The Final Conclusion - Best Actress 1962

1962

So the much anticipated ranking is:

5. Lee Remick in Days of Wine and Roses

Although Lee Remick is overshadowed in many ways, she's just excellent as Kirsten, a pathetic woman, a real victim. Her story is very heartbreaking and you don't get any fun out of it but Remick's realism in this part is really impressive. A great performance that should be much more frequently talked about.

4. Geraldine Page in Sweet Bird of Youth

I would kill to see this performance on the stage but instead I have to make do with a great motion picture performance that's nothing short of excellent. Geraldine Page makes Alexandra a very fascinating character and she single-handedly makes the movie worthy of watching. This work is a real treat. Truly-truly memorable effort by a great actress.

3. Katharine Hepburn in Long Day's Journey Into Night

I must say that I was thouroughly impressed by the performance of Katharine Hepburn. Although there's something in me that prevented me from totally embrace it, I still find her truly amazing in her part. As Mary Tyrone, she's just chilling and really disturbing but she never overplays Mary's broken personality. Fantastic work.

2.Anne Bancroft in The Miracle Worker

I was totally amazed by Anne Bancroft's star-making turn as Annie Sullivan, the determined and tough teacher. Anne Bancroft created a multi-layered fascinating character that is a real joy to watch. Her beauty shines through the screen and it's effect is just astonishing. I was taken by this work and I can only praise her for this. It's kind of cheesy to say it's a miracle but for me, it is.

1. Bette Davis in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

This is an iconic performance and rightfully so. It's both delicious and shocking, funny and disgusting. Bette's brilliance is at (another) peak here and she's really unforgettable. No matter what she does on the screen, it's going to be something that you'll never ever forget. She nails each and every nuance of Baby Jane and the result is a fantastic, dazzling and intense work by a brilliant actress.

So I can proudly announce

the winner is...

Bette Davis

in

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Who gets the last laugh?

Final thoughts: A really great year (the highest grades overall) but somehow I wasn't that blown away. All of these ladies were great but somehow I didn't enjoy this year as much as I expected to. Still, a wonderful year with great performances. The ranking was very difficult for me but I hopw to have made the right decision. I wasn't very sure but eventually, this seemed like the best alternative.

Omissions: Jeanne Moreau in Jules et Jim; Anna Magnani in Mamma Roma; Shelley Winters in Lolita

About the next year: It's no secret that it will be 1943. :)

What do you think?

Anne Bancroft in The Miracle Worker

Anne Bancroft received her first Best Actress nomination and only Oscar for playing Anne Sullivan, the famous teacher of Helen Keller. It's strange that people thought that Bette Davis would win the Oscar for playing Baby Jane. I'm not comparing them, I just think that I would have expected Bancroft to win. First of all, her movie received multiple nominations in very important categories plus Anne Bancroft was a young and upcoming actress who's earned fame on Broadway. So I'm not that surprised by this win. It's pretty much like Marion Cotillard's win. It wasn't expected but with hindsight, it's an obvious choice.

The Miracle Worker is an astonishing, beautiful movie about Helen Keller. There are many versions of this story but I firmly believe that nothing can be better than this one. It's quite stunning that it was not nominated for Best Picture. However, all the nominations were deserved for this movie. Arthur Penn's direction is fantastic and had David Lean not been nominated, he would be my pick for the win. Patty Duke is also fantastic and now I feel that placing her in supporting wasn't that much of a category fraud.

It really wasn't because the main character of this movie is really Anne Sullivan (she's the miracle worker). I think no other actress than Anne Bancroft could have played this character so brilliantly. Anne Bancroft was a terrific, wonderful actress who's just fantastic in each and every role of hers. That voice, that presence is so astonishing and she's like a real magnet. You just have to look at her so that you don't miss any of her brilliant moments. Although her iconic role is Mrs. Robinson from The Graduate, this one is not any weaker. The characters and Anne's approach to them cannot be any more different.

Anne Sullivan is a very tough and dedicated teacher who's haunted by her horrifying past. There's a kind of mystery in her. Those sunglasses make her somehow distant and Anne played her as if she was an otherwordly person. Anne is not the kind, gentle person that you would expect in such a story. She is very tough and incredibly strict and yet she has a kind of strange connection to Helen.

Unlike Patty Duke's mostly technical performance (which is also brilliant), Anne mostly relies on the emotions and shows the demons of Annie so brilliantly. The scene where she's talking about her past with her brother and the awful things they went through is incredibly effective and chilling. She goes through so many emotions and it's just wonderful to see them change in Anne's performance. She shows all the contradictions of this character so wonderfully.

I also loved how Bancroft showed the vulnerability inside Annie's determination. I love those moments when we get to see Annie's fears and weaknesses. There are so many wonderful layers in this character and Anne Bancroft is able to reveal all of them. Although some may argue that it was easy for her to play Annie as she had previously played her on Broadway (winning a Tony for it), I think film is a totally different thing and it's incredibly difficult to adapt a stage performance to the screen. Anne is, however, never theatrical and she avoided all the possible traps and dangers of this role. There isn't a stagy feeling in it (which you can sometimes spot in Katharine Hepburn's performance as Mary Tyrone) and it all seemed so natural for me.

I was also impressed by how well she worked with Patty Duke. Their performances are totally different and yet they result in sheer perfection. It was just wonderful any time that they were together on the screen. Neither of them tried to overshadow the other one (the never did) and they really were very supportive of each other. I felt that there was a special connection between them very much like Annie's and Helen's. Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke gave us one of the best on-screen duos ever.

However, what amazed me the most was the clarity and beauty of this performance. Despite her flaws, Annie seemed like a real saint to me. This beauty drew and touched me so much that everything else failed to eist for me apart from Anne. It was just wonderful. After a while, her work becomes like a very clean creek which flows gently on a summer afternoon. There was something very relaxing about Anne and it was almost a spiritual experience for me. And that rarely happens in a film. My feelings about her are just indescribable. I guess not many people said this before but this is almost an angelic performance for me.

So after all, I was totally amazed by Anne Bancroft's star-making turn as Annie Sullivan, the determined and tough teacher. Anne Bancroft created a multi-layered fascinating character that is a real joy to watch. Her beauty shines through the screen and it's effect is just astonishing. I was taken by this work and I can only praise her for this. It's kind of cheesy to say it's a miracle but for me, it is.

What do you think?

The Next Year

1962

So the nominees were:

• Anne Bancroft in The Miracle Worker
• Bette Davis in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
• Katharine Hepburn in Long Day's Journey Into Night
• Geraldine Page in Sweet Bird of Youth
• Lee Remick in Days of Wine and Roses

A legendary year that looks WOW! Which one of these brilliant actresses will get my vote?

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

The Final Conclusion - Best Actress 1964

1964

So the much anticipated ranking is:

5. Debbie Reynolds in The Unsinkable Molly Brown

I can say that I got what I expected, a standard 60s musical performance from Debbie Reynolds. Although this work is really mixed and uneven, there are some scenes to admire or at least like about it. It's nothing mindblowing or ground-breaking but it did not bother me that much, so I don't feel bad about it.

4. Sophia Loren in Marriage Italian Style

This is a great performance by the magnificent Sophia Loren, which may not be her career best but it's still very good work. Although there are amazing scenes in this work, the really common comedy scenes drag Sophia's performance down. She's still wonderful but she could have been once again mindblowingly brilliant.

3. Kim Stanley in Seance on a Wet Afternoon

This performance is also extremely hard to judge. It's full of fantastic scenes and it's overall effect is just brilliant and just like with Bancroft, I am not really sure what I am going to think about her. However, I just cannot overlook that Kim Stanley was able to put on a chilling and unforgettable performance as Myra Savage.

2. Anne Bancroft in The Pumpkin Eater

This is an incredibly hard performance to judge. Anne chose all the difficult and risky ways with her character but she succeeded and she was able to put on a shocking, perplexing and terrying character study of a woman who has serious problems in her life.

1. Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins

It's a great achievement and it's no wonder that it became an iconic performance among children. Because if you really want to see the wonders of this role, you must loose yourself and (and just like Banks) become a child again for two hours. I may be alone with this but I think that this is fantastic work.

So I can proudly announce

that my winner is...

Julie Andrews

in

Mary Poppins

Julie is preparing to accept this award... :)

Final thoughts: A superb year but the performances were all so difficult to rate. My reaction to Julie Andrews was just as shocking to me as it was to you. Loren was great as expected, Bancroft was the most difficult to rate ever but now there are small problems that occured. I knew that Reynolds would suck and I loved Stanley when I first saw her, she was in a Bryan Forbes movie, so there was no surprise about her. However, after all Julie Andrews was a clear cut winner despite some tough competition from Kim Stanley. I think many of you think I'm crazy but I was truly captivated by Julie's performance and its mysteriousness.

Omissions: 

• Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady (she was way better than Debbie Reynolds)

About the next year: I couldn't decide between two (consecutive) years. Both are said to be quite weak and yet I'm so interested in both of them. Plus they are from the decade I've been ignoring for a while. However, I've chosen the second year as I've seen only one of the nominees and I love when I have new performances to discover. The clues (quite easy ones):

• (L) Nuns (L)
• (L) Soaps (L)
• Viva Italia!

What do you think?

Off-topic: I saw 127 Hours yesterday. It was BRILLIANT and would have deserved Best Picture (tied with Black Swan), Actor, Editing and Song. You lose a lot if you don't watch it in a movie theater (fantastic cinematogrpahy BTW and a directing that should have WON and it wasn't even nominated).

Anne Bancroft in The Pumpkin Eater

Anne Bancroft received her second Oscar nomination for playing Jo Armitage, a woman who has a very complicated life in the movie, The Pumpkin Eater. At the time, she was the actual front-runner along with Julie Andrews and I think that she wasn't far behind. Unlike Sophia, her previous win might have helped her but that might also be the cause why she eventually lost the award. She console herself with a Golden Globe, Bafta and a Best Actress award at the Cannes film festival. Apparently, Julie Andrews thought that Anne should have won. We'll se if I agree.

The Pumpkin Eater is a very unusual and extremely weird movie. Sometimes it's incredibly boring but sometimes it can be really fascinating. The main flaw about it is that it tries so hard to serve the needs and demands of its era. It's very 60s, it's very British, it's very artsy though somehow I felt it was a bit forced. Or it can be simply quite dated and that's it. Peter Finch who was a terrific actor, gives a very good performance here though he's quite lost occasionally. James Mason (just like in Georgy Girl) plays quite a pointless and perplexing role and I did not like him at all.

However, I really don't know what to think about Anne Bancroft in this movie. I had previously seen the performance but I did not understand it better this time even though I thought I would. Her whole acting in this movie is rather perplexing and it's very complex. Probably this is what settled her win at Cannes. This is a multi-layered role that must be incredibly hard to play and I don't think that many actresses could have pulled it off or at least not this way. It requires a performer who's fearless and emotional but who's also great at the technical parts. I think Anne Bancroft was a great choice. As I said about her in my review of her work in The Turning Point, she was an extremely versatile and interesting actress. She has the advantage of her great looks and magnificent voice. Whenever I hear her voice, I get chills. However, all these attractive things about her are NOT present in The Pumpkin Eater. Everything that worked on other occasion disappeared here. Surely, Anne did not choose the easy ways with this part.

Anne's performance here is incredibly strange and unusual and therefore it can be a bit distracting sometimes. There were scenes where she's so extremely harrowing and amazing that it made me literally speechless, like the one where she breaks down at the store. It's such an odd moment and it becomes even more weird with her hysterical laugh and cries. That breakdown scene is extremely shocking and it is certainly very depressing. Somehow I felt that Anne also went through this hell along with Jo. With small expressions on her face, Anne showed the pain of this character so thrillingly. I felt so uncomfortable while I was looking at her and sometimes I even resented her work. I felt so many emotions while I was looking at it and it is so intense and really haunting. Actually, when I was watching her, I wasn't that impressed but as I'm thinking about her I feel that she was really shocking and she totally grabbed me. When I turned it off, I felt really dazzled and confused. And let's just admit it: one doesn't like being confused. I realised that this whole thing showed the darkness in this character's head so thirllingly. You only realise it when you really think about (for the first time, she fooled me).

The relationship between Jo and her men are so thrillingly shown by Anne. This becomes so visible in the scenes between Jo and her psychiatrist. She's just sitting there uncomfortably and she's very embarassed. Those sequences are really strong. However, nothing can really live up to the confrontation scene between her and a woman at the hairdresser's. I think she might have been the darker side of Jo. She says "My life is an empty place" and Jo says that later, too. Anne is amazing there even though she mostly acts with her face.

Sometimes I really did not get what the purpuse of the movie really was but now I am beginning to understand it, thanks to Anne's greatness. It's extremely tough material that you see but once you feel the essence of it, it becomes a really fantastic experience. As I was watching it, I felt many times that she was boring and that her performance was just too forced but now I'm totally shellshocked. There's one scene which is quite probably the highlight of her performance and it's going to stay with me forever. After being operated (I'm not telling the reason), she has a minor breakdown when she's laughing hysterically. In its shocking way, that scene is really amazing.

So, this is an incredibly hard performance to judge. My opinion might change in the future but now I'm in awe of Anne Bancroft in The Pumpkin Eater. Anne chose all the difficult and risky ways with her character but she succeeded and she was able to put on a shocking, perplexing and terrying character study of a woman who has serious problems in her life.

So it's a 4.5 after all. I kept changing it 1000000 times but I have to be fair.

The Next Year

1964

So the nominees were:

• Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins
• Anne Bancroft in The Pumpkin Eater
• Sophia Loren in Marriage Italian Style
• Debbie Reynolds in The Unsinkable Molly Brown
• Kim Stanley in Seance on a Wet Afternoon

Wow, I know it's surprising that I'm going to do this year now but I just got The Pumpkin Eater and I haven't started reviewing 1991 (I can't resist), so I'm doing this year now and the first review comes next Friday (March 11th). I'm so excited about this year as I don't have a clue on who will get my vote. So interesting and it's rarely talked about besides Andrews.

What do you think? What are your predictions? What's your ranking?

The Final Conclusion - Best Actress 1977

1977

The much anticipated ranking:

5. Shirley MacLaine in The Turning Point

On the one hand, Shirley MacLaine's presence is not strong enough, doesn't fight against the weakness of the screenplay and she doesn't give the work of a lifetime. On the other hand, she has some very strong and well-acted scenes, which may not make up for the rest completely.

4. Marsha Mason in The Goodbye Girl

Marsha Mason may be neither amazing nor groundbreaking in The Goodbye Girl. She may not have huge dramatic moments or huge breakdown or even hysterical comedy, she gives one hell of a performance, which is entertaining, moving, lovely and so damn natural.

3. Anne Bancroft in The Turning Point

Anne still gives the best performance of her movie, adding real depth to the character of Emma. Although she doesn't have much screentime and that catfight scene was just not for her, I still appreciated this performance and I was certainly very impressed by Anne Bancroft.

2. Jane Fonda in Julia

People don't rave about this performance as much as they do about, say, Klute and They Shoot Horses... even though they should. It's one of the most beautiful and heartbreaking peformances every by this beautiful (who's never been more beautiful than here), superbly talented actress.

1. Diane Keaton in Annie Hall

Some consider Diane Keaton's win for Annie Hall a love letter to Diane herself, the character and the movie and they think that the Best Actress Oscar win wasn't about the actual performance. While I agree with the first part, I still have to add something: her win and my review is indeed a love letter to Annie Hall (the character and the movie) and Diane Keaton's brilliant, hilarious, radiant, beautiful, heartbreaking, luminous, fantastic and unforgettable performance.

So I can proudly announce

that my winner is...

Diane Keaton

in

Annie Hall

La-di-da-la-di-da; la-la

Final thoughts: A great year. I did it probably because I wanted to write the 100th review about an iconic performance (Diane that is). I mean, this is not a legendary year but it's indeed special and I'm happy that I covered it. The ranking was the easiest one I've ever had to do and I don't think it's surprising at all (I knew it already before I started). The overall standard of the movies was rather high. Although I hated The Turning Point for the first time, I enjoyed it now. Same goes for the performances: I enjoyed all of them, some more and some less. Shirley was the weakest link though she wasn't bad. Anne and Marsha were great, Jane was fantastic and Diane is... All things considered, this year was lovely.

And the winner of the predicting contest is Louis Morgan. Congratulations! :-)

Omissions: I haven't seen Gena Rowlands in Opening Night, but she's said to be amazing. I should check that performance out. Also, Diane Keaton in Looking for Mr. Goodbar must be also great. Both sound interesting. But there's an unbelievable, unbeatable performance in a Hungarian movie given by one of my favorite actesses and that's Erzsi Pásztor in The Devil Beats His Wife. AMAZING. 

About the next year: I wanted to do 1964, but there's no The Pumpkin Eater, damn. However, it seems that I might get it (the chances are getting higher and higher, so keep your fingers crossed), so if I have it, I'll do it instead of this mysterious next year (I'll announce the next year when I'm sure and next weekend is gonna be about this year, so I have still some time to get The Pumpkin Eater). The other year came quite suddenly to me but it seems to be interesting. There's only one clue with the next year but a help: The main principle is simplicity.

• Friends forever

What do you think?

P.S.: Could anyone help me with getting Wild is the Wind, The Rainmaker or Some Came Running (any link is fine)? It's a shame but I can only do one year from the 50s (1950) and I promised myself to leave that one last.

Anne Bancroft in The Turning Point

Anne Bancroft received her fourth Best Actress nomination for playing Emma Jacklin, an aging ballerina in Herbert Ross' movie, The Turning Point. Although Anne Bancroft was the one who received awards and nominations for this role, I think she received less votes than Shirley, simply because Anne was a previous winner and she wasn't an extremely big star. She was the fascinating, respected, 100% actress who gave excellent performances in movies, on stage and TV.

I've already mentioned a lot of things about The Turning Point in my review about Shirley, so I won't say much else here. It's an enjoyable, entertaining and a bit boring and slow. Other than that, I liked it very much now.

Anne Bancroft was such a huge talent that I admire so much. She was truly one of the most gifted actresses on this planet andher death's a huge loss for all of the movie lovers. Anne's roles covered such a huge rane: she could play the almost blind teacher of Helen Keller, the broken down wife in The Pumpkin Eater, the original, sexy and bitter cougar in The Graduate. She had this deep, beautiful voice that had such a huge power. It gives me chills whenever I hear it. And she uses it so well. Could you imagine somebody else saying "Hello Benjamin!" or "Do you want me to seduce you?" Anne's performances are so manipulative but in the best possible way. You always see the character and if she says seduction, you're seduced at once.

Even if you read the synopsis of The Turning Point, you'll instantly see which part is the better one. Naturally it's Emma, the aging ballerina, full of pain and loneliness. She's not a very sad person, there are no huge tears of loneliness there, she actually acts quite casually and kindly with everyone and yet we feel some bitterness in her. Bancroft brilliantly added a touch of this bitterness to this role, which is instantly captivating. Audrey Hepburn admitted wanting this role badly but I really have to try to imagine her in the role. I'm sure that she would have been brilliant as always but that Emma would be so different. Anne totally inhabited this character and made it her own right away.

Emma is a very interesting, multi-layered and Anne did not fail in showing all of her emotions. Emma is someone very old-fashioned, soft and fragile on the outside, but inside she's not afraid of hard word and competition. There's a scene where she talks to that elderly Russian lady in French. Anne is just fantastic there. I got to know so much about her character there and I was utterly fascinated by Anne. I so love these nuances in performances. I'm sure that 90% of the people who saw this movie did not think it was that great but I was crazy about it.

Although she doesn't have much screentime (in fact, this might be one of the shortest nominated leading performances ever), she's still the leading force in this film. Very much like Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs, I was always so impressed by her that I did not notice that she did not have that much time to work with. However, the main difference is that the 80% of Anne's performance is in the first half and therefore she disappears for some time and unfortunately that time is enough to ruin her effect a bit. Everything becomes a bit weaker and I was a bit disappointed in the end. If I was observing it as a supporting performance, that wouldn't be a big problem but here it bothers me a bit. She's great anyhow but the whole thing wasn't as powerful as it could have been.

However, Anne easily outacts Shirley (though I don't see the effort in Anne to do so). In their scene at the bar, there's so much force in Anne which Shirley really lacks. And whenever they had a scene together, Anne stole the spotlight. I just couldn't NOT look at Anne as she was so interesting and Shirley wasn't much of interest for me unfortunately. I must tell, though, that although the catfight scene works for Shirley, it somehow doesn't fit Anne's performance. Anne was so gracious and dignified (just like Emma), then she plays Joan Collins. It was a bit disappointing.

All things considered, Anne still gives the best performance of her movie, adding real depth to the character of Emma. Although she doesn't have much screentime and that catfight scene was just not for her, I still appreciated this performance and I was certainly very impressed by the immense talent and presence of Anne Bancroft.

A strong 4. I know that this was a bit fast but I thought it was best to write both reviews when the experience is fresh.

What do you think?

The Next Year

1977

The nominees were:

• Anne Bancroft in The Turning Point
• Jane Fonda in Julia
• Diane Keaton in Annie Hall
• Shirley MacLaine in The Turning Point
• Marsha Mason in The Goodbye Girl

I figured it would be nice to take a break from this year's Oscar talk and take a look at a field with these great actresses. What do you think? What are your predictions?

And why am I doing this year? Scroll down to the ranking for the answer. :-)