The Best Performances By An Actress
My listing of the actresses who haven given the greatest screen performances.
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- DirectorDarren AronofskyStarsEllen BurstynJared LetoJennifer ConnellyThe drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island people are shattered when their addictions run deep..An incredible physical and emotional achievement by Ellen Burstyn. Every scene she appears in is amazing. Probably the biggest robbery in Academy Awards history was her loss to Julia Roberts.
- DirectorVictor FlemingGeorge CukorSam WoodStarsClark GableVivien LeighThomas MitchellA sheltered and manipulative Southern belle and a roguish profiteer face off in a turbulent romance as the society around them crumbles with the end of slavery and is rebuilt during the Civil War and Reconstruction periods.A thoroughly unlikeable character made magnetic by Vivien Leigh. You can't help, but root for Scarlet because of Leigh's great performance. Best moment - well I like her first meeting with Rhet the best.
- DirectorGeorge CukorStarsGreta GarboRobert TaylorLionel BarrymoreA Parisian courtesan must choose between the young man who loves her and the callous baron who wants her, even as her own health begins to fail.Greta Garbo at her most beautiful and tragic. Her best scene occurs not at the end, but when she is told to abandon Robert Taylor. The reaction on her face and in her body language is heart wrenching.
- DirectorJoseph L. MankiewiczStarsBette DavisAnne BaxterGeorge SandersA seemingly timid but secretly ruthless ingénue insinuates herself into the lives of an aging Broadway star and her circle of theater friends.Bette at her most wickedly funny - each line delivered with the right tone and the right look. Hard to choose her best moment, but I'd vote for her rant at the theater when she learns Eve is her understudy.
- DirectorGeorge CukorStarsJudy GarlandJames MasonJack CarsonA film star helps a young singer and actress find fame, even as age and alcoholism send his own career on a downward spiral.Judy didn't hold back on anything. It probably reflects her own personality more than any other film she was in. Her final confrontation scene is superbly delivered.
- DirectorLynne LittmanStarsJane AlexanderWilliam DevaneRossie HarrisThe life of a suburban American family is scarred after a nuclear attack.Jane Alexander gives a perfect pitch performance as a mother helping her children face doomsday. Every moment of her performance is keenly rendered. The scene where she describes love making to her daughter is a classic of acting restraint.
- DirectorJames L. BrooksStarsShirley MacLaineDebra WingerJack NicholsonFollows hard-to-please Aurora looking for love and her daughter's family problems.MacClaine is hilarious and makes an over-the-top character appear belivable. The ending as she lets her hair go gray and the reaction to her grandson when he berates his dying mother never fail to bring tears to my eyes.
- DirectorJames CameronStarsSigourney WeaverMichael BiehnCarrie HennDecades after surviving the Nostromo incident, Ellen Ripley is sent out to re-establish contact with a terraforming colony but finds herself battling the Alien Queen and her offspring.How difficult it must have been to re-act against blue screens, fight off bugs that are actors in costumes and appear as strong and heroic as Sigourney Weaver does. Her best moment is the confrontation in the egg chamber with the Queen. Her face does all the acting.
- DirectorVincente MinnelliStarsJennifer JonesJames MasonVan HeflinA provincial doctor's wife's romantic illusions about life and social status lead her to betray her naive husband, take on lovers, and run up ruinous debts.Jennifer Jones was an overall so-so actress, but in this movie she shines as the tragic heroine - showing all the good, the bad and the sexiness of this character. Too bad it's little seen.
- DirectorRobert Z. LeonardStarsNorma ShearerRobert MontgomeryChester MorrisWhen a woman discovers that her husband has been unfaithful to her, she decides to respond to his infidelities in kind.To understand why Norma Shearer was considered a great star one only needs to see this film. A performance ahead of it's time.
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsOlivia de HavillandMontgomery CliftRalph RichardsonA naive young woman falls for a handsome young man her emotionally abusive father suspects is only a fortune hunter.Olivia could be very bland in her films, but in this movie it more than works for her. Her reaction when she realizes her love will not be showing up and her emotion behind the line delivery "Lock the door" are the stand outs.
- DirectorOrson WellesFred FleckRobert WiseStarsTim HoltJoseph CottenDolores CostelloThe spoiled young heir to the decaying Amberson fortune comes between his widowed mother and the man she has always loved.Her final rant about the boiler. Incredible raw emotion.