The Final Conclusion - Best Actress 1971

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 and 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

in

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 disappointment 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?

Glenda Jackson in Sunday Bloody Sunday

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

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 1975

1975

So the much anticipated ranking is:

5. Ann-Margret in Tommy

Shame on the Academy. I'm sure this performance has its share of fans but I'm a staunch naysayer to this one. Not only is it ridiculous at some points, but it's also unbearably boring. The best thing that I can say about this performance that it's certainly unforgettable though in this case being forgettable would be way better.

4. Glenda Jackson in Hedda

I'm just as stunned about this as you are. While I expected her to become my pick, I was really disappointed by Glenda Jackson in Hedda. The movie itself had a lot to do with that but still. Althuogh this performance also has its share of fans, I'm not one of them, either. Personally, I would expect more from Glenda.

3. Carol Kane in Hester Street

You might be surprised that she's only third as I seemed reallly fond of her in my review. To tell the truth, I would have praised any great performance to graces after Ann-Margret. Still, Kane is really good as Gitl, her presence is just lovely and I really cared about her and was interested in what comes to her next.

2. Louise Fletcher in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest

I used to be stunned by the fact that she won but right now I'm not that shocked considering her competition. Although she's supporting, she still pulls off a great performance as the evil Nurse Ratched and she indeed created an iconic character. It's just that I wasn't that blown away by her work in this movie.

1. Isabelle Adjani in The Story of Adèle H.

The saving grace. The shining light. My only hope. If it wasn't for Adjani's performance, I would stop reviewing after this horrid year. Thankfully, Adjani is just astonishing as Adèle Hugo, giving one of the most interesting and unique performances that I've ever seen. She's so full of passion, drama and romance that it's a real emotional joy to see her. Her beauty and talent shines through the movie and makes it even better than it already is.

So I can proudly announce

the winner is...

Isabelle Adjani

in

The Story of Adele H.

Easy win.

Final thoughts: Horrible year, arguably the worst one ever. Only Isabelle Adjani was really, truly worthy of the Oscar, the others... Wow. Fletcher, Kane and Jackson were all good, I just wasn't amazed by them. The ranking could have been any way. I don't even want to talk about Ann-Margret. I guess my thoughts on this year weren't exactly loved, to put it delicately, sorry about that.

About the next: this year was requested by the winner of the last predicting contest and it's full of romance and grief.

What do you think? Any thoughts on your mind?

Glenda Jackson in Hedda

Glenda Jackson received her fourth Best Actress nomination for playing Hedda Gabler, Ibsen's heroine in the 1975 film version, Hedda. When you get a really weird year like 1975, you don't know what to think about how the voting could have been. I guess the two traditional performances (Fletcher and Adjani) were the most popular among Academy members and the two of them got the 75% of the votes. The order of the other ladies could have been anyway. They might have thought that Ann-Margret was due (God forbid!) or they were charmed by Carol Kane or they loved their favorite, Glenda Jackson in Hedda. I guess the Academy wasn't keen to give her a third award (since she didn't care if she had one, let alone three) so she didn't get that many votes.

Hedda is a really weird movie (OK, in 1975, weird is another way for me to say BAD). I tell you how the filminf of Hedda must have looked like. The played as if it was a play and there were a couple of cameras there to record it. This movie is nothing but a filmed stage play. There isn't anything special about it, even the sets are like on the stage. I guess this movie works for television but not for the big screen. And we can see that in the performances of the actors. First they are great but the immense amount of energy that's inside them becomes really tedious after a while. These are stage performances.

I'd like to say that Glenda Jackson's work here is different but it isn't, unfortunately. I really love Glenda Jackson and I consider her one of the greatest actresses. I think she was the Cate Blanchett of the 70s. An Oscar-favorite actress who has an incredible, radiant presence and a very uniquel beauty. Whenever I see Glenda Jackson, I immediately think "great actress, great actress, great actress". In each of her moves you see the brilliance that she has. And that's also apparent in Hedda. Still, I had very serious problems with her performance.

As I said, Hedda is like a stage play and the performances are all really theatrical (1975 wasvery unusual in that way, too, they also nominated James Whitmore in Give 'em Hell Harry!) and so is Glenda's work. At the beginning Hedda's character is really deliciously full of malice and she's a very enjoyable presence. In some times, all those mannerisms that she uses become tedious because they all seem to much. What I'm trying to say, that this would be an amazing performance on the stage but in a movie, it isn't. Plain and simple.

I really liked that Glenda made Hedda more and more nervous and desperate. Hedda is a very controlling, cold woman who becomes a victim after all. I feel that Glenda developed Hedda quite well and she really made Hedda a believable person. I just didn't feel that Hedda was such an extraordinary character. I guess this must be blasphemy but I think it's Ibsen's fault. I really didn't feel interested in Hedda as she didn't have much depth written to her. Still, I think that Glenda put enough emotion into her work and it all worked this way.

However, what I mostly love about Glenda Jackson's performances, a strange, indescribable feeling that I always feel, wasn't present in Hedda and that was probably the biggest disappointment of all. In the beginning, it was there in bits and pieces but as the movie went on, it just disappeared. That strange, mysterious thing made her work in the lightweight A Touch of Class brilliant and it wasn't here to make her performance as Hedda Gabler great. Overall, that was the biggest problem here.

Still, towards the end, her performance becomes much more dynamic and the ending is really great. It's theatrical and yet there's something really haunting about it. To tell the truth, while it wasn't amazing, it was really great and memorable.

All in all, this performance was still a huge disappointment for me. I guess the play wasn't for my taste or the movie affected me. I can't really believe that it was Glenda's fault as I always love her. While I don't think that she was really great here, I don't feel either that she was bad at all. This was a really decent job but I would expect more from Glenda Jackson than a decent job.

What the hell is going on with this year?

What do you think? It's time for the last predictions. If you want to see Hedda, click here.

To see Tommy (good luck), click HERE.

The Next Year

1975

So the nominees were:

• Isabelle Adjani in The Story of Adèle H.
• Ann-Margret in Tommy
• Louise Fletcher in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest
• Glenda Jackson in Hedda
• Carol Kane in Hester Street

Since I still don't have In America, I'll do this year that's said to be really weak but I haven't seen four of them yeat so it will be very interesting for me, at least.

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

Glenda Jackson in A Touch of Class

Actress/politician Glenda Jackson received her third Best Actress nomination and second Oscar for playing Vicki Allessio, a divorced woman who's having an affair with a married man in Melvin Frank's Best Picture nominated movie, A Touch of Class. Glenda's second Oscar is one of the biggest upsets in Oscar history. She was the one who was not expected to win at all and the other actresses must have been (were :D) really pissed off. Furthermore, this became one of the least popular Oscar wins, though nowadays it's gaining more and more fans.

A Touch of Class is quite simply a great, very entertaining movie and I think that it deserved the Best Picture nomination. It's not one for the ages, but it's still better than The Sting, LOL. I thuroughly enjoyed it and there wasn't a boring minute. The screenplay is top-class, though my vote for that year definitely goes to Cries and Whispers. George Segal gives a charismatic lead performance, though his role is not as memorable as Glenda's. The Globe nom was deserved for him, though.

I hate hypocrisy more than anything. People always complain that comedy performances are never recognised at the Oscars, but when there is one lucky one, than it's instantly criticised, hated and so on. They are so eager to find all the flaws and mistakes only to prove that the Academy cannot get it right. Why can't someone appreciate a great lightweight performance as much as a serious one. Comedy is just as hard as drama. I will go further: giving an effective comedy performance is harder. You don't get to benefit from the drama and the sadness, it's all about you and if you miss an opportunity, you fail. That's it.

Glenda Jackson is a great actress. I'm not saying that I'm a fan (haven't seen enough from her), but I have seen all of her nominated works and was impressed by all of them. Her talent and style of acting is so unique. She has a great voice of which I just cannot get enough. She's gorgeous, talented and yeah, I think sexy (I guess I think that Mickey Mouse is sexy, I wonder how many people understood this). She always plays emancipated, free women (usually divorced) who are not ashamed of her own sexual needs. There's Gudrun from Women in Love, Alex Greville from Sunday, Bloody Sunday etc. And there's Vicki Allessio. I don't think that Glenda made many comedies, but this exception is really memorable.

This is quite a lightweight performance by its nature, but its effect is so far from lightweight. Whenever she's on the screen, she has this sizzling, charming presence which makes you listen to her, watch her and never take your eyes off her. Not for a moment. But you really don't want to, to tell the truth. Every line reading, every face of Glenda is just pure delight. Even in her very first scene. She's so coldly and politely sarcastic with Steve. She's cheeky, courageous and strong on the outside. She is far from being demanding, but she gets what she wants. She has a kind of "cut the bullshit" attitude, which makes her so attractive and likeable. But to have this effect she needs to deliver all the lines perfectly and as I said, she's just brilliant at that. None of the jokes falls flat, and the one-liners really hit. Especially in the scene where she has a hilarious argument with Steve at the hotel.

I have never thought about this one before (and many others I think), but Glenda must have put so much effort into this performance. She does it with such ease, but it's really complex acting by Glenda. She adds so many layers to Vicki. On the outside, she's a very sarcastic, strong woman, but inside, she's actually very vulnerable. Vicki wants a man in her life, she wants real happiness, but everything is working against her. In the beginning she just wants carefree sex, but in the end the whole thing becomes quite complicated. Glenda terrificly showed this vulnerable side of Vicki and the whole performance became quite bitter by this. I don't mind it that Glenda put a touch of drama into this movie. I think it really needed it.

This is not a typical Oscar-winning performance, but I'm really glad that it was honored, because it's an unforgettable, complex and extremely lovely work by a great actress. I'm sorry that there are not many people who appreciate it. I simply love it. Period. Terrific job, which naturally gets

What do you think? It's time for your last predictions! :)

The Next Year

1973

The nominees were:

• Ellen Burstyn in The Exorcist
• Glenda Jackson in A Touch of Class
• Marsha Mason in Cinderella Liberty
• Barbra Streisand in The Way We Were
• Joanne Woodward in Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams

OK, this seems to be a very controversial year because of its winner and the reaction of one of the nominees. So you must know how excited I am to do this year first in 2011. So let's just start (basically, it's 2010, but it will end in 2011).

I am using this new type of the nominees' picture as the old ones were too big I think, and changes fit a new year. :-)

What do you think? What's your ranking and who are you rooting for? What are your predictions for my ranking? The contest is on.