Awards Season

Hello!
I´m sorry, that I have to stop my blogging for a few months. I´m gonna be active and I´m gonna write something, but not as often, as I did til now. The award season is starting and I´ll be watching the new films more than the old films. And a day before the Oscar nominations, I will write my personal nominations.

Best Supporting Actress 1968

5. Kay Medford - Funny Girl
I don't understand this nomination, actually, because Kay Medford didn't show anything in her role in Funny Girl. There was not very much to play, but even the parts where she had something, she didn't use it very well. This nomination for this performance belongs to the misunderstood ones.

4. Estelle Parsons - Rachel, Rachel
Parsons makes a person from this terribly written character, but unfortunately it's many times very overacted and unnatural person. But never mind it, because the film is so boring that you will not see it objectively, because she is one of the best things in it.

3. Lynn Carlin - Faces
Almost the same case like Parsons. It's a terribly boring film she plays in, but her performance makes the film even watchable. She gives the best performance of the film, no doubts about it (maybe Cassell is also great), but it was still nothing special. Just very good...

2. Sondra Locke - The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
Extraordinary performance of a young actress that gave here the best performance of the film. Her Mick is a wonderfully written and likable character and I loved her. Not even the character, but the whole performance, too.

1. Ruth Gordon - Rosemary´s Baby
Very hard pick between Locke and Gordon, but Gordon brings the fresh air and a great charm and humor into this horror film that has got a great atmosphere. The scenes in the beginning and in the end of the film are wonderful and the proof that Ruth Gordon gave everything into this performance.

My Nominees:

1. Ruth Gordon - Rosemary's Baby
2. Sondra Locke - The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
3. Shani Wallis - Oliver!
4. Lynn Carlin - Faces
5. Estelle Parsons - Rachel, Rachel

Best Supporting Actress 1968:Sondra Locke - The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

I think, that The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter is a great film. Throughout the whole film I was not very charmed by it, because it has got some boring moments, but the end is terrific and it makes The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter to be a better film.
The performances in it are actually not some kind of excellent. Some are very dull (Wayne Smith), some are too overacted (Chuck McCann) and even some are really good (Alan Arkin). And where belongs Sondra Locke? Nowhere actually. She is excellent and gives the best performance of the film. She´s wonderfully believable and charming. She has got some great monologues written and she makes them excellent. You would say, that it is not her work, but the scriptwriter´s. But that´s not true, because she makes them believable and very clever.
I can even hardly choose the best scene of her performance, but I prefer maybe three scenes. (SPOILER!!!) The first scene is the scene where she finds the Arkin´s dead body. This type of scene we can see in many other picture and they are mostly terribly played by the person, that finds some dead body, but it´s not Locke´s case. (SPOILER ENDS)
The second scene is where she has the fight with his father in the beginning of the film and the third scene is the scene of the fight with her mother in the end.
So what else to say about this performance? You have to see it, because it is a wonderful and extraordinary performance.

Best Supporting Actress 1968:Estelle Parsons - Rachel, Rachel

Rachel, Rachel is an unbelievably boring film. I don´t usually have problems with slow films, but this was one of the slowest films I´ve ever seen. It doesn´t even have any story. I can´t really understand, how could the script without any plot ever been filmed. But this film proves, it actually is possible.
The only good thing about this film are the performances. Estelle Parsons and Joanne Woodward are making this film even watchable. I´m not saying, they are extraordinary or excellent, but they are the only reason to watch this film till the end. But as I said in the beginning, they are "just" good.
Parsons is a terribly written character. It doesn´t have any depth, in some moment, we just find out, she is a lesbian, but there is not talked about it before, or later. In one scene we just find out, she´s a lesbian. It´s something terrible, how the writer has this character written, but Parsons is too great actress to play it as badly, as it is written. She makes a person from this character, she makes it to be a human being.
Even though it is not an excellent performance, I appreciate what Parsons has done, because she had a difficult thing to do. Not just because of the fact, that her character was terribly written, but even because of the horrible glasses, she has on throughout more than a half of her performance...

Best Supporting Actress 1968:Ruth Gordon - Rosemary´s Baby

OK, let´s be honest: Who doesn´t like Rosemary´s Baby? OK, you don´t have to love, but at least you must realize, that it´s a very good and very well done film. Roman Polanski has always been a master of a great atmosphere and this film doesn´t make any difference in this fact. But the main question here is about Ruth Gordon´s performance. Was it as great, as the film?
Actually, it was. Her performance is the only funny character in Rosemary´s Baby, but it doesn´t take too much of the watcher´s attention, like (for example) Renée Zellweger in Cold Mountain did. Gordon is able to be funny, but still terrifying. She always appears in the right moment and brings a fresh air into the film. There are some scenes in the film, that would be absolutely uninteresting and forgotten, but Gordon makes them great. For example the scene of her first appearance. In the hands of any other actress (and it could have been even some great actress) there would not be anything special, but Gordon´s performance is just extraordinary.
(In this part I´ll have to write a SPOILER.) Even in the end, when we actually find out, that is the helper of the devil itself, her performance doesn´t seem broken or incompact. Be can easily believe, that this funny old lady is the devil´s helper. (THE SPOILER´S END)
You know, many actors and actresses should see this performance and play like this. Because Dame Ruth Gordon did an excellent job...

Best Supporting Actress 1968:Kay Medford - Funny Girl

What to say about this performance? It´s another example of a very misunderstood nomination by me. You know, Medford appears in the film many time, but always just for a few minutes, so she doesn´t even have very much to do.
But even though I think, that this character has got a great potention to be very funny, but Medford doesn´t use this potention. She has got some wonderful line, that were meant to be funny, but from Medford´s mouth, they only seem normal, in some cases even boring.
You know, this is that kind of a performance, which you forget after a weak after watching the film. I don´t understand, how could she get the Academy attention. I don´t know, if it is because she was overshadowed by Barbra Streisand, but I always found her performance extremely uninteresting.

Best Supporting Actress 1968:Lynn Carlin - Faces

You know, I cannot actually say, I enjoyed Faces very much. I don´t like films, without any story very much and this film is a great example of a film of that kind. For me, it was terribly boring picture. I didn´t care about the characters, I only wished the ending. And ending is the best part of the film, actually, not even because, this terrible movie is ending.
The reason is Lynn Carlin. I think, her performance is the best of the film, even though it is not any excellent performance, at all. It is very good and realistic, but still not perfect, but I think, it´s not her guilt, because the screenplay is just boring. She actually does the best, she can, but the bore, that I felt throughout the whole film, I felt even in the scenes with her.
The best scene of her performance is in the end, when she is fainted and when she rouses. I´m not saying it ironically, she played the fainted person really wonderfully. I mean, you know, when some actors try to play a fainted person, it seems many times unnatural. But not in this case. I almost could not believe, she was not really fainted. And the scene after her awakening is just wonderful. With Seymour Cassell they made the only good scene in the film, which is actually good only because of their acting.
So I don´t think, that Carlin was bad in the film, she gives a very natural performance, but it happens to be overshadowed by the badness of the whole film...

Next Year:Best Supporting Actress 1968

The Nominees:
Estelle Parsons - Rachel, Rachel
Kay Medford - Funny Girl
Lynn Carlin - Faces
Ruth Gordon - Rosemary´s Baby
Sondra Locke - The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

Best Leading Actress 1977

5. Shirley MacLaine - The Turning Point
I can't help myself, but I've got a feeling that this role could've been played much much better, if played by someone else. MacLaine gives just nothing into her performance and I didn't believe she is a caring mother. She actually has one good scene and it's a scene of a fight between her and Anne Bancroft, but I still think that it was not enough for an Oscar nomination...

4. Diane Keaton - Annie Hall
This is an iconic performance, that is loved by many film-fans. But I think that it's loved because the film is great and legendary and not because of the performance itself. I'm not saying Keaton was not good in it, but I maybe expected more...

3. Jane Fonda - Julia
After this film I'm starting to love Jane Fonda. She was terrific in her performance of Julia and I just can't imagine an actress that would play it better than Fonda. She knew exactly what is needed to do in this role and she did exactly that. There just aren't moments in which she could show more of her talent...

2. Anne Bancroft - The Turning Point
It might be a huge surprise, but I really think that Bancroft's performance this year was great and played with a great charm and elegance. She really was very close to getting a win. The scenes with her are the best of the film (the scene of a fight (I was talking about before) including) and without her the would not be as good, as it is...

1. Marsha Mason - The Goodbye GirlWhat a great performance! It has got everything that was important for her to give through this performance. While Richard Dreyfuss is giving us an extremely over the top performance, Mason finds the right way to handle her character even in the showy scenes. Though sometimes she was overacting, it's never more than the film can handle. Very well done!

Next Year:Best Leading Actress 1977

The Nominees:

Anne Bancroft - The Turning Point

Diane Keaton - Annie Hall

Jane Fonda - Julia

Marsha Mason - The Goodbye Girl

Shirley MacLaine - The Turning Point

So, what´s your pick? What´s your prediction? Tell me in comment. 

Best Supporting Actor 1954

5. Edmond O´Brien - The Barefoot Contessa
The Barefoot Contessa is just a boring, uninteresting and terrible picture. I don´t believe, someone can like that film. I was bored from the whole beginning to the end. And, unfortunately, O´Brien´s performance in it is as boring, as the film is. He did absolutely nothing in this role and I can´t believe, he won over extraordinary performances from On the Waterfront. Some things in the world, I will never understand...

4. Tom Tully - The Caine Mutiny
Tully´s character in The Caine Mutiny is terribly short and it appears in the film before the main story begins. This role is actually nothing itself. It doesn´t have any dramatic depth, it just is. But Tom Tully did the best, he could do. Even though it´s not him, who you´ll remember after the film, he did a very good job.

3. Rod Steiger - On the Waterfront
Steiger is really great in his role, but especially in the cab scene. But all of his other scenes are just overshadowed by Lee J. Cobb, or Marlon Brando. But he isn´t bad in these scenes, he just isn´t as good, ad the other actors are. But it still is a very good performance...

2. Lee J. Cobb - On the Waterfront
Excellent. Lee J. Cobb gives everything into this performance and the result is one of the best played villains ever. And his scenes in the end of the film are incredible. You will hate him, but you´ll be happy to see this great performance...

1. Karl Malden - On the Waterfront
I don´t even know, what to say about this performance. It´s wonderful. I can easily imagine, how the priest role could have been played very oddly. But Malden gives an excellent performance, instead, and he gives a character (or a spirit) into this role. Very well done, Mr. Malden...

Best Supporting Actress 2000

5. Kate Hudson - Almost Famous
I´m very sad, that I have to rank her the fifth, but I just can´t do differently. All of the performances this year are excellent. And so Kate Hudson is. But, unfortunately, she was not as great, as the other actresses, but it doesn´t mean, she was bad. She absolutely shines in her role and is very sexy, too. ;-)

4. Julie Walters - Billy Elliot
Such a great, charming performance. She knows exactly, what must she do in this role and her authoritative ballet teacher is very lovable character. Her scenes with Jamie Bell are fantastic and they make the film unforgettable. Stephen Daldry always knew, how to lead the actors. Great job!

3. Judi Dench - Chocolat
Dame Judi Dench doesn´t spend very much of time on the screen in Chocolat, but she uses every second she appears. Very likable and nice performance was played with a great elegance and charm. I actually kinda love this performance, but was was not enough to get ranked as the first. This was unbelievably strong year in this category!

 2. Frances McDormand - Almost Famous
Excellent. McDormand played a caring mother of a 15-year-old son and she played it wonderfully. It was funny, interesting and even realistic performance, that can be well played only by a great and experienced actress, which Frances McDormand definitely is. I love this performance.

1. Marcia Gay Harden - Pollock
My heart is breaking by a fact, that I have picked only one performance as the best, but I can´t differently. In Pollock, Marcia Gay Harden gives a memorable performance, that you will remember very long time watching the film. This is a realistic performance of a caring wife, that is just unforgettable. And I believe, that the only thing, you´ll remember after a month (after watching Pollock), is Marcia Gay Harden´s performance...

My Nominees:
1. Marcia Gay Harden - Pollock
2. Frances McDormand - Almost Famous
3. Judi Dench - Chocolat
4. Julie Walters - Billy Elliot
5. Jennifer Connelly - Requiem for a Dream

Best Supporting Actor 2009

5. Matt Damon - Invictus
This is one of the best performances by Matt Damon, but it´s still not enough. He has got some great scenes, but the most of the time he´s overshadowed by Morgan Freeman and sometimes (especially in scenes with Freeman) he´s dull. But the football scenes are the exhibition of a great piece of acting.

4. Woody Harrelson - The Messenger
Woody Harrelson´s performance in The Messenger is full of inconsistence. He has some excellent scenes (the ending scene, the scene with the pregnant woman in a bar), but even some overacting scenes. Ben Foster played his character very realistic and I think he was very good. But he didn´t get much of attention, because Harrelson overshadows him. In Harrelson´s good scenes Forster in not good enough to get an attention and in Harrelson´s bad scenes he is as overacting, as Foster can´t do anything to get an attention.

3. Christopher Plummer - The Last station
I´m so sad, that I had to give this performance on the third place, but if I want to stay unprejudiced and objective, I just have to. But anyway, Christopher Plummer gives in The Last station a wonderful and effective performance, that I just love. Too bad for him, that I love some more performances from the same year...

 2. Christoph Waltz - Inglourious basterds
Hans Landa could have not been played better, than it is. Christoph Waltz gives everything into his character and the result of his effort is an effective and exemplary great performance. Landa is one of the only two well written characters in Inglourious basterds and he uses it excellently. In his monologues he can be funny, loved and hated character at once.

1. Stanley Tucci - The Lovely bones
Many people don´t like Tucci´s performance in The Lovey bones and they say, he was terrible. But they misunderstood his performance. He had to and wanted to be terrible! They just didn´t like it, because it was not likeable enough for them, but they have to realize, that it actually isn´t very likeable character. The fact, that they didn´t like it, because it was terrible, only proofs, how great he was in this role. He plays a terrible man that killed a 14-year-old girl, so what to expect? Only that he will be terrible. But he was excellently terrible!

My Nominees:
1. Stanley Tucci - The Lovely bones
2. Christoph Waltz - Inglourious basterds
3. Christopher Plummer - The Last station
4. Alfred Molina - An Education
5. Zach Galifianakis - The Hangover

Best Leading Actress 2007

5. Ellen Page - Juno
This could have been much worse, but even much better. This role is full of dramatic depth, but even full of a great comedy. But Ellen shows only the comic part. She doesn't play Juno like a real character, like a real person, but just like a funny film character. I enjoyed the film and I enjoyed Juno's sarcasm, but it was more because of the screenplay than because of her.

4. Laura Linney - The Savages
This is a prototype of a great realistic performance by a great actress. She and Philip Seymour Hoffman are the reasons of the feeling of sadness and humor at once. She only has pity that this was a really strong year in this category.

3. Julie Christie - Away from her
This is such an extraordinary performance. I can very easily imagine how this role could have been played very dully, but in Julie Christie's hands it was an interesting and likable character. The scenes with her husband played by Gordon Pinsent are wonderful and they made Away from her unforgettable.

2. Cate Blanchett - Elizabeth:The Golden Age
Every Cate Blanchett's performance is an excellent experience. She always takes the best from herself to play her character as great as it gets. I must say that I haven't seen the first Elizabeth film yet, but in The Golden Age she is just lovable. And this performance (just like any other of her performances) you just have to see.

1. Marion Cotillard - La vie en rose
To be honest, I have to say that when first saw La vie en rose I was very disappointed by Marion Cotillard's performance. "She only gave much of makeup on herself. Nothing else." That's what I was telling myself. When I saw it for the second time I was telling: "OK, she was not so bad." But when I saw it for the third time, finally I understood what is so great about her performance. She greatly copied the moves of Edith Piaf, but it doesn't mean that it's all she did! She did not play Piaf. She was Edith Piaf. What I thought is a make-up was actually the great face-play of Marion. Bravo!

My Nominees:
1. Marion Cotillard - La vie en rose
2. Helena Bonham Carter - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
3. Cate Blanchett - Elizabeth: The Golden Age
4. Julie Christie - Away from her
5. Laura Linney - The Savages

Best Leading Actor 2008

5. Brad Pitt - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
I believe that for this performance should have been nominated (except for Brad Pitt) even make-up and visual effects supervisors. Just think about it. Honestly, he hasn't done anything in the role of Benjamin Button. His performance was actually his only in a few minutes of the film, so I think he should have been nominated for a best supporting actor. But even in that few minutes he did nothing special...

4. Richard Jenkins - The Visitor
Actually charming performance, but I think that a little bit lackluster. I think that it's shocking that Richard Jenkins got his first Oscar nomination so late and it was deserving, but I believe that there were even better and more deserving performances in his career (though I haven't seen much of his films). But it's not important here. Here is only important that there were even better performances in this year nominated with him...

3. Frank Langella - Frost/Nixon
Many actors, while playing some real person, try to repeat all of that person's moves and even a voice (f.e. Marion Cotillard - La vie en rose, Jamie Foxx - Ray). Make-up artists then try to make an actor look like that person. But this is not that case. Langella doesn't want to look and talk like Richard Nixon. He tries to show Nixon's feelings and character instead. And I think that it's much better way, than repeating every move and don't realize the character. It's true that his performance is sometimes dull, but it still is a very good piece of acting...

2. Sean Penn - Milk
It's almost unbelievable how much of energy has Sean Penn given into this role. Milk is actually a film full of great performances, but Penn leads all of them. He was really great and this role could have been very simply overacted. And even though he was overacting a little bit sometimes it could have been overacted more and I even think that this role is written the way it cannot be played straightly without overacting. Penn proves that he is a wonderful and very flexible actor again...

1. Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler
In the last years we can see bad-films-actors or comedians how they played in a great film and they gave us an excellent performance (Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side). And it's even Mickey Rourke's case. He is an experienced man and it was mirrored in his performance. Every one scene and every one second is perfect and we couldn't take our eyes off him. One of the best performances ever...

My Nominees:
1. Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler
2. Sean Penn - Milk
3. Brendan Gleeson - In Bruges
4. Leonardo DiCaprio - Revolutionary Road
5. Colin Farrell - In Bruges

Best Leading Actress 2008

5. Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married
In don't understand it. Why every independent film has realistic performances, but too dull and boring? Rachel Getting Married, Winter´s bone and so on. Hathaway is not bad, but you will forget her performance a few weeks after watching the film, just like you won't remember the film itself...

4. Angelina Jolie - Changeling
I always found that Jolie played her character more as a potential Oscar nomination for her and not as a real human being. That's the reason she overacted sometimes, but I can't say she was bad. She played even worse than in Changeling, so this was actually one of her best performances, but still too Oscar-wanting...

3. Melissa Leo - Frozen River
A great performance in a great independent film. Leo's performance was very realistic and she seemed to me like she was not even playing, so great she was! Her performance has got a strong dramatic depth and I believed her whatever she did. I can't even say which her scene was the best or even better than the others, because every one scene was incredible. I'm just sorry for the strong competition...

2. Meryl Streep - Doubt
I didn't even hope that Doubt could have been so excellently played. Everyone played it as greatly, as it was possible and so Meryl Streep did. As a strict and authoritative teacher and nun with a great accent she gave definitely one of her best performances and I loved her throughout the whole film.

1. Kate Winslet - The Reader
Kate Winslet is actually my favourite actress, so I know what she is able to do. But in The Reader I was very surprised. I don't know, whether she was leading or supporting, but I don't care. She could very easily overact, but it could have not been Kate Winslet. She played it amazingly and her accent was as great, as I could not believe that she is not a German. I say:"BRAVO!" to this extraordinary performance...

1. Kate Winslet - The Reader
2. Meryl Streep - Doubt
3. Melissa Leo - Frozen River
4. Cate Blanchett - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
5. Sally Hawkins - Happy-Go-Lucky

Best Leading Actor 2009

5. Jeremy Renner - The Hurt Locker
You may think I'm crazy, but I really think this. He was actually not bad, but this is a kind of a performance where nothing is really to play. I think that he's just himself all the time. I know it doesn't mean he was bad (and he wasn't), but I think he didn't do very much for this role...

4. Jeff Bridges - Crazy heart
I don't see any reason to make films like Crazy heart is. We have seen the theme of it in a thousands of other films, so it made me bored many times before. And that's the biggest problem with Bridges's performance. It made me bored just like the whole film. He plays actually himself in Crazy heart, so he cannot play it badly, but he didn't do anything special. Solid performance...

3. George Clooney - Up in the air
In Up in the air Clooney is very charming as usual. But I can't help myself, but I've got a feeling that he is playing the same character for a few years. He is the same middle-aged frustrated man. His performance was very good and I enjoyed it, but because it is enough for the film and it fits into it. But he should try to play differently, because sooner or later it´ll start to bore...

2. Morgan Freeman - Invictus
Some people say that he has a terrible accept in Invictus. I say he has a great and convincing accent in Invictus. He is the main reason to see Invictus in my opinion and he shows us a perfect piece of the acting. As Nelson Mandela he is greatly authoritative and charming. Just like he had to be...

 1. Colin Firth - A Single man
If this performance was played by somebody else it could very possibly be overacted and failed performance. But not in Firth's hands. Before I've seen A Single man I thought that Firth is a good actor for romantic comedies. Now I think that he is a great dramatic actor. His performance is very realistic and full of emotions. And the end of the film is just...fantastic.

My Nominees:

1. Tobey Maguire - Brothers
2. Colin Firth - A Single man
3. Morgan Freeman - Invictus
4. Daniel Day-Lewis - Nine
5. Robert Downey Jr. - Sherlock Holmes