Best Actress Ranking - Update

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

My winning performances are 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. Anne Bancroft in The Graduate (1967)
6. Janet Gaynor in Seventh Heaven (1927-1928)   
7. Glenn Close in Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
8. Geraldine Page in The Trip to Bountiful (1985)
9. Susan Sarandon in Thelma & Louise (1991)
10. Edith Evans in The Whisperers (1967)

11. Norma Shearer in Marie Antoinette (1938)
12. Greta Garbo in Ninotchka (1939)
13. Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
14. Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth (1998)
15. Kate Winslet in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
16. Bette Davis in The Little Foxes (1941)
17. Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music (1965)
18. Rosalind Russell in Auntie Mame (1958)
19. Glenda Jackson in Women in Love (1970)
20. Joanne Woodward in The Three Faces of Eve (1957)

21. Elizabeth Taylor in Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)
22. Barbara Stanwyck in Ball of Fire (1941)
23. Julie Christie in Away from Her (2007)
24. Shelley Winters in A Place in the Sun (1951)
25. Audrey Hepburn in Wait until Dark (1967)
26. Ingrid Bergman in The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945)
27. Judi Dench in Mrs. Brown (1997)
28. Jane Fonda in Coming Home (1978)
29. Greer Garson in Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)
30. Doris Day in Pillow Talk (1959)

31. Meryl Streep in One True Thing (1998)
32. Deborah Kerr in From Here to Eternity (1953)
33. Katharine Hepburn in Guess who’s coming to dinner (1967)
34. Marsha Mason in Chapter Two (1979)
35. Jane Wyman in The Yearling (1946)
36. Teresa Wright in The Pride of the Yankees (1942) 
37. Jennifer Jones in Love Letters (1945)
38. Ellen Burstyn in Same Time, Next Year (1978)
39. Susan Hayward in My Foolish Heart (1949)
40. Vanessa Redgrave in Mary, Queen of Scots (1971)

41. Diane Keaton in Marvin's Room (1996)
42. Loretta Young in Come to the Stable (1949)  
43. Mary Pickford in Coquette (1928-29)
44. Sissy Spacek in The River (1984)
45. Shirley MacLaine in The Turning Point (1977)
46. Irene Dunne in Cimarron (1930-1931)
47. Diana Wynyard in Cavalcade (1932-1933)

Kate Winslet as Clementine Kruczynski in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Finding a position for Kate Winslet’s performance in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was difficult for two reasons: One because my opinion on her performance did not really change as you can see from her position (and somehow when you re-rank something you always expect everything to turn out completely new) and second because it’s a performance that is held in such high regard that it just becomes extremely difficult to remain objective about it. It’s easy to judge performances that won Oscars or critics awards because everyone has different opinions – but Kate’s turn as Clementine is so many times mentioned as one of the greatest performances of all time, one that constantly turns up on ‘All-time best’ lists and one that is in general so beloved by everyone that you start feeling guilty when you not join 100%.

As you can see from her position, I do admire her work very much, however. I might not join the “best of all time” group but it’s definitely a performance that sparkles with creativity and originality. And this might even be the biggest achievement of Kate Winslet: the “manic pixie dream girl” has by now become such a cliché that it might appear to be just another addition to this group. But Kate Winslet always makes it clear that her Clementine doesn’t behave out the way she does out of the screenplay’s intentions but by her character’s own choosing. Her work is as natural as it can get – considering the type of role she plays, certainly not an easy task.

As I don’t really have a lot of new things to say about this performance, I will keep this review short. I just want to highlight what I admire most about this performance is Kate Winslet’s ability to add so many different sides to her character while never changing her nature. You can clearly see the unlikable sides of Clementine in Joe’s early memories, how she can begin to repel everyone around her with her behavior. But the further Joe goes back, the more relaxed and sympathetic Clementine becomes even though she never actively tries to win the audience’s or any other characters sympathies.

While I would personally say that Jim Carrey gives the best performance of the movie, I have no problems admiring Kate Winslet’s performance of a stereotype that rises above any clichés and creates an unforgettable character (pun intended).  

And a hint to the next performance that will be ranked:

YOUR Best Actress of 2008!

Here are the results of the voting:

1. Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married (14 votes)

2. Kate Winslet - The Reader (13 votes)

3. Meryl Streep - Doubt (12 votes)

4. Melissa Leo - Frozen River (11 votes)

5. Angelina Jolie - Changeling (2 votes)

Thanks to everyone for voting!

Best Actress 2008 - The resolution

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

5. Angelina Jolie in Changeling

In a performance of incredibly diverse qualities, Angelina Jolie both carries and harms the movie as she reaches heights and lows while she mixes honest emotions with fake over-the-top moments but she nonetheless creates a memorable character caught in a horrible situation and her bleak appearance and desperate performance fits to the dark and gloomy atmosphere of the story.

4. Melissa Leo in Frozen River

                     

Melissa Leo gives an impressive performance that shows how the desperation and hopelessness of her life has turned her character into a bitter and pessimistic woman but while she succeeds in showing her constant determination and toughness, there are unfortunately a lot of missed opportunities to illustrate a different side.

3. Meryl Streep in Doubt

Meryl Streep is obviously having fun with this part that gives her the opportunity to chew the scenery but at the same time she allows Sister Aloysius to be more than just a villainous stereotype and shows more layers behind the stern façade of this strict and unforgiving nun.

2. Anne Hathaway in Rachel Getting Married

With her performance, Anne Hathaway wisely took all the qualities she usually let shine in her comedies, like her charm, her loveable personality and her unique appearance and used it against type to create a memorable character, filled with sorrow and sadness that she mostly tries to hide behind a fake smile and a hyperactive personality.                       

1. Kate Winslet in The Reader

Despite being trapped in a mediocre movie, Kate Winslet was able to bring her complex character wonderfully to live with a fascinating, memorable and layered performance that successfully turns Hannah into a three-dimensional and mysterious woman and makes her actions and thoughts always appear believable, as hard as they may be to understand.

Best Actress 2008: Kate Winslet in "The Reader"

After five unsuccessful nominations, Kate Winslet finally took home the Best Actress Oscar for her performance as Hannah Schmitz – an uneducated woman with a secret past in post-war Germany .

The Reader is a very average movie that suffers from the fact that it takes itself far too seriously because it deals with the topic of the Holocaust. Unfortunately, as a movie, The Reader has nothing new to say or to show and seems only to exist to collect awards for dealing with such a serious subject.

But fortunately Kate Winslet was able to bring her complex character wonderfully to live and survive all the mediocrity around her with a memorable and layered performance. Even though she received several awards as Best Supporting Actress, Kate Winslet’s Hannah is clearly the central character of the film even if her screentime is limited compared to other nominees. Hanna always remains a kind of mysterious presence in this movie. Like Michael, the young boy who starts an affair with her, the viewer never really gets to know her. But despite the distance the character keeps to her surroundings, she is still an overpowering presence.

Hannah is a woman who carries two secrets with her. One is her illiteracy and the other one her past as a prison guard in a concentration camp. While she shows her first secret with small looks and gestures to the viewer very soon, her second secret is not revealed until later when she is brought to trial for her crimes. The difficult task for Kate Winslet is to make it believable that Hannah’s illiteracy is actually troubling her much more than her past. She can’t see any faults in her action herself since she only did what she thought was right – but her illiteracy, her weakness, is the one thing in her life that she wants to be kept unknown and that is shaming her more than anything else. It is thanks to Kate Winslet’s talent as an actress that Hannah’s actions and thoughts always appear believable, as hard as they may be to understand.

Kate Winslet’s accent is rather distracting at the beginning, but her powerful and strong line deliveries more than make up for that. She is perfectly able to show that Hannah’s character is a giant contrariness – she seems strong and knowing, but at the same time she appears insecure and untaught. She generally puts on a rather aggressive attitude which contributes to the distance she has to everyone around her. It is never revealed if she has any friends or social contacts – but from her way of behaving it seems that her affair with Michael is not her first kind of this encounter.

Hannah is also a woman who seems unable of any self-criticism and reflection about her own behaviour – she doesn’t seem to find any moral problems in her affair with Michael but she pretends to be appalled when he reads “Lady Chatterly’s lover” to her (even though she lets him continue with it). Kate’s Hannah also has a great chemistry with Michael – not loving, rather in a possessive, a destructive way, but still fascinating. During her fight scenes, Kate Winslet lets Hanna become a force of nature – primitive, strong, unforgiving. She is not willing to lose control over her life for even just one second because she needs this control to keep her secret.

Kate Winslet successfully turns Hannah into a three-dimensional and mysterious woman at the same time and gives a fascinating performance as this unmoral woman. But her greatest moments come in the second half of the movie. Her scenes in the court room, all her fear, her beliefs, her insecurity are portrayed perfectly. The scenes when Hanna is describing her past in Nazi Germany, with a kind of innocence because she believes that she did all the right things, are acted wonderfully. In these scenes, she has to become a symbol for what are considered to be German values – correctness, thoroughness and dutifulness. It is revealed that Hannah used to have a ‘normal’ job until she was to be promoted and decided to become a prison guard in a concentration camp instead because she was afraid that her illiteracy would be discovered at her old job. It is shown how the atmosphere of hate and terror in Nazi Germany enabled a woman like Hannah, uneducated but with a dominant and domineering personality, to come into a position where she could decide over life and death. She fought her feelings of inferiority with a forced and obsessed attitude of superiority and for her, showing her weaknesses is worse than being a prison guard in a concentration camp or going to prison. As this is the fact, Hannah is not a symbol for Nazi Germany and all its criminals – instead, The Reader only tells the story about one women and how her naiveté mixed with a tendency for violence and domination and her own weaknesses made her become the women who is seen on trial.

The fact that Hannah feels so ashamed about her illiteracy that she would become a prison guard and later take the single blame for her crimes to cover up her ignorance is very stretched but Kate’s expressive face and acting talent make it believable. The look on her face when she sees the pen lying next to her is a wonderful moment and Kate is able to make it a true moment when Hannah would rather go to prison than reveal the truth about herself.

In the part of Hannah, Kate Winslet never tries to ask for forgiveness and neither does the movie try to show her in a positive light. Hannah is a dangerous woman with a destructive personality who always acted on her own will and did what she thought would be the best for her. But at the same time, Kate shows that Hannah’s low level of education maybe prevented her from seeing a more overall truth than just her own. The scene when she is in prison and is told that she has a visitor is especially moving – the audience sees her happy, excited, waiting until she is told that no one is coming.

Only in the end, Kate Winslet’s performance as an old woman fails to reach the same level of excellence as before. Her awful make-up that makes her look like something out of Madame Tussaud’s instead of a real human being is certainly to blame, but Kate also never really turns into this old woman – rather she plays the young Hannah with make-up. It’s a difficult task to portray such advanced age in a character and Kate is not fully able to succeed.

Still, it’s a remarkable and fascinating performance of a very complex character. For this, Kate Winslet gets

Best Actress 2008

The next year is 2008 and the nominees were

Anne Hathaway in Rachel Getting Married

Angelina Jolie in Changeling

Melissa Leo in Frozen River

Meryl Streep in Doubt

Kate Winslet in The Reader

YOUR Best Actress of 2004!

Here are the results of the poll:

1. Imelda Staunton - Vera Drake (13 votes)

2. Catalina Sandino Moreno - Maria Full of Grace & Kate Winslet - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (12 votes)

3. Annette Bening - Being Julia (6 votes)

4. Hilary Swank - Million Dollar Baby (3 votes)


Thanks for voting!

Best Actress 2004 - the resolution!

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

5. Kate Winslet in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Just like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind itself, Kate Winslet’s performance sprinkles with creativity and originality. She meets all the challenges of this unusual script and creates a character who is a firework of emotions, sometimes impossible to bear, sometimes selfish and mean but strangely fascinating and loveable at the same time.

4. Catalina Sandino Moreno in Maria Full of Grace

                     

Catalina’s prim charm is wonderfully suited for her part as the headstrong but also insecure Maria. She hits all the right notes and makes Maria an unforgettable character by giving a very subtle, relaxed and natural performance that dominates the movie and helps to tell this very moving and gripping story.

 3. Annette Bening in Being Julia

Annette Bening almost bursts of confidence in her performance and her eccentric, larger-than-life diva who is full of self-assurance but also very insecure is an unforgettable portrayal that is able to entertain and astonish the audience with its humor, wit and originality.

2. Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby

Hilary Swank is able to make Maggie both a dreamer and a worn-out woman at the same time. She combines her hopes and dreams, her fears and disappointments in the greatest way and gives an unforgettable performance of a strong-willed, determinant, but also insecure and uncertain character.

                

1. Imelda Staunton in Vera Drake

In the performance of Imelda Staunton, the always cheerful Vera who constantly hums sunny melodies becomes a very real and everyday character but she is also able to challenge the audience when she shows that Vera is involved in a matter that couldn’t be more controversial. By capturing all these aspects, Imelda Staunton gives one of the most heartbreaking and complex performances to ever grace the screen. 

Best Actress 2004: Kate Winslet in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"

It is unlikely that Kate Winslet will ever be forgotten by movie audiences thanks to the overwhelming success and popularity of Titanic but it seems that it is her performance in the quirky, original and already legendary cult movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind that will secure her reputation as one of the finest actresses of her generation.

The Academy-Award-winning screenplay tells the story of Joel Barish who learns that his ex-girlfriend Clementine Kruczynski had her memory of their relationship erased. Hurt and angry, Joel wants to do the same but during the process, his mind realizes that even though the relationship ended, he doesn’t want to lose the memory of Clementine and he desperately tries to save it while Dr. Mierzwiak, played by Tom Wilkinson, keeps erasing all traces of her in Joel’s memory.

It’s a crazy, fascinating and completely original story executed in the most perfect way which makes the whole movie one of the most thrilling experiences ever. And Kate Winslet’s performance as the quirky, strong and insecure Clementine who wants independence but is also looking for love and support fits perfectly into this. She meets all the challenges of this unusual script and creates a character who is a firework of emotions, sometimes impossible to bear, sometimes selfish and mean but strangely fascinating and loveable at the same time.

In the role of Clementine, Kate Winslet wisely avoids to focus solely on the eccentricities and quirkiness of the character and also develops a real character underneath the colorful hair. She wonderfully mixes scenes of Clementine as an unpredictable, happy-go-lucky character with scenes of moving depth. Kate Winslet never lets the exterior of Clementine influence her performance but instead believably creates a woman who is all the things the scripts asks her to be. Clementine is mostly an escaping memory but Kate Winslet uses every moment of her performance to show that she is a woman who, as different as she may be from him, Joel wouldn’t want to lose. Every moment of her performance is filled with humor, originality and a certain sadness that creates an unforgettable heroine and perfectly add to the style of the movie itself.

Kate also works wonderfully with Jim Carrey. Both create characters that seem like outsiders, both seem rather lost and alone in the world but they cope differently with their feelings. Joel is rather shy and silent while Clementine tries to hide her personality behind constant layers of eccentricities and openness and shows that Clemintine is very nonstandard.

Even though Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is an extraordinary story, Kate Winslet never tries to make Clementine an extraordinary character. Yes, she adds a lot of humor and unusualness that evoke memories of Diane Keaton in Annie Hall (but Kate Winslet’s performance never feels like a rip-off and instead is able to stand on its own two feet) but at the same time, Clementine is a rather average character: a young woman looking for love and wanting it in her own way. She can also be unreasonable and unpleasent, she is in no way the perfect heroine of a romantic comedy but instead a very real and believable character. It’s probably the greatest achievement of Kate Winslet that she was able to carry the fairytale aspects of the story just as easily as the more realistic ones and that she found the perfect balance in her character for these two complements.

Kate Winslet wonderfully handles the comedy and the drama of her part and is able to turn Clementine into a fascinating, captivating and most of all believable character. When she talks to Joel about being ugly, Kate Winslet allows the viewer to look right into Clementine's most inner feelings and emotions.

Even though her character is mostly seen through the eyes of Joel, Kate Winslet never lets Clementine become an object of affection who is defined by others and instead constantly surprises with her fresh and exciting characterization. While Jim Carrey works as the protagonist and carries the story, it is Kate Winslet who adds the allure and enchantment to the movie.

Just like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind itself, Kate Winslet’s performance sprinkles with creativity and originality. For this, she gets

Best Actress 2004

The next year will be 2004 and the nominees were

Annette Bening in Being Julia

Catalina Sandino Moreno in Maria Full of Grace

Imelda Staunton in Vera Drake

Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby

Kate Winslet in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind