Best Actress Ranking - Update

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

1. Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind (1939)
2. Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard (1950)
3. Olivia de Havilland in The Heiress (1949)
4. Anne Bancroft in The Graduate (1967)
5. Janet Gaynor in Seventh Heaven (1927-1928)   
6. Glenn Close in Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
7. Edith Evans in The Whisperers (1967)
8. Greta Garbo in Ninotchka (1939)
9. Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
10. Bette Davis in The Little Foxes (1941)

11. Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music (1965)
12. Glenda Jackson in Women in Love (1970)
13. Barbara Stanwyck in Ball of Fire (1941)
14. Shelley Winters in A Place in the Sun (1951)
15. Ingrid Bergman in The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945)
16. Greer Garson in Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)
17. Meryl Streep in One True Thing (1998)
18. Katharine Hepburn in Guess who’s coming to dinner (1967)
19. Teresa Wright in The Pride of the Yankees (1942) 
20. Jennifer Jones in Love Letters (1945)

21. Ellen Burstyn in Same Time, Next Year (1978)
22. Diane Keaton in Marvin's Room (1996)
23. Loretta Young in Come to the Stable (1949)  
24. Shirley MacLaine in The Turning Point (1977)
25. Irene Dunne in Cimarron (1930-1931)
26. Diana Wynyard in Cavalcade (1932-1933)

YOUR Best Actress of 1996

The polls results are:

1. Frances McDormand - Fargo (13 votes)

2. Brenda Blethyn - Secrets and Lies (12 votes)

3. Emily Watson - Breaking the Waves (9 votes)

4. Kristin Scott Thomas - The English Patient (2 votes)

5. Diane Keaton - Marvin's Room (1 vote)

Best Actress 1996 - The resolution!

After having watched and reviewed all five nominated performances, it's time to pick the winner!

5. Diane Keaton in Marvin's Room

In the role of Bessie, Diane Keaton suffers very nobly but neither the script nor her performance give any real depth to the character. It’s a simple and beautiful presentation of hope and fear that unfortunately never defies the sentiment of the story but rather intensifies it with a constant smile even in the most serious situations. That way, Diane Keaton serves the film well but never adds any complexity to her character.

4. Kristin Scott Thomas in The English Patient

                     

The part of Katharine may only be a love interest, but Kristin Scott Thomas never lets her be reduced to this and instead adds a lot of layers and nuances to create a fascinating woman who is not afraid to be unlikable in her adultery and for whom men would betray their allies and their best friends. In combining British arrogance and iciness with warmth and passion, Kristin Scott Thomas’s presence is felt in every second of the movie.

3. Brenda Blethyn in Secrets and Lies

Brenda Blethyn wonderfully demonstrates that Cynthia is a lonely and needy character, full of self-pity and sorrow about her life and her past and probably her future, too. The loneliness and sadness that she displays in almost every second of her life is heartbreaking in it’s simplicity and effectiveness and results in an extremely moving and perfectly executed performance.

2. Frances McDormand in Fargo

In creating Marge Gunderson, Frances McDormand gives a performance that is real, unique, hilarious, intelligent, memorable and touching. She is able to demonstrate a lot of layers and nuances behind the stereotypical exterior and with brilliant acting choices, Frances McDormand shows that Marge is the only sane character in a world full of violence and that her niceness and naivety does not prevent her from solving a gruesome murder case.

1. Emily Watson in Breaking the Waves

In the role of the religious and backward Bess, Emily Watson gives a performance that is a masterpiece in rawness, honesty and uncompromising dedication. She conveys the self-humiliation of Bess without any reservation but instead expressed every emotion with total frankness and, as a result, gave a devastating tour-de-force that is rarely seen on the screen.

 

Best Actress 1996: Emily Watson in "Breaking the Waves"

The movies by Lars van Trier are certainly not for everybody and I will be the first one to admit that Breaking the Waves is a less than perfect film. But Lars van Trier is always able to get astonishingly raw and unaffected performances from the women he is working with.

I have to say that Breaking the Waves is a movie that’s doubtless far above my head and I probably did not even understand 1% of what van Trier wanted to say but I try the best I can.

It was probably a good thing that Breaking the Waves was the first time for Emily Watson in front of the camera. Her inexperience and van Trier’s direction helped her to give a performance that is a masterpiece in honesty and uncompromising dedication. She completely allowed herself to disappear into the character of Bess and did so without any reservation but instead expressed every emotion with total frankness and, as a result, gave a tour-de-force that is rarely seen on the screen.

With Breaking the Waves, Lars van Trier handles various themes that dominate Bess’s life: religion, love and sex. She is a deeply religious woman, dominated by a deeply religious village community. And with the same dedication that she follows God, she also falls in love with Jan, her future husband. She loves him unconditionally and bases her whole existence on her love to him. With him, she also begins to experience sexual love and for her, this love is a gift of God.

Bess is a very naïve, insecure and probably backward girl. We soon learn that she had already been to a hospital. She is a woman who is pure and good and her best friend says of her that she is someone who would give anything to anyone. But this feature of her will also be her destruction.

Bess is caught in a world of religious intolerance and fanaticism which has formed her all her life. When she goes to church, she literally talks to God – she talks to him with that quiet, always insecure voice and then answers with sudden conviction. Her God is not a loving God – he warns her, he threatens her and she tries the best she can to please him but the love that has entered her life makes it more and more difficult for her to do this. In the world of Bess, it seems that love and religion cannot co-exist.

When Jan has to leave her to work on an oil-rig, it almost breaks her apart. She prays for him to come again earlier even so “God” warns her to do that. In her eyes, God then answers her prayers but in the worst ways: Jan has a terrible accident that leaves him paralyzed and results in his earlier arrival. From now on, Bess blames herself and is willing to do anything that could make Jan be better again. Finally, Jan asks her to have sex with other men and then tell him about it. While she is reluctant at first, she starts to believe that by doing this she can help him to become better again and what follows is probably the most devastating process of self-humiliation that was ever put on the screen.

There are few performances that makes one feel so completely helpless. To watch how Bess, a character so pure and innocent, degrades herself is already as painful as possible but it’s even more disturbing to see how Bess continues to believe that she is doing the best thing for Jan. Bess realizes how she removes herself from God and the religious community – when she prays and suddenly, God doesn’t answer anymore, it’s a shocking and heartbreaking moment. But when she is willing to go back on a ship to have sex with a group of violent men, God is there again because Bess is sacrificing herself for Jan.

Bess is such a simple and at the same time immensely complex character and Emily Watson was able to show all sides or her flawlessly and combines this with matching facial work that shows Bess naivety, her pain and her joy gloriously. Few actresses have ever so totally let go in their performances – Bess’s screams of pain when Jan leaves her, her desperate tears when her mother won’t open the door for her and the heartbreaking final moments in the hospital are among the most shattering moments ever seen.

Emily Watson’s portrayal of Bess’s thinking and logic, her love and feelings, it as flawless as it is devastating. The moments when Bess becomes an outcast in her village are almost impossible to watch. Bess is a woman who never acts out of any dubious motives – she always tries to do the right thing for Jan. When she tells her mother that she is sorry that she couldn’t be a good girl, it sums up all that Bess is. She is always worried about the feelings of others, she tries to act the way she should but her way of loving Jan is too grand and private to be understandable for anyone else.

The way Emily Watson was able to bring Bess to life without ever making it seem unrealistic and the way she was able to connect to the viewer is astonishing. Bess lives in her own world and has her own points-of-views that make it hard to understand her, but Emily Watson perfectly builds a relationship between herself and the viewer that makes it possible to follow her without ever looking down on her. Emily Watson never tries to use Bess’s tragic life as a way to make her more likeable. She makes Bess such a fragile character who actively runs into her own deterioration.

Emily Watson creates one of the most tragic characters in movie history and gives a performance that is monumental in its honesty, rawness and dedication. For this, she gets

Best Actress 1996: Brenda Blethyn in "Secrets and Lies"

In Mike Leigh’s Secrets and Lies, we are shown two very different worlds: one belongs to the character of Cynthia, who works in a fabric, has a daughter who sweeps the streets and lives a lonely and depressing life at the lower end of the lower class. The other world belongs to Hortense, a young black woman who is a successful optometrist and lives a comfortable life that contrasts sharply with that of Cynthia. But very soon the paths of these two different women meet and change their lives forever.

Secrets and Lies starts rather depressing: with a funeral. The sad face of Hortense and the big floral wreath saying “Mum” immediately tells us everything we need to know. A little later, we are also introduced to the character of Cynthia. We see her working in a fabric and the look on her face shows what she confirms later: that her work pays the rent, nothing more. The next scene in her little house with her daughter enforces our impression of Cynthia and her daughter: they are basically British white-trash. Cynthia argues with her daughter who says that she didn’t ask to be born while Cynthia answers that she didn’t ask to have her either.

While we see that Cynthia is not very educated or refined, Brenda Blethyn wonderfully demonstrates that she it not average white-trash. Unlike her daughter she doesn’t swear, misbehave or act aggressively. Rather, Cynthia is a lonely, needy character, full of self-pity and sorrow about her life and her past and probably her future, too. She has barely any contact to her brother and his wife, her daughter mostly avoids her – we see that Cynthia is a woman who is longing for security and companion. She is the kind of character that the viewer would like to hug and comfort because the loneliness and sadness that she displays in almost every second of her life is heartbreaking in it’s simplicity and effectiveness.

While Brenda Blethyn starts her performance a little annoying, she very soon deepens the character of Cynthia and shows that beneath that quirky, squeaky woman lies an unhappy soul with a dark past and no hope for the future. Her breakdown during a seldom visit of her brother is an incredibly moving moment and Brenda Blethyn excellently rises to the highest acting challenges. To see how this already suffering woman has to stand so many blows of fate is like watching an already starving puppy being kicked in the head.

In another scene with her daughter, we see how she is admiring her legs. It’s not clear if she does that because she is thinking of a past when she could turn all the men’s heads with her legs or simply because she got nothing else to admire or maybe even only to make some conversation with her daughter. Brenda Blethyn never simplifies Cynthia even though she seems like such an exaggerated, stereotypical character at first. She always keeps talking about things nobody wants to hear, she doesn’t know when to stop or when it would be better to say nothing at all. Brenda Blethyn makes Cynthia an almost impossible to bear character but she is also able to captivate the audience with this. Brenda Blethyn never uses Cynthia’s sadness to make the character more appealing.

The real highpoints of her performance come when Hortense suddenly enters her life. Cynthia may have always thought about the little baby she gave up for adoption but when Hortense calls her on the phone and tells her that she is her daughter, it is an unimaginable shock for Cynthia. The way Brenda Blethyn is able to show this shock and her fear is exceptional. Out of nowhere her past has caught up with her.

Even more impressing is that famous, one-take scene when Cynthia realizes that, yes, she is the mother of this black woman. She never saw the baby after the birth and apparently she also never saw the father – it’s not made clear if she was raped by a man she couldn’t see but Cynthia’s crying scenes of remembrance seem to indicate that something terrible must have happened to her. In these scenes, Brenda Blethyn is breathtaking in her ability to show a towering amount of emotions. After her initial shock, Cynthia starts to warm up to Hortense and we see that she can find a lot of pride in the fact that her own daughter was able to live such a well-off life and turned out to be such a bright and intelligent woman.

Brenda Blethyn and Marianne Jean Baptiste have wonderful chemistry together and are perfectly able to demonstrate how Cynthia and Hortense grow fond of each other, how they start to build their relationship as mother and daughter and Brenda Blethyn is particularly wonderful in showing how suddenly joy and happiness enter her life.

Even though she is sometimes a little too exaggerated and over-the-top, Brenda Blethyn nonetheless gives an extremely moving, perfectly executed performance that gets

Best Actress 1996: Kristin Scott Thomas in "The English Patient"

Before the Academy Awards in 1997, there was a lot of speculation about the category placement for Juliette Binoche and Kristin Scott Thomas who both played the main female characters in The English Patient. It’s a movie which combines flashbacks with present-day scenes and while Kristin Scott Thomas is only present in the flashbacks, Juliette Binoche only appears in the present-day scenes.

The English Patient tells the story of a man who was almost burned to death in a plane crash during World War II and is now taken care of by a Canadian nurse in an abandoned monastery in the Italian countryside. Through flashbacks we learn his story – a story about love and betrayal.

In the end, it was decided to push Kristin Scott Thomas for lead because the love story between Katharine and Almásy is the heart and soul of the picture. While the placement is still debateable, I have no problems with it.

We actually see Katharine once in the present-day scenes – right at the beginning, sitting in an airplane, apparently sleeping. She doesn’t do anything in this scene, but Kristin Scott Thomas’s unique beauty already makes an aborbing entrence.

In the role of Katharine, Kristin Scott Thomas creates one of the most fascinating cold blondes that ever graced the screen. Besides being stunningly beautiful, Kristin Scott Thomas is able to add something mysterious, inaccesible but also intimate to Katharine – she never becomes a very emotional woman but instead tries to keep her feelings behind her calm face.

Katharine is a woman alone in a world of men and accompanies her husband who works with a group of geographers in the Sahara Desert. Kristin Scott Thomas immediately demonstrates a certain British arrogance and iciness but she is able to combine it with warmth and passion which makes Katharine a very fascinating woman right from the start. She shows that Katharine is neither shy nor afraid to say what’s on her mind. Kristin Scott Thomas’s performance is very modern and old-fashioned at the same time – Katharine’s looks are wonderfully 30s but her character is not. She may be a kind of trophy wife but she refuses to be reduced in any way.

Just like Katharine always shows that there is more to her than beauty and style, Kristin Scott Thomas never lets her own beauty dominate her performance but instead shows a deep side in Katharine’s character that is sometimes rather ugly. Neither she nor Ralph Fiennes make any excuses for their passionate love affair – Katharine is always aware that she is cheating on her husband, she doesn’t fall in love with Almásy and forgets time and space. Instead, even in her most happy moments we always see her guilt and sorrow. When Almásy asks her after their first time together when she was the most happy, she answers ‘Now’. And when he asks her when she was the least happy, she again says ‘Now’. Kristin Scott Thomas is not afraid to make Katharine unlikable in her adultery.

Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas give very grown-up performances. This may sound weird, but it is meant to describe that they don’t fall romantically in love and act like teenagers but instead they always show that they are aware of what they’re doing even in their most passionate, spontaneous encounters. Ralph and Kristin demonstrate how troubled and disturbed their characters are by their love affair.

The sexual and passionate chemistry between Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas makes The English Patient one of the greatest love stories ever captured on the screen. From the first moment they meet each other it is clear that she will change his life forever.

At first, Katharine seems rather amused by Almásy's awkward and humorless behavior and tries to get him out of his shell – not in a flirting or sexual way, but rather friendly and interested. Katharine likes to tease Almásy but her loving feelings for him develop later.

The English Patient never explores the love between Almásy and Katharine – it doesn’t ask why or how and neither does Kristin Scott Thomas. Her character never explains why she is so fascinated by him but thanks to Kristin’s passionate performance, she doesn’t have to. On the other side, we also never learn about Almásy’s motives for his love, but again, Kristin turns Katharine into such a captivating character that no reasons are necessary.

It is not easy for actors to portray a love story in an epic like The English Patient. They have to show the intimacy of their relationship but also have to make their love as grand as the movie itself. Both Ralph and Kristin were wonderfully able to fulfill this task without any sentiment.

Kristin Scott Thomas may be only playing a love interest, but she never lets her character be reduced to this. She adds a lot of layers and nuances to Katharine who in the end, is not only a love interest, but becomes a symbol for the kind of woman who could make a man betray his colleagues, his friends and his country. Katharine may be nothing more than the memory of a dying man – but she becomes a lingering presence over everyone and everything.

Kristin Scott Thomas was able to bring this woman to life in the most glorious way and for this, she gets

Best Actress 1996: Diane Keaton in "Marvin's Room"

When Marvin’s Room, a sentimental story about two estranged sisters, opened in 1996, it seemed that Meryl Streep would be one to get the Oscar attention after she was the only one to get a nomination from the Golden Globes. But Diane Keaton beat Meryl to the SAG Awards and finally was the one to receive the Oscar nomination for her performance as Bessie, a woman who took care of her sick father and her aunt for 20 years and is now facing leukemia.

We learn almost everything about Bessie in the first few minutes of the movie. She is having a doctor’s appointment where it is already mentioned that something is wrong with her. And she is also telling the doctor about her private life, about her father who is dying for 20 years and her aunt who is a little confused. Bessie talks about this with a mix of comedy and sadness – we see that taking care of other people is all that Bessie’s life is about and she has accepted it long ago. The way she talks about all this shows that it is not easy for her but she does it without any complaints. Diane Keaton makes Bessie a symbol of support and calmness.

The mix of comedy and drama that Diane Keaton shows in a lot of moments of her performance is also the theme of Marvin’s Room. This is not the serious, heavy-handed drama about illness and estranged relatives one expects – instead, it more often than once mixed the most serious scenes with a good deal of comedy, sometimes with effective and sometimes with disastrous results.

When Bessie learns that she suffers from leukemia, she has to get in touch with her estranged sister Lee again. They haven’t spoken in 17 years, but Lee immediately comes to visit Bessie to see if she can help her. Lee has enough problems of her own with her rebellious son Hank who tried to burn down their house but Bessie is able to connect with him very quickly – her quiet and friendly way of behaving is very different from the way his mother acts.

In the role of Bessie, Diane Keaton gives a very simple and beautiful performance. Diane Keaton is always a very warm, likeable and honest presence on the screen and this performance is no difference.

It’s mostly the banality of the script and the undecided directing that works against her. In the part of Bessie, Diane Keaton can never really make a good impression because almost all dramatic scenes are destroyed by an uncalled use of comedy. When we see her taking care of her sick father, it is destroyed by him putting the wrong button on his automatic bed. When we see her in hospital with a bandage around her head, it is destroyed by her aunt’s silly monologue. When we see her collapsing in Disney World after having discovered that she is bleeding in her mouth, it is destroyed by Goofy being one of the first people to take care of her.

There are some times in the movie when the mix of comedy and drama works but they mostly involve Meryl Streep. Diane Keaton’s most shining moments are her quiet ones: her moving reaction to the news of her sickness, her quiet desperation when her father is having an attack or her very touching breakdowns at the end when the fear of death enters her life.

Throughout the movie, Bessie also always remains that symbol of support and efficiency that she was in the beginning. Even in her own serious situation, she still has to manage her father’s and her aunt’s life, too, and she does it without complaining or even thinking about complaining – it’s a natural part of her life, like breathing or eating.

Marvin’s Room is a movie that is able to bring it’s sentimentality across mostly due to the great acting. Diane Keaton and Meryl Streep work very well with each other. Their re-union scene is very moving because it avoids too much sentiment and doesn’t overdo the comedy, either. Both actresses are so comfortable in their roles because they fit their talents perfectly: Diane Keaton’s acting seems to come from inside and helps to create this warm and charming woman while Meryl Streep’s acting seems to come from outside, is more prepared and elaborate which works well to create her distant, sometimes cold and confused character.

Overall, it’s a warm and engaging story and the actresses more than once bring tears to the viewer’s eyes with their equally engaging performances. That way, Diane Keaton serves the movie commendable, but apart from playing the character as written, she never does anything more. She never gives any more depth to Bessie except when the script asks her to which unfortunately, does not happen very often. Mostly, she even suffers from the script. A good example is the scene with Leonardo DiCaprio at the beach. Just when it is about to become a moving and great scene for Diane Keaton, it is over again.

Diane Keaton handles her dramatic scenes with Hank and her fight’s with Lee with dignity and shows a lot of talent and the scene when she talks about the love of her life who drowned in a river reminds one of the scene from Annie Hall when Annie talked about that old man and the free turkey because Diane again mixes it with comedy and drama. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really work this time.

Overall, Diane Keaton suffers very nobly in this picture but she never really becomes Oscar-worthy in the process. She unfortunately never tries to defy the sentimentality of the script but rather underlines it with a constant smile of happiness even in her most desperate situations. That way, her character becomes very likeable and accessible but never really three-dimensional. When Bessie hears some devastating news on the phone, she breaks down crying and a great scene for Diane Keaton could be on our way, but only two seconds later, Diane is again smiling from one ear to the other and talks about how happy her life was and how glad she is for everything. Again, it’s a moving scene but a wasted opportunity.

Overall, it’s a charming, engaging, warm and likeable performance that gets

Best Actress 1996: Frances McDormand in "Fargo"

When Frances McDormand accepted her Oscar, she said what a great year this was for the Best Actress category and how all the nominated women had the choice to play such “rich, complex female characters”. While I used to think that Frances had to be joking because I never thought of Marge Gunderson as a complex character, time has helped me to fully appreciate her performance and I came to the conclusion that she was, indeed, right.

Fargo tells the story of Jerry Lundegaard, an eternal loser who hires two gangsters to kidnap his wife – he wants his father-in-law to pay the ransom and then split it with the two criminals. Unfortunately, like everything else that Jerry touches, the whole plan turns into a disaster and various dead bodies are the result. Finally, about 30 minutes into the movie, Frances McDormand enters the scene as very pregnant and matter-of-fact police officer Marge Gunderson.

On the surface, Marge Gunderson is a character full of stereotypes, talking with an exaggerated accent and apparently rather slow and dim-witted. But Frances McDormand is able to show many layers in Marge. She shows that there is something else under Marge’s constant smile and nice behavior – a deep understanding. She sees the world in a rather simple way but more often than once, she is right and able to combine very quickly. In only a few moments she has observed the crime scene of a triple homicide and immediately drew a right conclusion about what exactly happened here. Frances McDormand shows that there is a reason why Marge is a police officer – she is much more intelligent than one would expect at the first sight and able to handle scenes of interrogations very professionally. She always acts nice and friendly (but not because she wants to get the people’s confidence, but rather because she is always nice and friendly) but in the scene with Shep Proudfoot, Marge can change from nice to slick to nice again in just a few seconds.

Frances shows that Marge is a simple, but also very positive person who, even despite all the crimes around her, believes in the good and honesty of people. That’s why Marge is a little naïve sometimes, but this naivety is not something that stops her from seeing the overall truth. This extraordinary case causes Marge to grow but in a very unexpected way. The meeting with her old friend from High School who turns out to have been a big liar, makes Marge aware that sometimes people lie, simple as that. Yes, Marge is a little naïve but Frances McDormand shows that this doesn’t mean that she is dumb – Marge is simply too nice for this dark world. But with brilliant acting choices, Frances McDormand portrays that this niceness does not prevent Marge from solving this bloody case. Her absolutely calm, matter-of-fact reaction to the sight of a man being put in a wood chipper is the best example – no screaming, no panic, just a slight look of disgust and then a professional “Police!”, just what we would expect from Marge.

That’s why her scene in the car, when she is saying “I just don’t understand it” is so great. It’s true, Marge doesn’t understand. She can’t understand why people would kill for money, why all these terrible things happened. But even though she might not be able to understand them, she is perfectly fit to solve them. She doesn’t let her cases influence her personally, she always keeps a professional distance. When she tells the killer “There is more to life than a little money, you know”, then Marge is not joking with him – she believes that and that way, she is able to find more happiness in her quiet home and (usually) quiet life than all the other people in the movie, who dream of wealth and success, can even imagine.

Frances McDormand combines all these various aspects of Marge brilliantly, but she does much more than that: she creates one of the most hilarious and unique characters in movie history. From her first “For Pete’s Sake” to her last “Oh Jeez”, Marge is a living stereotype, but so real and warm at the same time that the viewer never looks down on her or laughs at her. Frances McDormand’s deadpan delivery of so many funny lines with a perfect accent, facial work and a constant smile – everything works perfectly and creates a woman who is both a character and a caricature at the same time.

Frances McDormand gives an unforgettable performance and this also makes so many of her lines unforgettable:
"You betcha, yah!"
"Ah, hon, ya got Arby's all over me."
"No, I just think I'm gonna barf... Well, that passed. Now I'm hungry again."
"I'm not sure I agree with you a hundred percent on your police work, there, Lou."
"You have no call to get snippy with me; I'm just trying to do my job here."
"So, you were havin' sex with the little fellow then."

Frances McDormand gives a performance that is real, unique, hilarious, intelligent, memorable and touching. For this, she gets

Best Actress 1996

The next year will be 1996 and the nominees were

Brenda Blethyn in Secrets and Lies

Diane Keaton in Marvin's Room

Frances McDormand in Fargo

Kristin Scott Thomas in The English Patient

Emily Watson in Breaking the Waves