The Final Conclusion - Best Actress 1966

About the field: Well, I expected more from this year and yet I wasn't disappointed. I liked all of the performances and all of the movies (except for Morgan, which was...). My #1 was such an easy win both here and in real life. It's one of those cases when the actress wins for the career-best, right movie. #2 and #5 was also quite easy, however I had some hard time deciding who should be #3. I'm glad that it turned out this way, which I really did not expect. I was quite certain that my #3 becomes #2 before I wrote my review. However, anything can happen, seasons change. Let's see the ranking:

5. Vanessa Redgrave in Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment

After all, I just feel that I don't have much to say about Vanessa Redgrave in this movie. She's great as usual (and that's going to be rewarded), but the movie is working against her as if she was on a boat during a hurricane.

4. Anouk Aimée in A Man and a Woman

In the end, I can say that I loved Anouk Aimée in this one very much, but sometimes I felt that her performance lacked something and wasn't constantly strong. It's an extremely simple, beautiful, clean and loveable work to which the viewer can easily connect.

3. Ida Kaminska in The Shop on the Main Street

In the end I can say that Ida Kaminska gave an excellent performance, which might be a bit uneven achievement and borderline supporting, but you instantly like the character, care about her and she just breaks your heart in the end. It's a great performance in a movie for the ages.

2. Lynn Redgrave in Georgy Girl

I must say that I was impressed by Lynn Redgrave's performance as the innocent Georgy, who has many layers and a real depth, though sometimes the performance was not constantly strong. Great and effective work, which even moved me, but I guess I wanted a bit more.

1. Elizabeth Taylor in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

The writing flies away, but Taylor's performance stays with me forever, locked up firmly in my mind. An actress, who was able to show another, unknown and much more interesting side of hers, now really got me. I'm under its effect and I can't be sober. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.

 

So I can proudly announce

that my winner is...

Elizabeth Taylor in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Easy win, Ms. Taylor

About the next year: it was so complicated to choose the next year, but after all I picked a brilliant one I really look forward to reviewing. Unfortunately I cannot do posts until next Friday, but after that there's going to be a lot of time. Let's see the clues:

• Dancing queen...
• To Miss with Love (?)
• Don't lose your head! (Sorry)

So what do you think? Any thoughts, request, anything on your mind?

P.S.: Please comment on Ida's profile. :)

Ida Kaminska in The Shop on the Main Street

Ida Kaminska received her only Oscar nomination for playing Rozalie Lautmannová, an old Jewish shopkeeper during the Holocaust in Ján Kádár's movie, The Shop on the Main Street. It's quite amazing that a Ukranian-born stage actress in a Czechoslovakian movie received an Oscar nomination and this is why I love 1966. There was not one, but two foreign-language performances nominated, two English and only one American. Of course, Taylor was winning, but it's a nice achievement of Kaminska anyhow.

The Shop on the Main Street is most definitely the best movie about the Holocaust (along with The Pianist). It really shows the reactions and feelings of everyone and it's free of the sentimentality of Schindler's List (which is terrific too, of course). The Best Foreign Language Film Oscar was more than deserved, it's quite probably one of my favorite winners of the category. Jozef Króner gives a great and very natural performance as Tono, who's the real lead of the movie. It's mostly about him and his feelings.

Therefore, Ida Kaminska is borderline supporting. It's one of those cases, where it's just not obvious where she belongs. The definition of a leading role is (no matter what) that the character should be crucial to the storyline and without that character, the movie would not be the same. Well, that's the role of Rozalie Lautmannová. The screentime is working against her unfortunately, she just doesn't have the opportunity to shine as much as she could have. She's too substantial to be supporting, but not enough for leading.

However, this doesn't mean that she gives a weak performance. Oh no. Kaminska, who was a veteran stage actress, really nailed the character of Mrs. Lautmann, who's nearly deaf and blind, old and dumb. Kaminska showed the dementia of this woman so thrillingly that it's almost heartbreaking just to look at her. The emptiness of her smile just makes you sad and shows the terrible state of this person. However, she can only stick to her memories, traditions and religion. She lives in a word which has disappeared, but which is very alive to her. She has considerable pride, she cares about what people are saying about her. She always furious when Tono wants to open the shop on Saturday. She says "what are they going to think about me?".

It's also a very important factor that Kaminska gets to work with some terrific material. The role of Mrs. Lautmann is an excellent one for any elderly actress. She immediately wins the sympathy of the viewer as Mrs. Lautmann is a very likeable character. Or that might be only pity, but personally, I liked Mrs. Lautmann.

Her chemistry with Jozef Króner is just excellent. They work extremely well together, with Kaminska as the mother and Króner as the son of this relationship. Mrs. Lautmann likes Tono, gives him food, cares about him, but she's not afraid of yelling when he's clumsy or stupid. It's a very interesting relationship as I would not call it a friendship, it's something very weird, but as I said, very interesting.

Kaminska has some really terrific and memorable moments like the one where the truth becomes clear to her and starts praying. It's simply terrific, but I felt that the overall effectiveness of this performance was a bit uneven. When she's great, she's extremely great, but when she does not have much to do, she's not very special. I wouldn't say though that she's weak for a moment. She's only a bit uneven.

In the end I can say that Ida Kaminska gave an excellent performance, which might be a bit uneven achievement and borderline supporting, but you instantly like the character, care about her and she just breaks your heart in the end. It's a great performance in a movie for the ages. Good job.

This seems fair, I think.

What do you think? No official predictions now as the final conclusion comes very soon.

The Next Year

After closing a poll, the conclusion was obvious: you wanted me to do 1966, so let's just go ahead with it. It's a very popular and yet not frequently talked about race. Everyone praises Taylor, but all the nominees have their fans. But let's just start:

1966

So the nominees were:

• Anouk Aimée in A Man and a Woman
• Ida Kaminska in The Shop on the Main Street
• Lynn Redgrave in Georgy Girl
• Vanessa Redgrave in Morgan
• Elizabeth Taylor in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

So what do you think? What are your predictions (the contest is naturally on)? Who's your pick? What's your ranking?

P.S. I am not sure how frequent the posts will be but I'll do my best.