The Final Conclusion - Best Actress 1997

1997

So the much anticipated ranking is:

5. Julie Christie in Afterglow

I'm not one of the fans of Julie Christie in Afterglow. She has some nice moments and she nails to emotional scenes to a certain extent but it's not enough to win me over. I really missed the wildness or the subtlety of her other great performances. But the fact that she wasn't great is mostly due to the horrid movie. Still, she's not great.

4. Kate Winslet in Titanic

This is great work by Kate Winslet. I don't want to take away anything from it as it's great work but she pales a little bit in comparision with the epic movie that she's in. Kate perfectly portrayed all the negative emotions and fears of the character and therefore she was really haunting in the beginning.

3. Helen Hunt in As Good as it Gets

Helen Hunt almost crossed the line of fantastic with her performance as Carol Connelly in As Good as it Gets. Hunt added wonderful, loveable realism to this character and she made the audience really care about her. Those, who keep saying that she's one of the worst winners, really need to shut up. Helen Hunt is just excellent as this loveable character.

2. Judi Dench in Mrs Brown

This is a wonderful performance by one of the greatest actresses ever on this planet. Although it may not be the best achievement of the brilliant Dame Judi Dench, she perfectly inhabited this very complex character and nailed the emotional scenes. This is excellent work that is a real joy to watch. It's not fantastic or mindblowing, it's "just" absolutely wonderful.

1. Helena Bonham Carter in The Wings of the Dove

As Kate Croy, Helena Bonham Carter managed to create fascinating, multi-layered and mysterious character that is surely very interesting. I was totally blown away by Helena who gave astonishing work and I am not surprised at all at the amount of love that Helena gets for this great achievement. Haunting, disturbing, beautiful.

So I can proudly announce

that my winner is...

Helena Bonham Carter

in

The Wings of the Dove

Just loved Helena

Final thoughts: Why do I have mixed feelings? This was an enjoyable year with very good performances and mostly not-so-great movies. Afterglow was T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E but Christie made it a bit less intolerable, Mrs Brown was quite boring with Judi Dench who gave a wonderful but definitely not her greatest performance (interesting enough, that was the movie because of which I wanted to do this year), As Good as it Gets was very entertaining and Hunt really elevated the material (I'd say she was the best thing about it). Helena was just thrilling and her movie was very interesting. I'd say Titanic was the best movie in the bunch, a real epic and Kate was really good in it though not brilliant. I would say that this year was worth reviewing because of the fantastic, gutwrenching performance of Helena Bonham Carter and the great Dame Judi. I could live without the rest, though.

The ranking of the reviewed years:

1. 1944
2. 1969
3. 1974
4. 1989
5. 1959
6. 1964
7. 1939
8. 1977
9. 2010
10. 1997
11. 2009
12. 1980
13. 1941
14. 1963
15. 1966
16. 1973
17. 1990
18. 1978
19. 1954
20. 1948
21. 2002
22. 1957
23. 1940
24. 1998

About the next year: I AM SO DAMN SORRY! I've just realised that The Whisperers was removed from Youtube! I'm so f-ing nervous right now. I'm feeling very sorry but I'm going to do another great year instead. I'm so sorry again. Really, really sorry. Basically, the poll was useless and I didn't get the other movies of the years in the poll. So I had to think quick. And I have my year, which is (I promise) a great one. It's an incredibly similar one to 1997 and not only in the types of roles (single mom, royal) but also some people. :)

What do you think?

Helena Bonham Carter in The Wings of the Dove

Helena Bonham Carter received her first Best Actress nomination for playing Kate Croy, an impoversihed woman in the movie, The Wings of the Dove. Although nowadays Judi Dench and Helen Hunt are said to have been favored to win the Oscar, Helena received the most of the critics' awards. She was pretty much a dark horse to win and I think she had her share of fans in the Academy, too. Still, she was the fourth in the voting. She got more votes than Julie Christie, I think but she couldn't really overcome the strength of the other three nominees.

The Wings of the Dove is such a great, stylish movie that has mindblowingly beautiful cinematography and fabulous costumes. Titanic was wonderful but I would have given the technical awards to this movie. OK, I admit being extremely fond of period pieces and this one is not an exception, either. The actors give very proper performances, the directing is quite good and the screenplay is excellently written. All in all, the movie is a real joy to watch and I would gladly see it once again.

I also admit being very fond of Helena Bonham Carter. Some may be tired of her usual "Tim Burton's leading lady" self but I simply love her in every possible way. She's so fun and unusual and I always love the touch subtle humor she adds to her characters. That's why I really liked her The King's Speech and I wouldn't have minded had she won this year. All things considered, I expected something very dark and unusual in this performance.

However, this is not the Helena Bonham Carter, I've known and loved so far. This performance is truly unusual and unorthodox and yet it's very different from her usually unusual movies. this is early Helena Bonham Carter we know from A Room with a View and Howard's End mixed with her newest works. And what an astonishing, breathtaking, gutwrenching combination it is. To put it shortly, this performance is Helena is amazing. Amazing and pitch-perfect in every possible way.

Kate Croy is such a terrific, complex character that's incredibly hard to play for the actress who has to inhabit her. On the one hand, she's very loving and has a certain kindness in herself. On the other hand, she can be extremely manipulative and jealous. Just think about the dancing scene at the Venice carnival when her boyfriend dances with the dying American girl. Helena has a visible disappointment on her face but also she has a kind of "I hope you die soon, bitch." face. Kate's emotions are very hard to interpret and they can be so easily misunderstood by both the performer and the audience.

The thing I admire most about this thrilling, confusing performance is the effective subtlety and the distance that she adds to this character. The fact that Helena made Kate such a mysterious person, made her ten times more interesting. Whenever she's on the screen, there's a kind of electric, sizzling feeling in it. Although she's quite often off-screen, her effect is so so strong that I was haunted by her even when she wasn't there. I wasn't waiting for her to come because I wanted more of her but because she was so great that I couldn't have enough of it.

Furthermore, it's not only about her overall effect but also the fabulous scenes that totally blew me away. One is the previously mentioned one in Venice and the one after that when she revealed the truth to her lover. She seems to be so manipulative and yet I couldn't help feeling really sorry for her character. Helena reveals the darker side of this character so thrillingly and fascinatingly and I was simlpy mesmerized by her.

Also, I must mention the monologue that was her Oscar clip. Boy, they couldn't have chosen a better one if they had tried even harder. Helena delivered the line "I love you more" so heartbreakingly that I was feeling sorry about her. And her very last scene with her lover is simply stunning. She starts crying while she's having sex and her desperation was so close and believable there. It was probably the most miserable moment of this character. I never felt that Kate was a real ice queen, she was just really desperate and I think her last scene confirms my point.

So, to sum up, this is a fantastic, subtle performance by a very unusual actress who's at the top of her game here. As Kate Croy, Helena Bonham Carter managed to create fascinating, multi-layered and mysterious character that is surely very interesting. I was totally blown away by Helena who gave astonishing work and I am not surprised at all at the amount of love that Helena gets for this great achievement. Haunting, disturbing, beautiful.

I so want to be stingy with my 5s but I cannot resist. She's so brilliant.

What do you think?

The Next Year

1997

So the nominees were:

• Helena Bonham Carter in The Wings of the Dove
• Julie Christie in Afterglow
• Judi Dench in Mrs Brown
• Helen Hunt in As Good as It Gets
• Kate Winslet in Titanic

I almost did not do this year but it looked unusually great for the 90s and I haven't covered a year from the 90s for a while, so I decided to take a look at this exciting year.

What do you think? Who's your pick? What are your predictions for the contest?