have played the way Marjorie had to be played - like Eleanor Parker did.

Despite my initial resistance to this character, Eleanor quickly won me over, even in her first scenes, which would seem a bit hilarious to some. However, I felt that she completely identified with the character's struggles, hopes and optimism. Although some changes in the character didn't go as smoothly as I usually like it, I loved that she made a very modern approach to this character. She avoids sentimentality (which might have been a setback for her at the time as that's what she must have been expected to be sentimental) and everything just seems to be excellently balanced about this character. She doesn't make her a usual 50s perfect person, she shows that Marjorie can be a Bitch with a capital be, though she (in my opinion) avoids being campy. Eleanor makes Marjorie a very complex and fascinating character and she wonderfully developed her.

Eleanor Parker's chemistry with Glenn Ford works miraculously: the atmosphere between them is unusually vibrant and sexy and somehow neither of them was afraid of emphasising the sexuality and sexual attraction of the characters. We get a few "hints" about their sex life and both Parker and Ford deliver them naturally without being too forced.

Eleanor does way more than she wass required to do: she excels at the most unexpected places. She shows both the divaish attitude of Marjorie and her struggles as a paralyzed, broken woman. Eleanor didn't make the scenes depressing or too soappy. Again, she found the perfect balance between the emotions and it all works so wonderfully. I admit that the scenes where she's singing to the soldiers are really cheesy but they don't go beyond a certain point.

All in all, Eleanor Parker's vibrant, wonderful performance as Marjorie Lawrence is a real treat to watch. She approached this character in a very odd way (for her time) and the result is something endlessly charming and impressive. She does way more than I expected her to do and gets the most out of this showy, interesting part. A really pleasant surprise coming from a hard-to-find movie.

What do you think?

Hello there!

2011-11-13T15:04:00.004+01:00

As you may or may not know, I have this other blog (Filmlandia) to which I seldom write, however I found a subject that I really wanted to write about and I didn't want to write it here. That was Jane Fonda's performance in The Dollmaker. I would be delighted if you checked out (or even comment on) my review about Jane in The Dollhouse!

Note: I'll start 1955 either tonight or tomorrow, it depends. So stay tuned! :)

The Next Year

2011-11-11T13:39:00.000+01:00

1955

So the nominees were:

Susan Hayward in I'll Cry Tomorrow
Katharine Hepburn in Summertime
Jennifer Jones in Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing
Anna Magnani in The Rose Tattoo
Eleanor Parker in Interrupted Melody

What an interesting, rarely talked about year, just the way I like it. I only saw Anna before so four performances will be completely new to me. :) I can't wait!

My ranking of the nominees so far...

2011-11-11T04:30:00.000+01:00

Jane Fonda in Klute
Diane Keaton in Annie Hall
Ingrid Bergman in Autumn Sonata
Emily Watson in Breaking the Waves
Sophia Loren in Two Women
Elizabeth Taylor in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind
Liza Minnelli in Cabaret
Michelle Pfeiffer in The Fabulous Baker Boys
Kate Winslet in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Audrey Hepburn in The Nun's Story
Jane Fonda in They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
Jane Fonda in Coming Home
Natalie Portman in Black Swan
Charlize Theron in Monster
Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's
Halle Berry in Monster's Ball
Sissy Spacek in In the Bedroom
Leslie Caron in The L-Shaped Room
Brenda Blethyn in Secrets and Lies
Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity
Penélope Cruz in Volver
Liza Minnelli in The Sterile Cuckoo
Judy Garland in A Star is Born
Anne Bancroft in The Miracle Worker
Bette Davis in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
Sissy Spacek in Coal Miner's Daughter
Sigourney Weaver in Aliens
Jennifer Jones in The Song of Bernadette
Ellen Burstyn in Resurrection
Liv Ullmann in Face to Face
Gena Rowlands in A Woman Under the Influence
Julianne Moore in Far from Heaven
Bette Davis in The Little Foxes
Glenda Jackson in A Touch of Class
Kathy Bates in Misery
Diane Lane in Unfaithful
Jane Fonda in Julia
Joan Fontaine in Rebecca
Anna Magnani in Wild is the Wind
Sissy Spacek in Carrie
Helena Bonham Carter in The Wings of the Dove
Frances McDormand in Fargo
Fernanda Montenegro in Central Station
Michelle Williams in Blue Valentine
Jane Fonda in The Morning After
Ellen Burstyn in The Exorcist
Barbara Stanwyck in Sorry, Wrong Number
Katharine Hepburn in Long Day's Journey Into Night
Geraldine Page in Interiors
Ellen Burstyn in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Annette Bening in Being Julia
Maggie Smith in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Isabelle Adjani in The Story of Adele H.
Julie Christie in McCabe & Mrs. Miller
Natalie Wood in Splendor in the Grass
Imelda Staunton in Vera Drake
Catalina Sandino Moreno in Maria Full of Grace
Jean Simmons in The Happy Ending
Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins
Julie Walters in Educating Rita
Judi Dench in Notes on a Scandal
Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth
Katharine Hepburn in Suddenly, Last Summer
Simone Signoret in Room at the Top
Glenda Jackson in Sunday Bloody Sunday
Kim Stanley in Seance on a Wet Afternoon
Pauline Collins in Shirley Valentine
Irene Dunne in Love Affair
Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada
Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia
Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Patricia Neal in Hud
Ingrid Bergman in Gaslight
Mary McDonnell in Passion Fish
Catherine Deneuve in Indochine
Meryl Streep in Silkwood
Faye Dunaway in Network
Anne Bancroft in The Pumpkin Eater
Meryl Streep in Postcards from the Edge
Jessica Lange in Music Box
Lynn Redgrave in Georgy Girl
Jennifer Lawrence in Winter's Bone
Goldie Hawn in Private Benjamin
Claudette Colbert in Since You Went Away
Carey Mulligan in An Education
Renée Zellweger in Bridget Jones's Diary
Barbara Stanwyck in Ball of Fire
Gabourey Sidibe in Precious: Based On the Novel Push by Sapphire
Judi Dench in Mrs Brown
Irene Dunne in The Awful Truth
Geraldine Page in Sweet Bird of Youth
Emma Thompson in Howards End
Greer Garson in Mrs. Parkington
Susan Sarandon in Lorenzo's Oil
Olivia de Havilland in Hold Back the Dawn
Mary Tyler Moore in Ordinary People
Susan Hayward in I Want to Live!
Marsha Mason in The Goodbye Girl
Rachel Roberts in This Sporting Life
Jill Clayburgh in An Unmarried Woman
Diahann Carroll in Claudine
Liv Ullmann in The Emigrants
Doris Day in Pillow Talk
Irene Dunne in I Remember Mama
Helen Hunt in As Good as it Gets
Cicely Tyson in Sounder
Valerie Perrine in Lenny
Bette Davis in Mr. Skeffington
Sophia Loren in Marriage Italian Style
Nicole Kidman in Rabbit Hole
Faye Dunaway in Chinatown
Helen Mirren in The Queen
Kate Winslet in Little Children
Barbara Stanwyck in Stella Dallas
Kate Winslet in Titanic
Jessica Tandy in Driving Miss Daisy
Jane Wyman in Johnny Belinda
Greta Garbo in Camille
Lee Remick in Days of Wine and Roses
Shirley MacLaine in Terms of Endearment
Marlee Matlin in Children of a Lesser God
Dorothy Dandridge in Carmen Jones
Bette Davis in Dark Victory
Anouk Aimée in A Man and A Woman
Geraldine Page in Summer and Smoke
Michelle Pfeiffer in Love Field
Jane Wyman in Magnificent Obsession
Louise Fletcher in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest
Annette Bening in The Kids Are All Right
Piper Laurie in The Hustler
Deborah Kerr in Separate Tables
Luise Rainer in The Good Earth
Diane Keaton in Something's Gotta Give
Ida Kaminska in The Shop on the Main Street
Debra Winger in Terms of Endearment
Greta Garbo in Ninotchka
Maggie Smith in Travels with My Aunt
Marie-Christine Barraul in Cousin Cousine
Carol Kane in Hester Street
Keisha Castle-Hughes in Whale Rider
Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina
Anne Bancroft in The Turning Point
Shirley MacLaine in Some Came Running
Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman
Helen Mirren in The Last Station
Olivia de Havilland in The Snake Pit
Jane Alexander in Testament
Ingrid Bergman in Joan of Arc
Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story
Greer Garson in Blossoms in the Dust
Joan Fontaine in The Constant Nymph
Marsha Mason in Cinderella Liberty
Anjelica Huston in The Grifters
Isabelle Adjani in Camille Claudel
Sissy Spacek in Crimes of the Heart
Nicole Kidman in The Hours
Elizabeth Taylor in Raintree County
Elizabeth Taylor in Suddenly, Last Summer
Natalie Wood in Love with the Proper Stranger
Vanessa Redgrave in Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment
Janet Suzman in Nicholas and Alexandra
Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge!
Greer Garson in Goodbye Mr. Chips
Ingrid Bergman in For Whom the Bell Tolls
Joanne Woodward in Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams
Judi Dench in Iris
Jean Arthur in The More the Merrier
Janet Gaynor in A Star is Born
Barbra Streisand in The Way We Were
Diane Keaton in Marvin's Room
Kristin Scott Thomas in The English Patient
Shirley MacLaine in The Turning Point
Ginger Rogers in Kitty Foyle: The Natural History of a Woman
Greer Garson in Madame Curie
Joanne Woodward in The Three Faces of Eve
Glenda Jackson in Hedda
Rosalind Russell in Auntie Mamie
Julie Christie in Afterglow
Kathleen Turner in Peggy Sue Got Married
Diana Ross in Lady Sings the Blues
Joanne Woodward in Mr. & Mrs. Bridge
Meryl Streep in One True Thing
Joan Fontaine in Suspicion
Geneviève Bujold in Anne of the Thousand Days
Grace Kelly in The Country Girl
Ellen Burstyn in Same Time, Next Year
Deborah Kerr in Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison
Shirley MacLaine in Irma La Douce
Lana Turner in Peyton Place
Vanessa Redgrave in Mary, Queen of Scots
Debbie Reynolds in The Unsinkable Molly Brown
Emily Watson in Hilary and Jackie
Bette Davis in The Letter
Martha Scott in Our Town
Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side
Talia Shrie in Rocky
Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby
Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love
Naomi Watts in 21 Grams
Samantha Morton in In America
Gena Rowlands in Gloria
Renée Zellweger in Chicago
Salma Hayek in Frida
Ann-Margret in Tommy

The Final Conclusion - Best Actress 2004

2011-11-10T20:03:00.004+01:00

2004

So the much anticipated ranking is:

5. Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby

What could Hilary do in this movie, where a great actress like Margo Martindale becomes a caricature? Nothing, but remaining what the screenplay intended her to be: a cliché, nothing more than that. She does the Oscar scenes the way she's supposed to, she's easy to sympathize with so what else can I ask for? Truth and honesty, no cheap, shallow emotions.

4. Catalina Sandino Moreno in Maria Full of Grace

I'm saying that I was once again impressed by Catalina's screen debut as Maria. She played this character with lots of dedication and confidence, while avoiding the obvious traps. She never becomes 'obvious' in her acting, totally identifies with her character and develops her wonderfully. I can only praise her for her incredible, extremely heart-breaking performance.

3. Imelda Staunton in Vera Drake

After all, I can't say anything negative about Imelda Staunton as Vera Drake. Although I don't love her as much as I used to, I still find her simply fantastic. She completely became this character and wonderfully played with the emotions. The way Imelda reveals all the layers of Vera and creates dramatic tension on the screen is just unbelievably great. Unforgettable, remarkable work.

2. Annette Bening in Being Julia

Pure delight! Annette's performane as Julia reminded me of Pauline Collins in Shirley Valentine. It may not be a huge dramatic achievement but she's so delightful and I was so in love with the character that I couldn't get enough of her. She took this wonderful part and turned it into a fascinating, wonderful creation that's incredibly delightful.

1. Kate Winslet in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

A no-brainer pick. Honestly, the "Am I ugly?" scene just locked and sealed this win and there was no other way. Kate is just as great as Clementine as people say, if not better. She evokes all the great feelings of Diane Keaton's Annie Hall without shamelessly copying her. Kate's Clementine is an utterly fascinating, unique creation bursting with creativity. Kate solved her task flawlessly and she deserves nothing but praise for it.

So I can proudly announce

that the winner is...

Kate Winslet

Eternal Sunshine

of the Spotless Mind

There you go, Wonder Woman. :)

Final thoughts: Wonderful year, horrible winner. Really Academy, really? I am stunned by this decision. Didn't they watch the other movies???? Kate was such an easy winner here. Her performance only got better in time. Just like Kate was the winner, Hilary was the no-brainer last but I'm not talking about her anymore. The other three were, however, the hardest to rank. It was incredibly difficult for me. I picked Annette second, she's a real delight here. That must raise some eyebrows but I honestly don't care. I was considering ranking her fourth but I got to a point where I found: hell, I liked her most next to Kate. To be perfectly honest, I would have voted for Annette as an Academy member because she was so great and overdue. OK, she's brilliant, that's it. Imelda and Catalina are pretty much equal for me, therefore their order was kind of random. :)

About the next year: You just never know what can happen. My sudden encounter with this year was a shock and I never thought I could do it. It's gonna be very exciting, with four performances I haven't even seen. Clues:

DON'T SPEAAAAAK!

What do you think? Any thoughts on your mind?

Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby

2011-11-03T10:40:00.001+01:00

Hilary Swank received her second Best Actress nomination and win for playing Maggie Fitzgerald, an aspiring female boxer in 2004's Best Picture winner, Million Dollary Baby. Hilary Swank wasn't considered a front-runner at the beginning of the awards season as Imelda Staunton or Annette Bening were expected to win their first Oscars. Imelda was the critics' darling, Annette was the industry favorite. And there came the stupid Golden Globes that like to mix up things and give the edge to the stars (see Sandra Bullock) and then the SAG followed because (I guess) they wanted to make up for the Boys Don't Cry loss of Hilary there. These two awards created lots of buzz and in the end, Hilary's second Oscar became inevitable and she became one of the most hated actresses ever to win the award. Many compare this to Sally Field's second win though I think the only similarity between them is that they both won two Oscars from only two nods (by that, you could even compare Hilary to Vivien Leigh so come on...).

Although this was only my second watch of Million Dollar Baby, I felt I've seen it many-many times. In Rocky, The Fighter and the list could go on and on. However, Million Dollar Baby is the worst one of ALL of them. It's obvious, overly sentimental, unoriginal, extremely manipulative and, above all, awful. Yes, in my humble opinion, this choice is one of the worst ones ever made by the Academy. However, it's not Clint Eastwood who's responsible for this. In my book, he's a very good director and the directing is decent in this one but the screenplay and the story is just horrible (the screenwriter also penned Crash, just sayin'). Morgan Freeman won an Oscar but what was exactly worthy about him? His bored narrations or tired looks? Three words: Thomas Haden Church. :)

I admit that Hilary Swank is not among my favorite actresses. I am also quite pissed by the fact that she has not one but two Oscars when great actresses like Barbara Stanwyck, Irene Dunne and Glenn Close (though I hope she wins this year) never received Academy Awards. One just keeps wondering about the absurdity of Hilary's two time Oscar-winner status, while such grand dames are Oscarless. It's a real shame, in my opinion. Let's not kid ourselves: Hilary Swank is an obviously limited performer. She's good at playing masculin women but apart from that I cannot really imagine her in other roles. Also her very obvious campaigning and Oscar baiting is something very annoying to me (in many ways, she's like Melissa Leo).

Because of the above mentioned things, it's become quite chic and trendy to hate Hilary's second win for Million Dollar Baby. But does that apply to her actual performance? I've seen tons of people hating her for winning but that's mostly due to the fact that she won her second over Annette Bening and Kate Winslet. However, basically nobody talks about her actual work in Million Dollar Baby. To tell the truth, I didn't have much recollection of her work before I rewatched her.

Working from a terrible script, Hilary doesn't really have much of a chance to shine, in my opinion. Sure, there are the Oscar scenes but I don't see any real depth or emotion in them, just clear manipulation. On the outside, this role is a dream though it needs lots of hard work and dedication from the actress that I've actually seen from Hilary and yet the shallowness of the character didn't let her show what she could have done with the part. Maggie Fitzgerald is a moving cliché, much like everyone in the movie. The movie wants to make us believe that her development is real, however, I don't see any development in her at all. Even when her dream comes true, Maggie remains the very same person who's really not transformed by her success. The elliptic story of Million Dollar Baby really hurts this character and Hilary as she doesn't have the opportunity to develop her own character. Once we see her struggling and living a miserable, poor life and twenty minutes later, she's fighting at a championship. We see Maggie only as "a girl from a trailer park who has a dream".

Hilary's Oscar speech was particularly annoying to me as (after beating four way more deserving, fantastic performances from great actresses) she emphasised her cheesy sentence. "I'm just a girl from a trailer park who had a dream." Obvious and totally tasteless, she accepted in the manner of Maggie Fitzgerald. And you don't get much else from her work, either, only cheesy, "seen that, heard that, been there, done that" monologues delivered with a very annoying accent.

The movie's (and Swank's) obvious aim was to make us sympathise with Maggie and strangely enough, despite what I previously said, she succeeded on many levels. It's impossible not to feel for Maggie when we see her eating other people's leftovers and running at the beach, chasing her own dream. I admit being moved by her once or twice but I just felt so cheated, too. It was like "yeah, yeah, fine but not enough to win me over".

But again: what could Hilary do in this movie, where a great actress like Margo Martindale becomes a caricature? Nothing, but remaining what the screenplay intended her to be: a cliché, nothing more than that. She does the Oscar scenes the way she's supposed to, she's easy to sympathize with so what else can I ask for? Truth and honesty, no cheap, shallow emotions. I might be difficult to please (though I don't think so) but this performance made me angry for many reasons and never because won the Oscar over the brilliant other nominees.

What do you think?

Catalina Sandino Moreno in Maria Full of Grace

2011-11-01T11:48:00.002+01:00

Catalina Sandino Moreno received an Oscar nomination for her debut performance as Maria Alvaret, a pregnant teenager who becomes a drug mule to provide for her family. Her nomination might have come as a surprise but I think it was a richly deserved one. Naturally, she didn't have much chance of winning, but they must have really liked her as she did receive the nomination after all. In her case, the nomination really was the reward and I guess it was more than anyone in her case would have dreamed of. I mean a first-timer Colombian actress rarely receives Best Actress nomination. Catalina's and Kate's nod prove that the Academy members were at the top of their game (in terms of the Best Actress nominations, not the actual horrible other nominees and winners).

Maria Full of Grace is a very interesting and raw movie, which had real emotional depth and something to say. Its atmosphere is somewhat similar to Central Station (though the two movies are quite different). I think I might even give it a Best Picture nomination (it's most certainly better than 80% of the Best Picture nominees). The directing is excellently done, you never feel that the movie is boring or that it has useless parts. The casting is so great and I particularly appreciated that they found very realistic characters.

It's a very dangerous thing to be nominated for your screen debut. You either get more and better roles or you ruin your whole career simply by trying to live up to the hype of your celebrated introduction. Sometimes, it really works out (just see Goldie Hawn or Barbra Streisand), but sometimes the actor disappered in a blink or have to work in second-rate tv series (Marlee Matlin or Timothy Hutton). Although her nomination came almost seven years ago, I still don't know which group Catalina belongs to. The energy of her work carried her to the Kodak Theater and yet I feel that she doesn't get good enough projects for her talent.

That being said, I'm about to assess Catalina's performance as Maria Alvarez, the desperate young girl, who becomes a drug mule. Just yesterday, I was raving about Imelda Staunton's heart-breaking realism as Vera Drake, a woman who does illegal things out of pure kindness and care. Maria, however, is in need of some money and she's just desperate to get a job. Both characters commit crimes, both are aware of the possible consequences and yet they do what they feel is right for them.

Catalina doesn't have the same amount of emotional scenes that Imelda gets as Vera Drake, she doesn't get caught (well, almost), she doesn't have breakdowns, courtroom scenes and yet there's something wonderfully wrenching about her work. From the beginning, I felt a kind of connection to her character and I really cared about her. She made Maria a fairly likeable person, someone who's very easy to sympathize with. I instantly developed a connection to her and wanted things to work out for her. It's very heart-breaking to see her very poor surroundings. Maria is used to doing some hard work and she's not afraid of talking back and stand up for herself. Although these scenes are excellently played by Catalina, I'd say they are the least memorable ones of all. Her bit rebellious teenager attitude is not the most interesting aspect of Maria.

Once Maria becomes a drug mule, the tone of Catalina's whole performance changes. It becomes extremely fierce and brutally raw, especially when she's practising how to swallow the pellets. There's something deeply heart-breaking about those moments. The scene where her plane to New York takes off and she holding on to her cross is just unbelievably great. Religion is a comfort for the character of Maria and somehow she develops a strange resemblance with the Virgin Mary. Both of them are teenagers (yes, the Virgin Mary was also a teenager, despite what you see in 50s Hollywood epics :P) who have to make sacrifices and accept what they have to do. The religious symbolism of this movie and Catalina's performance is just wonderfully solved and far from being forced or obvious.

The way Catalina develops Maria is also quite remarkable and especially from a first-timer. I felt lots of confidence in Catalina and she wonderfully showed the steps of Maria's growing up. She starts out as a desperate teenager and in the end, she turns out to be a grown, more responsible woman. There's only one louder scene involving her and she nailed that one, too. She never went too over-the-top and she made me realise one thing as she was crying: this girl is seventeen years old and is forced to do thing that not even adults should do. It's a deeply harrowing scene which has its effect mostly by how sudden and unexpected it really is.

So after all, I'm saying that I was once again impressed by Catalina's screen debut as Maria. She played this character with lots of dedication and confidence, while avoiding the obvious traps. She never becomes 'obvious' in her acting, totally identifies with her character and develops her wonderfully. I can only praise her for her incredible, extremely heart-breaking performance.

Imelda Staunton in Vera Drake

2011-10-31T22:51:00.006+01:00

Imelda Staunton received her only Best Actress nomination to date for playing the title role of Vera Drake, a charming, incredibly helpful woman who "helps young girls out". Imelda Staunton was pretty much the critics' darling during the awards season. It was a big upset when she lost the Golden Globe to Hilary Swank and what once seemed to be a two-way race between Imelda and Annette Bening, turned out to be the time for Hilary Swank to repeat. I guess the other two nods for Vera Drake show that the Academy did fall for this film though I think Imelda wasn't famous enough to get ahead of Annette.

Vera Drake is an excellent piece of work by Mike Leigh though it's not perfect and I felt that sometimes it was a tiny bit obvious and didn't trust its audience enough. Other than that, it's a wonderfully written and directed film (very deserving of both nomination) that really made me cringe once or twice. Although it's not as devastating as Secrets and Lies, it's actually quite close to it. I was very impressed by the performances in this film and it was wonderful to see Mike Leigh's usual actors in very different parts.

Vera Drake is an incredibly lovely woman. You can only see her helping other people and from what we see from her, she's extremely unselfish, very loving, generous and giving. She bursts with energy and kindness, she just enlightens the mood of those close to her. I think Imelda Staunton, with her rosy cheeks and little chubby face, was the perfect choice to play this part. Vera is an incredibly simple woman and if they had given her role to a glamourous superstar, the result wouldn't have been half as effective and harrowing.

You may or may not rememember how much of a hyper I was about this performance. The first time I saw her, I was just amazed and totally chilled by this very emotional work and couldn't love her more. I was utterly surprised to find out that some of that huge amount of appreciation has disappeared. I often wonder why thos things happen. I see the very same work, the same way (if that's possible) so what could be different now? Easy: me. One of the great things about these reviews is that it constantly makes me reevalute my opinions and thoughts about a certain performance. If you would have told me two and a half years ago that I would incredibly dislike Joanne Woodward and be madly in love with Kate Winslet, I wouldn't have believed it. So it was timely to revisit this old favorite of mine.

I'm not saying anything bad about Imelda's work as Vera Drake as I still find it fantastic and amazing. The way she took this person and made totally her own is just unbelievable. Every time I want to write Imelda, I always start typing Vera. That tells a lot about how well Imelda identified with this character. In the beginning, we see her constantly smiling and humming cheerful songs and this spirit keeps up even when Vera is performing one of the abortions. Vera is incredibly calm and Imelda is so subtle in her acting.

Vera is an incredibly interesting character because of all the depths and layers inside her. Imelda was able to show so much of them and as a result, we got a brutally realistic human being. Vera herself doesn't think of her acts as abortions, she just says that she helps young girls out so that they can "get back their bleeding". For her there's no moral dilemma that holds her back as she's 100% certain that she's doing the right thing and helps these desperate women. There's something so soothing and yet very sinister about her character. You can see both an angel of mercy and a devil on earth. But which one is stronger in Vera? Imelda (and the movie) was clever enough to let the viewers decide for themselves.

The harmony of Vera's life is over when she's arrested for endangering the life of one of the girls. The change in the performance (and the movie) is so radical that it has an incredible dramatic effect. Suddenly Vera becomes a frightened anima, her wide smile disappears. Imelda is wonderful in the scene where Vera realises that the police came for her. She's acting only with her face and it was just unbelievable. She has numerous breakdowns and Imelda's cheerful presence turns out to be something really brutal and harrowing. She's quite simply amazing at the police station and courtroom scenes. She doesn't miss any of the opportunities and she constantly surprised me with her unusual choices. Imelda never went over-the-top with Vera and I always felt that it was the right way to play the reactions of Vera.

So after all, I can't say anything negative about Imelda Staunton as Vera Drake. Although I don't love her as much as I used to, I still find her simply fantastic. She completely became this character and wonderfully played with the emotions. The way Imelda reveals all the layers of Vera and creates dramatic tension on the screen is just unbelievably great. Unforgettable, remarkable work.

What do you think?

Annette Bening in Being Julia

2011-10-29T22:30:00.003+02:00

Poor Annette Bening, I seriously feel sorry for her. She has been so close to winning the Oscar three times at least (you might argue about her first nomination). Every time she turned on a performance to which people said she was going to win the Oscar, along came a younger actress with a showier, flashier and bigger performance and crashed Annette's Oscar hopes. Natalie Portman's win was much better received than Hilary Swank's second. Basically, the sometimes immense hate thrown against Swank might come from the fact that she beat poor Annette twice, who was (in my opinion) the runner-up both times.

Being Julia, in my opinion, is a delightful, wonderful movie. Although it's not among István Szabó's best works, it's extremely entertaining and very well-made. I enjoyed each and every moment of it, maybe partly to the nice memories that I have from the time it was released. When the movie had its premiere here in Hungary at the oldest movie theater, the media was crazy about the fact that Annette Bening came to us and there were even reports about what she had for dinner (!). A couple of months later, she was nominated for the Oscar. The hysteria went on and it became a sort of patriotic duty to be rooting for Annette Bening's win. At the time of the show, the commentators didn't even hide their disappointment when she lost. (I think something similar will happen with The Door and Helen Mirren).

I'm not a big fan of Annette Bening for one simple reason: I haven't seen enough of her movies. I'm only acquainted with her Oscar-nominated performances and most especially The Kids Are All Right, which I was extremely amazed by for the first time and yet for a second time I was kind of underwhelmed. But from what I saw of her, I've really started to like her and now I truly, sincerely wish that she won an Oscar. I hope it happens once. Personally, if she had a great supporting role, she would instantly win (that's the same thing I think about Sigourney Weaver).

Although some people write Annette's performance as Julia Lambert off as a desperate attempt to recreate Margo Channing, I'd say that's the worst interpretation of this character. Unlike Margo, Julia is not bitter and sarcastic, but extremely self-confident and sharp. Naturally, the bitchy, divaish quality is in both of them (that makes them both irresistable) and yet I would say that Julia is more positive and optimistic. She's an eccentric, larger-than-life creation and yet there's something irresistably human about her. She bursts with energy and talent and who better could play her than Annette Bening, a truly energetic and talented actress.

Julia Lambert is the greatest star of the London stage and she constantly lives up to her status as the most distinguished actress. She's a star and a diva in the best sense of the word and she's just unbelievably awesome at the different areas of life. I love her wonderful, delicate bitchiness in the scene where a snobbish woman asks her if her father was a doctor in Jersey. I won't say her answer, only that it's probably the most priceless moment of the movie.

However, at the beginning of the movie, we see Julia as someone, who's tired and fed up with her life and has very theatrical breakdowns to her friends. I loved the monologue she said to her friend and admirer at the restaurant. It all seems very exaggerated and theatrical and yet it somehow works incredibly. It's like she was acting on the stage and she was working for the applause and appreciation of the audience. Strangely enough, I myself almost started to clap many times while I was watching the film. Annette was able to create to divine presence of a distinguished stage actres, who's so blisteringly brilliant and dignified that you're tongue-tied whenever you see her. The same goes for Annette: she makes the impression of a wonderful actress while seeming incredibly effortless. I just kept wondering at how wonderful she is

Julia is a very dangerous character as any false note would have ruined the performance. However, Annette found the perfect balance. Naturally, it's very colorful and over-the-top work, but Annette knew when to hold back and when to be loud. I would say there are no flaws in this performance, except for the fact that I wanted to see even more of her. She was so good and enjoyable that I couldn't get enough of her. In each and every moment, I was delighted by her presence and wonderul persona. That big revenge scene in the end is, again, priceless.

Annette's performane as Julia reminded me of Pauline Collins in Shirley Valentine. It may not be a huge dramatic achievement but she's so delightful and I was so in love with the character that I couldn't get enough of her. She took this wonderful part and turned it into a fascinating, wonderful creation that's incredibly delightful.

What do you think?

Kate Winslet in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

2011-10-23T21:34:00.002+02:00

Kate Winslet received her fourth Best Actress nomination for playing Clementine, a "fucked-up girl who's looking for her own peace of mind" in the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Wow, many have said this but it's true: Kate Winslet's performance as Clementine is the kind of work that's usually snubbed by the Academy and many uproar afterwards because of this snub. That's what happened for instance with Sally Hawkins. However, the Academy had a very good period, I guess and they nominated this very unusual piece of work. I feel, though, that Winslet was probably only fourth in the voting though nowadays most people would actually give her the win. It's more than satisfying to see her get recognised.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a fascinating, original movie that doesn't stop amazing me with its witty and yet incredibly heart-breaking story. It once again shows how stupid the Golden Globes are that they nominated this movie as a Comedy. The Oscar for the Best Original Screenplay is one of the most deserved one ever to be given out (I can only think of Annie Hall, Hannah and her Sisters and Chinatown that are as good as this one). And in my humble opinion, Jim Carrey was cheated out of the nod (once again) as he was more deserving than 60% of the field. But I can mention the wonderful supporting cast as well. They are all memorable.

Recently, I have developed a huge crush on Kate Winslet. You know, she's a wonder woman (figuratively and literally, too since that fire in September) who shows greatness in each of her roles. Every time she injects an astonishing amount of talent into her role and she's so incredibly versatile. I can only think of Jane Fonda who's as versatile as Kate. For Kate, it's no big deal to play a Nazi guard after an unhappy housewife or the self-sacrificing Mildred Pierce before the drunken, constantly puking wife in Carnage. The unusual, strange role of Clementine Kruczynski fits perfectly into that group. Kate's self-admittedly looking for very different part and that's something that I admire most about her.

Her role as Clementine is said to be Kate's personal favorite and this work of hers has a huge amount of fans among movie buffs and Oscar fans. Why exactly? I would say because she creates a modern day Annie Hall, a girl who's so easy to fall in love with. Clementine is not a huge beauty, she's not very kind, she's weird, she's imperfect and yet so irresistable that you just feel it's completely appropriate that Jim Carrey's Joel cannot (and doesn't want to) forget her. However, Kate's part is far from being that "easy". Actually, she plays two Clementines (to perfection). One of them is the real Clementine we get to see after she erases her boyfriend from her mind. The other one exists in Joel's mind and I dare say she's probably even more fascinating than the real one.

It's always very hard to play such a tricky character because you can never rely on the reality or your mind. You have to really listen to your own instincts that tell you how to play that person. I feel that Kate's instincts worked wonderfully in this case. She has no big dramatic scenes, no huge, showy breakdowns, she just has to work with her charm and wit. She wonderfully shows how outspoken and sometimes annoying this character can be and she's never afraid of making her really unlikeable. The funny part of her performance is really nailed by her: she shows Clementine as a weird girl and yet she never seems to be an idiot or stupid. Kate wonderfully found the balance in this aspect. She shows so many sides and faces of this character. She's selfish, she's loving, she's loud, she's quiet, she's beautiful, she's ugly, she's lovely, she's annoying and she basically shows all the features of a human being. Clementine wears her heart on her sleeve and yet there's a mysterious feeling in her. We don't really get to know Clementine's personality and yet what we see is enough to fall for her.

There's a scene around the middle of the movie when Clementine asks Joel if she's ugly. That's probably the most wonderful scene of the whole movie. In the end, Joel says that he doesn't want it to end and the lack of Clementine becomes so incredibly painful. Kate added this irresistable bittersweet feeling of the end that's impossible to forget or even communicate. You just feel heartbroken because of her.

Another thing that I admire about Kate here is that she's so playful while also taking her job extremely seriously. This comes through especially in the scenes when the memory of Clementine and Joel hide in Joel's childhood memories. Kate is so delightful and (again) wonderfully bittersweet. She even gets to play a very small girl and she's so incredibly funny and moving there. I just felt like hugging her or something.

Although Jim Carrey is the real lead in this movie, it's Kate Winslet who makes the movie. She's the heart and soul of it and every little secret of it is in her character. Basically, Clementine becomes a symbol of love and life. She's occasionally hateful, painful and you just want to get rid of her and yet in the end, she makes it all worthwhile. Every tiny movement of hers is sparkling with the creativity of Kate Winslet who's quite simply astonishing here.

This performance has a lot of enthusiastic fans and I'm happy to say that I'm one of them: Kate Winslet is nothing short of brilliant as Clementine Kruczynski, the complicated young woman. She evokes all the great feelings of Diane Keaton's Annie Hall without shamelessly copying her. Kate's Clementine is an utterly fascinating, unique creation bursting with creativity. Kate solved her task flawlessly and she deserves nothing but praise for it.

What do you think?

The Next Year

2011-10-22T16:37:00.004+02:00

2004

So the nominees were:

Annette Bening in Being Julia
Catalina Sandino Moreno in Maria Full of Grace
Imelda Staunton in Vera Drake
Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby
Kate Winslet in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

A race with a really unpopular winner and four performances that have tons of fans. We'll see how I'll appreciate these ladies. :)

What do you think? What's your ranking? What's your prediction for my ranking?

Celebration time!

2011-10-17T17:59:00.002+02:00

It's a wonderful accident that I got to the 200th review when this blog turned 2 years old. Moreover, I started this blog with a review of Gaslight and Angela Lansbury had her birthday yesterday. So the remember the reviews and the lots of fun, let's honor my winners once again:

The brilliant winners were:

Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia

Fernanda Montenegro in Central Station

Audrey Hepburn in The Nun's Story

Leslie Caron in The L-Shaped Room

Joan Fontaine in Rebecca

Barbara Stanwyck in Sorry, Wrong Number

Gena Rowlands in A Woman Under the Influence

Julianne Moore in

Far from Heaven

Ingrid Bergman in Autumn Sonata

Special award winner :)

Jane Fonda in Coming Home

Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind

Judy Garland in A Star is Born

Michelle Pfeiffer in The Fabulous Baker Boys

Kathy Bates in Misery

Elizabeth Taylor in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Jane Fonda in They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

Glenda Jackson in A Touch of Class

Sissy Spacek in Coal Miner's Daughter

Bette Davis in The Little Foxes

Natalie Portman in Black Swan

Diane Keaton in Annie Hall

Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins

Anna Magnani in Wild is the Wind

Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity

Helena Bonham Carter in The Wings of the Dove

Penélope Cruz in Volver

Liza Minnelli in Cabaret

Julie Walters in Educating Rita

Emily Watson in Breaking the Waves

Irene Dunne in The Awful Truth

Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Sigourney Weaver in Aliens

Isabelle Adjani in The Story of Adele H.

Halle Berry in Monster's Ball

Charlize Theron in Monster

Sophia Loren in Two Women

Mary McDonnell in Passion Fish

Anne Bancroft in The Miracle Worker

Jennifer Jones in The Song of Bernadette

Liv Ullmann in Face to Face

Jane Fonda in Klute

And in the end, a very carefully worked on, brand new ranking (with lots of changes):

Jane Fonda in Klute
Diane Keaton in Annie Hall
Ingrid Bergman in Autumn Sonata
Emily Watson in Breaking the Waves
Sophia Loren in Two Women
Elizabeth Taylor in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind
Liza Minnelli in Cabaret
Michelle Pfeiffer in The Fabulous Baker Boys
Audrey Hepburn in The Nun's Story
Jane Fonda in They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
Jane Fonda in Coming Home
Natalie Portman in Black Swan
Charlize Theron in Monster
Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's
Halle Berry in Monster's Ball
Sissy Spacek in In the Bedroom
Leslie Caron in The L-Shaped Room
Brenda Blethyn in Secrets and Lies
Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity
Penélope Cruz in Volver
Liza Minnelli in The Sterile Cuckoo
Judy Garland in A Star is Born
Anne Bancroft in The Miracle Worker
Bette Davis in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
Sissy Spacek in Coal Miner's Daughter
Sigourney Weaver in Aliens
Jennifer Jones in The Song of Bernadette
Ellen Burstyn in Resurrection
Liv Ullmann in Face to Face
Gena Rowlands in A Woman Under the Influence
Julianne Moore in Far from Heaven
Bette Davis in The Little Foxes
Glenda Jackson in A Touch of Class
Kathy Bates in Misery
Diane Lane in Unfaithful
Jane Fonda in Julia
Joan Fontaine in Rebecca
Anna Magnani in Wild is the Wind
Sissy Spacek in Carrie
Helena Bonham Carter in The Wings of the Dove
Frances McDormand in Fargo
Fernanda Montenegro in Central Station
Michelle Williams in Blue Valentine
Jane Fonda in The Morning After
Ellen Burstyn in The Exorcist
Barbara Stanwyck in Sorry, Wrong Number
Katharine Hepburn in Long Day's Journey Into Night
Geraldine Page in Interiors
Ellen Burstyn in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Maggie Smith in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Isabelle Adjani in The Story of Adele H.
Julie Christie in McCabe & Mrs. Miller
Natalie Wood in Splendor in the Grass
Jean Simmons in The Happy Ending
Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins
Julie Walters in Educating Rita
Judi Dench in Notes on a Scandal
Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth
Katharine Hepburn in Suddenly, Last Summer
Simone Signoret in Room at the Top
Glenda Jackson in Sunday Bloody Sunday
Kim Stanley in Seance on a Wet Afternoon
Pauline Collins in Shirley Valentine
Irene Dunne in Love Affair
Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada
Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia
Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Patricia Neal in Hud
Ingrid Bergman in Gaslight
Mary McDonnell in Passion Fish
Catherine Deneuve in Indochine
Meryl Streep in Silkwood
Faye Dunaway in Network
Anne Bancroft in The Pumpkin Eater
Meryl Streep in Postcards from the Edge
Jessica Lange in Music Box
Lynn Redgrave in Georgy Girl
Jennifer Lawrence in Winter's Bone
Goldie Hawn in Private Benjamin
Claudette Colbert in Since You Went Away
Carey Mulligan in An Education
Renée Zellweger in Bridget Jones's Diary
Barbara Stanwyck in Ball of Fire
Gabourey Sidibe in Precious: Based On the Novel Push by Sapphire
Judi Dench in Mrs Brown
Irene Dunne in The Awful Truth
Geraldine Page in Sweet Bird of Youth
Emma Thompson in Howards End
Greer Garson in Mrs. Parkington
Susan Sarandon in Lorenzo's Oil
Olivia de Havilland in Hold Back the Dawn
Mary Tyler Moore in Ordinary People
Susan Hayward in I Want to Live!
Marsha Mason in The Goodbye Girl
Rachel Roberts in This Sporting Life
Jill Clayburgh in An Unmarried Woman
Diahann Carroll in Claudine
Liv Ullmann in The Emigrants
Doris Day in Pillow Talk
Irene Dunne in I Remember Mama
Helen Hunt in As Good as it Gets
Cicely Tyson in Sounder
Valerie Perrine in Lenny
Bette Davis in Mr. Skeffington
Sophia Loren in Marriage Italian Style
Nicole Kidman in Rabbit Hole
Faye Dunaway in Chinatown
Helen Mirren in The Queen
Kate Winslet in Little Children
Barbara Stanwyck in Stella Dallas
Kate Winslet in Titanic
Jessica Tandy in Driving Miss Daisy
Jane Wyman in Johnny Belinda
Greta Garbo in Camille
Lee Remick in Days of Wine and Roses
Shirley MacLaine in Terms of Endearment
Marlee Matlin in Children of a Lesser God
Dorothy Dandridge in Carmen Jones
Bette Davis in Dark Victory
Anouk Aimée in A Man and A Woman
Geraldine Page in Summer and Smoke
Michelle Pfeiffer in Love Field
Jane Wyman in Magnificent Obsession
Louise Fletcher in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest
Annette Bening in The Kids Are All Right
Piper Laurie in The Hustler
Deborah Kerr in Separate Tables
Luise Rainer in The Good Earth
Diane Keaton in Something's Gotta Give
Ida Kaminska in The Shop on the Main Street
Debra Winger in Terms of Endearment
Greta Garbo in Ninotchka
Maggie Smith in Travels with My Aunt
Marie-Christine Barraul in Cousin Cousine
Carol Kane in Hester Street
Keisha Castle-Hughes in Whale Rider
Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina
Anne Bancroft in The Turning Point
Shirley MacLaine in Some Came Running
Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman
Helen Mirren in The Last Station
Olivia de Havilland in The Snake Pit
Jane Alexander in Testament
Ingrid Bergman in Joan of Arc
Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story
Greer Garson in Blossoms in the Dust
Joan Fontaine in The Constant Nymph
Marsha Mason in Cinderella Liberty
Anjelica Huston in The Grifters
Isabelle Adjani in Camille Claudel
Sissy Spacek in Crimes of the Heart
Nicole Kidman in The Hours
Elizabeth Taylor in Raintree County
Elizabeth Taylor in Suddenly, Last Summer
Natalie Wood in Love with the Proper Stranger
Vanessa Redgrave in Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment
Janet Suzman in Nicholas and Alexandra
Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge!
Greer Garson in Goodbye Mr. Chips
Ingrid Bergman in For Whom the Bell Tolls
Joanne Woodward in Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams
Judi Dench in Iris
Jean Arthur in The More the Merrier
Janet Gaynor in A Star is Born
Barbra Streisand in The Way We Were
Diane Keaton in Marvin's Room
Kristin Scott Thomas in The English Patient
Shirley MacLaine in The Turning Point
Ginger Rogers in Kitty Foyle: The Natural History of a Woman
Greer Garson in Madame Curie
Joanne Woodward in The Three Faces of Eve
Glenda Jackson in Hedda
Rosalind Russell in Auntie Mamie
Julie Christie in Afterglow
Kathleen Turner in Peggy Sue Got Married
Diana Ross in Lady Sings the Blues
Joanne Woodward in Mr. & Mrs. Bridge
Meryl Streep in One True Thing
Joan Fontaine in Suspicion
Geneviève Bujold in Anne of the Thousand Days
Grace Kelly in The Country Girl
Ellen Burstyn in Same Time, Next Year
Deborah Kerr in Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison
Shirley MacLaine in Irma La Douce
Lana Turner in Peyton Place
Vanessa Redgrave in Mary, Queen of Scots
Debbie Reynolds in The Unsinkable Molly Brown
Emily Watson in Hilary and Jackie
Bette Davis in The Letter
Martha Scott in Our Town
Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side
Talia Shrie in Rocky
Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love
Naomi Watts in 21 Grams
Samantha Morton in In America
Gena Rowlands in Gloria
Renée Zellweger in Chicago
Salma Hayek in Frida
Ann-Margret in Tommy

The Final Conclusion - Best Actress 1971

2011-10-16T22:02:00.002+02:00

1971

So the much anticipated ranking is:

5. Vanessa Redgrave in Mary, Queen of Scots

Although I cannot deny that Vanessa's radiant presence impressed me, I cannot say the same thing about her performance as Mary Stuart. For some reason, I felt that she was lost in this character despite the fact that she completely understood this character. I had no connection to the character whatsoever but there's still something about Vanessa that holds me back from being really negative about her here.

4. Janet Suzman in Nicholas and Alexandra

Janet added some irresistable pride and even a bit of arrogancy to this character that never ceased to impress me and eventually, I don't have negative thoughts about her, I'm just disappointed and a bit angry about the wasted potential. It's almost haunting work and really great, it just could have been even better.

3. Glenda Jackson in Sunday Bloody Sunday

Glenda Jackson is just excellent as Alex Greville in Sunday Bloody Sunday. She shows lots of aspects of this character and she nails all the emotions of this character. Although I was never totally amazed by her, I was impressed by her work, especially in the scenes where she showed the demons of Alex.

2. Julie Christie in McCabe & Mrs. Miller

Despite the obvious limitations of the screenplay, Julie Christie was able to put on a wonderful, unforgettable and otherworldy performance as Constance Miller, the opium-addicted madam. Although it's a very unusual character for Julie, she played her exceptionally, making this one of her most memorable efforts on the screen.

1. Jane Fonda in Klute

I hope there was no question about it. First, I wanted to write a review only with the sentence "Best performance ever. Period." BUT then I thought that it wouldn't say enough about this stirring work of Jane and wouldn't be able to communicate what I felt as a viewer. I was moved, I cried, I even laughed at the small hints of humour that make her work even more amazing. Honestly, I just want to keep praising her and say as many superlatives about her as I can.

So I can proudly announce

my 40th winner is...

Jane Fonda

Klute

The best of the best.

Final thoughts: A good year. There wasn't much suspense as Jane killed her competition (plus she became my third double winner after Barbara Stanwyck and Liz Taylor). However, Julie and Glenda were also great and in another year, Julie would have got much closer to winning. Janet Suzman was the pleasant surprise for me and Vanessa was an unexpected disappointmen for me. Really, there isn't much to say about this year as Jane is so easily the best. I admit that the others didn't have a chance though I was trying to be as impartial as possible.

Omissions: Ruth Gordon in Harold and Maude; Mari Törőcsik in Love, Lili Darvas in Love; Glenda Jackson in Mary, Queen of Scots

About the next year: I know I owe some of you years to do but given my circumstances, I'm just not able to search for films so I'm going to do a readily available year. I'll decide next week.

What do you think? Any thoughts on your mind?

Happy birthday Amazing Angela!

2011-10-16T20:54:00.003+02:00

I know that I don't do this usually but I feel like doing it now. Happy Birthday to Amazing Angela Lansbury, one of my favorite actresses! I cannot write a leading review about her so it's a chance to write something about this treasure of the film industry. No matter how great Patty Duke was, in my heart, Angela won the Oscar for her Mrs. Iselin (not to mention all those Emmys for Murder, She Wrote). Here's why:

Jane Fonda in Klute - 200th review

2011-10-15T19:42:00.006+02:00

"I hate to look at my movies because I always want to do them over again. [...] Klute is different. I nailed that." Jane Fonda

Once upon a time, there was a twelve-year-old who got a book as a Christmas present, whose title was 1001 Films You Must See Before You Die. He decided to watch those films and started to watch these movies wherever could get them. He first caught a movie called Klute. Although he didn't know that much about acting or movies for that matter, he was just stunned by the performance of the lead actress, called Jane Fonda. He was especially amazed by a scene where she was breaking down listening to a tape. Something was happening: the beginning of a special, pure love for this woman he didn't know much about. That's when the future was sealed. It always remains a special moment...

There are Oscar nominees. There are Oscar winners, too. But there's another elite group which has a huge, loving fanbase and its members are called Best Actress winners. There are undeserved Best Actress wins. There are well-deserved Best Actress wins. And there are earth-shattering, obvious Best Actress wins that fit all the criteria of a Best Actress win because a) they come at the right time, b) for a stunning performance, c) at the peak of the actresses' career. For example Vivien Leigh, Meryl Streep, Liza Minnelli and (most recently) Natalie Portman belong to this elite group and when such a win doesn't happen (see Michelle Pfeiffer), it becomes one of the most hated and criticised decisions of the Academy. Thank God Jane Fonda belongs to the former category whose win is one of the most popular and obvious decisions of the Academy. Everybody loves her performance (OK, almost everybody but let me imagine that everybody adores her), she got it at the right time, right place, for the right movie. Katharine Hepburn used to say that always the right actors win the Oscars... for the wrong roles. Although I agree with that statement, Jane Fonda is such a delightful exception of it.

Jane's brilliant autobiography My Life So Far tells so much about how much hard work she put into this part and how hard it was for her to play Bree Daniels, a prostitute who's an aspiring actress and model who never seems to get out of her depressing circumstances. Bree is an actress in every possible way. She's an actress looking for part but she's also constantly putting on a facade as a defense mechanism against her horrible life. In a way she's similar to Ingrid Bergman's Charlotte Andergast from Autumn Sonata who's escaping the real problems by acting and pretending. However, I can see that Bree is trying to change but never gets the chance that everybody deserves. In a way, it's even more disturbing to see her than Precious, for example. Precious had a shining light in her life and had to chance to change and make her dreams come true but Bree Daniels (despite her better financial status) constantly gets the feedback of not being worthy of making it out of being a prosititue and having to struggle.

That being said, Jane has put an incredibly amount of work into this character and her dedication to this woman is just remarkable. It's a fair question if I would appreciate her this much if I wasn't such a crazy fan of Jane and haven't read about her preparations (I would, I actually always thought highly of this work). However, the lots of research is not something that's able to amaze me. Far from it. The actress should add some substance and depth to her character and then the hard work just shines through even more and that's what happened with Jane in Klute. Such a role cannot be played effortlessly and it can never seem easy and yet you never see her sweating and struggling with this character despite its real difficulties. It's very complicated to show more layers of a character but Jane was somehow able to reveal all the depth and the complete personality of Bree. There was a real character there who came to life and there's a sense of continuity about her with which you can feel that she had had a life before the movie and she would go on living a life. The story of the movie Klute is just one episode of her life and in fact I'm trying to understand why Klute is the title of the movie and not Bree. I suppose it might suggest that there's a chapter in the long book of Bree's life that's called Klute because just be completely honest, this movie is exclusively about Jane Fonda's character. It's nothing against Donald Sutherland, it's just that Jane gets such a fabulous part and makes such an impression (without being selfish in her acting) that it's impossible for anyone to top her.

Another thing I admire about this work is that Jane redefined the image of prostitutes on the big screen. She makes Bree neither a typical hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold character nor a totally depressing person. She's not a Lulu Baines-type glamour puss, either. Bree is just a real human being, with flesh and blood and one can almost hear her heartbeats (especially in that tape scene!). Bree has her ups and downs but I like those subtle moments of relief and occasional humor in this performance. Playing a prostitue believably is one of the most difficult challenges and Jane fulfilled her task it wonderfully.

As a music lover, what I appreciate about this performance is that it's just like a carefully composed but very inspired concerto and Jane gets to play all the instruments and uses them to highlight different layers and depth of this character. Each and every one of them sounds different and yet when they are together, it's so harmonic. Jane Fonda's greatness here can be compared to the genious classical composers. The technical part is naturally awesome but it's the emotionality and passion that puts it above all the others and by this, Jane brings about a cathartic experience. Each and every moment is just stunning as it is and no false note ruins the perfection of this performance. Jane herself has spoken many times about a human being's inability of being perfect with which I wholeheartedly agree so I may not be supposed to use the term perfect. However, for me Jane's performance in Klute is one of the few things that came closest to total, almost otherworldly perfection.

We first see Bree when she's at a casting and people just walk by her and say that she has funny hands. The song Mr. Celofane came to my mind about that scene. It was a flawless beginning which suggests that we're about to witness some great acting. It's a beautiful shot in the picture (and brilliantly played by Jane) when the girl next to her is being praised and she's trying to grab the attention of the people but she remains on the side of the picture, ignored. But not by the viewer. In this scene only, she makes Bree so terribly human that it becomes impossible not to sympathize with her. There's another audiotion scene where Bree's acting in a very strange way, using a funny accent. To me, Bree is not a mediocre actress (some might interpret that scene as the justification of just that), she's just incapable of giving her best self and as a result, none of her full potential is shown. It's very tricky because when she's telling a story to the old client of hers, Bree's incredible, too, not only Jane. Right there, Bree gets the boost and the love she would deserve and despite the obvious lie, it's the only place where Bree can give her best self (apart from the meetings with the psychiatrist). At other places, there's a very erotic and sexy atmosphere in the scenes with Bree's men. The first act is so seductive: Jane seduces not only her john, but also the viewer. There's a really unusual sexual vibration around her that really drove me crazy. It was a bit voyeuristic feeling, I just couldn't take my eyes off her because of her sexuality.

Jane's chemistry with Donald Sutherland is just unbelievable. They make up a fabulous, very real couple as Bree and John, despite the fact that they have different personalities (and they have different acting styles as performers). Next to John, Bree becomes very different, like a scared little girl and the way she approaches him is so carefully and fantastically played by Jane without looking too calculating. Jane plays wonderfully in the scene where Bree asks to sleep at John's apartment.

The (improvised) scenes with the pyschiatrist are just unbelievable and Jane gives a masterclass of acting. Those are the few moments when Bree lets her own emotions come to the surface and she really tells what she feels. Jane's great instincts as an actress really pay off here. It's incredible how well she was able to communicate Bree's feelings. She opens up to another woman (actually Jane asked Alan J. Pakula to make her a female psychiatrist) and I felt there was some kind of a universal understanding between them.

However, let's not forget that Klute is an exciting, fierce thirller (as well as a fascinating character study) and Jane nails the feeling of being terrified (as well). It's not the usual screaming and wide-eyed faces but she shows true fear, which comes through most brilliantly in the scene where she's facing the man who's responsible for the deaths of her friends. That's a sequence I've cherished since I first saw her. Having seen and being older, now I feel the true weight of that scene. Jane said that while doing that scene, she was thinking about the ladies whose dead bodies she saw at a morgue she visited during her preparation for this movie. Jane communicated that feeling thrillingly. It's unbelievable and I actually experienced the same feelings that she did. I started to cry the way she did in the movie. I saw so much misery and suffering on the screen and it was completely unbearable and harrowing to see Bree break down. It was all so human and believable. I was just completely taken by the pure emotions. She's just working with her face - and the result: just unforgettable.

You know, I've already written twice as much as usual and still wasn't able to mention the iconic cat food scene or her wonderful line "Don't feel bad about losing your virtue!". It tells so many things about her character and it deepens her personality even more. I could actually write a novel with the title "Jane Fonda in Klute". I have so much to say and tell about her. The amazement that I feel when I'm watching her. I can only show bits and pieces and highlight some parts, which feels rather awkward because I was previously praising how whole this performance is.

First, I wanted to write a review only with the sentence "Best performance ever. Period." BUT then I thought that it wouldn't say enough about this stirring work of Jane and wouldn't be able to communicate what I felt as a viewer. I was moved, I cried, I even laughed at the small hints of humour that make her work even more amazing. Honestly, I just want to keep praising her and say as many superlatives about her as I can. Yes, I'm overly enthusiastic and this is certainly a love letter to the wonderful Jane but when you get to see such an amazing performance it would be a crime not to keep on praising her. I couldn't have found a better work to mark this significant point of my reviews. I'm just grateful for having been able to watch her, see her, feel her and experience Jane's brilliance.

It's pathetic to grade a performance if it goes beyond a certain point of greatness but Jane went even beyond that. She deserves as much praise as possible.

What do you think?

Janet Suzman in Nicholas and Alexandra

2011-10-14T18:25:00.002+02:00

Janet Suzman received her only Best Actress nomination to date for playing Empress Alexandra, the wife of Tsar Nicholas II in the Best Picture nominated epic, Nicholas and Alexandra. If you think about the fact that she was nominated in the Most Promising Newcomer category at the Golden Globes, you could be quite surprised that she received this nomination but if you look at the role, you can see that it's something that the Academy usually goes for. In the supporting category. Such a role in a leading field is not that much of a contender anymore. While as a supporting role, wives shine the screen and add lots of loveability to the movie, in a leading role they can rarely carry a movie (and receive more Oscar love than a nomination). Add that this movie was Janet Suzman's first big screen role and you'll easily see that she wasn't much of a contender (especially in a field with probably the most famous and respected actresses of the time).

Nicholas and Alexandra surprised me. Although I was a bit afraid of watching it as I'm not much of a fan of epics, this one was a most pleasant surprise. First of all, the art direction and the costumes are unbelievably beautiful. The direction is very well-done, the screenplay is well-written (well-done is the perfect expression to describe this movie). The performances are very good and I was especially surprised to see Sir Laurence Olivier who was excellent in his tiny part. Michael Jayston is fine as Nicholas, I just have some issues with him, especially the way he shows Nicholas' shock (he's really wide-eyed). Overall, it's a really great film but I'm not sure if I want to watch it more than once.

I really don't know what to think about Janet Suzman. This was the only movie of hers that I've seen but from what I saw, she appears to be a really talented actress. I usually like to say a few words about the performer herself and compare the performance to other works of hers but since I cannot do that, I have to say that I'd very much like to more of her movies.

Janet Suzman's part as Empress Alexandra is a quite underwritten one but I think Janet did her best to make her a real human being. Alexandra is a very conservative and proud woman who firmly believes that the power of her husband comes from God and therefore he's much superior. It's interesting, though, that she didn't make Alexandra snobbish or even that cold, actually there're lots of deep feelings inside her. Most of all, she feels guilty about her son's sickness (haemophilia), which he inherited from her and she becomes overly protective of her son. However, the appearance of Rasputin, a very strange and scary turns her world upside down. The most moving parts of her performance (in my opinion) do not come in the end with the imprisonment and the execution but at the beginning when she's hoping to get some kind of an absolution for her sins and for what she caused to her own son. It's really moving and heart-breaking the witness all the sufferings of this woman as despite the occasional unlikeability of hers, you just develop a connection with her. Personally, I felt lots of sympathy for this woman who was fighting for her family, her husband and most of all, her son.

Alexandra's relationship with Rasputin is the highlight of the characters as apart from this Janet didn't get that much to work with. Naturally, the scenes with her injured son are always very moving but in the second part of the movie she simply doesn't get the material to become as great as she was in the beginning. I'm really not criticising her as I feel she was very good in the second half, too, I just felt that the character was much more in the background and didn't get that many moments to shine. The scenes with the exile and the execution are very intense and memorable but mostly because how engaging the story is and not because of the performances. The epic movie just overshadows the actors here because you just cannot overlook the magnificent technical part, the costumes, the interiors and the beauty of the surroundings.

It's a problem, though, that I felt that the character wasn't developed enough. She remains the same person in the end, which could be justified but somehow I was expecting some further explanation why Alexandra didn't change. Moreover, I never felt that the fact that Alexandra's principles came through. I think she could have been turned into a character whose moral strength just amazes you. Something like we saw from Helen Mirren's The Queen would not have hurt her. It would have given more nobility and dignity to the character. Not that it needed much more but I felt that this absence hurt both the character's development and the movie itself. We do not get those teary-eyed, uplifting monologues that supportive wives give and while I'm not that fond of them, I would have expected something like that. I think the beginning shows brilliantly how great this performance could have been but in the end it was only very good, which is fine, I guess, but it's very annoying to see greatness not manifest when it could have.

In the end, I just keep wondering what Audrey Hepburn would have done with this role. I guess she would have made Alexandra more noble and reserved but Janet added some irresistable pride and even a bit of arrogancy to this character that never ceased to impress me and eventually, I don't have negative thoughts about her, I'm just disappointed and a bit angry about the wasted potential. It's almost haunting work and really great, it just could have been even better.

What do you think?

Vanessa Redgrave in Mary, Queen of Scots

2011-10-08T13:52:00.000+02:00

Vanessa Redgrave received her third Oscar for playing the tragic queen of Scotland, Mary Stuart. I think Vanessa didn't have much of a chance of winning the Oscar (nobody had a chance next to Jane Fonda) but I think she got ahead of Julie Christie and Janet Suzman as Vanessa was very popular, she was Oscarless and she got a Globe nod (unlike the others). Still, she couldn't edge out Glenda as many must have compared her performance to Glenda's in this movie (many prefer her, actually) plus Glenda's work in Sunday, Bloody Sunday was even better. So there were many setbacks for Vanessa's win.

"This is the story of the fierce struggle between... THE RIVAL QUEENS". What can you expect from a movie that starts with this line? Even the beginning suggest that we are about to see a soap opera with two rivalling monarchs, something in the style of Dynasty with Glenda Jackson and Vanessa Redgrave instead of Joan Collins and Linda Evans. At the time, many criticised this movie for its screenplay and rightfully so. It really is ludicrous sometimes plus I did not feel that the fight between the ladies was very even. Elizabeth got the third of Mary's storyline and she wasn't given the depth she would have deserved. For me, she's a far more interesting character than Mary. Glenda is simply wonderful as Elizabeth and I almost wished that the movie was only about her but then I quickly realised that she had her own miniseries (If only I could get that!). Still, I don't know why I expected much from the director of Anne of the Thousand Days.

This is only my second Best Actress review of Vanessa Redgrave and although I would not say that I'm that acquainted with her works, I feel that she's a terrific, shining, radiant talent who can elevate any movie she's in. I just think about her scene with Jane Fonda in the café from the movie Julia and I am just enthralled by her wonderful, radiant presence. Even in movies like Morgan!, she's able to deliver something special and really unique. She's the perfect embodiment of the so-called strong female characters. It would be so absurd to see her as a girl to be saved in an action flick. That's not Vanessa. I always imagine her as a tragic but ultimately poetic heroine who delivers uplifting monologues and breaks the viewer hearts while giving treats to the mind, too.

All these qualities make her the best choice for the character of Mary Stuart the dream role of many actresses. I think everything indicates a great performance coming from this movie and that's probably why I was so damn disappointed. There we go, I said it. Disappointment is the perfect word to describe my general feeling towards this performance. I was shocked to see how lost Vanessa was in this movie. This was almost completely the fault of the director who really didn't seem to care that much about the performances (that was also the case with Anne of the Thousand Days). He was pretty much satisfied when the actors delivered their long monologues loud and effectively. That's what results in overacting or total weakness. I think Glenda would have been lost, too had she not previously played the role of Elizabeth. For her, this one must have been very easy and she didn't have to make that much of an effort, she must have just recreated her legendary performance. However, Vanessa should and could have done far better, had it been for the advices. The same thing happened to Vanessa that would later be the case with Glenda Jackson in Hedda. The movie dragged her down.

Naturally, Vanessa doesn't benefit from the screenplay's varied badness. She gets very cheesy and sentimental lines that prevent her from making Mary a really interesting character. Although the movie shows some indecent things that Mary does, she's still very much like a complete saint despite the fact that she's just as much of a bitch as Elizabeth. Plus, if you're expecting delicious, entertaining catfights, you're not going to get them until very-very late into the movie and those scenes are not the best, either (in that way). However, I felt that the two actresses had a magnficent effect on each other. Whenever they are shown together, it's like a breath of fresh air in the film. Although Glenda sticks out for me more, Vanessa was really outstanding in those scenes (minus the moment where she wants to beat Glenda from the top of the horse, that one's ridiculous).

The highlights of the character are those scenes before (and during) the execution of Mary and Vanessa manages to solve them quite properly. I think they would have worked better on the stage (in fact, it would have been brilliant there), here they seemed to be a bit theatrical and over-the-top. Still, Vanessa is very good there and her final encounter with Elizabeth is just as memorable. But again: who do I prefer? Glenda. It might seem that I am hard to impress (not true) but I always heard the little devil in my head: "Glenda is so much better! She should have been nominated!"

Although I cannot deny that Vanessa's radiant presence impressed me, I cannot say the same thing about her performance as Mary Stuart. For some reason, I felt that she was lost in this character despite the fact that she completely understood this character. I had no connection to the character whatsoever but there's still something about Vanessa that holds me back from being really negative about her here.

What do you think?

My plans: Janet next Friday and Jane next Saturday! :)

Julie Christie in McCabe & Mrs. Miller

2011-10-07T19:47:00.002+02:00

Julie Christie received her second Best Actress nomination for playing Constance Miller, a opium-addicted madam who becomes the business partner of gambler with whom she runs a whorehouse. I used to think this was a very obvious nomination and she was closest to Jane that year but now I understood how shocking it was, especially considering the fact that she had the very succesful The Go-Between. But that's also the case with Glenda. I think she was more likely to be nominated for Mary Queen of scots (despite what we now think). This is all to prove how unusually original the Academy's list was for that year (Which is by the way what we would need now! Ignore the precursors Academy!).

McCabe & Mrs. Miller is a pretty great movie, which starts a little bit too slow but it gradually becomes more and more interesting as we get to know the story and the characters more. I'm quite a big fan of Robert Altman so I wasn't really surprised to be impressed by this celebrated work of his. However, I must say that the cinematography is the best part of the movie. Not because Vilmos Zsigmond is Hungarian (by the way, he had a legendary teacher), without any bias I can say that the cinematography is the most responsible for creating such a dazzling dream-like atmosphere. Warren Beatty (an actor I am not particularly crazy about) gives a very proper performance but I don't think that McCabe & Mrs. Miller is that much of an actors' movie.

And there's the indescribably beautiful Julie Christie. Although I wouldn't say that I'm a fan of hers, I have tremendous respect for her talent and I'm always haunted by her astonishing beauty. If you look at her face, it feels like if the world was created only to let her be born. She radiates more than a nuclear plant. She's just a thrilling presence in short and that's probably she became an iconic personality and the embodiment of the spirit (and the morals) of the sixties' Swinging London and that's probably why she seems to be such an unusual choice to play the role of Mrs. Miller. It's far from everything she had done before and yet if we take a closer look at the performance, we see how many similarities it has with the previous works of hers.

After finishing the movie, I was just stunned by how short and underwritten part Julie got in this piece. Mrs. Miller is only present like a ghost, she appears relatively late into the film (very unusual with a title role) and every time we see her, it doesn't last more than five minutes. Could she have really succeeded with such obvious drawbacks and put on an amazing performance? I'm sure many would nod in a very enthusiastic way, but I'm not one of them, unfortunately. First and foremost, I am not saying that she was weak and insignificant as Mrs. Miller (actually, she's one of the most strong and consistent parts of the movie). Far from it. When I first got to see her on the screen, I was completely taken away by her unsual, dreamlike presence and I expected to be blown away by the end of the movie. I think I have to find out why it did not happen.

The most plausible explanation must be the lack of huge screentime. Although the performance benefits a lot from the sudden, short appearances of Julie and it adds a very mysterious and a bit frutstrating quality to the character, I would say that Julie clearly would have deserved to work on the background story of this character. That being said, she's still wonderful within the limits of the character and that's something that she can be proud of.

Now I might sound to be a tiny bit negative about this performance, which is not true as I was quite impressed by Julie's Mrs. Miller. The distant sort of personality which is sort of a trademark of Julie's characters shines so brilliantly. Whenever we see her getting high on opium, it's like we did the very same thing, we're just flying along with the character. You just have to look at her eyes (SPOILER! It's so great that we see just that in the end) and you're in another world. Many would call this a weird feeling but somehow I felt it was more uplifting. Strange, for sure but I wouldn't say weird.

Another aspect of this performance that I clearly deserves to be applauded is the chemistry between Julie and Warren Beatty. They fit each other so well and they succeed in showing a very complex and interesting relationship between these two characters. But Julie is equally impressive at showing Mrs. Miller's relationship with her girls. She seems like a mother and a sister at the same to these girls who seem to be a vulnerable and yet unbeatable when Mrs. Miller is by their side. The scene where she gives advice to Shelley Duvall's character is just spot-on, priceless and anything you can and cannot imagine. Everything works incredibly and the character finally gets the depth it really deserves.

So, despite the obvious limitations of the screenplay, Julie Christie was able to put on a wonderful, unforgettable and otherworldy performance as Constance Miller, the opium-addicted madam. Although it's a very unusual character for Julie, she played her exceptionally, making this one of her most memorable efforts on the screen.

So, I'm back from outer space. Seriously, it was a really long break with this blog and I really did not enjoy that. I just want to thank you all for your patience! I hoped you like(d) my comeback! :)

Hey there!

2011-09-23T18:57:00.003+02:00

So as you have noticed, I haven't been active for a LONG time. I'm trying to do my best but I'm just SO busy at the moment. I'm saying right now that until June, posts will be quite irregular. This year is going to be tough for me, because of application to university, having to learn and I'm also preparing for the two dance numbers of my class until December (and I'm not that much of a great dancer so there we go). I have tons of things to learn, I'm taking a German exam next Saturday, so my schedule is quite full. I won't give up on doing this blog, never ever. But as much as I want to, I can't do so many things at the same time. I'm not deleting this blog, I'm not moving away to another one, I'm staying and I'll be watching you all and hope you're watching me, too. Again, I'll be trying really hard, I just thought that I owe you all an explanation why I'm so inactive at the moment! So sorry but stay tuned and check me out at least once a week because I might post something! I won't do fake posts, just for the sake of posting, I'll stick to the reviews! So thanks for understanding!

Plans for now:

1) finish 1971 and write a kick-ass review about Jane Fonda

2) fulfilling my first plan :D

Hello there!

2011-09-09T15:10:00.002+02:00

Hi, as you must've noticed it, I haven't been writing a lot lately. I've been busy with the orchestra and stuff and we're going to Denmark today and I'll be there until next Friday. So you'll see the next post on Julie Christie next Saturday.

Thanks for your understanding! :)

Glenda Jackson in Sunday Bloody Sunday

2011-09-03T11:49:00.002+02:00

Glenda Jackson received her second Oscar nomination for playing Alex Greville, a divorced working woman sharing the answering service and her lover with a gay Jewish doctor in John Schlesinger's Sunday Bloody Sunday. Honestly, that 1971 line-up was so unusual. Jane Fonda's win was quite predictable but the other nominees were all quite surprising. Only Vanessa Redgrave received a Globe nod for her Mary Stuart but Glenda was the more praised one for her now iconic turn as Queen Elizabeth I (a role she reprised from the famous miniseries). I guess combined with that work, Glenda must have been the strongest contender after Jane Fonda and was probably second (her win a year before might have helped her, too).

Sunday Bloody Sunday is a great film but I wasn't as blown away by it as I was the last time. I still find it an excellent piece of work, I just don't think that it's really amazing. The screenplay, however, deserved to win the Oscar, hands down. It's a really orginial and very interesting story, full of tension. The directing nod was also very worthy but I'm not sure if a win would have been justified. Nevertheless, Peter Finch was just as great as I remembered and he definitely should have won the Oscar for this performance (he was way in this one than Network, probably).

My enthusiasm towards the film has dropped a bit and unfortunately that applies to Glenda Jackson, too. She's an actress I really like and admire but I never really loved her. I mean I loved her in her Oscar winning performances (she's one of the few who won for the right roles). She's great all around and very cool to like but she's not among my favorite actresses. However, nothing really influences me when I watch a certain performance and Glenda is so talented that she's always a real treat on screen.

Glenda plays Alex, a woman who's quite desperate to keep her lover. In many ways, she's like Vicki Alessio from A Touch of Class: she's a divorced working woman with problems in her love life. She's someone who gives herself too much to a man and therefore she becomes a bit addicted to someone who may not be that worthy of her. She's not the manipulative Gundrun from Women in Love or Hedda Gabler from Hedda. She doesn't control people. She's one of the rare characters of Glenda Jackson who's being really manipulated. Glenda wonderfully shows each and every aspect of this character and covers a really wide range of emotions. Everything is there: sadness, bitterness, hope, desperation and there's the usual Glenda Jackson irony in the part. Great actresses always give a touch of their own personality into their roles. Glenda is just like that. There's always a bit of Glenda in every role (but in the best way possible). This is what makes a performance truly outstanding and this gives it such a unique quality.

Glenda is excellent at showing Alex's demons and fears. Who can forget the scene where she's looking at the little girl she looks after and we see her imagining the girl lying dead. Glenda is so good at showing these emotions and as a result, this performance becomes kind of disturbing and hard to watch sometimes.

I was also impressed by how Glenda showed the changes in Alex, especially the scene where she sleeps with an older man from work. In their scene, the atmosphere is so full of sexual tension and if I had to pick a favorite scene from this movie, this one would be it. There was something so incredibly seductive about Glenda there. I was totally taken away by her bit nervous behaviour.

The scenes with Peggy Aschcroft are also wonderful. Their dialogue about marriage and affairs is so excellently played by both actresses. We can see two worlds battling with each other. However, we can feel that Alex (deep inside) wants to be a settled married woman.

My only problem with this performance is that while Glenda's excellent in many ways, I never felt that she was totally standing out in this movie. She's fantastic and memorable for sure but I was never as blown as I expected.

Still, Glenda Jackson is just excellent as Alex Greville in Sunday Bloody Sunday. She shows lots of aspects of this character and she nails all the emotions of this character. Although I was never totally amazed by her, I was impressed by her work, especially in the scenes where she showed the demons of Alex.

What do you think?

The Next Year

2011-08-31T13:13:00.006+02:00

1971

So the nominees were:

Julie Christie in McCabe & Mrs. Miller
Jane Fonda in Klute
Glenda Jackson in Sunday Bloody Sunday
Vanessa Redgrave in Mary, Queen of Scots
Janet Suzman in Nicholas and Alexandra

Since Joe is also doing this year, I hope you don't mind if I do it, too and it won't get boring for you. I was just sooooooooooo desperate to do this year (that was exactly 40 years ago) my 40th and I desperately wanted to make Jane's Klute my 200th reviewed performance (that's one of the most special Oscar nominees for me EVER and not because I'm a die-hard Fonda-fan, it was way before that). So for the 40th time...

What do you think? What's your ranking? What's your prediction for my ranking?

Note: The much-missed overall ranking will come after I finish this year, don't worry. I just have some trouble placing the ladies. Hopefully, my torture will end. :)

The Final Conclusion - Best Actress 1976

2011-08-30T14:50:00.001+02:00

1976

So the much anticipated ranking is:

5. Talia Shire in Rocky

I didn't exactly hate Talia Shire in Rocky, I was just never impressed by her work. She doesn't do much except for standing and being silent and she doesn't even do that in an expressive way. Apart from the nice, moving ending, there's nothing in her performance that's really memorable.

4. Marie-Chirstine Barrault in Cousin Cousine

I still ask myself the question: was this performance much of a strech? Probably not. Marthe's not a very complicated character but Marie-Christine Barrault did a great job playing her. Although she's far from amazing, there are no flaws in this performance and it serves its purpuse perfectly. It's very enjoyable work that I would love to rewatch any time.

3. Faye Dunaway in Network

Faye Dunaway is just fantastic as Diana Christensen, in my opinion. Although I would be a little bit hesitant to call her amazing, her greatness is undeniable. She nailed all the aspects of Diana, she turned this incredibly difficult character into gold. Truly memorable work by a great actress at her peak.

2. Sissy Spacek in Carrie

I can confidently say that Sissy Spacek's performance as Carrie White is worthy of its iconic status. Not only is it creepy horror acting but something much more frightening. We get to experience so much frustration and fear and Sissy displays these emotions perfectly. Chilling, wonderful, beautiful performance.

1. Liv Ullmann in Face to Face

Liv Ullmann, in short, is astonishing as Jenny Isaksson in Face to Face. Liv shows such depths of this character that it becomes a very disturbing, frightening experience for the viewer. Although it might be too much for some, nothing can stop me from saying that Liv is just unbelievable as Jenny. Truly unforgettable work by a brilliant actress.

So I can proudly announce

the winner is...

Liv Ullmann

Face to Face

What's the problem?

Final thoughts: A very enjoyable year. I'm not saying it's the best ever but it offered some really great performances. The Top 3 is masterclass, Barrault is very good, Shire is the weakest link for me. She just didn't belong to this category. Choosing between the fantastic Liv and the wonderful Sissy was just so difficult. I noticed a certain pattern: whenever Sissy is close to being my pick, she fights a fierce battle with another actress (that was with 1980 and 2001) for my vote. I mean does it count that a performance is more iconic and popular than the other? Does screentime matter? Should I take into consideration that I've already given a win to Sissy while this is Ullmann's last chance to get my vote? Plus if you take a closer look, the two roles are so similar and equally difficult. In the end it came down to which performance I liked more and who sticks in my memory more (what a surprise).

Congrats to Fritz and Anonymous (who said good things about my design, next time please leave a name :D)! You can pick an available year both (or any other where you can give me access to all of the movies): 1933, 1953, 1956, 1967, 1968, 1971, 1982, 1985, 1988, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1999, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2008

Omission: Mari Törőcsik in The White Lady from Lőcse

About the next year: Since this one is going to be my 40th year, I want to make it special so it's going to be a total surprise. After that it's 1995 as Louis requested.

What do you think? Any thoughts on your mind?

Sissy Spacek in Carrie

2011-08-29T16:27:00.004+02:00

Sissy Spacek received her first Best Actress nomination for playing the title role of Carrie, a young abused girl who possesses very strange and terrifying powers. Although this is a classic performance, I don't think that Sissy's nomination was that easy. She wasn't nominated for a Golden Globe, she was too young and not big enough for an Oscar win. However, talent does get recognised every once in a while even at the Oscars and thank God they nominated Sissy. Without this, there would be no Coal Miner's Daughter, Missing, In the Bedroom and so on. It's great that she finally got the recognition that not many others deserve more. I feel the Academy must have been fond of this work and she was probably third that year after Liv Ullmann.

Carrie is a good, quite creepy horror. I've seen scarier movies but it's quite good anyway. Brian de Palma's direction is quite great and the technical part of the movie is also excellent. Some of the performances are quite weak (Carrie's schoolmates for example) but there are two standout achievements here. One of them is Piper Laurie as Carrie's religious fanatic mother. Her performance is really frightening but I'm not sure if I would give her the Oscar win (I still can't decide with this field).

As I have said many times, Sissy Spacek is a damn brilliant actress who (as I've seen more of her) has a steady place in my Top 10. She is a real chameleon and could play anything, in my humble opinion. I'm really hoping that she will get a fantastic leading role in which she can shine as much as she deserves to (Why the hell are they giving Meryl August: Osage Country? Sissy would be way better!!!). Although she showed her undeniable talent alongside Martin Sheen in Badlands, it was Carrie that brought her the recognition. At the age of 27 (very much like in Badlands) she played a younger character and yet she just seems to be the perfect choice for both role.

When Mo'Nique was talking about her big confrontation scene in Precious, she mentioned feeling unloveable and being at dark places which helped her create that intense scene. With Sissy Spacek, Carrie is a very long such sequence. In each and every frame of Carrie, we can feel Carrie's desperation and insecurity. We get to see things that we ourselves lived, too but hopefully to a lesser extent. Everybody feels an outsider sometimes and that's what Sissy showed us in her Carrie performance: how traumatizing it is not to be able to fit in.

Carrie opens with a scene where the girls are playing volleyball and Carrie is just standing there, being clumsy and not being able play well (or play at all). The sheer frustration and shame on her face when she's being shouted at is just unforgettable and brilliantly played by Sissy Spacek.

However, Carrie's life gets even worse and worse. During the opening titles, we see her having a shower. Everything seems to be perfect and pleasant and yet, gradually, things become much more sinister. We get to see Carrie bleeding and being terrified and hyterical about it. Moreover, even her stupid classmates keep bullying her. You just want to help Carrie and make her feel better.

Sissy's scenes with Piper Laurie are simply amazing, especially the one with the famous line "Eve was weak". Carrie only wants to be just like everyone else and her mother is the ultimate obstacle. Even if her schoolmates accepted her, her mother wouldn't let her live such a "sinful" life. The scene where Carrie is invited to the prom after all is brilliantly acted by Sissy: you can see so much happiness and yet she's so scared. And the way she fights her mother is just so great.

Although for me these are the best scenes, Sissy solves the horror part excellently, too. She can be incredibly frightening, especially when we get to see what power she has. First, it's nothing really serious but it becomes something much more shocking that brings us to the famous ending where Sissy is just unbelievable. Somehow I felt incredibly sorry for Carrie while she was killing those people. Her devastation which turns into anger is so incredibly rel that one can almost touch it. Again we get back to bullying: Sissy also underlines the horrible sufferinf and torture of Carrie but she's never too much in your face. She makes you put the pieces together after thinking everything over.

What do you think?

Talia Shire in Rocky

2011-08-29T11:50:00.003+02:00

Talia Shire received her second Oscar nomination for playing Adrian, the girlfriend of Rocky, the boxer in the Best Picture winner Rocky. Many say that had she been campaigned in supporting, she would have won the Oscar. Well, I am not so sure. In the leading category she was probably fourth because of the popularity of Rocky and I think in supporting she would have been like second or third. She would have had a better chance there as she would not have had to compete against juggernauts like Faye Dunaway or Liv Ullmann. I mean there was no way she was winning.

In my opinion, Rocky is not as bad as many people say. I feel most of its bad reputation comes from the fact that it won the Oscar over classics like Taxi Driver, All the President's Men and Network (which is indeed ridiculous). It's kind of hard to believe that once Sylvester Stallone was a serious contender for a Best Actor Oscar (truth to be told, he's a much better actor than most of the other action movie stars). The Best Supporting Actor field of 1976 was arguably the worst one ever. I mean what the hell was going on? I'm not saying that Burt Young and Burgess Meredith were bad but a nomination? NO! Although he hardly impressed me, Laurence Olivier remains my pick.

Talia Shire is an actress that I cannot say many good things about as I don't have much knowledge about her movies but I'm quite sure that he had a lot to thank to his brother, Francis Ford Coppola. From what I saw from her, she never really impress me though I never thought that she was bad at all. As a result of this, I was kind of excited to rewatch Rocky to find out if I agree with the haters of this performance. Although I didn't hate her as Adrian, I don't think that this was a really outstanding work.

Most people argue that Shire is really supporting in this movie and I'd have to agree. Some compare her case to Valerie Perrine's in Lenny but personally I don't think that there are many resemblances between them. First of all, Valerie Perrine was excellent in Lenny and she really stood out despite the somewhat limited time. However, Talia Shire doesn't leave that kind of impression on the viewer. Mostly, she's just there, being silent or smiling at Rocky. This role isn't much of a strech, in my opinion.

However, what can you expect from a role written by Slyvester Stallone. He's not a natural born writer to say the least. Adrian's character has not much depth whatsoever in the script. You can leave her character out of the story and you get the totally same movie. Did Talia Shire had any chance of being outstanding in this part? In all fairness, she did. Had she pushed a little harder and tried to make Adrian a little bit more interesting. In fact, I might even have to say that she had much more to work with than I initially thought. She didn't do much with the fact that Adrian was a shy single girl, always taking care of her brother. Apart from one loud scene, this part of Adrian (which is the most interesting to me) is not present even though Shire could have underlined it. And I'm not saying that the scene is bad (though it's much more over-the-top than it should have been, such a loud outburst doesn't seem to fit Adrian's character).

Moreover, she's not that effective as the supportive girlfriend, either. Again, she's too much in the background and she doesn't get (or doesn't even ask for) more space and opportunities. There's some chemistry between Shire and Stallone but none of their scenes are truly great and they become lovely mostly because of the clumsy behavior of Rocky. Stallone (surprisingly) adds much more to their scenes than Shire. He makes their scenes quite human and a bit lame just like it had to be, whil Shire is really just standing there and doesn't do much to pay attention to her. In fact, that applies to her whole performance. Had she not been nominated for an Oscar, this performance would have been totally overlooked and forgotten (at least by me).

Still, I didn't exactly hate Talia Shire in Rocky, I was just never impressed by her work. She doesn't do much except for standing and being silent and she doesn't even do that in an expressive way. Apart from the nice, moving ending, there's nothing in her performance that's really memorable.

What do you think?

Liv Ullmann in Face to Face

2011-08-28T16:48:00.003+02:00

Liv Ullmann received her second Best Actress nomination for playing Dr. Jenny Isaksson, a psychiatrist who's having a really ugly nervous breakdown. In my opinion, Liv Ullmann's Oscar win was a really near miss. She was obviously the critics' favorite that year, she had lots of sympathy because of her infamous Scenes from a Marriage snub. Many people expected her to win the Oscar, actually, she was the real front-runner of the race. I guess there were two reasons why she probably lost. First, that awful foreign language factor (which is a shame, if you ask me) plus the Hollywood superstar Faye Dunaway starred in a movie that the Academy was gaga over. If you ask me, it's a real shame that Liv doesn't have an Oscar.

Now I am going to be 100% honest. Ingmar Bergman was/is the best director on this planet, in my humble opinion. However, for me Face to Face (despite its success at the Oscars) is one of his lesser works. There we go, I said it. I love depressing movies but this one is a bit too much. I mean, Bergman went beyond a certain point that he never should have crossed. That being said, it's still a pretty great film, it's just not as brilliant as some of Bergman's other works. It tells the story of Jenny's nervous breakdown in a very disturbing way and I don't think that it's an enjoyable piece for the viewer.

However, the movie depends on the always fantastic Liv Ullmann. What can you expect from the actress who gave the world Persona's Elisabeth Vogler, Autumn Sonata's Eva, Marianne of Scenes from a Marriage and other unforgettable characters? Nobody (and by that I really mean nobody) is/was able to suffer on the screen quite like Liv. She dives so deep inside pain and humility and as a result her performances become incredibly disturbing. Whenever she's on the screen, the charming real-life Liv disappears and her presence becomes incredibly brutal.

In her autobiographical book called Changing, Liv describes the journey of getting to know Jenny and also herself. We get to see there how stressful and difficult this part was for her (much more than we would think watching Liv in this movie). She says that Ingmar Bergman wrote the part of Jenny with her in his mind. Nobody is able to play this character the way Liv did it. It's just impossible to imitate her almost torturing acting style.

Whenever I see a very unpleasant performance, I always feel as if plasters were removed from my skin. However, while watching Liv Ullmann in Face to Face, I felt as if somebody opened up some my wounds and spilled hot acid on them. It's almost unbearable to watch Jenny going through her very painful journey. Liv covers such a wide variety of emotions that it's almost impossible to sense them for the first time.

We get to know Jenny as a very confident and content woman who's also very distant. She's very kind to everybody and yet I could always feel how cold she really is. It's incredible how Liv gradually added more and more disturbing depth to this character. Jenny's dreams are incredibly disturbing and that's mostly because of Liv's ghostlike, haunting presence. We get to see horrifying depth of a human being and it's just astonishing how much Liv understood this character.

In the effect of this performance it's very much like Sissy Spacek in In the Bedroom. They plant a tiny thought in your brain, which starts to grow and grow and eventually, it becomes incredibly haunting and disturbing. You're blown away not while watching them but way after them when you really think. And then it's just all unbelievably great.

Although Jenny's dreams are the most distrubing sequences of the movie, the parts with Erland Josephson are equally brilliant. The highlight of Liv's whole performance is a 10-minute-long breakdown where she remembers some horrible experiences. The way she switches to one memory to the other is just fantastic. Liv shows so many emotions and the horrifying mental state of Jenny. Liv gets so deep into the characters mind and she inhabits her character so brilliantly that I can't help wondering if it was actually Liv breaking down in front of the camera. I was so perplexed and terrified sometimes that I just started to laugh at the character. She disturbed me so much with her acting that I can't really describe my confusion. I can see why some might be distracted by this performance: the character has so many layers and the whole thing makes you feel very uncomfortable. And probably nobody really wants to watch this movie more than once.

What do you think?

Marie-Christine Barrault in Cousin Cousine

2011-08-28T10:38:00.002+02:00

Marie-Christine Barrault received her only Oscar nomination to date for playing Marthe, an unhappily married woman who find happiness on the side of her cousin by marriage. Barrault's nomination is kind of a miracle to say the least. I mean, how the hell did she get nominated? I don't see a reason. She didn't have a showy, stylish foreign-language performance that usually get nominated, she wasn't an international superstar plus she wasn't even nominated for a César. The years ending with a 6 have usually quite unusual Best Actress fields (1966, 1976, 1986, 1996). So in Barrault's case it was more than true that it's an honor just to be nominated.

Cousin Cousine is a very entertaining lightweight French movie. It's really not something for the ages but as I said it's very amusing from the beginning to the end. It doesn't make you laugh very often but it keeps a smile on your face. I'm not sure if it deserved its Best Foreign Language Film nomination but why not. It's really not an Oscar movie to say the least. It follows two people living in bad marriages who meet at a wedding and fall in love gradually. The actors give very entertaining and strong performances. Nobody is amazing but I have to mention Marie-France Pisier who was the standout of the supporting cast. She's really funny.

I'd like to give an opinion about Marie-Christine Barrault but I really can't say anything about her talent and works. Cousin Cousine was the first movie I saw her in so I can only form an opinion about her based on this performance alone. From what I saw, she's a very charming actress but I just can't imagine her in a heavy drama. However, she wasn't required to do anything serious in Cousin Cousine. Her task was bascially to be as charming and loveable as possible and she succeeded.

Again, this nomination is sort of shocking because of the unspectacular character AND performance. Barrault's character Marthe is not a very complicated person, she doesn't have to go through some big changes (though she doesn change a bit) and she's not always at the centre of the movie. Moreover, Barrault is not the real standout here. Is there still something to love about her? Surprisingly, quite much.

We first see marthe at her mother's wedding and she seems to be just a really nice person. Somehow, Barrault radiates so much charm and loveliness and it's always pure joy just to look at her. She was the perfect choice to play Marthe. Acting-wise, she doesn't have to do much and yet there's something utterly irresistable and lovely about her which still continues to impress me. I especially loved her towards the middle of the movie where we saw scenes of Marthe's affair. Actually, these are the scenes where Barrault adds some depth to her character. The scenes with Victor Lanoux and Marie-Christine Barrault are just excellent. They have a very unusual but wonderful chemistry and they are the perfect couple in their imperfection. They seem to be like children playing at the playground. They are throwing each other some balls and they never fail to catch them. Their happiness made me feel so good while watching the feel. I haven't seen adultery shown in such a loveable way. If I think about it, it comes to my mind that they actually cheat on their spouses and yet it's far from scandalous and offensive.

My favorite scene in the whole film was when Marthe and Ludovic (her lover) are talking about their previous experiences with adultery. Both actors excel there. Barrault and Lanoux let me inside the heads of their loveable characters and they seemed so human. I guess that's what got the attention of the Academy members. Barrault made Marthe's character so loveable and ordinary and yet very interesting. There was real depth there and it was actually quite touching to see Marthe talk about he previous affair with a guy from the office in a casual and yet quite bitter way.

What do you think?

Faye Dunaway in Network

2011-08-27T11:29:00.003+02:00

Faye Dunaway received her third Best Actress nomination and only Oscar to date for playing Diana Christensen, a "heartless young woman"in the Best Picture nominated movie Network. Although nowadays it seems like an easy win, Faye Dunaway wasn't the overwhelming front-runner for the Best Actress award. In fact, according to some sources, Liv Ullmann was the favorite to win (also because of the Scenes from a Marriage controversy). Even Faye seemed to be very surprised as she said in her speech that she didn't expect to win. However, if we look at the race, this win seems to be so obvious. She was the only true Hollywood star of the bunch and it was a real Best Actress crowning moment.

Network is a pretty great film. It's kind of shaky sometimes and the storyline with the communist group is a bit useless and pointless. Still, it's excellently written by Paddy Chayefsky (deserved Oscar for him) and directed by Sidney Lumet (a deserved nomination). The story is very interesting and kind of depressing as you are faced with the horrible power of television. The movie is highly critical of this phenomenon. I wonder how this movie would be nowadays. The actors are great in their parts though I must say that everyone was a bit too much. They got difficult part and unfortunately nobody was able to avoid overacting.

The one who succeeded the most, in my opinion, is Faye Dunaway, the big star of the 1970s. Honestly, I can't imagine a better choice for this part. Her nervous persona totally fits the character and she's a damn beautiful, seductive woman and that added a lot to this part. If I picture other actresses in this part. Nobody could match over-the-topness with a certain distance like Faye Dunaway and nobody is able to create a more disturbing and chaotic atmosphere than her. Yes, she can be very unpleasant on the screen and that's probably why Mommie Dearest was such a flop (no, I haven't seen it yet, I'm just speculating. :D)

Diana is a ruthless, "cut the bullshit" type of woman who's not very good at being a good human being but she's damn great at her job. She represents the pushy, overachiever generation in this movie who gradually the honest old folks. Nowadays, if you would take a look at Diana's Facebook page, next to favorite quotations you would see: "All I want out of life is a 30 share and and a 20 rating." If I think about it, Diana is kind of a cliché but I felt that was the whole point about this movie. We saw people like her so many times but I think nobody was better in such a part than Faye.

Paddy Chayefsky wrote some really great parts for actors but they were all so incredibly difficult, especially the lines. One wrong step and it's all gone. As I said, everyone fell into the trap of overacting in this movie, except for Faye who had the most difficult job to do. Everything was working against her and her task was to make us hate Diana and yet we have to feel pity for her. Another tough thing was that she didn't have as much screentime as such hard role would normally require. She really had to concentrate all her talent into the scenes and if I'm totally honest, she didn't always make it. It's not her fault but sometimes she was a bit overshadowed by the other loud scenes with Peter Finch or the marital problems of William Holden.

Still, Faye was able to get a lot out of this character and personally, I was totally blown away by some of the scenes. The first one that really stuck in my mind is the one where she tells her lover to stop kissing her because she had to concentrate on the screen. An excellent moment in it weirdness. Another memorable sequence is where she watches Howard Beale breaking down on live television while eating a sandwich. Faye really nailed the irony of these moments and it was just wonderful to see her whenever she was on the screen.

However, her famous breakup scene blows the others away. That was once again incredibly hard to do but she totally nailed it (and outdid William Holden, in my humble opinion). The way she switched from being loud to being broken-down and silent is just brilliant and unforgettable. She runs through a wide range of emotions and she's a real treat to watch as a result.

What do you think?

The Next Year

2011-08-24T16:28:00.001+02:00

1976

So the nominees were:

Marie-Christine Barrault in Cousin Cousine
Faye Dunaway in Network
Talia Shire in Rocky
Sissy Spacek in Carrie
Liv Ullmann in Face to Face

A three-way race to many, we'll see how these ladies will do with me. :)

What do you think? What's your ranking? What's your prediction for my ranking?

The Final Conclusion - Best Actress 1943

2011-08-21T18:30:00.001+02:00

1943

So the much anticipated ranking is:

5. Greer Garson in Madame Curie

I was quite disappointed by this performance as I expected way more of Greer Garson, a truly wonderful actress. She's trapped in a boring movie, which is the enemy of its on and she's sometimes overshadowed by the boredom of Walter Pidgeon. Under these circumstances, it's a very good performance with its problems.

4. Jean Arthur in The More the Merrier

Everything works perfectly with this performance. Then why am I still a bit disappointed? For some reason, I was never totally blown away by Jean Arthur's work. Although I enjoyed it from the beginning to the end, there wasn't a moment when I said "Wow! She's amazing!". Still, it's a well-played, entertaining comedy role and I really don't have complaints.

3. Ingrid Bergman in For Whom the Bell Tolls

It might seem like that I'm collecting many things to prove that I like her (because of my love for Ingrid) but I'm indeed quite fond of this performance. It's nothing groundbreaking but it's quite impressive and interesting. Ingrid does her usual routine and the result of it was positive for me. Not great but certainly good.

2. Joan Fontaine in The Constant Nymph

I wouldn't say that this is a pleasant surprise because I expected to like Joan but I was really impressed by Joan Fontaine's performance as Tessa. Although this is neither groundbreaking nor amazing work, I enjoyed every minute of it. Joan never fails to make Tessa a sympathetic character and I liked the character overall.

1. Jennifer Jones in The Song of Bernadette

A no-brainer, easy winner. I really did not expect to be impressed by Jennifer THIS much but I was, after all. Jennifer Jones is nothing short of amazing as St. Bernadette. Her grace and dignity shines through the screen and grabs your attention and never lets you go. It's a wonderful, unforgettable performance that's not as frequently talked about as it should be. A real miracle, if I may say so.

So I can proudly announce

the winner is...

Jennifer Jones

The Song of Bernadette

Easy win.

Congratulations Louis (once again on your predictions). You can pick another year (which I'll probably do after two years I planned to cover now or if you pick either of them then sooner).

Available years: 1933, 1953, 1956, 1967, 1968, 1971, 1976, 1982, 1985, 1988, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1999, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2008

Final thoughts: A mixed bag. Jennifer Jones got my vote very easily. I liked the rest of the ladies, too but to a much lesser extent. Joan and Ingrid were almost equal for me, Jean was not far behind them and Greer wasn't much worse than them. I think it's a very even but quite weak year and Jennifer so obviously stands out in this bunch. She's just wonderful. Otherwise, I enjoyed this year but didn't love it.

Note: From now on, I won't rank the years. I don't really see the point of it.

About the next year: Wow, I'm ending the summer with a really strong three-way race. I'm very excited to give clues once again (after such a long time :D). However, I can only start reviewing next Saturday. But I'll annonce the year on Wednesday.

Mommie dearest (x2)
Don't get THIS mad!
Leading or supporting? Vanity will decide. :D

So what do you think? Any thoughts on your mind?