I may have first looked at this group and totally disregarded Sophia Loren because I only knew her as some sex symbol and was this an actually well earned Oscar? I'll admit I'm not a good judge and this category has some greats, so let's get into it then.
1961 Best Actress
Sophia Loren - Two Women
I think it gets forgotten that Sophia Loren was an accomplished actress and we remember how beautiful she was/is and her being an international sex symbol. But Loren did win many international acting awards including here as the first acting Oscar for a non-English language performance. This isn't just some token nomination and win, either. Yes, she was mostly in romantic and comedic films prior to this win, but this film definitely had a bit more heft with it's subject matter. The film is about Loren and her eleven year old daughter getting out of Rome to avoid bombings in WWII. She meets up with some distant family in the countryside as the Italians and Germans retreat from Americans and eventually both she and her daughter are raped in a Church by Moroccan troops. This was a real tragedy that occurred on a wide scale where these rural villages were raped and pillaged with many murdered. It's a heavy story that asks Loren to be both defiant and vulnerable, sometimes at the same time. She has to stay strong for her daughter, yet is terrified just as much as her daughter is. It's not really a glamorous role, though Loren does manage to look beautiful throughout, even in her characters worst moments. But that really just speaks to how she really looked back then, you couldn't really make her ugly and probably didn't want to so as to keep the audience coming. I have seen Loren in a few other films and she always has a presence and can command a room just because of her stature and beauty. But this was one of those performances where she came to act and not just be a movie star. She takes it seriously and her desperate pleas and crying out in anger and frustration at a passing troop vehicle are entirely visceral. All the pointless death and destruction and trauma for what? The innocence lost that will forever remain a deep scar. That pain is something that resonates loudly and shows just how good Loren can be as an actress. It may be tough to beat and I might be surprised that the Academy got it right for once, I'll have to see how the others stack up first.
Audrey Hepburn - Breakfast at Tiffany's
One of the most iconic roles in all of film, I think everyone who thinks of Hepburn sees her as Holly Golightly in shades and a black dress and a long cigarette holder. Hepburn didn't consider it one of her best performances, but it's definitely become her most memorable for the general public. Not really much to say that hasn't already been said for this film based on Truman Capote's novel. Hepburn is a young woman making money by essentially being an escort and getting drunk guys to give her lots of money and then slips away. Her new neighbor is a writer and a boy toy to some rich woman. Their friendship grows until it finally becomes more than friends. A simple story that is made better by Hepburn's eccentric, impetuous performance. Holly is wild and impulsive as she flits around with a carefree attitude. She can defuse anyone being mad at her with her smile, but we can see this is a front for her to not face her past and her problems. Hepburn is great in the role and it's hard to imagine anyone but her playing Holly. She has the perfect spirit and charisma to play Holly and to play her more introspective and dramatic moments. There are a lot of better reviews about Hepburn's performance here (and you should go read those), but I did love a point someone made about how this role set up her future roles in the 60s with kooky romantic characters and more grounded serious roles and how this kind of mixed those two. Obviously, this performance is more light (no pun intended) with just a few poignant parts thrown in, but it is still very good work and entirely memorable. If you haven't seen, not sure what you're waiting for as this is a cultural touchstone.
Piper Laurie - The Hustler
Okay, wow. Piper plays a perfect drunk. Alliteration aside, it's true, she is fantastic in her role. Already ahead of myself, Laurie plays an alcoholic woman that Paul Newman meets in a bus station and falls for. Laurie plays it so good because she at first tricks him and pays for the drink and vanishes. We then see her later and realize she is a bonafide alcoholic that Newman latches onto. Laurie's drunk acting is actually phenomenal as she is so believable. There is no hiccuping or closing your eyes or whatever, she just looks around and slurs her words and has that uncontrolled drunk aspect to her performance. I love the fuck out of great or even good drunk performances and Laurie is setting the bar for how to act while your character is drunk or under the influence. It's not conceived, it's grown. Kinda weird to write but she hits all the perfect notes of being angry but being drunk and also balancing what that means for Newman. She walks around sipping on a drink and you know something is happening and you wish it wouldn't. Laurie is fantastic at burrowing into scenes with her drunken shenanigans and just hitting that desperate note so perfectly. I also think Laurie is a good equal to Newman and not just something he acts against or a like a prop to act with. She challenges him and delivers the only real female performance in this very manly film. Crazy to think that after this film, she would take a 15 year break from acting to start a family and then her first role back in Carrie was nominated in 1976. We probably missed out on some really great acting but props to her for making family a priority.
Geraldine Page - Summer and Smoke
Thank goodness I only have one more Geraldine Page nomination to go after this one. There is nothing personally about Page that I dislike, it's just that most of her eight nominations, including her one win, has failed to connect with me. Either just something I outright disliked on an acting level, or just too small of a part that really probably shouldn't have been nominated to begin with. I did enjoy her nomination after this one for another Tennessee Williams film adaptation, Sweet Bird of Youth, so maybe it's a Tennessee thing because this performance wasn't terrible or anything. Not as enjoyable as the previous mentioned performance, this one is way more melodramatic and easy for Page to lay it on thick. She is a reserved, proper Southern woman who is infatuated with a wild, good looking young doctor who lives across the street. Now the doctor is wholly unlikable and really keeps you from being more engaged with the story because he is so awful. He plays with Page's naivete while hooking up with Rita Moreno and lusting after a 17 year old girl, who he later gets engaged to when she comes back from boarding school. All the while trying to get with Page who continues to play a very shy, anxious, fragile woman who can't keep herself away from the doctor. He takes her to a cockfight and then tries to sexually assault her later, is constantly drunk and partying while belittling her. It's one of those wild, intense Tennessee Williams relationships. And it's really hard to stay invested in it, not that you really should be, but I didn't get why Page's character was so desperate. But then at the very end of the film, I think we get a very telling reason as to why. Page does most of what the role commands her to do. It's like her character belongs in Gone With the Wind or some 30s or 40s film. It doesn't match the same energy of Laurence Harvey's doctor and it feels like they are almost in two different films at times. But Page plays it earnestly even if that just kinda feels like a bit much. It's decent and I understand why it was nominated and certainly is among the best of her eight nominations for me! Can't wait to see if her last one is her best one.
Natalie Wood - Splendor in the Grass
Let's be really real, the only reason Wood is nominated here is because this is a combination of this and her work in West Side Story. I mean, the biggest film of the year and you get nominated for a sexual coming of age film? That's what this role and film is about. Wood is infatuated with Warren Beatty (in his first ever film) because he is from a rich family and captain of the football team and he wants to fuck her. Wood denies him and it sets off the film, essentially. Beatty complains to his dad and teachers and friends that he is preoccupied (cuz can't get laid) and is doing poorly. He breaks up with her because he saw his sister getting ran on and wanted to end the relationship for whatever reason. She decides to be like his sister and a friend of his tries to rape her and jumps into a waterfall but is rescued and then her family institutionalizes her. That's a whole lot of context to take in and not to dismiss any of it, but it all explains her teenage decisions. It's a film about what may have been. Wood is great in the role as hesitant and unsure in the relationship at first, though she is smitten with Beatty from an outside aesthetic. Wood seems like a genuine teenager, desperate for the only person she believes she loves and afraid of losing the only thing she knows. I think we've all been there in some form, so we can commiserate when Beatty cheats on Wood. Just because you are seemingly perfect, does not mean you are okay. As Wood's character goes through therapy for years, she is happier after the fact, but easily slips into her old issues when meeting Beatty who now works on a farm and is married with a kid. You can see that Wood was wanting him in that moment and re-experiencing everything from her youth because she thought she could be with him again. It's a great look at young love in this moment and how some people looked at each other. Wood's performance is great because it just feels so real when she looks at you. A great use of her talents as she plays a small town girl confronting her demons. One of those moments of another film lifting up a different performance that is better for the actor.
Almost done with Geraldine Page and thankful for it. Not a terrible performance by any means, it was interesting, but still not that great. Wood gives a very Oscar baity performance. Hepburn gives her iconic role life and is a joy to watch. Laurie blows me away with her alcoholic person and it may have won in weaker years. I'll go with Loren who eschews her sex symbol self and all those romantic comedies. She was better than that being wasted on inferior slop and got to show her chops in her own language. It's a good group if unassuming. Ready to move on now.
Oscar Winner: Sophia Loren - Two Women
My Winner: Sophia Loren - Two Women
Piper Laurie Audrey Hepburn
Natalie Wood
Geraldine Page
No comments:
Post a Comment