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!

Rachel Roberts in This Sporting Life

British actress Rachel Roberts received her only Academy Award nomination for playing Mrs. Margaret Hammond, a widow having a stormy and tragic relationship with the aggressive and violant rugby player, Frank in This Sporting Life a movie directed by Lindsay Anderson. It's an interesting fact that her husband, Rex Harrison was also among the 1963 nominees in the Best Actor category. And they both went home empty handed, but I don't think that it was much of a shock as when performances like this won, it was always a huge upset (=Simone Signoret in Room at the Top).

This Sporting Life is a typical member of the depressing free cinema movies or as I like to call them, chimney movies. It's quite tragicand mostly raw and tough, however the direction of Lindsay Anderson is great (though it's not as fantastic as If...), the actors give very good and subtle performances even though only the two leads stand out to be honest. Richard Harris' acting is great, though it took me some time to like it or even get used to it (I don't know somehow I felt he was miming Marlon Brando a bit). Nevertheless, I feel he deserved the nomination, but not the win (at least not over Sidney Poitier).

And of course, there's Rachel Roberts. Nowdays, she's not frequently mentioned in discussions about movies in general, despite the fact that in my opinion she's one of the most underappreciated actresses. Her presence is very intense and raw, in my opinion she was born to play these disappointed wives having stormy affairs with violent men (just like in Saturday Night, Sunday Morning, check that one out). She caught the problems of these simple, working-class women with such sympathy and deep understanding, that is quite uncommon among actresses. I never actually felt that it was Rachel Roberts there, acting. I always saw a devastated, ashamed woman, terrified of what she and her life in general is becoming. She's always concerned about her reputation, pride and her children naturally.

The way Roberts captures the grief of this woman is truly outstanding and harrowing. She can never admit that her husband's death (always cleans his boots) was not pure accident and she cannot really live without him or with Frank either. She's doesn't know how to act and this uncertainty is truly heartwrenching to watch. Margaret is a very conventional and simple woman, but Roberts brilliantly shows that she dreams of something better and that she deserves a much better life. Her scene at the restaurant is simply marvellous: she does not know how to act, she's like a scared little animal, but she's simply heartbroken and deeply ashamed of Frank's behaviour. The way she says thank you to the waiter, nearly made me sob: it was so real, so natural and it felt so unforced. Only a real acting genious could do that.

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. I would not say that her presence is magnetic, because this is not that type of acting, she (just like Leslie Caron and Pat Neal) kills with her naturality and realism. Another perfect example is when she puts the Christmas presents into her children's stockings. Her kindness and love shines through the scene and it becomes nearly divine, which fills your sould with feelings that are hard to desribe.

I must also mention her breakdown scene towards the end, when she's confronted by the sheer, ugly truth about her husband in a very merciless way (led by the selfishness and anger of Frank). She's just unforgettable as she does not want to listen, only wants to hide from the world and get her husband back the only one who could make her happy.

Roberts also brilliantly shows how the relationship between her and Richard Harris becomes more intense and complicated. At first she's very hostile to him, but in the end she's just disgusted and terrified of him. When she leaves the restaurant, we know that everything is over.

So, finally I can say that this is the third fantastic performance of this bunch (in a row and it's so great), so it will be really tough to do that ranking in the end. Heartbreaking, natural, simple, unforgettable. Four words that perfectly describe Roberts' acting in This Sporting Life.
This time I can't give you a link unfortunately. But let's discuss in case you've seen this movie. I'm also waiting for some predictions. Tomorrow, I'll do Natalie Wood in the morning and the final conclusion in the evening or the following day.

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.