Supporting Actress 1996

I wrote a big rant about how hard it can be to stay consistent with this blog when life gets in the way. That remains true and my biggest hurdle for the blog and why after 5-6 years I'm only 20 years in. But no excuses. I might not want to come home after working a 12-13 hour day and watch a Streisand rom-com but that's the nature of this beast. I just hope I can stay steady enough to get to the 80s by the end of the year! I haven't seen any of these performances/films so I'm hopeful I'll get something worth my while. Let's see!

1996 Best Supporting Actress

Juliette Binoche - The English Patient

Alright so this feels more like a Leading Actress role to me. Yes I know that Kristin Scott Thomas was nominated for that too, but Binoche takes up a lot of screen time. The other four in this category all are legit supporting nominations and this is the winner? You see where my thinking is going. Anyway, even if you call this supporting, Binoche is very supporting in her actual role in the film. She is a nurse who takes care of Ralph Fiennes character in a blown out monastery and she fulfills her nursely duties to a T. She is at the bedside of Fiennes for most of the film save for a rendezvous with Naveen Andrews and the beginning of her arc where she is in a hospital tent and a convoy where her friend gets blown up. Binoche has the warm spirit of a nurse down pat and is so caring and loving and kind that you kinda wish you would have her for your next hospital visit. She shows great spunk at the beginning of the film when her friend is killed yet she walks briskly into a mind field because her friends necklace is there. Eventually, her and Fiennes are situated at the monastery and though Binoche is very personable and moves around a lot, she doesn't do all that much but provide support for Fiennes and love for Naveen Andrews. She is the impetus for a few of the flashbacks that Fiennes undergoes but Binoche is sort of a static character once she gets planted at Fiennes' bedside. I don't think there's anything negative you can say about her performance, it just doesn't stand out among the other acting in the film. Her winning isn't a terrible thing at all and the film obviously caught the Academy's attention. I'm personally okay with the win but she probably wouldn't be my choice.

Joan Allen - The Crucible

This is some strong acting! Joan Allen is absolutely fantastic in this film and her performance is simply wonderful. The film itself is incredible with some great acting all around, a classic story that remains harrowing and exasperating and important which was reworked by Arthur Miller himself, and a direction that focuses on the characters and the desperation that mounts as the twisted tale goes on. This should have been a Best Picture nominee. Joan Allen helps contribute to the overall effort with such a morally steadfast and understanding woman/wife role that is quietly devastating. I think she benefits from the above mentioned great acting and story and direction but she is not merely a product of those. She carries her own weight and lifts up the film with her fine performance. She and Daniel Day-Lewis are so riveting in their roles that you can tell they are feeding off each others energy and giving great performances because of it. Allen plays a woman whose husband has cheated on her in the past with Winona Ryder's character who starts off the whole witch hunt thing because she wanted Allen's husband for herself. Allen plays her character so calmly and cool that her performances rings even more substantial. Allen never overacts her character keeping her performance subtle and nuanced even though there are ample opportunities for her to go into hysterics. Even at the end in her pivotal scene with her husband, Allen's measured response is what perfectly describes her character. It's a strong performance without having to knock you over the head to get it's impact across and that is something I very much enjoy. Allen is most likely my pick for a winner because that was a supporting performance that really captured my attention instead of just being a supporting performance that is just there, existing. It contributes heartily to the overall experience of the film and left me blown away.

Lauren Bacall - The Mirror Has Two Faces

I didn't think this would be my first foray into a Barbra Streisand film yet here I am (I mean for the blog, as I've seen some things she's done). I thought it was going to be a lame Snow White type thing so I was glad it wasn't. Then I saw it had Jeff Bridges and was thrilled because I love that guy as an actor and was pumped for what might come. But it's a lame Streisand rom-com, that you could easily make fun of if you really wanted. It's entirely forgettable which obviously doesn't bode well for Bacall's performance. There's not much to it, again since I repeat myself for these veteran noms, but I like Bacall. I mean, she's Streisand's overbearing, criticizing mother but she has the look of Bacall's no bullshit demeanor throughout the film. She's still the legend she always was just playing a boring part in a Streisand movie. I kinda like her asshole mother even though it's brief but that's just because it's Bacall. Which explains why the Academy chose this as her only Oscar nomination. It's a nothing role that she infuses with her sassy nature. But this is a veteran nomination all the way in a mostly boring flick. Not much else to talk up so let's just leave it at that.

Barbara Hershey - The Portrait of a Lady

So I always thought that Barbara Hershey was an older actress like Lauren Bacall. So whenever I looked at this year, I'd groan to myself and think oh great, I have to watch a couple veteran nominations this year. Turns out Barbara Hershey was like 47 or 48 or around there when filming this. Maybe I was thinking of Barbara Stanwyck? I dunno, but I did groan out load when I first started this film with the lame mid 90s MTV introduction of I guess modern women. I didn't get that and it didn't bode well for Hershey going forward. The movie is based off the Henry James novel and is the second year in a row for me with a Henry James adaptation. I liked The Wings of the Dove a lot but didn't like this version of James' work. It's too dark and pretentious and self serious. Hershey has the unenviable task of portraying Madame Merle, a woman who spends most of her screen time scheming with John Malkovich to get the inherited fortune of Nicole Kidman. Now, as is true of any James work, the story is deeply layered with subtext, but I don't see any of that in Hershey's performance. She's a schemer and a very serious woman. I also disliked how she is made to speak in the clunky, sophisticated language of the text because it always comes off as unnecessary and a poor choice for the adaptation because Malkovich seems to speak in mostly modern tones. Point is that it detracts from the performance because it's as if it's supposed to make it seem much more important than it really is. Then towards the end of the movie, Hershey has sort of a change in heart and quietly blows up at Malkovich and slams a door a few times. It's a good scene taken on it's own and Hershey is great in not overplaying her anger but it came out of nowhere and felt hollow in the bigger picture of the performance. Maybe I need to watch this movie again about two more times to better understand all that's going on but I didn't get the change in her character and her presence seemed discarded at the end, her story left unfinished. Maybe I'm asking too much from a supporting performance but I think this movie could have been done better which would have served Hershey and the other actors well.

Marianne Jean-Baptiste - Secrets and Lies

I really enjoyed Jean-Baptiste in this role. She is a black woman who is looking for her birth mother who turns out to be white. I'll be honest and say that it really doesn't seem believable given Jean-Baptiste does not look mixed at all. So that might kill some of the believability of the characters being related but as a singular character, Hortense is more than believable. The main thing I like about her performance is how real and natural it is. Most of the other characters are acting in very broad terms but Jean-Baptiste delivers something that stands out, as if watching someone in a documentary. The film itself has that sort of peeping tom feel where we the audience are spying on the scenes and characters. Jean-Baptiste is honest in everything she does. It doesn't look like acting at all especially when watching her closely and observing her facial expressions and body language, it works as if she's a real life person. She shines brightest in the beginning to middle of the film when the focus is on her trying to find her birth mother and in the interaction she has with her once they finally meet. Now this has already been mentioned but it was the first time Brenda Blethyn saw and realized her daughter was black and it's captured on film. That's cool and all, if a little gimmicky, but their following sit down chat that goes uninterrupted for like 7-8 minutes is a thing of beauty. They just rattle off real life banter that seems so genuine and hammers home that documentary, fly on the wall feeling. Jean-Baptiste is exceptional in that scene, too. Unfortunately, towards the end of the film, Hortense becomes more like a prop, the black woman invading the birthday party and she doesn't get to shine as bright as before. In fact she feels a bit wasted in the most pivotal scenes of the film. I kinda feel like that's partly, if not mostly, due to Mike Leigh's creative process meandering it's way to the ultimate conclusion without any set parameters. Jean-Baptiste should have been more involved in the ending in more meaningful way. Her performance is good and I wasn't sure I'd like it based off what I'd read previously about it, but I'm glad it turned out to be an enjoyable performance.


Whew! That was a pretty intense group of performances and films in particular! I watched Bacall first and then followed that up with four straight serious and intense films that were unrelenting in their drama. I need a Netflix break where I can watch some stand up or some Patrick Swayze movies. As serious as most of these films and performances were, I'll take a year like this over some of the other years in this category. You can't call this one weak, save for Bacall's inclusion. Obviously she's my 5th nominee for a nothing performance and I really wish the Academy would knock these off in the future. My 4th would be Hershey who doesn't get much opportunity to register on the film itself instead sort of floundering in a role that deserves to be better. She's totally let down by the film even though the talent is there. My third is the Oscar winner because she gets stuck as the helpful nurse but never really breaks through that mold. She's great and competent but not amazing. I liked Jean-Baptiste's natural acting and the fact that she felt like the realest of all the characters in her film. She was a treat to watch even though it let her down at the end. Obviously Binoche won but both would be good candidates to win in this category in weak years. Joan Allen would also be an easy winner in a weak year. She was flipping amazing and I wish she would have won. She was brilliant and is my easy winner. This is a pretty strong Supporting Actress category considering we've had some pretty awful ones in the past (future)!

Oscar Winner: Juliette Binoche - The English Patient
My Winner:  Joan Allen - The Crucible
Marianne Jean-Baptiste
Juliette Binoche
Barbara Hershey
Lauren Bacall