Best Actress Ranking - Update

Here is a new update. The newly added performance is highlighted in bold. 

If five performances from the same year are included, the winning performance is higlighted in red.

1. Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind (1939)
2. Jessica Lange in Frances (1982)
3. Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard (1950)
4. Olivia de Havilland in The Heiress (1949)
5. Maggie Smith in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)
6. Anne Bancroft in The Graduate (1967)
7. Janet Gaynor in Seventh Heaven (1927-1928)   
8. Jill Clayburgh in An Unmarried Woman (1978)
9. Glenn Close in Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
10. Geraldine Page in The Trip to Bountiful (1985)

11. Susan Sarandon in Thelma & Louise (1991)
12. Katharine Hepburn in Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)
13. Edith Evans in The Whisperers (1967)
14. Norma Shearer in Marie Antoinette (1938)
15. Greta Garbo in Ninotchka (1939)
16. Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
17. Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth (1998)
18. Kate Winslet in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
19. Simone Signoret in Room at the Top (1959)
20. Bette Davis in The Little Foxes (1941)

21. Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music (1965)
22. Rosalind Russell in Auntie Mame (1958)
23. Glenda Jackson in Women in Love (1970)
24. Joanne Woodward in The Three Faces of Eve (1957)
25. Elizabeth Taylor in Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)
26. Barbara Stanwyck in Ball of Fire (1941)
27. Lee Remick in Days of Wine and Roses (1962)
28. Annette Bening in American Beauty (1999)
29. Emily Watson in Hilary and Jackie (1998)
30. Julie Christie in Away from Her (2007)

31. Shelley Winters in A Place in the Sun (1951)
32. Audrey Hepburn in Wait until Dark (1967)
33. Meryl Streep in The Devil wears Prada (2006)
34. Ingrid Bergman in The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945)
35. Anne Baxter in All about Eve (1950)
36. Judi Dench in Mrs. Brown (1997)
37. Helen Hayes in The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1932)
38. Jane Fonda in Coming Home (1978)
39. Greer Garson in Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)
40. Doris Day in Pillow Talk (1959)

41. Meryl Streep in One True Thing (1998)
42. Joan Crawford in Sudden Fear (1952)
43. Deborah Kerr in From Here to Eternity (1953)
44. Katharine Hepburn in Guess who’s coming to dinner (1967)
45. Marsha Mason in Chapter Two (1979)
46. Jane Wyman in The Yearling (1946)
47. Martha Scott in Our Town (1940)
48. Teresa Wright in The Pride of the Yankees (1942) 
49. Jennifer Jones in Love Letters (1945)
50. Ellen Burstyn in Same Time, Next Year (1978)

51. Susan Hayward in My Foolish Heart (1949)
52. Jeanne Crain in Pinky (1949)
53. Eleanor Parker in Detective Story (1951)
54. Vanessa Redgrave in Mary, Queen of Scots (1971)
55. Diane Keaton in Marvin's Room (1996)
56. Loretta Young in Come to the Stable (1949)  
57. Mary Pickford in Coquette (1928-29)
58. Sissy Spacek in The River (1984)
59. Shirley MacLaine in The Turning Point (1977)
60. Irene Dunne in Cimarron (1930-1931)

61. Ruth Chatterton in Madame X (1928-29)
62. Diana Wynyard in Cavalcade (1932-1933)
63. Bette Davis in The Star (1952)

Annette Bening as Carolyn Burnham in American Beauty

If I had done this ranking 20 years ago, there is a good chance that Annette Bening might simply have been my Number 1. I was absolutely crazy about American Beauty when it first came out – and if you ever click on my Best PictureRanking, you can see that I actually still am. This love covered every aspect of the movie, obviously Kevin Spacey’s central role as Lester Burnham, but back in 1999, Annette Bening was probably the part of the movie I loved the most (I guess the Actress lover in me has always been very strong). There was just something so unusual about her, despite the conservative character she is playing, and her energy on the screen was just out-of-this world and gave a totally different balance to the central relationship. And I still do admire many parts of this performance, but as you can see from my ranking, my appreciation no longer knows no boundaries and I came to realize that the writing does affect her work.

Even though I still am crazy about American Beauty, I am not blind to its many flaws – many, many flaws. I can basically watch the movie and tell you every minute a new thing that is wrong with it – but American Beauty is one of the few movies that somehow totally escapes this criticism and, at least for me, comes out at the end, despite all its flaws, as a pure masterpiece. I don’t know what it is about it that keeps me so completely fascinated but I just cannot deny its power and perfection despite all its actual imperfection.

But even if the movie as a whole is perfect for me, I don’t automatically transfer this impression to every one of its aspects anymore. I still think that Kevin Spacey is perfection in the central role – again, despite the flaws because in a lot of ways, he actually seems miscast as his screen persona never truly embodies the average guy he is supposed to be. And Annette Bening is also incredibly strong as I said in the beginning, I still appreciate many aspects of her work, but I cannot overlook the fact that in her case, the limits of the part are too strong to fully embrace her work.

The first thing I have to say is: it is still true that Annette Bening brings an unexpected amount of energy and dedication to the part that makes her seem like the only possible choice for Carolyn. She attacks this role so completely, making every single moment of her appearance count and she balances drama and comedy flawlessly, making Carolyn a much stronger focus than it would have been otherwise. Because her status as a leading lady is actually debatable – American Beauty always circles around Kevin Spacey and Carolyn is not a bigger part of the film than their daughter Jane, they are aspects of Lester’s life that come and go but are never as developed as he is. Or rather, Jane actually is a layered character – Carolyn unfortunately feels too limited in the way the scrip presents her but also the way that Annette Bening plays her. It’s admirable that she so completely embraced the shrewish nature of the character and that she managed to gain sympathy by adding humur and pathos to her role but the part is not as deep as the movie would like you to believe and her characterization doesn’t always widen Carolyn as a person.

As I just said, the energy and dedication of her acting is astounding. From her first close-up, she treats Carolyn as a force of nature – the way she laughs nervously when Lester introduces himself, the way she snaps at her husband and her daughter, the way she drunkenly flirts with the “Real Estate King” or slaps herself after failing to sell a house are all moments that didn’t need to be as great as they are and that all benefit from Annette Bening’s way of being both seriousness and a caricature. Even though Kevin Spacey’s has the best character and also gives the best performance in the movie, Annette Bening absorbs every bit of attention whenever she is on-screen. She also manages to create Carolyn as a logical flow within the movie – as long as you don’t think too much about the flaws in her character, everything in her work fits right into the style of American Beauty. Who can forget her fight with Lester at the dining room table or her complete breakdown at the end of the movie? She creates an unforgettable character and really does this all by herself.

The reasons why I am not placing her higher lie in both the script but also Annette Bening’s performance – because even if she creates something unforgettable, this is only in relation to the fact that American Beauty is not interested in her and takes the same view of her character as Lester does: that she is a mostly shrill, humourless shrew and Lester is more than right to start treating her like crap. American Beauty is never truly interested in her point of view – Lester gives us all his reasoning and thinking in Voice Over, Annette Bening’s Carolyn doesn’t have this luxury and so many of her motives and decisions remain unclear. Annette Bening’s performance works in the contact of satire and caricature but it doesn’t really elevate Carolyn to a human being – it is fun to see her having an affair, but neither the movie nor her performance ever explain the reasons why Carolyn, so careful about her image of perfection, makes this step, in total contrast to Lester who’s lusting after his daughter’s highschool friend is given much more room. Neither Annette Bening nor the script explain why Carolyn turned into the woman she is today and Annette Bening’s performance also doesn’t take benefit of the scenes when Carolyn is not with Lester – here, Annette Bening might have deepened the character of Carolyn but instead she continues to play Carolyn the way Lester sees her. She is a good sport about many things but I wish she had fought a bit more to give Carolyn her point of view - for example when Carolyn sees Lester working out in the garage; that scene could have been played with a bit of humor and curiousity but Annette Bening too quickly and willingly presents herself as the opposite of Kevin Spacey's Lester, only there to make him look more appealing to the audience. There is unfortunately no element of surprise in her work and again – it benefits the movie and is still thrilling to watch but like a lot of other elements of American Beauty, it doesn’t totally hold up to a “closer look”.

So, this is a performance that does have a special meaning for me as it might have been the first best actress performance I was completely crazy about (and I was devastated for weeks when she lost the Oscar) but a more subjective look has shown me that what I love about this performance (the total dedication, the willingness to so strongly go along) are also the reasons why Carolyn doesn’t reach the potential she might have had if the movie had asked her to be a real human instead of a concept. Still, Annette Bening does excellent work that, within its limits, stood the test of time and is thrilling to watch.