The names on this list give me hope that these ladies can make me very happy after watching them all. I haven't seen any of them but hopefully their star power makes this category worth it.
1977 Best Actress
Diane Keaton - Annie Hall
I have always been excited to finally watch this Woody Allen film that won Best Picture and nabbed Best Actress, especially since I also started my Allen watching when I started this project. This is widely considered one of his best films and Keaton is considered iconic for her look in the film. I must say I was a little let down by Keaton's actual performance. I really thought she was going to be this big strong, independent woman maybe giving Allen the business and just being overall more powerful. But that doesn't happen in this film. Maybe it's on me for expecting that but I did think that with Allen's previous female leads and nominations, most of those are well written, strong women. Keaton is more of a shy girl when we see her at the beginning of the relationship with Allen. She has a nervous energy to her and is a bucket of awkward, which kinda matches Allen's neurotic character. She is this bumbling, innocent, Midwestern girl who latches onto Allen for whatever reason. I feel like Keaton is strong in showing this sheltered woman feel actual love for Allen, even if she's even more kooky than he is at times. There is a caring in her character that shows the truth of the performance by Keaton who obviously is way more than a shy Midwestern girl in NYC. I thought the performance would be stronger but Keaton at least shows off with the character she plays. The way it's written, Keaton can't be this big, strong, independent woman but can make her role into a loving, caring, hopeful woman excited about whatever might come next in her life. It's a nice little portrait of a woman and I think Keaton does a good job of portraying that woman. I know she's remembered more for what she wore than her actual performance but it should be remembered, too. I do think that Keaton doesn't win the Oscar on the strength of this performance alone. She was also the lead actress in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, a film where she was a schoolteacher who went out at night and did drugs and banged random guys before getting murdered. It's starkly different than what Keaton did in Annie Hall and I think the two performances combined to give her the Oscar this year. She's very good in the other film and probably would have been nominated for that if not for this film getting Best Picture love.
Anne Bancroft - The Turning Point
I always find some of these actress reviews to be so difficult to write about. I feel like I need to be deep and clever and exhaustive but sometimes it gets so hard to even start writing. That's when I decide to walk around my apartment and try to simplify things by just thinking about what I liked and didn't. Instead of trying to conflate the performance to some larger meaning I just say that Bancroft did next to no dancing in a film where she is a prima ballerina getting up in age, yet is still highly respected and in demand. I thought it was funny and interesting that she never showed off any dance moves, just posing while others danced around her. Luckily, her performance isn't being judged by her dancing abilities. Bancroft plays a woman who did become a success in the ballet world while her friend, Shirley MacLaine, got pregnant and started a family and moved to Oklahoma to open a dance studio. Bancroft has stayed childless and single, though she has an affair with a married man. Success and ego drive her but she obviously wishes she had a family of her own. Bancroft conveys this conflicting emotion well. She has a powerful presence and uses that further her career but also to help out her goddaughter, Emilia (MacLaine's daughter). I think Bancroft latches on to Emilia because she sees herself and is able to be a maternal figure in her life. The meat of the performance, however, is in the relationship she has with MacLaine. The two are friends yet you can see how strained their relationship is and the last half of the film is old wounds being reopened and their friendship reevaluated. The two go toe to toe but do so in a restrained way. They actually talk to each other about the past, even though it gets a bit loud and heated. The two then have it out in a very good scene towards the end where a drink is thrown in a face and the two get a bit violent outside before things are resolved. Bancroft is a great actress and she is so subtle at times and such a studied, committed actress. I see why the voters were attracted to her as she is one of two heads in this film that sort of feeds one combination role with MacLaine. The two are intertwined and their acting with each other obviously elevates the other to bring their best. Bancroft does a good job with that in this rather short film.
Jane Fonda - Julia
Here is Jane Fonda again. She has been really hit or miss with me over the years I've covered with me liking some and hating others, but never thinking that she should have been a winner. I don't think she should have won in 1978 for Coming Home and I was curious as to how this performance would fair with me. I would say that I can see why it was nominated but I don't think it's all that amazing. To me, it's just like a few other of her nominations where she just kinda skates by while others do heavy lifting, maybe has a big moment, and then gets nominated as if she carried the film. This film is about Lillian Hellman, a writer whose friend, Julia (played by Vanessa Redgrave), goes off to Europe and gets wounded in the upheaval before WWII and is a revolutionary (I think). The film starts with her and Dashiell Hammet arguing and butting heads about her writing before we see her youth where she and Julia become good friends. Then the middle half of the film, which covers a majority of the film, is all about Fonda traveling to find Julia. During this time, Fonda spends most of the scenes looking confused and shocked and worried. And that's the extent of her performance for the traveling bits. The actors around her do all the lifting which makes sense in context of the plot but Fonda gets the love. And when Fonda finally faces Redgrave at the end of the film, Redgrave dominates the scene like a boss and Fonda again has nothing much to offer but confusion and wonder. I just feel like you could replace Fonda with any other actress and get the same result. She doesn't bring much to the role that isn't already written into it. I'd say her best scenes are when she's having trouble writing and Robards as Hammet has to get her back on track. It's not much but it's more than looking confused on a train. So this screams to me that the Academy loved this film because of who was involved with it and nominated it a ton even though the performances were weak and the film hasn't stood up to the test of time because no one cares about this film nowadays. It's not ever really mentioned besides Redgrave's admittedly well deserved win. I obviously didn't much care for the film but I can still see good performances and I'm still looking for that in Fonda here.
Shirley MacLaine - The Turning Point
I am always kinda wary when there are two nominees in a category from the same film. Are they both deserved or does one ride the coattails of the other or the film? I didn't know anything of this film, so I was keenly interested in what I was going to get from two leading performances that were nominated. MacLaine plays a woman who is living in Oklahoma who used to be a great ballerina in NYC but got pregnant and started a family and opened a dance studio and lived a normal life. The film starts when her old company and friend put on a traveling ballet that she sees and then hangs out with her old friends. They invite her daughter to study at the company in NYC and she goes along with her daughter and son. There, old wounds are reopened and a life is reevaluated and all that goes along with questioning a decision made in youth. Same as I said for Bancroft above, MacLaine is very understated and restrained in this film. At first, I was wondering if anything would happen with her character because she plays a supportive, loving mother and wife who is excited for her daughter to go to NYC to study ballet. But as the performance went on, it grew into a more nuanced study of old relationships and choices. She has always wondered if she would have got the starring role in a ballet that Bancroft got once she left and I think that what if ate away at her for years. I can think that because MacLaine allows me to based of her acting. She displays that frustration and wonder perfectly and even when she confronts Bancroft about their old issues, never lets the part get out of control. The two are absolutely two heads of one combined performance. You can't really separate the two without damaging the other and so both seem deserving of their nominations. Their little fight towards the end of the film is one between old friends and seems decades in the making and still seems appropriate give the story. It feels earned and authentic as does their make up after. I think I prefer Bancroft just slightly more because of her arc but both are very good in what is a really short film if you factor in the ballet sequences. They have to do so much in so little time that it is impressive. I do wish the film was stronger and this might be one of those few times I wish the film was longer so that both the performances could be even more fleshed out and given room to grow and become stronger. You watch this film solely for the MacLaine/Bancroft tandem and the ballet dancing, that's the draw.
Marsha Mason - The Goodbye Girl
Okay, so I loved the hell out of the first Marsha Mason role I watched. It mesmerized me. I loved her collaboration with then husband, Neil Simon, and thought they fit perfectly together. But I dislike this film. Richard Dreyfuss comes to what he thinks is his apartment but isn't let in initially because Mason still lives there with her daughter. They eventually live together as Dreyfuss is forgiving and the two start off as adversaries before obviously moving on to be lovers. It's a boring, tired, obvious arc for her character and one that is wholly unoriginal. The relationship between Mason and Dreyfuss is kinda teased but then comes out of nowhere to just happen and it's not earned and it's not welcome and it's not interesting at all. Mason falls victim to her husband's own words because her character felt too polished. The character felt overworked and rehearsed that her delivery of her lines felt completely not genuine. Simon is known for breakneck line delivery but it feels incredibly unnatural here. Mason is too slick and too perfect in her choice of words. No one is that good in real life and that diminishes the overall effect of the script. Mason is lovely with her short hair and everything but she seems committed to a play that looks better on paper than it does on the silver screen. Mason herself is a great actress. There is no doubt about that here. She gives a good performance as the mother but she just doesn't evoke much emotion in believing her relationship, which is a problem. It feels like Mason going through the acting motions with whoever is available at the time and still delivering something worth checking out. That's a credit to Mason's ability, of course, but doesn't offer up a glowing indictment of what she brings to the role. No one is searching this out except us dumb Oscar completionists. I can only hope Mason's last nomination is much better than her last few I've watched.
Well, the big names kinda sorta lived up to their billing. To me, Fonda is what she has usually been for me: okay. I don't exactly see why she was nominated for that performance but I get she's a previous winner and a known name and a big presence in Hollywood. The performance is okay but certainly could be better and is very forgettable. She comes in last easily. Mason is next because even though she's a very good actress, I couldn't really stand her in this role or the film. She's been way better than this and the others just were a little bit better. As for the two The Turning Point actresses, I give the slight nod to Bancroft. She had a lot more to do with her role and nailed it. MacLaine was good but didn't have the meatier role that Bancroft did. Both are decent but don't really wow for a win. Neither does Keaton, though, and she's my winner. I do like her in her film, but I was definitely expecting a stronger female lead performance than what she delivered there. But I did like it just a bit more than all the rest. If you combine this role with the Looking for Mr. Goodbar role, it's a no brainer. I'd say that one might even be better? Maybe that's a bias but those two roles showcase her range significantly. I would say that this year is a letdown. I was hoping for strong leads and great acting and I didn't get anything that really wowed me. Everything was just kinda okay and Oscar should be better than that.
Oscar Winner: Diane Keaton - Annie Hall
My Winner: Diane Keaton - Annie Hall
Anne Bancroft
Shirley MacLaine
Marsha Mason
Jane Fonda
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