The Final Conclusion - Best Actress 1969

About the field: This was a great year with four brilliant performances and one forgettable one. If we count the number of Meryls, this was the strongest year so far and yet I preferred 1989 a bit. Another great thing is that now I was able to write a profile of marvelous Maggie and that was one of my greatest pleasures. However, when you have such a strong year, the ranking is so damn difficult and you just cannot decide. I was so perplexed and I couldn't make up my mind. I had to wait and think. I mean #1, #2 and #3 are all worthy of the award (I would say even #4), they are all brilliant, unforgettable performances. I am biased in the cases of all of them. I love all three of them. I'm going to feel guilty (Oh #3 please forgive me, you're the greatest!) because I ignored two of them despite the fact they ALL deserve my vote. Still, it's #1 who gave the best performance and I had to choose her in the end.

So the much anticipated ranking:

5. Geneviève Bujold in Anne of the Thousand Days

Geneviève Bujold suffers from a bad movie, an overacting lead actor and a boring screenplay. I give her some credit for the excellence of her last monologue, but I could live without watching the rest. A very mixed performance

4. Jean Simmons in The Happy Ending

I saw a fantastic performance, one that was a really pleasant surprise. It impressed me, had a big effect on me and most importantly I felt connection to the character. Simmons understood the character extremely well and handled her emotions perfectly.

3. Maggie Smith in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

I can safely say that Maggie gives one of her best performances as Miss Jean Brodie, a woman who has to face with the fact that her cherished prime is over. Dame Maggie created an exciting, beautiful character on the screen and you just cannot take your eyes off her.

2. Liza Minnelli in The Sterile Cuckoo

This is one of those cases when I got way more than I expected. Liza Minnelli's performance is not a surprise, it's fulfillment. I was moved, I laughed, I was heartbroken and went through the emotional states of Pookie. You will just never forget this unbelievable performance.

1. Jane Fonda in The Shoot Horses, Don't They?

I can say that Jane Fonda gives a gritty, tough and incredible performance as Gloria, who's full of layers and secrets and Fonda slowly, but firmly reveals the mind of this desperate woman. It's really no wonder that she became the #1 actress of the seventies after this one. Terrific job.

So I can proudly announce

that my winner is...

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

One of the best performances ever.

Omissions:

• Ingrid Bergman in Cactus Flower

About the next year: I guess it's not difficult for you to find out that 1973 won. So it's your decision. 2011's first reviewed year is 1973!

Gosh, this was a bit traumatic. You know how I feel about Maggie, right? I feel as if I harmed her. :-(

So what do you think? What's on your mind? Any thoughts, observations?

Maggie Smith in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Magnificent Dame Maggie Smith received her first Best Actress nomination and first Oscar for playing Miss Jean Brodie, a dedicated teacher in Ronald Neame's movie, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. 1969 is one of the most wide open races ever. I think that all of the ladies had some chance of winning that night and strangely, Maggie Smith did not have the most. She became triumphant after all, and went on to receive another Oscar (a supporting one) and yet she did not have as many great movies as she deserved to have.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is a good movie. It's a very traditional, conservative, decent piece of work that might be a bit slow and boring sometimes, but it's enjoyable. Although the story is very interesting (it is based on a very acclaimed novel), the direction is so simple that the story becomes simple along with it. It features some strong supporting performances especially the ones by Celia Johnson and Pamela Franklin. I'm not saying that they deserved nominations though. They serve the movie quite well and that's about it.

Thank God for Dame Maggie! OK, I know, I know, I know. Along with the wonderful Jane Fonda, she's definitely the greatest living actress (NOT Meryl Streep, sorry), who has such a unique presence and talent, which can turn even the most simple material into an exciting, sizzling performance, which leaves you speechless. Maggie is always very over-the-top in her performances (probably The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, which is a MUST SEE if you want to find out who gave the best performance of 1987) and yet it's never distracting since she makes it so enjoyable and loveable and she fantastically feels how much is enough.

Maggie (who seems to be modest from what I saw of her) is the best at playing characters with huge egos. It can be an Oscar loser in California Suite, a snobbish, unhappy wife in Private Function and a radical, egoistic teacher in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Her performances walk a fine line between enjoyable and deep. Jean Brodie is certainly not loveable, but she is indeed very enjoyable. She has an inner beauty that Maggie so amazingly showed and by this she created another unforgettable performance.

Even the looks of Maggie in this movie shows Miss Brodie brilliantly. She always stands up straight, looking up, firmly, with much dignity. Miss Brodie's views are rather interesting: she's not a liberal teacher in a conseravtive school. She is a radical teacher in a conservative school. She has her confusing, overly romantic political views, she admires dictators and conquerors just as much as her beloved artists.

Miss Brodie likes to think about herself as a very emotional and passionate woman, but Maggie shows it thrillingly how repressed she is and how much she's afraid of relationships. She expresses love through poetry and art, and that's what gives her (almost sexual) pleasure. She's extremely self-centered, but she also cares deeply about her girls who mean her real life. She considers them her children (almost) and wants to make them heroines, poets, painters, actresses: in short, things she could never be.

Maggie so firmly underlines the credo of this woman: "I'm a teacher. First, always, last." Above all, Jean is a teacher, a leader to the girls and she's a real leading role that demands an actress of Maggie's calibre. Others would have failed with her mannerisms and over-the-top nature, but Maggie doesn't let us down for a moment. She gives a truly deep, dramatic performance, while also being enjoyable. She almost reaches perfection with Jean. My only complaint can be that sometimes the screentime is working against her.

So, I can safely say that Maggie gives one of her best performances as Miss Jean Brodie, a woman who has to face with the fact that her cherished prime is over. Dame Maggie created an exciting, beautiful character on the screen and you just cannot take your eyes off her. She's just beautiful as she is. Excellent.

The Final Conclusion is soon to come, though I REALLY have to think it over. I'm not sure about anything, so I will take my time.

What do you think?

Geneviève Bujold in Anne Of The Thousand Days

Geneviève Bujold received her only Oscar nomination to date for playing Anne Boleyn in Anne Of The Thousand Days. It's interesting to think about the chances of Bujold that year: she won the Golden Globe previously, but I don't think that she was the front-runner to win as she was neither much of a great star, nor a popular young starlet, who would become a world-famous star. I guess she was fourth or fifth after all, but the Best Actress race of 1969 is one of the most perplexing ones ever.

Actually, so far I said nothing. The movie is quite simply one of the most boring films I have ever seen in my entire life. Sometimes I really had to force myself to go on with it and not finish it. Gee, it is so corny, theatrical, uninteresting and it says nothing new about these characters unfortunately. However, I must say that I enjoyed the first 20 minutes or so, and I thought that it would be just fine. Well, it wasn't in the end. Richard Burton starts well, but he is unbearably overacting later on. He really had a tendency towards overacting, and if I'm really honest to myself, I don't consider him one of the greatest actors.

Geneviève Bujold is an interesting case here, and I can feel right now that this will be one of the hardest reviews to write. It's not a very complex performance, but it's extremely difficult to rate. On the one hand, she has some boring, useless, weak and pale moments, which really left me unimpressed and disappointed. On the other hand, she has some extremely strong scenes, and she's so damn beautiful and seductive that you just cannot take your eyes off her.

When we first see her in the movie, nothing interesting happens there, she's just dancing, though I realized that this wasn't going to be the best performance ever. I just saw the king's reaction, but I never understood the reason for it. She wasn't different of anybody else in that crowd and I never got it, why the king was so attrected to her quite suddenly. I think that this early scenes are probably the weak links in her performance since they don't have any effect on the viewer and I felt that Bujold wasn't trying hard enough to be special.

However, I also felt that sometimes she was trying too hard to make Anne a very complex personality. She wants to make her sexy, mysterious, seductive, manipulative, (silently) aggressive and stubborn. There are a lot of adjectives in this sentence which describe Anne's personality quite well and yet Bujold is not able to show them together. She shows bits and pieces of all of them and I think that she should have concentrated on less of them, because she would have been able to make her complex that way. Instead, she becomes totally one-note and uninteresting (and not only in the beginning unfortunately).

I have to admit, though, that sometimes she was able to impress me with the manipulative side of Anne. She has whatever she wants and nobody could step in her way. Henry thinks that he's much stronger and has power on Anne, but it's Anne in fact who controls her husband, the king of a great nation. Bujold was able to show this part of Anne quite well and gained some strength in these scenes.

Her scenes of childbirth are very good and memorable too: she's unwilling to accept that she had a girl and her son died. Bujold perfectly captured the feelings and emotions of Anne and she impressed me once again. While watching them I thought "this might not turn out to be a mediocre performance after all". I was wrong in a way.

Although the scenes of the trial were supposed to be extremely showy and the look as if it had Oscar written all over them , they are really ruined by the bad directing and writing choices. Bujold does not have much to do, except for standing there, being strong and proud. Anne's stubborn personality is also there, but it's always used in a wrong way. However, after that Bujold delivers her thousand days monologue excellently and it was extremely moving. There was so much bitterness and disappointment and it was extremely touching. And yet Richard Burton was able to totally ruin it after he appeared.

After all, I can say that despite some very strong and memorable scenes, Geneviève Bujold put on an extremely mixed performance, which strong and weak at the same time. She suffers from a bad movie, an overacting lead actor and a boring screenplay. I give her some credit for the excellence of her last monologue, but I could live without watching the rest.

And I'm extremely lenient with this 3.5.

What do you think? It's time to give your final predictions! :)

Maggie's profile comes tomorrow or Wednesday depending on how much strength I will have.

Jean Simmons in The Happy Ending

Jean Simmons received her second and last Oscar nomination for playing Mary Wilson, an unhappy, alcoholic housewife in her ex-husband's movie, The Happy Ending. I don't know where, but I read that Jean Simmons had a good chance of winning the Oscar as she was considered overdue. I think however, that she did not get that many votes. But who knows? After all she was a very serious and respected actress in a role that was very close to her.

The Happy Ending is a very, I mean very interesting movie, which I really enjoyed, probably even more than The Sterile Cuckoo, but I am really not sure about it. I hear many people complaining about it, so I did not expect anything great or revolutionary and probably that's why the movie was such a pleasant surprise. Despite some slow moments, it was very engaging, mostly due to the great performances by the actors. John Forsythe could really act before he turned to TV and Dynasty, I would probably have given him a supporting actor nom, but the others are also very good. Shirley Jones seems to be the most popular and although I liked her, she was not that special.

However, this movie really is The Jean Simmons Show. OK, I know that you're tired of this terms that I invented, but it's very true in this case. It's so obvious that The Happy Ending was written with her in her husband's mind and I think that Jean Simmons used every opportunity to shine in her role. 1969 was full of interesting, complex female characters, which are very hard to play, but if the actress gets it right, the effect is huge.

First of all, I must admit, that (just like in the case of the movie) I did not expect much from Jean Simmons as I am really not a fan of hers. Actually, I wouldn't even say that as I haven't seen enough movies with her: Hamlet was quite underwhelming, so was Elmer Gantry, though I must admit that I LOVED her guest spot on Murder, She Wrote as the rival crime writer. That being said, I can say that this performance was an extremely pleasant surprise, on that I really did not expect.

Mary is a very ordinary housewife with some minimal problems: she has an unhappy, fake marriage and she's also an alcoholic, by the way. That seems to be a very fun performance, right? From the first moment to the last, she's utterly depressing and has a very sad presence. Even if you look at her face, there's so much disappointment, sadness and anger in it, that it really gives you the blues. Moreover, Jean Simmons has a very unique screen presence, that doesn't always work for me, but here it was just amazing. I was a bit confused by her, but in a very good way.

I had a constant fear though, that her performance is going to turn out to be "I'm so unhappy, get me out of here and give me an Oscar please" acting that I usually see from Joanne Woodward, but I should not have worried. Simmons really believes in her character and she really reflected on her own life with this one. She's not playing herself (I think), but I always felt that Simmons was at the same place where Mary Wilson was. She knew the pain of this character and understood her deeply.

Mary is obsessed with Casablanca, love stories and happy endings in general and she was just so great at the beginning of the movie in the wedding scene. From that her strength never really went down and I was constantly amazed. As I said (and I want to say again), I felt close to this character and I really had some connection to her. Simmons is just so believable and natural in the scene when Mary has to stand still and cannot because she's so drunk. And miraculously she adds some humor to the depressing scenes. Her sarcastic one-liners are perfectly delivered and make her performance even more delicious. My only argument might be that sometimes her acting becomes a bit slow and loses its pace. But that's not a huge problem.

So after all, I have seen another fantastic performance, one that was a really pleasant surprise. It impressed me, had a big effect on me and most importantly I felt connection to the character. Simmons understood the character extremely well and handled her emotions so perfectly that I have to punish her for that with a great rating. :-)

Gee, this year is so strong so far. I wonder about the two other ladies. The next profile comes on Monday probably, I won't have time tomorrow unfortunately.

What do you think? Any predictions now?

BTW: I've just seen Rabbit Hole. Boy, Nicole Kidman is so great in it. She may even be better than Annette Bening, so unless Natalie Portman is THAT great, Nicole might just become my pick after all or it's Annette, I don't know yet. It's a slow, subtle, but very effective performance. The movie is also very good.

Liza Minnelli in The Sterile Cuckoo

Liza Minnelli received her first Best Actress nomination for playing Pookie Adams, a sad young girl in The Sterile Cuckoo, a movie that is EXTREMELY hard to find. I have read on some of the imdb message boards (some time ago) that this was only a sympathy nomination for her because of the recent death of her mother (back to that later). I think that she really did not have that much chance to win, I think she might have been fifth in the voting after all.

The Sterile Cuckoo is a very good movie, which is sometimes a bit boring, but it has so much heart and it really has some very important things to say. Wendell Burton gives a proper performance as Jerry, but he does not really reach the stars with his acting. Everything is fine, but his role is almost just a supporting one if we observe it's importance and impact. Pookie is the main character and although Jerry has more scenes, this movie is about Pookie. I must also add that Come Saturday Night is a really touching song, which easily could have won the Oscar, but I'm OK with Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head too.

Now to Liza Minnelli: whoever told on those imdb boards that Liza only got the nomination because of the death of her mother and guilt is either stupid as hell or hasn't seen the movie. These are the only reasonable explanations. Liza gives quite probably the most heartbreaking performance I have ever seen, plain and simple. Not necessarily the best or the most effective, but the most heartbreaking on for sure. She takes an ordinary character full of pain and vulnerablity and she just did magic with it: Pookie is so alive and loveable.

First of all, the character of Pookie is one of the most dangerous ones ever: there's much more chance of becoming annoying while playing it than being this effective. If she had gone too much over-the-top with Pookie's weird personality, her whole performance would have failed. She is always on the edge of failing actually, but her enormous talent just does not let it. Instead, we get an extremely beautiful and charming performance from the very beginning.

Actually, the fact that The Sterile Cuckoo became a very effective and moving movie is all due to Liza Minnelli. She's so towering and gets so much more out of it than anyone. I wouldn't say that this is a role that is tailor-made for her (I think that is Sally Bowles), but nobody else could have played Pookie better. Unlike Sally Bowles, Pookie is not a woman who is morally ruined but they are both extremely vulnerable. Liza always underlines this aspect of the character: Pookie is an extremely lonely, miserable girl, who is so thrilled by a little happiness in her life. However, Pookie also has much fear that it will not last forever. Liza is unforgettable in the scene, where Pookie tells her feelings to Jerry. She's just sitting alone, her eyes are teary and we just feel so sorry for her.

Even from the very first moment, Liza lets us know that Pookie is an extremely tragic character and nothing great is going to happen in the end. Liza always suggests this and yet we hope that Pookie makes it after all and it's so damn devastating to find out things with her. Pookie's whole world collapses because of the selfishness of Jerry (but is he really that selfish) and Pookie is hurt once again.

This performance is full of amazing, unforgettable scenes like the one when Pookie and Jerry are looking at some tombstones and Pookie lies down in front of one. You would imagine that it is bizarre, but it's actually beautiful. Just like when she lies down on the leaves. It's just wonderful.

And yet this scenes are nothing compared to her long monologue (I think that it's without editing, but I'm not sure) on the telephone with Jerry. Boy, that's one of the best acted scenes in history. So many emotions come to the surface: disappointment, sadness, desperation and so on. When she reveals the truth about her previous vacation is just... I am speechless. It's just something I will never forget.

This is one of those cases when I got way more than I expected. Liza Minnelli's performance is not a surprise, it's fulfillment. I was moved, I laughed, I was heartbroken and went through the emtional states of Pookie. Liza Minelli gently catches you, impresses you and you will just never forget this unbelievable performance, which is one of the best ones ever.

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree? (Vote on the next year too!)

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

Jane Fonda received her first Oscar nomination for playing Gloria, a desperate, bitter woman taking part in a dance marathon in Sydney Pollack's movie, They Shoot Horses, Don't They? I'm really perplexed. Who was the front-runner that year? Maggie was a real surprise winner, but who was expected to win? I guess it must have been between Bujold and Fonda, who really offended a lot of people by her political actions and beliefs. I guess she was probably second or third in the voting.

They Shoot Horses, Don't They? is one of the most depressing and devastating movies I have ever seen. It's truly among the best, but do not expect light entertainment from it. It really is a saddening work by Sydney Pollack (I really can't believe that he also made Tootsie, my favorite movie), who definitely should have won the Best Director Oscar for this one. That sinister, brutal derby scene is alone worthy of that win. The actors give brilliant performances, though I'm not sure if I would vote for the supporting nominees for a win. They were great though.

However, nowadays the most discussed performance of this movie is definitely the one given by the, talented, beautiful Jane Fonda (my favorite actress ever), who reached the stars with this one and became a major dramatic actress going on to win two Best Actress Oscars. I think her political commitment really helped this movie and her acting: I always felt that she deeply believed in the story of the movie and what it represents. I never saw her acting for the Oscar or awards. She did her best for sure, but I never felt that the scenes or her brilliance for that matter was too forced. However, the screenplay does not make it a star turn either. She's not shown in all of the scenes, in fact there's some time, when she completely disappears. And yet that's just something that did not bother me.

One of the biggest achievements of Jane Fonda in this movie is that she was able to show all the layers of this woman: on the outside, Gloria is sarcastic, rough, tough, wants to win, is acting grumpy with a miserable pregnant girl, but inside Gloria is just suffering from the burden of this life. Gloria becomes more and more depressed and Fonda lets us into Gloria's mind, tells us intimate things about her and yet lets her remain mysterious. Gloria never talks about personal things, except for her aunt, but everything she says (observe it, it's worth it) gives us a clue to the very unexpected ending.

The sarcastic remarks of Gloria are delivered flawlessly by Fonda. She's just always in control of her character, both technically and emotionally. Gloria is a very tough role I think as she's very unlikeable and yet she HAS TO make the audience feel sympathy for her. Fonda solved this with real ease. Although I never liked Gloria as a person, I was rooting for her and cared about her. I really became the "victim" of Fonda's acting tricks (if you hae to be a victim than being Jane's is not that bad). It's just wonderful.

Gloria's toughness is however gone instantly, when she's in danger and like everyone else there, she becomes a brutal animal whose only goal is to survive in the jungle. There are only instincts there and really no emotions and Jane really lived this very complicated mental state, when you are just not in control of your actions anymore. Just look at her face in the derby scenes: she is screaming for her life, really. It's a true cry for help.

However, after all Gloria is totally consumed by a wicked system. She loses everything and the scene when she finds out the truth about the whole contest is just amazingly handled by Jane. Those bitter laughs, but also the devastation in her eyes are things that you just cannot forget. It just gets worse and worse (I mean the mood, not her performance): after this, she has a real breakdown after her stocking is torn. That desperate cry was so weird and yet very believable reaction. I haven't seen so much devastation played on the screen and it's probably one of the most depressing scenes I've ever seen.

I don't want to give away the shocking ending to those who haven't seen the movie, but I can tell you that the last lines of hers really stay in your mind. Basically, that's the highlight of her performance, but it's so hard to talk about it without spoiling anything. It really lives up to the rest of her performance: it remains as brutal and devastating as the beginning.

After all, I can say that Jane Fonda gives a gritty, tough and incredible performance as Gloria, who's full of layers and secrets and Jane slowly, but firmly reveals the mind of this desperate woman. It's really no wonder that she became the #1 actress of the seventies after this one. Terrific job.

What do you think? Any predictions now? Also: vote in my new poll for the next year you want me to do!

The Next Year

I really did not expect to do this year, but finally I found The Sterile Cuckoo, so I thought that this should be the next one that's it. It's not very often talked about, but I only heard good things, so I just cannot wait. Plus this is going to be the first profile for marvellous Maggie. Gosh, it's great.

1969

So the nominees were:

• Geneviève Bujold in Anne of the Thousand Days
• Jane Fonda in They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
• Liza Minnelli in The Sterile Cuckoo
• Jean Simmons in The Happy Ending
• Maggie Smith in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

So what do you think about this year? Who's your pick, what's your ranking? The predicting contest is on. Oh, I really can't wait, I might start reviewing tomorrow. I'm sick again, so I have time.

NOTE: This is going to be the last year I am going to do in 2010. Probably.