The Final Conclusion - Best Actress 1980

1980

5. Gena Rowlands in Gloria

Gena Rowlands (despite her great talent) is not able to save this trainwreck of a movie called Gloria, but at there are some short, but quite strong scenes that ingrained in my memory. I wasn't very disappointed to tell the truth (I knew what to expect), but it's painful to write so negatively about Gena.

4. Mary Tyler Moore in Ordinary People

This is a fantastic performance, which is extremely haunting and captivating. Mary is able to make Beth a breathing, understandable human being, for whom you really feel sorry. Thanks to Mary Tyler Moore, I was perfectly able to understand Beth's emotions and feelings.

3. Goldie Hawn in Private Benjamin

Goldie gives a great and extremely hilarious performance in Private Benjamin, which might very well be her best work, though it's nothing for the ages. The most important thing is that I loved her and the character as well, and she entertained me so well. I loved her, that's it.

2. Sissy Spacek in Coal Miner's Daughter

I was quite pleased by Sissy's performance in this movie. Sometimes I was so captivated by her, that I forgot that I was actually watching a movie. It's a really gripping, powerful performance, which is extremely subtle, but is full of layers, quiet emotions and brilliant singing.

1. Ellen Burstyn in Resurrection

This extremely controversial performance was so healing for me. I loved every moment of it, though I doubt that love is the right word for it. It really made me re-think if The Exorcist is my favorite performance of Ellen. Ellen in Ressurection is thought-provoking, harrowing and unforgettable.

So I can proudly announce

that my winner is...

Ellen Burstyn

in

Resurrection

Miracle worker :)

Final thoughts: Wow, this decision was not easy. For a while, I thought I would pick Ellen, because her performance was so unique, but I figured that Sissy's towering, enourmous performance is the one for the ages and Ellen falls into the Liza Minnelli/Diane Lane category. I LOVED Goldie and I really want to mention her, because if her movie was made in 1981 or 1975, she would be my pick, hands down. She's so utterly charming and I'm so happy that it found recognition. Some may not like that I ranked her above Mary, but that's it. Mary was fantastic as well, though this time she let me down a bit. Just like Ida Kaminska, but to a lesser extent. Gena was the weakest link in this otherwise great line-up: she suffered so much from that shitty movie she was in (one of the worst ones I have ever seen and its memory still haunts me). Anyway, some of the movies could have been contenders for the non-film awards: Resurrection for some spiritual, religous award and Gloria for the Nobel Prize for being the perfect medicine for insomnia (though it's quite bitter to swallow).

Omissions: 

• Ildikó Bánsági in Confidence *My Vote*
• Jane Fonda in 9 to 5
• Dolly Parton in 9 to 5 
• Lily Tomlin in 9 to 5
• Mari Kiss in Duty-Free Marriage 

I really look forward to the next year. I have wanted to do it for so long and there was a miracle and I can do it! YAY!

• Do you want a glass of milk? ;)
• MONEY, MONEY, MONEY!

What do YOU think? Any requests, thoughts, suggestions?

Goldie Hawn in Private Benjamin

The first reviewed performance of the year is...

Goldie Hawn received her second Oscar nomination for playing Private Judy Benjamin, a woman going through a big change in the comedy, Private Benjamin. It's always so much find to think about how the voting was going. I think that Goldie was third or fourth in the voting. She was a previous winner and she starred in a wacky comedy, but I think her popularity really helped gain some votes. I think that she did not win the Globe only because Coal Miner's Daughter was considered a musical, which is insane, I believe.

Private Benjamin is a fine, entertaining little comedy, which is a bit mixed: the first half of it is simply brilliant and hilarious, I so loved it and I hoped that the whole movie would be like the first 50 minutes. However, after they graduate, the whole thing becomes so weird as if it wasn't the same movie. It's so perplexing and I think it's mainly the screenplay's fault. I believe, though, that nom was richly deserved because of the first part. The acting is just great: Eileen Brennan gives a very memorable and funny supporting performance, which in my opinion was deserving of the win in that very weak field. The others are fine, too, but they don't get that much to do.

I have to confess: no matter what people say about her, I love Goldie Hawn. She's a terrific comedy actress, who is always able to make me laugh and despite the fact that she always plays annoying characters, I have never been annoyed by her because she makes them so adorable. I will go even further and now grab something so that you don't faint: I think she deserved her Oscar for Cactus Flower. She takes these annoying characters adds her charm to them and does miracles with the parts she's given. Too bad that nowadays she's only seen in the tabloid papers. :(

The thing I like about Private Benjamin the most is that she's not a really typical comedy lead. She's not the suffering loser in the army. She's a spoiled Jewish princess, who has only one desire: to live a fancy life in a fancy house with a rich hubby on her side. She's kind of like Rachel Green in friends: after doing basically nothing in life, she just has to face with reality alone without daddy's credit card. It's so hilarious, but also touching when she says that she never understood An Unmarried Woman, because she would have married Alan Bates at once. It's quite a short sequence, but I think it's the best line of the whole movie.

Goldie so perfectly showed how naive Judy is. Judy firmly believes that she can get the fancy life from the army, and she can even feel than that she worked for it alone. She thinks that this whole army thing is just a big fun, where you don't have to do much. She's so utterly hilarious in the scene where she gets her uniform and asks if there's one in a different color. I mean, it's such an awkward moment, but Goldie delivered that line so well.

Also, her scenes with Eileen Brennan are simply brilliant: the two worked together so thrillingly well. One is the perfectly looking, very feminine woman, the other one is bossy and masculine. They are so great together though when Goldie talks to her as if she was a hotel manager and she's complaining about her room. And then we see Goldie cleaning the toilets with her toothbrush and it's just hysterical. I mean the whole thing is so absurdly funny.

Goldie also nailed the scenes of the training. She's so adorably clumsy, she's always falling, she can't run, she's an extremely funny cliché. It's just perfect and the whole thing made her so loveable. And this is probably the greatest achievement of Goldie Hawn in this movie: she made me care about Judy, I loved her, I rooted for her and most importantly, I was constantly amused by her. It was just brilliant.

However, when the movie weakens considerably, Goldie's performance also slows down a bit, though not that much. She was still great and she did not lose her great screen presence, but I felt that I lost my interest in her. She tries to work against this, though, and in these scenes we see real development in Judy's character: she becomes a hard-working, strong, self-conscious woman, who likes her job, loves working and finds real passion. She's so hilarious in the scene where she has presumably great sex and says something like "I guess, this is what I was faking until now". She just said my thoughts and I just loved that.

The ending is thankfully just as strong as the beginning, and Goldie is really at the top there. The comedy is less wacky, but she's just great. We all know how important a good ending is and it was very memorable. I loved her.

So to sum up, Goldie gives a great and extremely hilarious performance in Private Benjamin, which might very well be her best work, though it's nothing for the ages. The most important thing is that I loved her and the character as well, and she entertained me so well. I loved her, that's it.

She's the definition of an extremely strong 4,5, it's almost a 5.

Wow, this piece became lengthier than usual.

What do you think?

The Next Year

1980

The nominees were:

• Ellen Burstyn in Resurrection
• Goldie Hawn in Private Benjamin
• Mary Tyler Moore in Ordinary People
• Gena Rowlands in Gloria
• Sissy Spacek in Coal Miner's Daughter

I'm so excited to do this year. That's it. :-) The predicting contest is naturally on.

I wish you all a very happy new year! May all your wishes come true!