Celebration time!

It's a wonderful accident that I got to the 200th review when this blog turned 2 years old. Moreover, I started this blog with a review of Gaslight and Angela Lansbury had her birthday yesterday. So the remember the reviews and the lots of fun, let's honor my winners once again:

The brilliant winners were:

Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia

Fernanda Montenegro in Central Station

Audrey Hepburn in The Nun's Story

Leslie Caron in The L-Shaped Room

Joan Fontaine in Rebecca

Barbara Stanwyck in Sorry, Wrong Number

Gena Rowlands in A Woman Under the Influence

Julianne Moore in

Far from Heaven

Ingrid Bergman in Autumn Sonata

Special award winner :)

Jane Fonda in Coming Home

Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind

Judy Garland in A Star is Born

Michelle Pfeiffer in The Fabulous Baker Boys

Kathy Bates in Misery

Elizabeth Taylor in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Jane Fonda in They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

Glenda Jackson in A Touch of Class

Sissy Spacek in Coal Miner's Daughter

Bette Davis in The Little Foxes

Natalie Portman in Black Swan

Diane Keaton in Annie Hall

Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins

Anna Magnani in Wild is the Wind

Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity

Helena Bonham Carter in The Wings of the Dove

Penélope Cruz in Volver

Liza Minnelli in Cabaret

Julie Walters in Educating Rita

Emily Watson in Breaking the Waves

Irene Dunne in The Awful Truth

Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Sigourney Weaver in Aliens

Isabelle Adjani in The Story of Adele H.

Halle Berry in Monster's Ball

Charlize Theron in Monster

Sophia Loren in Two Women

Mary McDonnell in Passion Fish

Anne Bancroft in The Miracle Worker

Jennifer Jones in The Song of Bernadette

Liv Ullmann in Face to Face

Jane Fonda in Klute

And in the end, a very carefully worked on, brand new ranking (with lots of changes):

1. Jane Fonda in Klute
2. Diane Keaton in Annie Hall
3. Ingrid Bergman in Autumn Sonata
4. Emily Watson in Breaking the Waves
5. Sophia Loren in Two Women
6. Elizabeth Taylor in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
7. Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind
8. Liza Minnelli in Cabaret
9. Michelle Pfeiffer in The Fabulous Baker Boys
10. Audrey Hepburn in The Nun's Story
11. Jane Fonda in They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
12. Jane Fonda in Coming Home
13. Natalie Portman in Black Swan
14. Charlize Theron in Monster
15. Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's
16. Halle Berry in Monster's Ball
17. Sissy Spacek in In the Bedroom
18. Leslie Caron in The L-Shaped Room
19. Brenda Blethyn in Secrets and Lies
20. Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity
21. Penélope Cruz in Volver
22. Liza Minnelli in The Sterile Cuckoo
23. Judy Garland in A Star is Born
24. Anne Bancroft in The Miracle Worker
25. Bette Davis in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
26. Sissy Spacek in Coal Miner's Daughter
27. Sigourney Weaver in Aliens
28. Jennifer Jones in The Song of Bernadette
29. Ellen Burstyn in Resurrection
30. Liv Ullmann in Face to Face
31. Gena Rowlands in A Woman Under the Influence
32. Julianne Moore in Far from Heaven
33. Bette Davis in The Little Foxes
34. Glenda Jackson in A Touch of Class
35. Kathy Bates in Misery
36. Diane Lane in Unfaithful
37. Jane Fonda in Julia
38. Joan Fontaine in Rebecca
39. Anna Magnani in Wild is the Wind
40. Sissy Spacek in Carrie
41. Helena Bonham Carter in The Wings of the Dove
42. Frances McDormand in Fargo
43. Fernanda Montenegro in Central Station
44. Michelle Williams in Blue Valentine
45. Jane Fonda in The Morning After
46. Ellen Burstyn in The Exorcist
47. Barbara Stanwyck in Sorry, Wrong Number
48. Katharine Hepburn in Long Day's Journey Into Night
49. Geraldine Page in Interiors
50. Ellen Burstyn in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
51. Maggie Smith in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
52. Isabelle Adjani in The Story of Adele H.
53. Julie Christie in McCabe & Mrs. Miller
54. Natalie Wood in Splendor in the Grass
55. Jean Simmons in The Happy Ending
56. Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins
57. Julie Walters in Educating Rita
58. Judi Dench in Notes on a Scandal
59. Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth
60. Katharine Hepburn in Suddenly, Last Summer
61. Simone Signoret in Room at the Top
62. Glenda Jackson in Sunday Bloody Sunday
63. Kim Stanley in Seance on a Wet Afternoon
64. Pauline Collins in Shirley Valentine
65. Irene Dunne in Love Affair
66. Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada
67. Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia
68. Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
69. Patricia Neal in Hud
70. Ingrid Bergman in Gaslight
71. Mary McDonnell in Passion Fish
72. Catherine Deneuve in Indochine
73. Meryl Streep in Silkwood
74. Faye Dunaway in Network
75. Anne Bancroft in The Pumpkin Eater
76. Meryl Streep in Postcards from the Edge
77. Jessica Lange in Music Box
78. Lynn Redgrave in Georgy Girl
79. Jennifer Lawrence in Winter's Bone
80. Goldie Hawn in Private Benjamin
81. Claudette Colbert in Since You Went Away
82. Carey Mulligan in An Education
83. Renée Zellweger in Bridget Jones's Diary
84. Barbara Stanwyck in Ball of Fire
85. Gabourey Sidibe in Precious: Based On the Novel Push by Sapphire
86. Judi Dench in Mrs Brown
87. Irene Dunne in The Awful Truth
88. Geraldine Page in Sweet Bird of Youth
89. Emma Thompson in Howards End
90. Greer Garson in Mrs. Parkington
91. Susan Sarandon in Lorenzo's Oil
92. Olivia de Havilland in Hold Back the Dawn
93. Mary Tyler Moore in Ordinary People
94. Susan Hayward in I Want to Live!
95. Marsha Mason in The Goodbye Girl
96. Rachel Roberts in This Sporting Life
97. Jill Clayburgh in An Unmarried Woman
98. Diahann Carroll in Claudine
99. Liv Ullmann in The Emigrants
100. Doris Day in Pillow Talk
101. Irene Dunne in I Remember Mama
102. Helen Hunt in As Good as it Gets
103. Cicely Tyson in Sounder
104. Valerie Perrine in Lenny
105. Bette Davis in Mr. Skeffington
106. Sophia Loren in Marriage Italian Style
107. Nicole Kidman in Rabbit Hole
108. Faye Dunaway in Chinatown
109. Helen Mirren in The Queen
110. Kate Winslet in Little Children
111. Barbara Stanwyck in Stella Dallas
112. Kate Winslet in Titanic
113. Jessica Tandy in Driving Miss Daisy
114. Jane Wyman in Johnny Belinda
115. Greta Garbo in Camille
116. Lee Remick in Days of Wine and Roses
117. Shirley MacLaine in Terms of Endearment
118. Marlee Matlin in Children of a Lesser God
119. Dorothy Dandridge in Carmen Jones
120. Bette Davis in Dark Victory
121. Anouk Aimée in A Man and A Woman
122. Geraldine Page in Summer and Smoke
123. Michelle Pfeiffer in Love Field
124. Jane Wyman in Magnificent Obsession
125. Louise Fletcher in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest
126. Annette Bening in The Kids Are All Right
127. Piper Laurie in The Hustler
128. Deborah Kerr in Separate Tables
129. Luise Rainer in The Good Earth
130. Diane Keaton in Something's Gotta Give
131. Ida Kaminska in The Shop on the Main Street
132. Debra Winger in Terms of Endearment
133. Greta Garbo in Ninotchka
134. Maggie Smith in Travels with My Aunt
135. Marie-Christine Barraul in Cousin Cousine
136. Carol Kane in Hester Street
137. Keisha Castle-Hughes in Whale Rider
138. Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina
139. Anne Bancroft in The Turning Point
140. Shirley MacLaine in Some Came Running
141. Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman
142. Helen Mirren in The Last Station
143. Olivia de Havilland in The Snake Pit
144. Jane Alexander in Testament
145. Ingrid Bergman in Joan of Arc
146. Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story
147. Greer Garson in Blossoms in the Dust
148. Joan Fontaine in The Constant Nymph
149. Marsha Mason in Cinderella Liberty
150. Anjelica Huston in The Grifters
151. Isabelle Adjani in Camille Claudel
152. Sissy Spacek in Crimes of the Heart
153. Nicole Kidman in The Hours
154. Elizabeth Taylor in Raintree County
155. Elizabeth Taylor in Suddenly, Last Summer
156. Natalie Wood in Love with the Proper Stranger
157. Vanessa Redgrave in Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment
158. Janet Suzman in Nicholas and Alexandra
159. Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge!
160. Greer Garson in Goodbye Mr. Chips
161. Ingrid Bergman in For Whom the Bell Tolls
162. Joanne Woodward in Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams
163. Judi Dench in Iris
164. Jean Arthur in The More the Merrier
165. Janet Gaynor in A Star is Born
166. Barbra Streisand in The Way We Were
167. Diane Keaton in Marvin's Room
168. Kristin Scott Thomas in The English Patient
169. Shirley MacLaine in The Turning Point
170. Ginger Rogers in Kitty Foyle: The Natural History of a Woman
171. Greer Garson in Madame Curie
172. Joanne Woodward in The Three Faces of Eve
173. Glenda Jackson in Hedda
174. Rosalind Russell in Auntie Mamie
175. Julie Christie in Afterglow
176. Kathleen Turner in Peggy Sue Got Married
177. Diana Ross in Lady Sings the Blues
178. Joanne Woodward in Mr. & Mrs. Bridge
179. Meryl Streep in One True Thing
180. Joan Fontaine in Suspicion
181. Geneviève Bujold in Anne of the Thousand Days
182. Grace Kelly in The Country Girl
183. Ellen Burstyn in Same Time, Next Year
184. Deborah Kerr in Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison
185. Shirley MacLaine in Irma La Douce
186. Lana Turner in Peyton Place
187. Vanessa Redgrave in Mary, Queen of Scots
188. Debbie Reynolds in The Unsinkable Molly Brown
189. Emily Watson in Hilary and Jackie
190. Bette Davis in The Letter
191. Martha Scott in Our Town
192. Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side
193. Talia Shrie in Rocky
194. Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love
195. Naomi Watts in 21 Grams
196. Samantha Morton in In America
197. Gena Rowlands in Gloria
198. Renée Zellweger in Chicago
199. Salma Hayek in Frida
200. Ann-Margret in Tommy

The Final Conclusion - Best Actress 1971

1971

So the much anticipated ranking is:

5. Vanessa Redgrave in Mary, Queen of Scots

Although I cannot deny that Vanessa's radiant presence impressed me, I cannot say the same thing about her performance as Mary Stuart. For some reason, I felt that she was lost in this character despite the fact that she completely understood this character. I had no connection to the character whatsoever but there's still something about Vanessa that holds me back from being really negative about her here.

4. Janet Suzman in Nicholas and Alexandra

Janet added some irresistable pride and even a bit of arrogancy to this character that never ceased to impress me and eventually, I don't have negative thoughts about her, I'm just disappointed and a bit angry about the wasted potential. It's almost haunting work and really great, it just could have been even better.

3. Glenda Jackson in Sunday Bloody Sunday

Glenda Jackson is just excellent as Alex Greville in Sunday Bloody Sunday. She shows lots of aspects of this character and she nails all the emotions of this character. Although I was never totally amazed by her, I was impressed by her work, especially in the scenes where she showed the demons of Alex.

2. Julie Christie in McCabe and Mrs. Miller

Despite the obvious limitations of the screenplay, Julie Christie was able to put on a wonderful, unforgettable and otherworldy performance as Constance Miller, the opium-addicted madam. Although it's a very unusual character for Julie, she played her exceptionally, making this one of her most memorable efforts on the screen.

1. Jane Fonda in Klute

I hope there was no question about it. First, I wanted to write a review only with the sentence "Best performance ever. Period." BUT then I thought that it wouldn't say enough about this stirring work of Jane and wouldn't be able to communicate what I felt as a viewer. I was moved, I cried, I even laughed at the small hints of humour that make her work even more amazing. Honestly, I just want to keep praising her and say as many superlatives about her as I can.

 

So I can proudly announce

my 40th winner is...

Jane Fonda

in

Klute

The best of the best.

Final thoughts: A good year. There wasn't much suspense as Jane killed her competition (plus she became my third double winner after Barbara Stanwyck and Liz Taylor). However, Julie and Glenda were also great and in another year, Julie would have got much closer to winning. Janet Suzman was the pleasant surprise for me and Vanessa was an unexpected disappointment for me. Really, there isn't much to say about this year as Jane is so easily the best. I admit that the others didn't have a chance though I was trying to be as impartial as possible.

Omissions: Ruth Gordon in Harold and Maude; Mari Törőcsik in Love, Lili Darvas in Love; Glenda Jackson in Mary, Queen of Scots

About the next year: I know I owe some of you years to do but given my circumstances, I'm just not able to search for films so I'm going to do a readily available year. I'll decide next week.

What do you think? Any thoughts on your mind?

Happy birthday Amazing Angela!

I know that I don't do this usually but I feel like doing it now. Happy Birthday to Amazing Angela Lansbury, one of my favorite actresses! I cannot write a leading review about her so it's a chance to write something about this treasure of the film industry. No matter how great Patty Duke was, in my heart, Angela won the Oscar for her Mrs. Iselin (not to mention all those Emmys for Murder, She Wrote). Here's why:

Jane Fonda in Klute - 200th review

"I hate to look at my movies because I always want to do them over again. [...] Klute is different. I nailed that." Jane Fonda

Once upon a time, there was a twelve-year-old who got a book as a Christmas present, whose title was 1001 Films You Must See Before You Die. He decided to watch those films and started to watch these movies wherever could get them. He first caught a movie called Klute. Although he didn't know that much about acting or movies for that matter, he was just stunned by the performance of the lead actress, called Jane Fonda. He was especially amazed by a scene where she was breaking down listening to a tape. Something was happening: the beginning of a special, pure love for this woman he didn't know much about. That's when the future was sealed. It always remains a special moment...

There are Oscar nominees. There are Oscar winners, too. But there's another elite group which has a huge, loving fanbase and its members are called Best Actress winners. There are undeserved Best Actress wins. There are well-deserved Best Actress wins. And there are earth-shattering, obvious Best Actress wins that fit all the criteria of a Best Actress win because a) they come at the right time, b) for a stunning performance, c) at the peak of the actresses' career. For example Vivien Leigh, Meryl Streep, Liza Minnelli and (most recently) Natalie Portman belong to this elite group and when such a win doesn't happen (see Michelle Pfeiffer), it becomes one of the most hated and criticised decisions of the Academy. Thank God Jane Fonda belongs to the former category whose win is one of the most popular and obvious decisions of the Academy. Everybody loves her performance (OK, almost everybody but let me imagine that everybody adores her), she got it at the right time, right place, for the right movie. Katharine Hepburn used to say that always the right actors win the Oscars... for the wrong roles. Although I agree with that statement, Jane Fonda is such a delightful exception of it.

Jane's brilliant autobiography My Life So Far tells so much about how much hard work she put into this part and how hard it was for her to play Bree Daniels, a prostitute who's an aspiring actress and model who never seems to get out of her depressing circumstances. Bree is an actress in every possible way. She's an actress looking for part but she's also constantly putting on a facade as a defense mechanism against her horrible life. In a way she's similar to Ingrid Bergman's Charlotte Andergast from Autumn Sonata who's escaping the real problems by acting and pretending. However, I can see that Bree is trying to change but never gets the chance that everybody deserves. In a way, it's even more disturbing to see her than Precious, for example. Precious had a shining light in her life and had to chance to change and make her dreams come true but Bree Daniels (despite her better financial status) constantly gets the feedback of not being worthy of making it out of being a prosititue and having to struggle.

That being said, Jane has put an incredibly amount of work into this character and her dedication to this woman is just remarkable. It's a fair question if I would appreciate her this much if I wasn't such a crazy fan of Jane and haven't read about her preparations (I would, I actually always thought highly of this work). However, the lots of research is not something that's able to amaze me. Far from it. The actress should add some substance and depth to her character and then the hard work just shines through even more and that's what happened with Jane in Klute. Such a role cannot be played effortlessly and it can never seem easy and yet you never see her sweating and struggling with this character despite its real difficulties. It's very complicated to show more layers of a character but Jane was somehow able to reveal all the depth and the complete personality of Bree. There was a real character there who came to life and there's a sense of continuity about her with which you can feel that she had had a life before the movie and she would go on living a life. The story of the movie Klute is just one episode of her life and in fact I'm trying to understand why Klute is the title of the movie and not Bree. I suppose it might suggest that there's a chapter in the long book of Bree's life that's called Klute because just be completely honest, this movie is exclusively about Jane Fonda's character. It's nothing against Donald Sutherland, it's just that Jane gets such a fabulous part and makes such an impression (without being selfish in her acting) that it's impossible for anyone to top her.

Another thing I admire about this work is that Jane redefined the image of prostitutes on the big screen. She makes Bree neither a typical hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold character nor a totally depressing person. She's not a Lulu Baines-type glamour puss, either. Bree is just a real human being, with flesh and blood and one can almost hear her heartbeats (especially in that tape scene!). Bree has her ups and downs but I like those subtle moments of relief and occasional humor in this performance. Playing a prostitue believably is one of the most difficult challenges and Jane fulfilled her task it wonderfully.

As a music lover, what I appreciate about this performance is that it's just like a carefully composed but very inspired concerto and Jane gets to play all the instruments and uses them to highlight different layers and depth of this character. Each and every one of them sounds different and yet when they are together, it's so harmonic. Jane Fonda's greatness here can be compared to the genious classical composers. The technical part is naturally awesome but it's the emotionality and passion that puts it above all the others and by this, Jane brings about a cathartic experience. Each and every moment is just stunning as it is and no false note ruins the perfection of this performance. Jane herself has spoken many times about a human being's inability of being perfect with which I wholeheartedly agree so I may not be supposed to use the term perfect. However, for me Jane's performance in Klute is one of the few things that came closest to total, almost otherworldly perfection.

We first see Bree when she's at a casting and people just walk by her and say that she has funny hands. The song Mr. Celofane came to my mind about that scene. It was a flawless beginning which suggests that we're about to witness some great acting. It's a beautiful shot in the picture (and brilliantly played by Jane) when the girl next to her is being praised and she's trying to grab the attention of the people but she remains on the side of the picture, ignored. But not by the viewer. In this scene only, she makes Bree so terribly human that it becomes impossible not to sympathize with her. There's another audiotion scene where Bree's acting in a very strange way, using a funny accent. To me, Bree is not a mediocre actress (some might interpret that scene as the justification of just that), she's just incapable of giving her best self and as a result, none of her full potential is shown. It's very tricky because when she's telling a story to the old client of hers, Bree's incredible, too, not only Jane. Right there, Bree gets the boost and the love she would deserve and despite the obvious lie, it's the only place where Bree can give her best self (apart from the meetings with the psychiatrist). At other places, there's a very erotic and sexy atmosphere in the scenes with Bree's men. The first act is so seductive: Jane seduces not only her john, but also the viewer. There's a really unusual sexual vibration around her that really drove me crazy. It was a bit voyeuristic feeling, I just couldn't take my eyes off her because of her sexuality.

Jane's chemistry with Donald Sutherland is just unbelievable. They make up a fabulous, very real couple as Bree and John, despite the fact that they have different personalities (and they have different acting styles as performers). Next to John, Bree becomes very different, like a scared little girl and the way she approaches him is so carefully and fantastically played by Jane without looking too calculating. Jane plays wonderfully in the scene where Bree asks to sleep at John's apartment.

The (improvised) scenes with the pyschiatrist are just unbelievable and Jane gives a masterclass of acting. Those are the few moments when Bree lets her own emotions come to the surface and she really tells what she feels. Jane's great instincts as an actress really pay off here. It's incredible how well she was able to communicate Bree's feelings. She opens up to another woman (actually Jane asked Alan J. Pakula to make her a female psychiatrist) and I felt there was some kind of a universal understanding between them.

However, let's not forget that Klute is an exciting, fierce thirller (as well as a fascinating character study) and Jane nails the feeling of being terrified (as well). It's not the usual screaming and wide-eyed faces but she shows true fear, which comes through most brilliantly in the scene where she's facing the man who's responsible for the deaths of her friends. That's a sequence I've cherished since I first saw her. Having seen and being older, now I feel the true weight of that scene. Jane said that while doing that scene, she was thinking about the ladies whose dead bodies she saw at a morgue she visited during her preparation for this movie. Jane communicated that feeling thrillingly. It's unbelievable and I actually experienced the same feelings that she did. I started to cry the way she did in the movie. I saw so much misery and suffering on the screen and it was completely unbearable and harrowing to see Bree break down. It was all so human and believable. I was just completely taken by the pure emotions. She's just working with her face - and the result: just unforgettable.

You know, I've already written twice as much as usual and still wasn't able to mention the iconic cat food scene or her wonderful line "Don't feel bad about losing your virtue!". It tells so many things about her character and it deepens her personality even more. I could actually write a novel with the title "Jane Fonda in Klute". I have so much to say and tell about her. The amazement that I feel when I'm watching her. I can only show bits and pieces and highlight some parts, which feels rather awkward because I was previously praising how whole this performance is.

First, I wanted to write a review only with the sentence "Best performance ever. Period." BUT then I thought that it wouldn't say enough about this stirring work of Jane and wouldn't be able to communicate what I felt as a viewer. I was moved, I cried, I even laughed at the small hints of humour that make her work even more amazing. Honestly, I just want to keep praising her and say as many superlatives about her as I can. Yes, I'm overly enthusiastic and this is certainly a love letter to the wonderful Jane but when you get to see such an amazing performance it would be a crime not to keep on praising her. I couldn't have found a better work to mark this significant point of my reviews. I'm just grateful for having been able to watch her, see her, feel her and experience Jane's brilliance.

It's pathetic to grade a performance if it goes beyond a certain point of greatness but Jane went even beyond that. She deserves as much praise as possible.

What do you think?

Janet Suzman in Nicholas and Alexandra

Janet Suzman received her only Best Actress nomination to date for playing Empress Alexandra, the wife of Tsar Nicholas II in the Best Picture nominated epic, Nicholas and Alexandra. If you think about the fact that she was nominated in the Most Promising Newcomer category at the Golden Globes, you could be quite surprised that she received this nomination but if you look at the role, you can see that it's something that the Academy usually goes for. In the supporting category. Such a role in a leading field is not that much of a contender anymore. While as a supporting role, wives shine the screen and add lots of loveability to the movie, in a leading role they can rarely carry a movie (and receive more Oscar love than a nomination). Add that this movie was Janet Suzman's first big screen role and you'll easily see that she wasn't much of a contender (especially in a field with probably the most famous and respected actresses of the time).

Nicholas and Alexandra surprised me. Although I was a bit afraid of watching it as I'm not much of a fan of epics, this one was a most pleasant surprise. First of all, the art direction and the costumes are unbelievably beautiful. The direction is very well-done, the screenplay is well-written (well-done is the perfect expression to describe this movie). The performances are very good and I was especially surprised to see Sir Laurence Olivier who was excellent in his tiny part. Michael Jayston is fine as Nicholas, I just have some issues with him, especially the way he shows Nicholas' shock (he's really wide-eyed). Overall, it's a really great film but I'm not sure if I want to watch it more than once.

I really don't know what to think about Janet Suzman. This was the only movie of hers that I've seen but from what I saw, she appears to be a really talented actress. I usually like to say a few words about the performer herself and compare the performance to other works of hers but since I cannot do that, I have to say that I'd very much like to more of her movies.

Janet Suzman's part as Empress Alexandra is a quite underwritten one but I think Janet did her best to make her a real human being. Alexandra is a very conservative and proud woman who firmly believes that the power of her husband comes from God and therefore he's much superior. It's interesting, though, that she didn't make Alexandra snobbish or even that cold, actually there're lots of deep feelings inside her. Most of all, she feels guilty about her son's sickness (haemophilia), which he inherited from her and she becomes overly protective of her son. However, the appearance of Rasputin, a very strange and scary turns her world upside down. The most moving parts of her performance (in my opinion) do not come in the end with the imprisonment and the execution but at the beginning when she's hoping to get some kind of an absolution for her sins and for what she caused to her own son. It's really moving and heart-breaking the witness all the sufferings of this woman as despite the occasional unlikeability of hers, you just develop a connection with her. Personally, I felt lots of sympathy for this woman who was fighting for her family, her husband and most of all, her son.

Alexandra's relationship with Rasputin is the highlight of the characters as apart from this Janet didn't get that much to work with. Naturally, the scenes with her injured son are always very moving but in the second part of the movie she simply doesn't get the material to become as great as she was in the beginning. I'm really not criticising her as I feel she was very good in the second half, too, I just felt that the character was much more in the background and didn't get that many moments to shine. The scenes with the exile and the execution are very intense and memorable but mostly because how engaging the story is and not because of the performances. The epic movie just overshadows the actors here because you just cannot overlook the magnificent technical part, the costumes, the interiors and the beauty of the surroundings.

It's a problem, though, that I felt that the character wasn't developed enough. She remains the same person in the end, which could be justified but somehow I was expecting some further explanation why Alexandra didn't change. Moreover, I never felt that the fact that Alexandra's principles came through. I think she could have been turned into a character whose moral strength just amazes you. Something like we saw from Helen Mirren's The Queen would not have hurt her. It would have given more nobility and dignity to the character. Not that it needed much more but I felt that this absence hurt both the character's development and the movie itself. We do not get those teary-eyed, uplifting monologues that supportive wives give and while I'm not that fond of them, I would have expected something like that. I think the beginning shows brilliantly how great this performance could have been but in the end it was only very good, which is fine, I guess, but it's very annoying to see greatness not manifest when it could have.

In the end, I just keep wondering what Audrey Hepburn would have done with this role. I guess she would have made Alexandra more noble and reserved but Janet added some irresistable pride and even a bit of arrogancy to this character that never ceased to impress me and eventually, I don't have negative thoughts about her, I'm just disappointed and a bit angry about the wasted potential. It's almost haunting work and really great, it just could have been even better.

What do you think?

Vanessa Redgrave in Mary, Queen of Scots

Vanessa Redgrave received her third Oscar for playing the tragic queen of Scotland, Mary Stuart. I think Vanessa didn't have much of a chance of winning the Oscar (nobody had a chance next to Jane Fonda) but I think she got ahead of Julie Christie and Janet Suzman as Vanessa was very popular, she was Oscarless and she got a Globe nod (unlike the others). Still, she couldn't edge out Glenda as many must have compared her performance to Glenda's in this movie (many prefer her, actually) plus Glenda's work in Sunday, Bloody Sunday was even better. So there were many setbacks for Vanessa's win.

"This is the story of the fierce struggle between... THE RIVAL QUEENS". What can you expect from a movie that starts with this line? Even the beginning suggest that we are about to see a soap opera with two rivalling monarchs, something in the style of Dynasty with Glenda Jackson and Vanessa Redgrave instead of Joan Collins and Linda Evans. At the time, many criticised this movie for its screenplay and rightfully so. It really is ludicrous sometimes plus I did not feel that the fight between the ladies was very even. Elizabeth got the third of Mary's storyline and she wasn't given the depth she would have deserved. For me, she's a far more interesting character than Mary. Glenda is simply wonderful as Elizabeth and I almost wished that the movie was only about her but then I quickly realised that she had her own miniseries (If only I could get that!). Still, I don't know why I expected much from the director of Anne of the Thousand Days.

This is only my second Best Actress review of Vanessa Redgrave and although I would not say that I'm that acquainted with her works, I feel that she's a terrific, shining, radiant talent who can elevate any movie she's in. I just think about her scene with Jane Fonda in the café from the movie Julia and I am just enthralled by her wonderful, radiant presence. Even in movies like Morgan!, she's able to deliver something special and really unique. She's the perfect embodiment of the so-called strong female characters. It would be so absurd to see her as a girl to be saved in an action flick. That's not Vanessa. I always imagine her as a tragic but ultimately poetic heroine who delivers uplifting monologues and breaks the viewer hearts while giving treats to the mind, too.

All these qualities make her the best choice for the character of Mary Stuart the dream role of many actresses. I think everything indicates a great performance coming from this movie and that's probably why I was so damn disappointed. There we go, I said it. Disappointment is the perfect word to describe my general feeling towards this performance. I was shocked to see how lost Vanessa was in this movie. This was almost completely the fault of the director who really didn't seem to care that much about the performances (that was also the case with Anne of the Thousand Days). He was pretty much satisfied when the actors delivered their long monologues loud and effectively. That's what results in overacting or total weakness. I think Glenda would have been lost, too had she not previously played the role of Elizabeth. For her, this one must have been very easy and she didn't have to make that much of an effort, she must have just recreated her legendary performance. However, Vanessa should and could have done far better, had it been for the advices. The same thing happened to Vanessa that would later be the case with Glenda Jackson in Hedda. The movie dragged her down.

Naturally, Vanessa doesn't benefit from the screenplay's varied badness. She gets very cheesy and sentimental lines that prevent her from making Mary a really interesting character. Although the movie shows some indecent things that Mary does, she's still very much like a complete saint despite the fact that she's just as much of a bitch as Elizabeth. Plus, if you're expecting delicious, entertaining catfights, you're not going to get them until very-very late into the movie and those scenes are not the best, either (in that way). However, I felt that the two actresses had a magnficent effect on each other. Whenever they are shown together, it's like a breath of fresh air in the film. Although Glenda sticks out for me more, Vanessa was really outstanding in those scenes (minus the moment where she wants to beat Glenda from the top of the horse, that one's ridiculous).

The highlights of the character are those scenes before (and during) the execution of Mary and Vanessa manages to solve them quite properly. I think they would have worked better on the stage (in fact, it would have been brilliant there), here they seemed to be a bit theatrical and over-the-top. Still, Vanessa is very good there and her final encounter with Elizabeth is just as memorable. But again: who do I prefer? Glenda. It might seem that I am hard to impress (not true) but I always heard the little devil in my head: "Glenda is so much better! She should have been nominated!"

Although I cannot deny that Vanessa's radiant presence impressed me, I cannot say the same thing about her performance as Mary Stuart. For some reason, I felt that she was lost in this character despite the fact that she completely understood this character. I had no connection to the character whatsoever but there's still something about Vanessa that holds me back from being really negative about her here.

What do you think?

My plans: Janet next Friday and Jane next Saturday! :) 

Julie Christie in McCabe & Mrs. Miller

Julie Christie received her second Best Actress nomination for playing Constance Miller, a opium-addicted madam who becomes the business partner of gambler with whom she runs a whorehouse. I used to think this was a very obvious nomination and she was closest to Jane that year but now I understood how shocking it was, especially considering the fact that she had the very succesful The Go-Between. But that's also the case with Glenda. I think she was more likely to be nominated for Mary Queen of scots (despite what we now think). This is all to prove how unusually original the Academy's list was for that year (Which is by the way what we would need now! Ignore the precursors Academy!).

McCabe & Mrs. Miller is a pretty great movie, which starts a little bit too slow but it gradually becomes more and more interesting as we get to know the story and the characters more. I'm quite a big fan of Robert Altman so I wasn't really surprised to be impressed by this celebrated work of his. However, I must say that the cinematography is the best part of the movie. Not because Vilmos Zsigmond is Hungarian (by the way, he had a legendary teacher), without any bias I can say that the cinematography is the most responsible for creating such a dazzling dream-like atmosphere. Warren Beatty (an actor I am not particularly crazy about) gives a very proper performance but I don't think that McCabe & Mrs. Miller is that much of an actors' movie.

And there's the indescribably beautiful Julie Christie. Although I wouldn't say that I'm a fan of hers, I have tremendous respect for her talent and I'm always haunted by her astonishing beauty. If you look at her face, it feels like if the world was created only to let her be born. She radiates more than a nuclear plant. She's just a thrilling presence in short and that's probably she became an iconic personality and the embodiment of the spirit (and the morals) of the sixties' Swinging London and that's probably why she seems to be such an unusual choice to play the role of Mrs. Miller. It's far from everything she had done before and yet if we take a closer look at the performance, we see how many similarities it has with the previous works of hers.

After finishing the movie, I was just stunned by how short and underwritten part Julie got in this piece. Mrs. Miller is only present like a ghost, she appears relatively late into the film (very unusual with a title role) and every time we see her, it doesn't last more than five minutes. Could she have really succeeded with such obvious drawbacks and put on an amazing performance? I'm sure many would nod in a very enthusiastic way, but I'm not one of them, unfortunately. First and foremost, I am not saying that she was weak and insignificant as Mrs. Miller (actually, she's one of the most strong and consistent parts of the movie). Far from it. When I first got to see her on the screen, I was completely taken away by her unsual, dreamlike presence and I expected to be blown away by the end of the movie. I think I have to find out why it did not happen.

The most plausible explanation must be the lack of huge screentime. Although the performance benefits a lot from the sudden, short appearances of Julie and it adds a very mysterious and a bit frutstrating quality to the character, I would say that Julie clearly would have deserved to work on the background story of this character. That being said, she's still wonderful within the limits of the character and that's something that she can be proud of.

Now I might sound to be a tiny bit negative about this performance, which is not true as I was quite impressed by Julie's Mrs. Miller. The distant sort of personality which is sort of a trademark of Julie's characters shines so brilliantly. Whenever we see her getting high on opium, it's like we did the very same thing, we're just flying along with the character. You just have to look at her eyes (SPOILER! It's so great that we see just that in the end) and you're in another world. Many would call this a weird feeling but somehow I felt it was more uplifting. Strange, for sure but I wouldn't say weird.

Another aspect of this performance that I clearly deserves to be applauded is the chemistry between Julie and Warren Beatty. They fit each other so well and they succeed in showing a very complex and interesting relationship between these two characters. But Julie is equally impressive at showing Mrs. Miller's relationship with her girls. She seems like a mother and a sister at the same to these girls who seem to be a vulnerable and yet unbeatable when Mrs. Miller is by their side. The scene where she gives advice to Shelley Duvall's character is just spot-on, priceless and anything you can and cannot imagine. Everything works incredibly and the character finally gets the depth it really deserves.

So, despite the obvious limitations of the screenplay, Julie Christie was able to put on a wonderful, unforgettable and otherworldy performance as Constance Miller, the opium-addicted madam. Although it's a very unusual character for Julie, she played her exceptionally, making this one of her most memorable efforts on the screen.

So, I'm back from outer space. Seriously, it was a really long break with this blog and I really did not enjoy that. I just want to thank you all for your patience! I hoped you like(d) my comeback! :)

Hey there!

So as you have noticed, I haven't been active for a LONG time. I'm trying to do my best but I'm just SO busy at the moment. I'm saying right now that until June, posts will be quite irregular. This year is going to be tough for me, because of application to university, having to learn and I'm also preparing for the two dance numbers of my class until December (and I'm not that much of a great dancer so there we go). I have tons of things to learn, I'm taking a German exam next Saturday, so my schedule is quite full. I won't give up on doing this blog, never ever. But as much as I want to, I can't do so many things at the same time. I'm not deleting this blog, I'm not moving away to another one, I'm staying and I'll be watching you all and hope you're watching me, too. Again, I'll be trying really hard, I just thought that I owe you all an explanation why I'm so inactive at the moment! So sorry but stay tuned and check me out at least once a week because I might post something! I won't do fake posts, just for the sake of posting, I'll stick to the reviews! So thanks for understanding!

Plans for now:

1) finish 1971 and write a kick-ass review about Jane Fonda

2) fulfilling my first plan :D

Hello there!

Hi, as you must've noticed it, I haven't been writing a lot lately. I've been busy with the orchestra and stuff and we're going to Denmark today and I'll be there until next Friday. So you'll see the next post on Julie Christie next Saturday.

Thanks for your understanding! :)

Glenda Jackson in Sunday Bloody Sunday

Glenda Jackson received her second Oscar nomination for playing Alex Greville, a divorced working woman sharing the answering service and her lover with a gay Jewish doctor in John Schlesinger's Sunday Bloody Sunday. Honestly, that 1971 line-up was so unusual. Jane Fonda's win was quite predictable but the other nominees were all quite surprising. Only Vanessa Redgrave received a Globe nod for her Mary Stuart but Glenda was the more praised one for her now iconic turn as Queen Elizabeth I (a role she reprised from the famous miniseries). I guess combined with that work, Glenda must have been the strongest contender after Jane Fonda and was probably second (her win a year before might have helped her, too).

Sunday Bloody Sunday is a great film but I wasn't as blown away by it as I was the last time. I still find it an excellent piece of work, I just don't think that it's really amazing. The screenplay, however, deserved to win the Oscar, hands down. It's a really orginial and very interesting story, full of tension. The directing nod was also very worthy but I'm not sure if a win would have been justified. Nevertheless, Peter Finch was just as great as I remembered and he definitely should have won the Oscar for this performance (he was way in this one than Network, probably).

My enthusiasm towards the film has dropped a bit and unfortunately that applies to Glenda Jackson, too. She's an actress I really like and admire but I never really loved her. I mean I loved her in her Oscar winning performances (she's one of the few who won for the right roles). She's great all around and very cool to like but she's not among my favorite actresses. However, nothing really influences me when I watch a certain performance and Glenda is so talented that she's always a real treat on screen.

Glenda plays Alex, a woman who's quite desperate to keep her lover. In many ways, she's like Vicki Alessio from A Touch of Class: she's a divorced working woman with problems in her love life. She's someone who gives herself too much to a man and therefore she becomes a bit addicted to someone who may not be that worthy of her. She's not the manipulative Gundrun from Women in Love or Hedda Gabler from Hedda. She doesn't control people. She's one of the rare characters of Glenda Jackson who's being really manipulated. Glenda wonderfully shows each and every aspect of this character and covers a really wide range of emotions. Everything is there: sadness, bitterness, hope, desperation and there's the usual Glenda Jackson irony in the part. Great actresses always give a touch of their own personality into their roles. Glenda is just like that. There's always a bit of Glenda in every role (but in the best way possible). This is what makes a performance truly outstanding and this gives it such a unique quality.

Glenda is excellent at showing Alex's demons and fears. Who can forget the scene where she's looking at the little girl she looks after and we see her imagining the girl lying dead. Glenda is so good at showing these emotions and as a result, this performance becomes kind of disturbing and hard to watch sometimes.

I was also impressed by how Glenda showed the changes in Alex, especially the scene where she sleeps with an older man from work. In their scene, the atmosphere is so full of sexual tension and if I had to pick a favorite scene from this movie, this one would be it. There was something so incredibly seductive about Glenda there. I was totally taken away by her bit nervous behaviour.

The scenes with Peggy Aschcroft are also wonderful. Their dialogue about marriage and affairs is so excellently played by both actresses. We can see two worlds battling with each other. However, we can feel that Alex (deep inside) wants to be a settled married woman.

My only problem with this performance is that while Glenda's excellent in many ways, I never felt that she was totally standing out in this movie. She's fantastic and memorable for sure but I was never as blown as I expected.

Still, Glenda Jackson is just excellent as Alex Greville in Sunday Bloody Sunday. She shows lots of aspects of this character and she nails all the emotions of this character. Although I was never totally amazed by her, I was impressed by her work, especially in the scenes where she showed the demons of Alex.

What do you think?