Best Actress 1993

[The Original BJ]

I caught up with Shadowlands in preparation for the Screenplay poll, which had the added bonus of completing this lineup for me. As everyone has said, it's a very strong field, though I still wish there had been room for Michelle Pfeiffer in The Age of Innocence.

Debra Winger's brassy New Yorker makes for a great counterpoint to Anthony Hopkins's ritual-obsessed Englishman in Shadowlands -- the actress's warmth and sense of humor make it easy for us to understand how C.S. Lewis would have fallen for her character, and how surprising her energy must have seemed to the stuffy British academics in Lewis's circles. And yet it's not the most dominant of these roles; Shadowlands is a lot more Hopkins's movie than Winger's.

And you could say just about the same thing for Emma Thompson in The Remains of the Day, though she, too, gives a very fine performance. She had a wonderful year overall, with her last-act monologue in In the Name of the Father, as well as her luminous Much Ado About Nothing work, but I might admire her more restrained role in Remains best of all this year. As an actress, Thompson has always had the ability to convey great shifts in emotion with very subtle effort, and I think the buttoned-down almost-romance between her and Hopkins here gains so much in power from the feelings she lets creep through even as her character tries to downplay them. Still, Remains isn't as much of a showcase for her as Howards End was.

It's always tricky to evaluate lip-syncing musical bio performances, but I will say this -- even if Angela Bassett is not singing, it's hard to watch the performance of "Proud Mary" in What's Love Got to Do With It and not be impressed by how forcefully Bassett captures Tina Turner's singular onstage energy. This is obviously the best role Bassett's ever had, using her trademark over-enunciated diction to splendid effect as a woman trying to remain strong even in the face of torment -- the scene when she begs the motel owner for a room is just a killer moment, and Bassett just nails this portrait of an abused woman desperately trying to hold on to her dignity. She's not my winner, but I hope she gets another role worthy of her talent one day.

Stockard Channing has a very tricky part in Six Degrees of Separation, and she pulls it off splendidly. What's crucial to the character is to show both her innate goodness (which gets her in troublesome situations sometimes) as well as her sharp intelligence (which allows her to articulate her attitude toward those situations in a thought-out, rational manner). And Channing does both effortlessly. It's interesting to look at this nomination within the structure of Six Degrees -- most of the plot elements actually affect OTHER characters, and yet, despite the fact that Channing's Ouisa is an observer to a lot of the action, she manages to make her character the most fascinating and sympathetic player on-screen. I can't say there was a moment where I ever thought "she's the winner," even as well-delivered as her last monologue is, because...

...Holly Hunter is just miraculous in The Piano. There isn't a scene in the movie where she doesn't make a striking impression, and the power she expresses with just her face recalls the heightened emotion of the great silent film actresses. What's amazing isn't just that this performance commands the screen with barely a word of dialogue, but also that it came from an actress who, in most of her other work, has used that great Southern drawl to superlative (often hilarious) effect. Stripped of that voice, Holly Hunter's Ada practically seems to come from an entirely different actress than the one we had seen so energetic on-screen in Raising Arizona and Broadcast News. But there she is, using those soulful eyes, and an entirely different body language than we'd seen from her before, to portray this troubled woman in a strange new land, angry and confused, but also capable of great care and affection as well. I think this is a gorgeous piece of acting, one of the best performances to ever win the Best Actress statue, and my easy vote even in a very good lineup.

[bizarre]

Angela Bassett

This shocks none of us coming from you.

I'm sorry but I don't understand the hostility with my comments here? This is the second time you've said something about my comments....did I do something wrong?

Don't try to understand ksyrmy's petty grudges, LOL...

[OscarGoesTwo]

Angela Bassett

This shocks none of us coming from you.

I'm sorry but I don't understand the hostility with my comments here? This is the second time you've said something about my comments....did I do something wrong?

[ksrymy]

Angela Bassett

This shocks none of us coming from you.

[OscarGoesTwo]

Angela Bassett

[Precious Doll]

I voted in this poll when it first went live but for some reason didnt include my own choices. This line-up is one of the best ever for all the nominees very worthy. Whilst my choices are often quiet different from the Academy's choices, 1993 is unique in that 4 of my best actress and 4 of my best supporting actor choices align with the Academy.

My choices:

1. Stockard Channing for Six Degrees of Separation
2. Emma Thompson for Remains of the Day
3. Debra Winger for Shadowlands
4. Sabine Azema for Smoking/No Smoking
5. Holly Hunter for The Piano

[mayukh]

I haven't seen Thompson, but I'll chime in anyway...

I've never understood the wild acclaim for Bassett in What's Love Got to Do With It (I've even read an article in which she's been compared to Falconetti). She's obviously an intelligent and well-trained actress – and that's the damn problem. Everything she does on-screen is so electrifyingly overdrawn. She's a truckload of mannerisms, and her most repellent qualities as a performer are all on display in WLGTDWI (where Laurence Fishburne is, in contrast, perfect). There isn't a shred of naturalism in her performance.

Hunter was very good, but I thought her performance lacked fluidity – I think she's an actress who excels with high-energy and chaotic characters, so her performance seemed too calculatedly muted here.

Winger is one of my favorite actresses – never predictable, always spontaneous – and she's great in Shadowlands. But one of her weaknesses is that her performances can often feel unfocused and a little messy, and I recall this is a minor caveat I had with her work here.

The way Channing so subtly expresses her character's shifting moral compass – the realization of her own humanity, the deadening banality of her own existence – is remarkable. Amazing performance.

[Greg]

Hunter. The Academy got it right this time.

[Uri]

I forgot about Burton (an unknown welsh, "much" younger than his celebrated co-star – it's all part of the equation), but them again, at that time the placement in lead or support was determined by the studios. The fact is that the same logic is still maintained when peoples have the freedom to choose based on the actual performance. But my point this time was not about what makes a lead performance but more about the gender politics, but anyway, I can't argue with your valid arguments (and I have a family lunch to arrange now).

[ITALIANO]

Second, the list of this year nominees is as good as any for reflecting on the "whose show is it" issue (a variation our beloved lead vs. support debate). While The Piano and WLGtDwI were definitely Hunter's and Basset's vehicles respectively and Chaning was up there at the mix in SDoS, Thompson and Winger were playing the "girl" in what was the story of their respective male costars (actually costar). Nominating such performances as lead is of course very common for actresses and never happened with actors – there was no chance Keitel similar turn in a very rare case of a male romantic lead seen from a female p.o.v. would be similarly recognized. Anyway, as far as this year ladies are concerned, I'd consider Winger (and Pfeiffer in TAoI for that matter) as lead since her movie is about the way her character influence the male protagonist's life (she's the Garson to Hopkins' Donat), but Thompson's character, while very crucial and certainly beautifully played, was only one of several people and storylines which effected the lead character (in a way, it's about the consequential insignificance of her character rather than the other way round), so I look at her as supporting.

Uri, I love you and I admire your perseverance, but you can't make new rules every day to justify your very personal category choices. You made my day with this post, but I mean, if Thompson is supporting then Pfeiffer must be supporting too, let's face it (they are both lead). This theory about a character's influence on the protagonist life is certainly interesting, yet not only can lead, again, to very personal choices (to me, Thompson is an important, lasting though subtle influence on Hopkins's character in Remains of the Day), but even taken objectively, it doesn't only put Garson as leading in Mr Chips, but also, say, Vanessa Redgrave in Julia or, to mention one of your personal favorites in this kind of discussions, Rebecca in Rebecca as well. (Hopkns himself, in Silence of the Lambs, would be 100% leading then, which I think he is by the way).

The truth is that as much as we try, personal, psychological, even political and social aspects play an important role in this kind of choices, and this is why, while there are some objectively absurd placements in the Oscars' history, I'm far more tolerant of the Academy's choices than others here are. Being too rational on this subject is quite impossible.

Also, not you but this board seems to have suddenly realized this problem only after Casey Affleck was nominated in support for Jesse James. I wish I were that young. There are countless more interesting examples which are always (conveniently?) ignored here. Richard Burton in My Cousin Rachel is one, and Uri, he was a MAN, and clearly the lead in that (admittedly forgotten) movie. Or Terence Stamp in Billy Budd, an even more interesting case which could lead to endless discussions here but is completely ignored because, unlike Jamie Foxx, it wouldnt be easily explained with political reasons. Did Sondra Locke in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter have much less screen time than Alan Arkin? I saw the movie again recently and I can tell you that the answer is no. And finally, as an Italian, I could feel neglected too because, after all, I'm not so sure that Frank Sinatra was in From Here to Eternity for much less time than waspy Burt Lancaster (or Deborah Kerr)! It would never end, really.

But you are totally right about Hunter NOT playing a disabled person; she wasn't perceived this way by the Academy back then, or by anyone else honestly. She won because she was terrific in The Piano, and, for once, truly the best in her category that year.



Edited By ITALIANO on 1262424311

[Uri]

I have not dragged myself to see Debra Winger in Shadowlands just yet. It looks like such a chore.

I think you should. Hopkins, while being effective if somehow too formulaic in RotD, was at his most vulnerable, introversive best in Shadowland. And you'll like Winger – I'm sure you'll pleasantly recognize the kind of warm, earthy American Jewish woman she plays.

As for this year race, first – I have no problem with actors being honored for playing handicapped character. Some were good (Wyman, Day Lewis), some were bad (Penn) and some were effectively gimmicky (Hoffman) – when the story and the character are worth the usage of celluloid I don't hold the fact that they do get chip extra points for it against them. Saying that, Hunter's case is still a different one. In The Piano she doesn't play someone who IS handicapped, but someone who ACTS as one. It's all part of the mechanism of the way Ada operates, so like her performance or not, dismissing it as merely doing the cripple shtick is rather unjust.

Second, the list of this year nominees is as good as any for reflecting on the "whose show is it" issue (a variation our beloved lead vs. support debate). While The Piano and WLGtDwI were definitely Hunter's and Basset's vehicles respectively and Chaning was up there at the mix in SDoS, Thompson and Winger were playing the "girl" in what was the story of their respective male costars (actually costar). Nominating such performances as lead is of course very common for actresses and never happened with actors – there was no chance Keitel similar turn in a very rare case of a male romantic lead seen from a female p.o.v. would be similarly recognized. Anyway, as far as this year ladies are concerned, I'd consider Winger (and Pfeiffer in TAoI for that matter) as lead since her movie is about the way her character influence the male protagonist's life (she's the Garson to Hopkins' Donat), but Thompson's character, while very crucial and certainly beautifully played, was only one of several people and storylines which effected the lead character (in a way, it's about the consequential insignificance of her character rather than the other way round), so I look at her as supporting.

The bottom line – five very good nominees, two great ones, Chaning and Hunter (or three, but Thompson is support). I went with Hunter.



Edited By Uri on 1262421435

[Sabin]

I have not dragged myself to see Debra Winger in Shadowlands just yet. It looks like such a chore.

How much of a sure bet was Stockard Channing for a nomination? I agree with Damien that Channing is as devastating as Hunter in a less showy role, but Holly Hunter's performance is just so iconic. Is it a stunt performance? As much as any "handicapped" performance is, I suppose. But it's also such a gift of a role. Because we associate Holly Hunter so much with her chirpy voice, we see something very different in her as an actress once she's stripped of it. A fine winner.

[ITALIANO]

An impressive line up, of the kind we unfortunately rarely see nowadays. But even in such an excellent context, Holly Hunter must be the obvious choice.

[Mister Tee]

As all are mentioning, a very strong year -- it had to be, to keep Pfeiffer off the nominees' list.

For much of the year, I had been thinking it'd be a race between two of my most-favored previous losers, Pfeiffer and Winger (the buzz for Winger was largely from A Dangerous Woman), but once the critics' awards were in, Hunter had it without breaking a sweat.

As I said in the '92 thread, I considered Emma Thompson perhaps the best on this year -- but for Much Ado About Nothing, not Remains of the Day. Remains is one of those films almost everyone I know likes more than I do. I'm fine with it; I just don't find it extra special. And I guess I'm somewhat resentful it stole attention away from The Age of Innocence, a film I DO find extra special.

Winger's fine in both Shadowlands and her extra-credit performance in A Dangerous Woman, but not as splendid as she was in Terms of Endearment, or quite up to the others in the race.

By the way, has anyone ever commented on how many of '93's nominees had multiple credits? Hunter and Thompson were nominated twice, Winger had the extra, and Hanks (Sleepless in Seattle), Hopkins (Shadowlands) and Day-Lewis (Age of Innocence) had other major credits beyond their nominated work.

Bassett was strong but, I thought, a tad over-rated. Perhaps I'm just immune to the singer-with-the-hellacious-home-life genre, which has yielded so many best actress nods over the years.

Hunter had an overall fabulous year -- not just her two nominations, but also a spectacular TV performance as the Texas cheerleader's mom (which I think was her best work of the period). She's obviously impressive in The Piano, though I think too many people try to downplay the handicapped aspect -- i.e., act as if the muteness was somehow irrelevant to how good she was. Nonsense; just like Day-Lewis in My Left Foot, they were voting for a great stunt performance. No embarrassment about that.

But, like a few others, I go for Channing, recreating her stage triumph and giving her one truly magnificent scren performance. She tops my ballot in one of the toughest years of the era.

[Damien]

How ironic that a year after one of the weakest Best Actress lineups ever came a group of such high quality as to summon memories of some of the great races of the 1930w and 40s.

All of these performances would be worthy winners, but two are absolutely mesmerizing, Stockard Channing's and Holly Hunter's. I vote for Channing because she was as powerful and emotionally devastating as Hunter in a much less showy, more subtle role.

My Own Top 5:
Stockard Channing in Six Degrees Of Separation
Misa Shimizu in Okoge
Holly Hunter in The Piano
Lisa Harrow in The Last Days Of Chez Nous
Kelly Lynch in Three Of Hearts



Edited By Damien on 1262375120