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!

Patricia Neal in Hud

Patricia Neal received her first nomination and only Oscar before and after a series of unfortunate events in her life for playing Alma, the independent and down-to-earth housekeeper in Martin Ritt's classic movie, Hud. That year she was clearly the critics' favorite, but I'm not that sure if she was the front-runner for the Oscar win. Nevertheless, she got the award despite the fact that many people consider this a supporting performance (she was nominated for BSA at the Golden Globe) . In addition, her role is not the most baity ever, so it's really surprising that they went with her.

Hud is great movie (well if Larry McMurthy is associated with a movie, it cannot be bad) about a farmer family whose members have to get rid of the cattle suffering from the foot and mouth disease. Also they have to deal with the age of Homer (Melvyn Douglas), who's getting weaker and weaker. Hud includes four brilliant performances by Paul Newman, Brandon de Wilde, Melvyn Douglas (one of the most deserved Best Supporting Actor wins ever) and of course, Patricia Neal. I'm very upset that it was not nominated for Best Picture as it seems an obvious choice to me. However, the direction of Martin Ritt is great (as always) and deserving of the nomination.

For the first time, I was mainly amazed by the acting of Paul Newman and almost ignored the others. This time I found him to be a bit underwhelming (still great), so I could concentrate on Patricia Neal and by this I found such amazing little things and nuances in her performance, that I did not notice for the first time (or couldn't). It's interesting that although many people say she's supporting (Neal too to tell the truth), I have never heard ANYONE complaining about her lead win. It's interesting, but this time I became 100% certain that she's leading. Actually Paul Newman doesn't have that much screentime either (Melvyn Douglas and Brandon de Wilde have tha most I think and Neal has about 22-23 minutes on screen), but her presence has the strenght of a title role. And this is probably the greatest thing about her. Her impact on you is so intense that you can also feel it when she's not on screen and her 22 minutes seem like an hour to you at least. However, to tell the truth I hate counting the screentime, because for me it's not about the seconds and minutes (it's a useless thing to count).

I loved her subtle, yet hard-hitting character shining through the tough and raw personality of her character, Alma (trivia: her name means apple in Hungarian; it's also an interesting fact that she drinks Hungarian wine). She always says that she can take care of herself, but Neal shows very well how Alma tries to hide her insecurity from others (mostly from Hud) and her attraction towards Hud. She seems to be much more independent than accepting Hud's "compliments" and offers, but in fact we know that she just wants to avoid another disappointment in her life (which she had perviously experienced with her husband) and tries to escape desperately, but again she finds the same people everywhere.

We also must not ignore the humor of her performance and her brilliant line-readings (like when she says that her husband was only good because he scratched her back). She never tries to play the cheeky servant, she's just a simple, yet very stubborn, brave woman. I can even say that she's one of the strongest, yet vulnerable characters ever written. She's completely three-dimensional, totally believable person with natural actions and fears inside her soul. The best scene of her performance is probably the one where Hud tries attacks her but tries to escape from him desperately: here she tells so much without saying a word as She shows how scared Alma is, but Neal also suggests that this may not be the first time that something like this had already happened to her.

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. Only Heath Ledger's performance comes to my mind from Brokeback Mountain even though the characters are very different. Both hit you hard with their subtlety like a bus and grab you and don't let you take your eyes off them as they are so brilliant.

Alma's last scenes, where she says goodbye to Lonnie simply gave me chills. You can NEVER see Alma crying, she's very proud and doesn't let you feel her weakness. She just breaks your heart and fills you with hope that Alma might make it somewhere else. Also, her scene with Hud where she reveals that they could have become closer as she was attracted to him is unforgettable, it nearly burns you.

OK, to sum up I was very-very impressed once again by a fantastic performance and just like Leslie Caron, Neal was 100% realistic, understandable and a real treat to watch. Amazing feat in an amazing movie and is worth of the amount of love that it receives.

Watch Hud with me here and let's discurss the movie and Neal's performance together. I am waiting for the comments and you can still predict (I accept it until the final conclusion and then we can see how many rounds you needed to find out). I think I just finished my longest review if I'm not mistaken.

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.