I nominate Elizabeth Taylor's iconic and outrageously realistic performance in Who's afraid of Virginia Wolf.
La Liz in this scene is better than most of the other great actresses' entire careers .
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 34 | August 16, 2021 5:36 AM |
As for La Liz, her role is one note and her performance is energetic and showy, but everything she says is basically a variation of 'you're a big fat flop' After the first 40 minutes which I enjoyed, the drama is played out and the film becomes repetitive. The ending is unduly sentimental. The play is over rated as is the film.
Anne Bancroft's performance in another Nichol's film: The Graduate (1967) is classic. She's the original cougar and ditto her and Patty Duke in The Miracle Worker (1962). That pairing and those performances will never be surpassed un those roles.
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | August 9, 2021 5:45 PM |
Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby (1968). The film is told from Rosemary's POV and Farrow is in every scene and she captivates the audience every step of the way. She's marvelous.
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | August 9, 2021 5:50 PM |
A pitch perfect performance by one of the very best of all time!
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 4 | August 10, 2021 1:39 AM |
There are no small roles!
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 5 | August 10, 2021 2:55 AM |
Bunny boiler extraordinaire.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 6 | August 10, 2021 3:59 AM |
Angela Lansbury as the 'mother' of all time in two 1962 films both directed by John Frankenheimer THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE and ALL FALL DOWN. Lansbury was 3 years older than Laurence Harvey who played her son in TMC and 12 years older than Beatty who played her son in AFD.
| by Anonymous | reply 7 | August 14, 2021 4:04 AM |
Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable in "It Happened One Night": still breezy and charming after all these years.
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | August 14, 2021 4:06 AM |
Writing "La Liz" disqualifies OP from participation in his own survey.
| by Anonymous | reply 9 | August 14, 2021 4:10 AM |
R1 Wow. The guy in that clip has such captivating eyes.
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | August 14, 2021 4:21 AM |
Helena Bonham Carter gives an evil and vulnerable performance in WINGS OF THE DOVE. Completely assured.
For some reason, no other movie has touched me as this one did.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 11 | August 14, 2021 4:26 AM |
La Liz and La Lange are big fat FLOPS!
| by Anonymous | reply 13 | August 14, 2021 4:55 AM |
Liz was so over the top. I'd like to see WAVW with Meryl.
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | August 14, 2021 5:58 AM |
I say Vivian Leigh in Streetcar. For theater, I’m dying to see Billie Piper’s record breaking tour de force performance in Yerma.
| by Anonymous | reply 15 | August 14, 2021 6:02 AM |
And damn autocorrect, I typed Vivien right the first time!
| by Anonymous | reply 16 | August 14, 2021 6:03 AM |
It’s interesting that the role’s originator, Jessica Tandy, plays Blanche as much stronger and straightforward than perhaps expected. She doesn’t wallow in that fragile southern belle cliche so many others choose.
Tandy’s Blanche is a worthy opponent to Brando’s Stanley. That she doesn’t limp in from the get go as a wounded butterfly makes the eventual destruction of this Blanche more tragic.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 17 | August 14, 2021 6:36 PM |
In Theater - Anthony Hopkins in Equus. Nothing has had the power of that to me....
| by Anonymous | reply 18 | August 14, 2021 6:38 PM |
Haha… OT, I was looking for any clips of Cate Blanchett’s Blanche DuBois, and instead got this:
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 20 | August 14, 2021 6:56 PM |
I watched Liz's performance (Virginia Woolf) at OP. I agree she's really good in that soliloquy. However, the sappy background music. Whose decision was that? No music would have been better.
| by Anonymous | reply 21 | August 14, 2021 7:02 PM |
R10 That guy is Richard Kiley who played Diane Keaton's father in Looking for Mr. Goodbar
| by Anonymous | reply 22 | August 16, 2021 3:34 AM |
OP what is so great about this? All I notice is the amateur job they did of aging her.
| by Anonymous | reply 23 | August 16, 2021 3:38 AM |
Saw the Blanchett Blanche at Stella, and it was mesmeric (as was the whole Liv Ullmann production).
The Billie Piper Yerma performance (which is available on NT Online or one of those services) is astonishing. The show itself is sorta uneven, but it doesn't matter with her level of commitment and integrity in the performance. Hype truly worth it.
| by Anonymous | reply 24 | August 16, 2021 3:38 AM |
Stand the test of time is a tall order. I agree with Vivien Leigh in Gone With The Wind. It's probably the greatest screen performance by an actress ever.
I think that Claire Trevor is pretty terrific in Key Largo. Ellen Burstyn in Requiem for a Dream. Pacino in The Godfather Part II. Gene Hackman in many things.
Elizabeth Taylor was very good in Virginia Wolfe, but it's a totally artificial construct of a story filmed in "realistic" way. The whole thing is dated.
Katherine Hepburn is PERFECT in the Philadelphia Story. As are Cary Grant and James Stewart. That movie is a confection and that time in movies is dated - but it is perfectly and most beautifully realized. They are all MGM magnificent. At the Apex of what we now know as their iconography. Gorgeous people walking a high wire of charm and conviction. A light touch with heart.
I don't like Meryl in anything, but she is least clockable in Silkwood. It's her best work. A long time ago.
Bette Davis in Baby Jane will always be shocking and surprising. It's not really camp. She was fucking brave and ballsy as fuck to imagine that and become it.
I agree with Anne Bancroft in The Miracle Worker too. Who else is she but Anne Sullivan? If it were complete fiction and just a simple story with sweeping music - I would always believe her depiction. She is Anne Sullivan, the woman who connected Helen Keller to the world.
More recently....I don't think that the most awarded - Meryl and DDL's work will stand the test of time. I don't.
But some others who less exalted but still praised and rewarded will. No, not Glenn Close. Yuk.
Sissy Spacek is always affecting. Always. She's not as subtle as people think. She's just humble within being great. She's a good comedienne too. Find a bad performance from her - you'll have to look awhile.
This topic will now self destruct. Though my choices were not exactly out of bounds.
Don't forget Miss Kay Lenz. Unforgettable.
And Edward G. Robinson.
| by Anonymous | reply 26 | August 16, 2021 4:13 AM |
Vivien Leigh in GWTW, Waterloo Bridge, That Hamilton Woman, and Streetcar Lily Tomlin in Nashville, The Late Show, and Nine to Five Jane Fonda in The Shoot Horses and Klute Jessica Lange in Frances, Tootsie, Country, Blue Sky Meryl in Kramer v. Kramer, Silkwood, Cry in the Dark, Postcards Brando in Streetcar, The Godfather Anna Magnani in Mama Rosa Fernanda Montenegro in Central Station Leo in Gilbert Grape
| by Anonymous | reply 27 | August 16, 2021 4:23 AM |
[quote] La Liz and La Lange are big fat FLOPS!
Hey, I am not fat!
| by Anonymous | reply 28 | August 16, 2021 4:25 AM |
Kathleen Byron in "Black Narcissus."
| by Anonymous | reply 29 | August 16, 2021 4:25 AM |
R1 that scene was very powerful you just know that a modern director would be compelled to show her blood and brains all over the wall in that last shot - as if it wasn’t already obvious enough what had happened to her.
R10 when I saw this film a little while ago I had to look the actor up because in other scenes I found him rather attractive. I’ve seen “Looking for mr. Goodbar” a number of times but I wasn’t prepared to find out that it was the father from that! He was also very good as the mild mannered teacher in “blackboard jungle” that one was directed by the same director as “goodbar” but again he looked very different - he was really rather good looking as a young actor in these earlier films.
| by Anonymous | reply 31 | August 16, 2021 4:38 AM |
R31, Richard Kiley was one of the greats of Broadway--"Kismet," "Redhead," "No Strings," "Here's Love," "I Had a Ball," and his greatest success, "Man of La Mancha."
| by Anonymous | reply 32 | August 16, 2021 5:30 AM |
The Man of La Mancha is for now and ever will be Brian Stokes Mitchell. My second husband.
| by Anonymous | reply 33 | August 16, 2021 5:32 AM |
[quote] I nominate Elizabeth Taylor's iconic and outrageously realistic performance
You must have a narrow experience of the realities of life, OP, if you;
1. Misuse the word 'iconic'.
2. Nominate a female drunkard as both "realistic" and "outrageous" at the same time.
| by Anonymous | reply 34 | August 16, 2021 5:36 AM |
