Best Actress
My Video Library: Best Acting Moments of 12 Actresses
This short list of films featuring the finest acting moments by certain actresses started as a debate among film buffs in the Internet chat forum of a film club. Chatters gave a list of the best acting performances ever captured on film. I was unable to participate, as my list would have been dominated by foreigners, mostly from the old Hollywood era.
There are too many outstanding performances to be included but the list below are the ones that I don't mind watching it again and again.
Gone with the Wind (1939) - some may call it the greatest film ever made but what would imprint most to the minds of many is Vivien Leigh, who is enchanting in her Southern accent, the colorful dresses she wear and how she plays hard to get to Clark Gable's Rhett Butler. I almost forgot her memorable line, “As God as my witness, I would never be hungry again!”
Now, Voyager (1942) - Bette Davis often plays strong, scheming women but this one proves her versatility: a bespectacled spinster silently suffering from unsupportive loved ones is brought out of her shell by a kind-hearted psychiatrist. She found her self-worth and the courage to conquer the world. Yet she settles instead with a married man and helps his daughter overcome her shyness. Her reason? “Why ask for the stars when we have the moon?”
Woman of the Year (1942) - Unlike Davis, Katharine Hepburn can't play submissive characters and this movie amusingly shows why: Kate is a tough political commentator brought down to earth by Spencer Tracy and when love blossoms between them, she tries to hold on to him by struggling to learn domestic chores (e.g. separating egg yolks from egg whites using plates).
Anastacia (1956) - this movie was a triumphant return to Hollywood by Ingrid Bergman and for her fans, this first-class soaper about an amnesiac woman claiming to be the only royal survivor of the Bolshevik Revolution is considered her best. Her confrontation scene with Helen Hayes (as the Grand Duchess) is too good to be described.
Two Women (1961) - perhaps it's due to having lived through the Second War or coming from a less-privileged background but Sophia Loren shines whenever she plays women struggling through hard times. Her feline eyes are haunting enough in Vittoria de Sica's saga about a mother and her young daughter surviving WWII Rome.
Mamma Roma (1962) - cineastes would fondly remember Anna Magnani for her volcanic temperament and it shows in Pier Paolo Pasolini's early classic about a prostitute starting a new leaf for the sake of her son, whom she reunited with after many years.
Repulsion (1965) - have you ever wondered if there's more to Catherine Deneuve's ravishing beauty? Roman Polanski found out there is in his thriller involving a young woman losing her mind for suppressing her sexual urges. It's arguably the French actress' finest but it's curiously not in French production.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966) - Elizabeth Taylor may be most remembered for her personal crises and her multiple marriages but in Mike Nichols' debut feature, she puts away any doubts about her thespian capabilities. She, along with Richard Burton, George Segal and Sandy Dennis, shines in a night of bitter conversations and nasty spats.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) - long before she became Harry Potter's Transfiguration professor, Maggie Smith won the Oscar as an Edinburgh teacher whose eccentric teaching methods brought her fame - and her demise.
Breaking the Waves (1996) - the women in Lars von Trier's pictures are simple, pious ladies doomed to suffer from society's prejudices. Emily Watson's expressions of bliss and unwavering faith in the face of crisis would make any viewer soar high.
Children of the Century (1999) - famed Romanticist writer George Sand was being painted a slut by her critics but Juliette Binoche brought her justice in this film, as she portrayed her to be a lady ahead of her times. Put it in another way, Sand can be compared to TV's Murphy Brown and Samantha Jones (of Sex and the City): would the trio be admired and envied if they were men?
Me and my Shadows: Life with Judy Garland (2001) - not only Australian actress Judy Davis slightly resembles the late MGM star but she also captured her mannerisms and the other peculiarities that fans both loved and feel sorry for her.
(First published in The Manila Times on November 7, 2003)
This short list of films featuring the finest acting moments by certain actresses started as a debate among film buffs in the Internet chat forum of a film club. Chatters gave a list of the best acting performances ever captured on film. I was unable to participate, as my list would have been dominated by foreigners, mostly from the old Hollywood era.
There are too many outstanding performances to be included but the list below are the ones that I don't mind watching it again and again.
Gone with the Wind (1939) - some may call it the greatest film ever made but what would imprint most to the minds of many is Vivien Leigh, who is enchanting in her Southern accent, the colorful dresses she wear and how she plays hard to get to Clark Gable's Rhett Butler. I almost forgot her memorable line, “As God as my witness, I would never be hungry again!”
Now, Voyager (1942) - Bette Davis often plays strong, scheming women but this one proves her versatility: a bespectacled spinster silently suffering from unsupportive loved ones is brought out of her shell by a kind-hearted psychiatrist. She found her self-worth and the courage to conquer the world. Yet she settles instead with a married man and helps his daughter overcome her shyness. Her reason? “Why ask for the stars when we have the moon?”
Woman of the Year (1942) - Unlike Davis, Katharine Hepburn can't play submissive characters and this movie amusingly shows why: Kate is a tough political commentator brought down to earth by Spencer Tracy and when love blossoms between them, she tries to hold on to him by struggling to learn domestic chores (e.g. separating egg yolks from egg whites using plates).
Anastacia (1956) - this movie was a triumphant return to Hollywood by Ingrid Bergman and for her fans, this first-class soaper about an amnesiac woman claiming to be the only royal survivor of the Bolshevik Revolution is considered her best. Her confrontation scene with Helen Hayes (as the Grand Duchess) is too good to be described.
Two Women (1961) - perhaps it's due to having lived through the Second War or coming from a less-privileged background but Sophia Loren shines whenever she plays women struggling through hard times. Her feline eyes are haunting enough in Vittoria de Sica's saga about a mother and her young daughter surviving WWII Rome.
Mamma Roma (1962) - cineastes would fondly remember Anna Magnani for her volcanic temperament and it shows in Pier Paolo Pasolini's early classic about a prostitute starting a new leaf for the sake of her son, whom she reunited with after many years.
Repulsion (1965) - have you ever wondered if there's more to Catherine Deneuve's ravishing beauty? Roman Polanski found out there is in his thriller involving a young woman losing her mind for suppressing her sexual urges. It's arguably the French actress' finest but it's curiously not in French production.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966) - Elizabeth Taylor may be most remembered for her personal crises and her multiple marriages but in Mike Nichols' debut feature, she puts away any doubts about her thespian capabilities. She, along with Richard Burton, George Segal and Sandy Dennis, shines in a night of bitter conversations and nasty spats.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) - long before she became Harry Potter's Transfiguration professor, Maggie Smith won the Oscar as an Edinburgh teacher whose eccentric teaching methods brought her fame - and her demise.
Breaking the Waves (1996) - the women in Lars von Trier's pictures are simple, pious ladies doomed to suffer from society's prejudices. Emily Watson's expressions of bliss and unwavering faith in the face of crisis would make any viewer soar high.
Children of the Century (1999) - famed Romanticist writer George Sand was being painted a slut by her critics but Juliette Binoche brought her justice in this film, as she portrayed her to be a lady ahead of her times. Put it in another way, Sand can be compared to TV's Murphy Brown and Samantha Jones (of Sex and the City): would the trio be admired and envied if they were men?
Me and my Shadows: Life with Judy Garland (2001) - not only Australian actress Judy Davis slightly resembles the late MGM star but she also captured her mannerisms and the other peculiarities that fans both loved and feel sorry for her.
(First published in The Manila Times on November 7, 2003)
posted by Francis Rex Alger @ 3:37 PM
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