I haven't seen a one of these but there are names I've been looking forward to watching. I'm very curious to see what my first foray into the Best Actress race of the 60s is going to be like. Hopefully it's a great precursor for the rest of the decade.
1969 Best Actress
Maggie Smith - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
I have been mostly lukewarm to all of Smith's nominations and her one win so far in this project. Some are decent enough and have moments of greatness, but nothing has impressed me for an actress who is a two-time Oscar winner and highly regarded. That doesn't mean I don't think Smith isn't great, she is, but her nominations haven't been amazing. This is probably the best performance of hers that I've seen yet. I totally get the win and feel it's deserved. This is one of those teacher films where Smith is a different kind of teacher. She praises fascists and dresses in color and has her own little group of girls she teaches that follow her every word and she dotes on more than others. She also is seeing the choral teacher who is religious and an art teacher who is married. She also has a head mistress who hates her and wants to get rid of her. Jean is progressive for the times and in her prime as she says so often. But it becomes evident as the film progresses that she is indeed a bad influence who can't own up to what she spews to young, impressionable girls. She's a vain woman who adores having these girls hang on her every word. Jean doesn't see any of this in herself. Smith does so well with portraying this idealistic woman, though. That's why I feel she earned this Oscar. She can play this self righteous teacher who will talk up fascism and thinking for yourself and inspire a girl to go to the Spanish Civil War and get killed and not feel any remorse or wrong doing in her influence. She plays it as a woman caught up in her own little world, too blind to see the harm she can do. I do like how authoritarian yet charming she can be, especially in the early part of the film. She seems like the quirky teacher and we get sucked into Smith's acting and see her as this harmless progressive woman who is in the right. One review I did read had a line that said Smith is "technically stunning, but emotionally distant" and I somewhat agree. I like when Smith gets all passionate in this performance yet her eyes never blink or move and it feels like she's rehearsed what she's saying a million times until she got the tone down pat since she can't act with her eyes and top half of her head. If you watch it, you'll understand what I mean. And so I do feel she is technically stunning with all the right moves, yet not all there emotionally that we can connect with. That's in those more passionate times, but expressions are a huge part of acting and this performance demands it. Smith cannot act with her eyes in this film and it leaves a hole in the performance. Besides that, the performance is very good and layered more than just a simple quirky teacher role. Almost a dual role for Smith, it's an accomplished performance, though I still have to see if it wins this year.
Genevieve Bujold - Anne of the Thousand Days
Everyone should know this story. It's about Henry VIII and his search for a woman who could provide him a male heir to the throne. More specifically in this film, it's about his time with Anne Boleyn, played by Bujold. She is a French Canadian actress, I looked because I was wondering if this was going to be one of those European nominees who is a starlet that the Academy likes so they nominate and I was worried if it would be hard to understand her. But all that went away when I watched her performance. She is a revelation in this film. Her accent comes out at times, but that wasn't an issue. What was great to see is that we are introduced to her as this fierce girl who has no problem stepping up and telling the king no, fuck off. It was so great to see that the character was a badass woman who stood up to Henry and repeatedly told him no she didn't want to marry him she was in love with someone else. But it was Bujold who made that badass woman routine believable and one to root for. Right off the bat that's what we see from her. I liked that her being pretty wasn't really the focus of her worth as a character. Yeah, she catches Henry's eye at a dance but she's just a girl out here trying to live her life. I also like that it took awhile before she finally caved in to Henry. But before that happens, Anne starts understanding real quick how much power she has holding out in having sex with Henry. That leads to a great scene where she finesses Cardinal Wolsey and that's all thanks to how great Bujold is in the performance. In these moments, we are looking at her as an equal to the King and the Cardinal. I will say I wasn't a big fan of having Anne eventually just break down and say she loves Henry but we had to get there some time, some way. It's also when Anne kinda steps off to the side in the middle of the film as the religious stuff takes over and Henry figures out how to wed his new love. The performance picks up again towards the end of the film where after no male heirs, Henry moves on decides to kill Anne. We get a fantastic scene where Bujold and Burton are talking before her execution and she is quite simply overpowering Burton in the moment. Bujold to me is the best part of the film. When she's able to do her thing and not just be confined as some chick who is pretty and there to just sit by Henry. She is very much the focus of the film and she carries that responsibility well. It's a really terrific performance and it's a shame I don't know her from anything else.
Jane Fonda - They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
This was Jane Fonda's first Oscar nomination for a very strange and interesting film. I always thought that this was a Western, but the reality is much different as this is about a dance marathon in the Depression era. I never would have guessed that in a million years. I guess dance marathons were a big thing during the Depression as a way for people to win money and would last for days and days. Fonda plays a woman who is entering with a guy who is sick and gets kicked out before it even begins so she has to team up with Michael Sarrazin's character, someone she has never met. Fonda's character is so angry and cynical at the world and everything going on. She verbally attacks a pregnant woman that is there asking how is she going to feed her child during these terrible times and Fonda just gets angry and upset at the woman. She has so much frustration and hate which is in contrast to Sarrazin's character who is mostly chill and trying to see the positives and just exist in the world. It's an interesting dichotomy and watching Fonda navigate that as well as continue to get worn down by the dancing and the mental and physical toll it takes on them. You see a woman in desperation trying to win money by being the last one dancing. It's like a microcosm of all the problems people face and who is suffering during the Depression. Fonda represents those that are angry and who are ready to just give up. Watching her in this performance, you can see how good of an actress she is and you can see those flashes of what will become her great performances in her career. She's very serious and committed to the role which is what I've come to expect when watching a Fonda performance. I wasn't let down at all by her first nomination, though sometimes it did seem like she was acting in a different film because she was so angry and frustrated. The ending is quite shocking and it exposes the true heart of Fonda's character and clues you in on why she is so fed up. Like I said earlier, it's a very interesting film with lots to say about it's characters. Fonda fits the role well and you can easily see why she would become a two-time winner in the future.
Liza Minnelli - The Sterile Cuckoo
I completely forgot that Liza had another Oscar nomination under her belt before she won for Cabaret. It was nice to see a younger Liza and how dynamic she was even in one of her first real performances as an adult. It's even more interesting to compare this to her winning work only a couple years later in 1972 where she was an energetic, magnetic sexpot. This film is about a quirky, eccentric young girl off to college who meets a boy on a bus and they quickly become a thing. But it's also quickly apparent that Liza's Pookie is the weirdo and goof that she claims everyone else is. The first almost half of the film is Pookie talking a mile a minute and changing the topic just as fast. She won't shut up and it almost becomes annoying but you see what kind of person Pookie is and we see what kind of an actress Liza is. She is this needy girl who needs to latch onto someone because it seems that she wasn't close to her father and her mother died in childbirth so she blames herself. This is a girl who probably has some undiagnosed mental health issues and we watch as Liza treads through those choppy waters. This is where Liza shines since she has this ability to mix all kinds of emotions on her face to where you can't tell if she's happy, scared, nervous, angry, or what. It perfectly captures how emotionally turbulent Pookie's mind is. As we finish the film, we see Pookie become increasingly needy and clingy as she feels she is losing her guy. I'm sure the performance resonates much more with women who have been in that scenario but I do think it's quite effective from Liza. Her vulnerability with the character is almost as impressive as her rapid fire, upbeat persona in the beginning of the film. I think this is a very good performance from Liza as we see exactly what she is capable of doing. It also makes her Oscar win a bit more impressive because she totally amped up the qualities of Pookie and added in the razzle dazzle and sexuality. The film itself is mostly a bore, though, and the only reason to watch is to see Liza dominate the screen.
Jean Simmons - The Happy Ending
These are the nominees and names where I can go on and on about not knowing who they are and the film being little seen in today's world and all that but I need to start cutting down on doing that or that's all I'll be typing as I go back in time. How's that for a run on sentence? Anyway, this film wasn't one that I really enjoyed, though it is certainly a product of the 60s and that has a little merit in watching it. Simmons plays a housewife who got married young and dropped out of college to do so and now years later is miserable. She's an alcoholic stashing vodka all over the house in perfume bottles and in the back of the toilet tank. One of those types who drinks when she wakes up. She's had her issues with drinking and it's made her marriage tough. She's also bored and feels like she's missing out on life. There have been lots of problems and one day on her anniversary she decides to randomly fly to the Bahamas alone. The film utilizes flashback scenes where we watch her get alcohol poisoning and get rushed to the hospital or have a disastrous anniversary party where her husband flirts with a younger blonde woman. The tone of the film yo-yo's back and forth from super serious dramatic acting where Simmons looks forlorn and miserable and on the verge of a breakdown to a more jovial, loving Simmons happy with life. Sometimes that's in the same scene like a flashback that has too much going on or a current scene in the Bahamas where it bounces around from emotion to emotion. It's a bit tiring and I don't feel Simmons quite pulls it off. She's decent at best but I feel like a lot of the other actors in this film outshine her. And that's not just one or two, it's quite a few. I found myself being more interested in everyone but Simmons in this film as she struggles to get me invested in her story and her performance. I unfortunately don't have anything else to compare Simmons to because I've never seen anything else with her in it. I feel like this kind of movie where she is playing so many volatile emotions at different times almost needs a reference point. And the fact that I think it needs that at all shows that it's not a strong performance to me. I will get another chance to watch a nomination of hers in the 40s when I get to Hamlet, so that should be interesting. I just really wasn't feeling this performance that seemed to get overshadowed at every turn and when she should have shined, it fell flat. This one could have been much better than it was.
This was a good introduction to the 60s, I think. Three of the ladies were in the early parts of their long, rewarded career and then two others that I was interested to see who exactly they were. One of those was Simmons who didn't really wow and the film seemed kind of like part of the times with it being about an independent woman. Simmons is fine and I'll get another chance to review her but the film just missed big with me. Then we get Liza's first. It was a great introduction to her and she had so much energy that you can see what she's going to become later on. Smith gets her first of two wins and it didn't really wow me. It was fine but I just don't think I'm much of a Maggie Smith fan. I can recognize that she's good, but just not for me. I think I've got one more from her coming up. Then we get to Fonda's first. There was buzz from what I read that she would have won if she hadn't gotten into political trouble before the voting and I can see that. She plays the performance very serious and has that wild moment in the end of the film that you don't see coming. It's good and sign of things to come for her, too. The highlight of this year was Bujold, though. She was very good in her role and really made Anne into an actual character and not just some plaything for Henry. She was my easy winner and I'd be interested to see what anyone else thinks because this was a very wide open year. I just hope the quality can stay at this level and get better as I start my journey through the 60s.
Oscar Winner: Maggie Smith - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
My Winner: Genevieve Bujold - Anne of the Thousand Days
Jane Fonda
Maggie Smith
Liza Minnelli
Jean Simmons
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