This Vanity Fair interview with Lee Grant has just been released and it’s definitely worth a read.
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/20 ... and-sexism
Best Supporting Actress 1975
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CalWilliam
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Re: Best Supporting Actress 1975
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Re: Best Supporting Actress 1975
Glad to hear it, Ronee! And when you get a chance, invite Karen Black and Sally Kirkland over. I'd love to know who they'd vote for.
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When you are on a tour of the Balkans visiting medioeval orthodox monasteries in isolated places (as I am doing now), going back to the hotel and suddenly having to focus on Ronee Blackley and Brenda Vaccaro is kind of confusing - which is probably why, by mistake, I think I pushed the Null Vote button. But, though unintentional, it prevents me from having to choose between the two Nashville girls, both very good (Blackley slightly better probably, but both very good).
A few words on Brenda Vaccaro. It must have happened to any of us - there's a movie that you don't want to see, because you feel that you will hate it, but since it got an acting nomination you do see it in the end - and yes, the movie IS terrible, but that nominated performance is so good that you can only look at the Academy with respect and gratitude for having introduced you to an otherwise ignored true gem. Well, this is NOT the case of Brenda Vaccaro's performance in Once is not Enough - I had to stay up very late one night just to see this unbelievable mess and Vaccaro's messy performance in it. And even if Oscar nominations were given based on trash value - and by the way sometimes they are - then Vaccaro should have easily been replaced by that dynamic lesbian duo from the same movie, Alexis Smith and especially an unfortunately unforgettable Melina Mercouri, a great actress who was, at least I hope, very well-paid to accept this role in such a soap opera.
Sylvia Miles has, I seem to remember, only two short scenes in Farewell My Lovely. The role is typically Oscar-friemdly - a drunk - and she's rather entertaining playing it, but it's not more than a typical Sylvia Miles performance.
Lee Grant won, not only but certainly also for political reasons. Still, she's a good actress (I know, Voyage of the Damned is dangerously close, so let's say a generally good actress), and Shampoo must have seemed, at the time, a relevant and biting comedy on contemporary society. She does deserve an Oscar, though it seems that we won't give it to her.
But of course Nashville is Nashville, a movie which left me speechless the first time I saw it many, many years ago. And those two nominated actresses (and more generally the whole cast) certainly contributed to the impact it had on me. Blackley or Tomlin - as long as it's someone from that movie, I'm glad.
A few words on Brenda Vaccaro. It must have happened to any of us - there's a movie that you don't want to see, because you feel that you will hate it, but since it got an acting nomination you do see it in the end - and yes, the movie IS terrible, but that nominated performance is so good that you can only look at the Academy with respect and gratitude for having introduced you to an otherwise ignored true gem. Well, this is NOT the case of Brenda Vaccaro's performance in Once is not Enough - I had to stay up very late one night just to see this unbelievable mess and Vaccaro's messy performance in it. And even if Oscar nominations were given based on trash value - and by the way sometimes they are - then Vaccaro should have easily been replaced by that dynamic lesbian duo from the same movie, Alexis Smith and especially an unfortunately unforgettable Melina Mercouri, a great actress who was, at least I hope, very well-paid to accept this role in such a soap opera.
Sylvia Miles has, I seem to remember, only two short scenes in Farewell My Lovely. The role is typically Oscar-friemdly - a drunk - and she's rather entertaining playing it, but it's not more than a typical Sylvia Miles performance.
Lee Grant won, not only but certainly also for political reasons. Still, she's a good actress (I know, Voyage of the Damned is dangerously close, so let's say a generally good actress), and Shampoo must have seemed, at the time, a relevant and biting comedy on contemporary society. She does deserve an Oscar, though it seems that we won't give it to her.
But of course Nashville is Nashville, a movie which left me speechless the first time I saw it many, many years ago. And those two nominated actresses (and more generally the whole cast) certainly contributed to the impact it had on me. Blackley or Tomlin - as long as it's someone from that movie, I'm glad.
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Snick's Guy
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Mister Tee
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Gwen Welles would probably have been my choice for a third Nashville gal, but Baxley and Harris are also deserving -- certainly far more deserving than the flotsam/jetsam that drifted onto the list.
The best to be said about Louise Fletcher as lead is it's not as laughable a placement as Shire's the following year. But for me she was clearly the year's best supporting actress.
You really have to wonder who Sylvia Miles knew in the actors' branch -- getting two nominations for maybe three days' work. Farewell My Lovely is an odd movie -- it wallows in Chandler-isms yet somehow feels unfaithful to him at every moment. Miles' contribution is undistinguished, though not horrible.
I sometimes feel I have to take one small sample of things that are wildly popular, and Once is Not Enough the novel had been my foray into understanding the phenomenon of Jacqueline Susann. I found it quite terrible, even at a fairly young age, but the movie actually managed to be worse. Vaccaro at least had some funny lines (I recall "I hate funerals; they're so depressing" as delivered with particular dryness). But I can't countenance a nomination for such swill as this.
Lee Grant was perfectly, dependably solid in Shampoo. She wasn't who I came out of the picture remembering (Hawn and Warden filled that bill). But her win was a decent enough career tribute.
On to Nashville...which I view as the great film of a great decade (confirming once and for all I'm closer to a Kael-ite than a Damien-ite). The voting here, however, has continued a 35 year bafflement: exactly what do people see in Tomlin's performance that makes them rate it so highly? I think Tomlin, onstage, is a marvel -- I've seen her three separate times and loved each one (Search for Signs the absolute zenith). But I've never responded to her film work; in fact, I find her one of those performers who can only excel in the private universe of her own creations. When she interacts with other actors, I find her less than believable, and sometimes bland. That's my reaction to her work here. She's okay, but, for me, nothing more -- and even her "listening to Carradine sing I'm Easy" scene is more dependent on the way the moment is shot, and audience sympathy for her, than any particular work on her part.
And, for the life of me, I can't figure why people so uniformly go for Tomlin's relatively small role over Blakely's major creation. If Nashville has a central character, it's surely Barbara Jean, and Blakely not only carries that off, she has by far the most dramatic scene in the picture, one that should have had her instantly targeted for Oscar consideration. (In fact, given the famous paucity of female candidates that year and the centrality of her role, I thought there might be an attempt to push her as lead) Apparently, so far, no one else sees it this way. But my enthusiastic vote goes to Ronee Blakely.
The best to be said about Louise Fletcher as lead is it's not as laughable a placement as Shire's the following year. But for me she was clearly the year's best supporting actress.
You really have to wonder who Sylvia Miles knew in the actors' branch -- getting two nominations for maybe three days' work. Farewell My Lovely is an odd movie -- it wallows in Chandler-isms yet somehow feels unfaithful to him at every moment. Miles' contribution is undistinguished, though not horrible.
I sometimes feel I have to take one small sample of things that are wildly popular, and Once is Not Enough the novel had been my foray into understanding the phenomenon of Jacqueline Susann. I found it quite terrible, even at a fairly young age, but the movie actually managed to be worse. Vaccaro at least had some funny lines (I recall "I hate funerals; they're so depressing" as delivered with particular dryness). But I can't countenance a nomination for such swill as this.
Lee Grant was perfectly, dependably solid in Shampoo. She wasn't who I came out of the picture remembering (Hawn and Warden filled that bill). But her win was a decent enough career tribute.
On to Nashville...which I view as the great film of a great decade (confirming once and for all I'm closer to a Kael-ite than a Damien-ite). The voting here, however, has continued a 35 year bafflement: exactly what do people see in Tomlin's performance that makes them rate it so highly? I think Tomlin, onstage, is a marvel -- I've seen her three separate times and loved each one (Search for Signs the absolute zenith). But I've never responded to her film work; in fact, I find her one of those performers who can only excel in the private universe of her own creations. When she interacts with other actors, I find her less than believable, and sometimes bland. That's my reaction to her work here. She's okay, but, for me, nothing more -- and even her "listening to Carradine sing I'm Easy" scene is more dependent on the way the moment is shot, and audience sympathy for her, than any particular work on her part.
And, for the life of me, I can't figure why people so uniformly go for Tomlin's relatively small role over Blakely's major creation. If Nashville has a central character, it's surely Barbara Jean, and Blakely not only carries that off, she has by far the most dramatic scene in the picture, one that should have had her instantly targeted for Oscar consideration. (In fact, given the famous paucity of female candidates that year and the centrality of her role, I thought there might be an attempt to push her as lead) Apparently, so far, no one else sees it this way. But my enthusiastic vote goes to Ronee Blakely.
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Big Magilla
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Fletcher is borderline lead/support. She was the runner-up to Tomlin in the NYFC voting for supporting actress. It wasn't until the Globes that she was thought of as a lead. However I have no problem with her being placed there if it makes room for one of the year's other supporting actresses like Barbara Harris, but Brenda Vaccaro? I don't know, Once Is Not Enough is being released on DVD next month, maybe I'll give it another shot but I doubt I'll ever agree that Vaccaro should be among the nominees.
Lee Grant has gotten an awful lot of mileage out of her claims of suffering through the blacklist. Maybe she did. Certainly what happened to her early on when she was hauled before HUAC was unforgivable but her career was not destroyed. She worked steadily in TV from 1952-1958 and even made a film in 1955 although Fredric March's insistence on her casting in 1959's Middle of the Night is rightly credited with re-starting her film career.
By 1975 that career had long been re-established yet tales of her horrifying experience in 1952 that were then being played up by her supporters made her win somewhat questionable. Were they honoring the performance or the back story?
Lee Grant has gotten an awful lot of mileage out of her claims of suffering through the blacklist. Maybe she did. Certainly what happened to her early on when she was hauled before HUAC was unforgivable but her career was not destroyed. She worked steadily in TV from 1952-1958 and even made a film in 1955 although Fredric March's insistence on her casting in 1959's Middle of the Night is rightly credited with re-starting her film career.
By 1975 that career had long been re-established yet tales of her horrifying experience in 1952 that were then being played up by her supporters made her win somewhat questionable. Were they honoring the performance or the back story?
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OscarGuy
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I can buy the Louise Fletcher-is-supporting argument, but i can also buy the Louise Fletcher-is-lead argument. She's such an integral part of the film that it's hard to imagine her not being a co-lead with Nicholson, but the film is ostensibly Nicholson's and her character has the hallmarks of a traditional supporting one.
Wesley Lovell
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin
Fletcher is not supporting IMO.Reza wrote:Vaccaro is actually quite good in Once Is Not Enough and the film is trashy fun with a great cast. Where else could you ever hope to see the great Alexis Smith in a lesbian love scene with Melina Mercouri? The Hollywood Foreign Press probably gave Vaccaro the award as she was then going out with Best Film (Cuckoo's Nest) producer Michael Douglas. Both ended up winning that night.
The Nashville gals were all rightfully acclaimed and I've voted for Tomlin here.
Both Grant (who, I'm glad, finally won) and Miles also deserved their nominations.
My top 5:
Louise Fletcher, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Lily Tomlin, Nashville
Ronee Blakely, Nashville
Lee Grant, Shampoo
Sylvia Miles, Farewell, My Lovely
Vaccaro is actually quite good in Once Is Not Enough and the film is trashy fun with a great cast. Where else could you ever hope to see the great Alexis Smith in a lesbian love scene with Melina Mercouri? The Hollywood Foreign Press probably gave Vaccaro the award as she was then going out with Best Film (Cuckoo's Nest) producer Michael Douglas. Both ended up winning that night.
The Nashville gals were all rightfully acclaimed and I've voted for Tomlin here.
Both Grant (who, I'm glad, finally won) and Miles also deserved their nominations.
My top 5:
Louise Fletcher, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Lily Tomlin, Nashville
Ronee Blakely, Nashville
Lee Grant, Shampoo
Sylvia Miles, Farewell, My Lovely
Edited By Reza on 1282292338
The Nashville gals were all rightfully acclaimed and I've voted for Tomlin here.
Both Grant (who, I'm glad, finally won) and Miles also deserved their nominations.
My top 5:
Louise Fletcher, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Lily Tomlin, Nashville
Ronee Blakely, Nashville
Lee Grant, Shampoo
Sylvia Miles, Farewell, My Lovely
Edited By Reza on 1282292338
Sylvia Miles was no more than perfectly adequate in a by-the-numbers performance in a film that's perfectly lousy (despite the presence of the great Robert Mitchum).
I'm no Lee Grant fan, but her performance in Shampoo is probably as good as Lee Grant gets. (Her nomination next year is as bad as Lee Grant -- or most any other actress -- gets.)
Brenda Vacarro is great campy fun in Jacqueline Susann's Once Is Not Enough, which itself is great campy fun. (The scene of Alexis Smith and Melina Mercouri in bed together is priceless.) So it pleases me that Vacarro did win the Golden Globe, which at the time were great campy fun. But if anyone from the film was to be nominated, it should have been David Janssen for his wonderful portrayal of "Norman Mailer."
I think Nashville is ridiculously overrated; it's insufferably smug, facile, pompous, heavy-handed twaddle. (So, of course, Pauline Kael adored it.) But there's no denying that within the mess are some nice moments and some nice performances. Ronee Blakely is very affecting, but Lily Tomlin is equally moving with a much less calculated character. Her facial reactions to Keith Carradine singing at the club are the highlights of the picture. I vote Tomlin.
My Own Top 5:
1. Elizabeth Ashley in Paperback Hero
2. Goldie Hawn in Shampoo
3. Charlene Dallas in Rancho Deluxe
4. Blythe Danner in Hearts of the West
5. Ann Sothern in Crazy Mama
Edited By Damien on 1282293158
I'm no Lee Grant fan, but her performance in Shampoo is probably as good as Lee Grant gets. (Her nomination next year is as bad as Lee Grant -- or most any other actress -- gets.)
Brenda Vacarro is great campy fun in Jacqueline Susann's Once Is Not Enough, which itself is great campy fun. (The scene of Alexis Smith and Melina Mercouri in bed together is priceless.) So it pleases me that Vacarro did win the Golden Globe, which at the time were great campy fun. But if anyone from the film was to be nominated, it should have been David Janssen for his wonderful portrayal of "Norman Mailer."
I think Nashville is ridiculously overrated; it's insufferably smug, facile, pompous, heavy-handed twaddle. (So, of course, Pauline Kael adored it.) But there's no denying that within the mess are some nice moments and some nice performances. Ronee Blakely is very affecting, but Lily Tomlin is equally moving with a much less calculated character. Her facial reactions to Keith Carradine singing at the club are the highlights of the picture. I vote Tomlin.
My Own Top 5:
1. Elizabeth Ashley in Paperback Hero
2. Goldie Hawn in Shampoo
3. Charlene Dallas in Rancho Deluxe
4. Blythe Danner in Hearts of the West
5. Ann Sothern in Crazy Mama
Edited By Damien on 1282293158
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My choices:
1. Lily Thomlin for Nashville
2. Paula Prentiss for The Stepford Wives
3. Helen Vita for Satan's Brew
4. Geraldine Chaplin for Nashville
5. Goldie Hawn for Shampoo
1. Lily Thomlin for Nashville
2. Paula Prentiss for The Stepford Wives
3. Helen Vita for Satan's Brew
4. Geraldine Chaplin for Nashville
5. Goldie Hawn for Shampoo
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Bruce_Lavigne
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Even without having seen Once Is Not Enough, I feel completely confident voting for Lily Tomlin. A truly lovely performance from an actress I almost always like, in one of the great American movies.
Barbara Harris gets my nod for the fifth nomination over Vaccaro, whose movie I really don't feel any pressure to track down.
Barbara Harris gets my nod for the fifth nomination over Vaccaro, whose movie I really don't feel any pressure to track down.
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Big Magilla
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BJ took the words right of my mouth in the 1974 thread.
I was going to open this discussion by saying that this category could have been filled with nominees from just one film - Robert Altman's Nashville. Actually that could have been true if four of the nominees were from that film and the fifth slot had been filled by Louise Fletcher in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
The role of the gospel singing mother of the two deaf children was written for, and in part by, Fletcher who lost the role after her husband, Altman's producer, and the director had a falling out. We'll never know how good Fletcher would have been in the role, but we do know how great Lily Tomlin was in her first film.
Equally great was unknown Ronee Blakely in as the mentally unstable leading singer patterned after Loretta Lynn. If there were to be only two women nominated from the film in this category, then these two were the right two.
Also meriting consideration were Babara Harris whose powerful voice ends the film, Barbara Baxley, wonderful as a Minnie Pearl type and Gwen Welles as a self-deluded untalented young woman.
Of the remaining three actual nominees, Sylvia Miles does wonders with a small part as a doomed alcoholic in Farewell, My Lovely and Lee Grant acts up a storm as an unfaithful Hollywood wife in Shampoo, but Brenda Vaccaro's nomination as a wisecracking press agent in the practically unwatchable Once Is Not Enough is one of the biggest headscratchers of all time. It still boggles the mind that she actually won a Golden Globe for this thing over Tomlin, Blakley, Harris and Grant.
I voted for Tomlin.
Edited By Big Magilla on 1282279259
I was going to open this discussion by saying that this category could have been filled with nominees from just one film - Robert Altman's Nashville. Actually that could have been true if four of the nominees were from that film and the fifth slot had been filled by Louise Fletcher in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
The role of the gospel singing mother of the two deaf children was written for, and in part by, Fletcher who lost the role after her husband, Altman's producer, and the director had a falling out. We'll never know how good Fletcher would have been in the role, but we do know how great Lily Tomlin was in her first film.
Equally great was unknown Ronee Blakely in as the mentally unstable leading singer patterned after Loretta Lynn. If there were to be only two women nominated from the film in this category, then these two were the right two.
Also meriting consideration were Babara Harris whose powerful voice ends the film, Barbara Baxley, wonderful as a Minnie Pearl type and Gwen Welles as a self-deluded untalented young woman.
Of the remaining three actual nominees, Sylvia Miles does wonders with a small part as a doomed alcoholic in Farewell, My Lovely and Lee Grant acts up a storm as an unfaithful Hollywood wife in Shampoo, but Brenda Vaccaro's nomination as a wisecracking press agent in the practically unwatchable Once Is Not Enough is one of the biggest headscratchers of all time. It still boggles the mind that she actually won a Golden Globe for this thing over Tomlin, Blakley, Harris and Grant.
I voted for Tomlin.
Edited By Big Magilla on 1282279259