Best Actress 1951 - Vote for the Best Actress 1951

[bizarre]

I have only seen Leigh, and I must confess I loathe her here. I don't think Williams' work necessarily inspires the most interesting kind of acting, but this kind of florid, Pollockian approach to character does nothing for me - in fact, I find it embarrassing. Playing a lovestruck narcissist shouldn't exempt you from being a receptive and proactive scene partner, but Leigh might as well be talking to herself in all her conversational scenes. The greatest problem with A Streetcar Named Desire is, like many other Star-filled prestige pictures from the 40s and 50s and especially like other Kazan films, it encourages its top-billers to aim for the rafters in their personal 'styles' instead of creating a cohesive system for the sake of the narrative. Streetcar is a cacophony of conflicting tones where only Malden and Hunter really come out unscathed (and probably just because they aren't asked to be the hinges upon which the story moves). Not a fan of this performance.

My picks for the year:
1. Maj-Britt Nilsson, Summer Interlude
2. Setsuko Hara, Repast
3. Thelma Ritter, The Mating Season
4. Mieko Takamine, Dancing Girl
5. Setsuko Hara, Early Summer

[jowy_jillia]

My Choices:
Anita Björk - Miss Julie
Katharine Hepburn - The African Queen
Vivien Leigh - A Streetcar Named Desire
Elizabeth Taylor - A Place in the Sun
Shelley Winters - A Place in the Sun

[ITALIANO]

Impossible not to vote for Vivien Leigh here. The others had good, even very good characters, to deal with; Leigh had Blanche du Bois, Leigh WAS Blanche du Bois.

I think Winters today would be put in the Supporting Actress category, and would probably win.

The only real alternative here would have been Katharine Hepburn, in one of her classic performances, but it was just the wrong year.

[Greg]

Shelley Winters and poverty, or Elizabeth Taylor and enormous wealth -- how does one choose?

I haven't seen A Place In The Sun long enough to remember the timeline; however, I think that choice would be reasonable if the Shelly Winters character had gotten pregnant before the Montgomery Clift character met the Elizabeth Taylor character.

[mlrg]

I voted for Vivien Leigh - A Streetcar Named Desire

Haven't seen Eleanor Parker though.

[Damien]

I suspect we'll see a landslide in 1954. And 1960.

1962 should be very interesting.

[Okri]

Liza Minelli for Cabaret? Elizabeth Taylor for Virginia Woolf?

[dws1982]

Sissy Spacek in 1980?

I'd like to think so, as it may be my favorite performance ever to win this category, but Mary Tyler Moore's impersonation of Resusci-Anne in Ordinary People has some fans who might keep Spacek from enjoying a large landslide.



Edited By dws1982 on 1249010583

[FilmFan720]

I haven't been chiming in much on this, because my early Oscar years are scarse and I don't like to comment on these unless I have seen at least a majority. This year, though, I have seen 4 and have nothing to add...all are strong performances, but Leigh is relevatory (and this from someone who thinks Tandy should have still gotten the film role). There is no denying her power.

As to the question of another landslide, I don't think Holly Hunter can pull it off...there are more Stockard Channing fans here than you think. Sissy Spacek in 1980? Liza? Jane Fonda in 1971, but she does have Julie Christie to top. I think Diane Keaton also has a strong shot.

[dws1982]

Do you mean matching her as a two-time landslide winner, or merely approximating the margins she's achieved once?

Yeah, I meant to ask if anyone could even achieve one such landslide.

The only possibility I could think of is a non-winner--Julie Christie's 2007 nomination. But even with that one I'm not so sure. (I know I won't be voting for her.) As we get into modern years, I think we're more likely to have the votes go every direction.



Edited By dws1982 on 1249006701

[Mister Tee]

So for all the years left of this game, can anyone top Leigh's two incredibly lop-sided victories? I can't think offhand of another lineup that's likely produce such a strong consensus choice.

Do you mean matching her as a two-time landslide winner, or merely approximating the margins she's achieved once?

Though I hesitate to predict the collective taste of this board, I'd think there are other fairly universally beloved winning performances that would have a chance of winning by such a percentage -- Fonda in Klute; Hunter in The Piano; Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy (unless we're only doing actresses).

But doing it twice -- probably not. Though in many circles (not here), Daniel Day-Lewis would be a dominant choice both times out .

[dws1982]

So for all the years left of this game, can anyone top Leigh's two incredibly lop-sided victories? I can't think offhand of another lineup that's likely produce such a strong consensus choice.

[Okri]

I voted for Leigh. No contest.

[Big Magilla]

It's a while since I saw it but I remember her role being relatively small. It's quite late in the film before the mudlark is introduced to the Queen, and afterwards he spends much of the time with Finlay Currie's (wonderful) John Brown...

Andrew Ray as the mudlark does have the main role and Finaly Currie is quite wonderful as John Brown but Victoria's presence dominates the film and Dunne in her last great role lives up to some very high expectations. This was very much a star performance, not a cameo.

[Sabin]

Well, I guess I'll be the lone defender of Shelley Winters. (Not that I would even consider voting for her -- like everyone, I think Vivien Leigh is pretty much a miracle here.) But, I think Winters is excellent in A Place in the Sun. For me, she captured EXACTLY the needy, wear-my-problems-on-my-sleeve attitude that DOES draw guys like George to women like her. Winters dared to be annoying and unlikable, but her Alice is heartbreakingly helpless enough that it makes sense to me why George would still do his best to take care of her...until he had to take care of her.

The only moral dilemma in A Place in the Sun is how hard to push the bitch off the boat. Something crucial got lost on the way from book to play to film to bigger film and to think it got lost because it was getting in the way of Clift and Taylor eye-fucking each other is kind of sad.