The Final Conclusion - Best Actress 1996

1996

So the much anticipated ranking is:

5. Kristin Scott Thomas in The English Patient

I have a bit mixed feelings about Kristin Scott Thomas in The English Patient. I loved the beginning and the way she showed Katharine's behaviour but from the middle, this performance becomes a bit insignificant. Yes, it's 100% the movie's fault and yet the performance suffers from it unfortunately. Too bad as Kristin had the potential of becoming fantastic here. Still, her talent and beauty really shines through.

4. Diane Keaton in Marvin's Room

Diane Keaton is quite proper in a mediocre movie and she really stands out. But here comes the question: is this really a great achievement? It's really good and I don't have any bad feelings about her and she actually has grown on me in time. Watching Keaton act is always a delight and this one is no exception.

3. Frances McDormand in Fargo

It's really an OMG that she's only third with this achievement but the performances of the Top 3 are all so fantastic and I have to rank them somehow. Frances McDormand is a real moral compass in Fargo and she gives a beautiful, wonderful performance that is a shining light in the darkness of Fargo. An absolutely astonishing work by a wonderful character actress. I wish I could give out a three way tie.

2. Brenda Blethyn in Secrets and Lies

It causes me physical pain not to pick Brenda but between her and Emily, my pick is obvious, no matter how much I love Brenda's amazing, brilliant, wonderful performance as Cynthia Rose Purley. Yes, that telephone scene itself should have landed the Oscar in her hands and yes, the improvisative skills of Brenda are brilliant but I just can't make her my pick over Emily. I'm really sad.

1. Emily Watson in Breaking the Waves

A spiritual revelation. Emily Watson gives one of the best performances of all time as Bess McNeill. She's so painful, so true and so brilliant as Bess, showing her feelings so incredibly. The purity, the clarity, all the wonders in this role all justify the amount of love that Emily receives from everyone who watches the movie. This is really something for the ages and I'm grateful I could experience such brilliance.

So I can proudly announce

that my winner is...

Emily Watson

in

Breaking the Waves

Easy win.

Final thoughts: Oh my GOOOOD (in a very Janice way)! Three such brilliant performances that they would have made very worthy winners in any year. The thing is that both Frances and Brenda are extremely worthy of an Oscar and it's splendid that Frances won but still... it was Emily's Oscar without any contest. It's such a haunting, harrowing and wonderful performance for the ages. Brilliant, no other good word for her. And truth to be told, I really wanted to resist her. However, this is a strangely bipolar year as Diane and Kristin (two actresses I love more than the others generally) didn't give their best performances despite being very good, occasionally. Making Kristin #5 must be quite surprising but I felt it was Diane who grew on me the most. And at last I finished this year. It took a long-long time, I know but I was very-very busy in the past month. I can't wait to get to more years in the summer.

About the next year: Finally, a year from a very ignored decade of mine (I can't do anything about it as the movies are so hard to find) . But I'm SOOOOO looking forward to it. There will be romance, comedy, drama, peasants, mothers, courtesans, soon-to-be ex-wives and a real star will be born, I think. OK, it's incredibly easy to find out but I'm very-very excited about it. :)

Kristin Scott Thomas in The English Patient

Kristin Scott Thomas received her first (and to date only) Best Actress nomination for playing Katharine Clifton, a woman commiting adultery with a Hungarian count in the Best Picture winner of 1996, The English Patient. No matter how popular The English Patient was, Kristin Scott Thomas didn't have much chance of winning the Oscar that year. There were more popular and bigger performances that equal an Oscar win. Still, I think Scott Thomas was ahead of Diane Keaton and managed to become fourth. I guess if she had been nominated supporting, she wouldn't have had more chance. Had she been nominated there, Lauren Bacall would be an Oscar winner and Juliette Binoche wouldn't have won, I think because they would have split votes.

The English Patient is a movie I should really like, I suppose but I'm not that crazy about it. The fact that it beat Fargo and Secrets and Lies for Best Picture makes me really baffled. Sure, The English Patient is beautifully made and all the technical wins were worthy, I just didn't feel that it was the Best Picture of that great year. To tell the truth, sometimes I even find this movie pathetic. And truth to be told, it's incredibly boring sometimes. Juliette Binoche was a big upset winner beating the way overdue Lauren Bacall. While I haven't seen Bacall, I think Binoche was really worthy of the Oscar. Ralph Fieness is quite good but a win would have been too much.

Kristin Scott Thomas is a very good actress, in my opinion. Her subtle, dignified presence and elegant beauty shine through her roles and therefore all of them are special in a way. I'm thinking about Keeping Mum where she played the unhappy, sarcastic wife of a reverend and the daughter of the adorable murderer played by Maggie Smith. There's a kind of sarcastic edge in that performance and that's what I love the most about her. She's sarcastic and yet she never loses her dignity.

The English Patient is not a very typical performance of hers, so it's quite unusual that she was recognised for something unlike her. However, this is also a very typical Kristin Scott Thomas performance, especially at the very beginning, when we get to know Katharine Clifton as a very cold, sarcastic and unlikeable person. I know that this sounds very awkward and stupid but I really felt this way. Her performance consists of two very separate parts: one before the affair and one after the affair. I, actually, preferred the first one, probably because that showed all the qualities of Kristin Scott Thomas that I really admire.

To those who haven't seen The English Patient I give a later role of Ms. Scott Thomas as an example, namely Sylvia McCordle in Gosford Park. Both ladies are quite unlikeable, bored and snobbish. Kristin Scott Thomas shows all of these qualities so entertainingly and delciously that I just cannot resist her. However, unlike Sylvia, Katharine is actually quite passionate inside and I loved the way Kristin showed this. That's why I'm really happy that Anthony Minghella insisted that she should play Katharine instead of a superstar.

There are small and quite significant parts that underline the most important characteristics of Katharine. For instance, I loved when she was sitting in the desert alone, smoking and then count Almásy came to her.

The weaker part comes when the affair between Katharine and the count begins. The whole performance of Kristin becomes quite uneven and the movie is to blame for it. To tell the truth, 65% of The English Patient is useless for the story and the director wanted way-way to much. As a result, only Juliette Binoche's storyline worked out completely. There were to many things and it was impossible to concentrate on Katharine anymore. I wasn't impressed because I lost my interest gradually. The love affair should have been the main storyline and instead of telling everything about it, the movie says useless things about that guy whose thumbs were cut. What was the purpuse of that character? In the end, her didn't do anything. These stupid things got the spotlight instead of Kristin Scott Thomas who could have been just as brilliant as she was at the beginning. Her movie actually stood in her way of becoming amazing. There were some great scenes (like the ones in the cave) but I was never totally blown away.

So, I have really mixed feelings about Kristin Scott Thomas in The English Patient. I loved the beginning and the way she showed Katharine's behaviour but from the middle, this performance becomes painfully insignificant. Yes, it's 100% the movie's fault and yet the performance suffers from it unfortunately. Too bad as Kristin had the potential of becoming fantastic here.

What do you think?

The Next Year

1996

So the nominees were:

• Brenda Blethyn in Secrets and Lies
• Diane Keaton in Marvin's Room
• Frances McDormand in Fargo
• Kristin Scott Thomas in The English Patient
• Emily Watson in Breaking the Waves

Doing this year was a spontaneous decision but it was requested once and I feel like doing it, so let's see whom I'll pick.

What do you think? What are your predictions for my ranking? Who's your pick? What's your ranking?

Note: I will only start reviewing next weekend.