The Final Conclusion - Best Actress 1963

About the field: three terrific and two weaker, but entertaining performances. These five actresses all impressed me to a degree, so I'm definitely shocked that this year is so rarely talked about. These performances are definitely worth watching and reviewing and I hope you watched the movies too, when you could. We saw five simple, working class women dealing with everyday problems: out-of-wedlock pregnancies (in three of the cases) or a violent man's love (in two cases). Despite the similar natures of the characters, the five ladies could not have been more diffenrent. This is actually a very exciting race, and each performance and movie was worth the time. A true pleasant surprise (which I expected a bit). The ranking was really difficult for me and only the #3 was obvious for me (and eventually #1). So here it is:

5. Shirley MacLaine in Irma La Douce
During the movie I was quite impressed and I liked her, but while I was writing the review I suddenly had complaints, doubts and I finished it sourly, struggling to go on. Too bad, as I wanted to love Shirley and I did in a way, it's her performance just lacked something which would have made it special. Still, she's very entertaining and sometimes even hilarious.

4.Natalie Wood in Love with the Proper Stranger
Wood's charm always helps her performance a great deal, because she's so beautiful and radiant, that you can never take you eyes off her. I liked her a lot during the movie, but found flaws in it when I was writing the review about it. I still appreciated it a lot and it certainly impressed me to a degree. But again it's not totally enough to totally satisfy me.

3.Rachel Roberts in This Sporting Life
Roberts is always in control of the character technically, although her performance mostly relies on the emotions and the impact on the audience. This is one of the most effective performances I've ever seen and the most brilliant (and smart) thing about is that you really don't recognize at first how tricky Roberts is with you, the viewer.Heartbreaking, natural, simple, unforgettable.

2. Patricia Neal in Hud

Neal uses her face and mostly her eyes to tell the story of Alma. Yes she speaks much, but she doesn't tell much with words, it's her facial expressions that let you inside her mind. I cannot really think about any performances like hers among actresses. She hits you hard with her subtlety like a bus, grab you and doesn't let you take your eyes off her.

1. Leslie Caron in The L-Shaped Room
This is not performance with a nice packing and absolutely no content in it (I can say numerous hailed performances lacking content), this is hundred per cent reality. Brutally real, brutally heartbreaking. One of the truly great achievemnents I've ever seen. This is Acting with capital A. The most subtle dynamite. Very few performers are able to achieve such greatness.

 

So I can proudly announce that my winner for 1963 is...
Leslie Caron

in

The L-Shaped Room

Yes, yes, Ms. Caron.

Also worth of a nomination that year: Ingrid Thulin in The Silence, Klári Tolnay in Skylark, Gunnel Lindblom in The Silence

So, our next year is also a secret that I will reveal tomorrow, but of course I can give you clues (now I give four).

• Comedy, why not?
• Blondies suck...
• Viva La France!
• Please don't get mad!

Leslie Caron in The L-Shaped Room

Charming French actress Leslie Caron received her second Best Actress nomination exactly 10 years after her first one for playing a lonely, pregnant young French woman in Bryan Forbes' black and white kitchen sink drama, The L-Shaped Room. She also received the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama (over a LOT of other nominees check it out). Although she received the prestigeous award, I don't think that she was a big contender for the Oscar (or was she, someone should tell me who's the front-runner that year) as the race was probably among the three American nominees.

The L-Shaped Room is a bit watered, but still harrowing (and typical) kitchen sink drama set in Britain in the 1960s and it focuses on the miseries of simple, working-class people, showing complex relationships and also offering great performances by the actors (and boy I just love these films). Brock Peters probably (not probably, definitely) should have received a nomination for playing the neighbour of Lesile Caron, but we should not ignore the others either as they gave magnificent, strong and memorable performances.

However, nearly all the credit goes down to the brilliant Leslie Caron, who completely holds the movie together with her subtle (very-very subtle) brilliance and charm. Even in her first scenes, we can nearly touch her inconfidence and doubts about her future and life in general. However only we are shown of her upcoming brilliance (and boy that's something) when she considers abortion for the first time. That scene alone is so heartwrenching that you instantly feel sympathy for this poor young girl, but she also mercilessly shows the mistakes and flaws of this woman.

And after she's getting less and less isolated and makes some friends, her performance is just getting better and better. She gets to know a young, unsuccessful writer, Toby with whom she starts a very odd type of relationship, with lots of tension and conflicts. The scene after the party when they are kissing, I literally felt the lips of Caron, it was unbelievable.But even with the development of the character, Jane's still inconfident and does not have much confidence in anyone. When she meets the father of her unborn child, Caron creates an emotionally insanely intense scene, where she reveals that her virginity bothered her so much that it's the only reason she slept with him. She'sthe most subtle dynamite.

And the scene, where she gets to the hospital for the first time is just the icing on the cake (but also the highlight of her whole performance and the movie). That scene almost killed me, and right then I had no doubt how many Meryls I'm going to give to Caron. There are not many performances which are so subtle and yet they get under your skin and impress you immensely. I can only think of Dame Edith Evans in The Whisperers (another Bryan Forbes movie, so it's no co-incidence) as such an actress, who amazes you with such (I dare to say) repressed acting. And their characters have a lot in common: both are lonely, isolated, but they both share a deep desire for a better life. The character of Dame Edith finds it in her fantasies and memories, however life was not that merciful on Caron's Jane. She's a perfectly realistic person still longing for something better, which she cannot have. And this is the heartbreaking truth that completely elevates both the performance of Caron and the movie itself.

So to sum up, this is not performance with a nice packing and absolutely no content in it (I can say numerous hailed performances lacking content), this is hundred per cent reality. Brutally real, brutally heartbreaking. One of the truly great achievemnents I've ever seen. This is Acting with capital A. This rating sytem has officially failed.






Watch The L-Shaped Room (and do so please) here and then I hope we can discuss this performance and your opinion in many comments.

The Next Year

I'm back from my vacation so we can begin our next year. Well, unfortunately it's no secret that it's 1963, probably one of the most rarely talked about races ever.I've seen only two nominees so far and both of them more than 2 years ago. However, I'm very excited to re-watch them and see the new ones. I really don't know whom I'm going to pick and how the ranking will look like, but that makes it more exciting. (I predict lots of four Meryls)


The nominees were:

• Leslie Caron in The L-Shaped Room
• Shirley MacLaine in Irma La Douce
• Patricia Neal in Hud
• Rachel Roberts in This Sporting Life
  
• Natalie Wood in Love with the Proper Stranger

So, who's your pick? Who's your prediction? If anyone predicticts my exact ranking will get a special mention in the final conclusion. Last time Fritz predicted the whole ranking, so congrats:)

We should try watching these movies together, so I will send links (just click on the title of the movie at the beginning of the entry) in order to discuss them together.