11 of the greatest examples of film acting I would point out to any acting student

Any examples from recent films, say in the last decade? Good list though.

Anthony Hopkins, "The Father"; Olivia Colman, "The Favorite"; Richard Burton, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf"; Marharshla Ali, "Moonlight"; Kevin Kline, "In and Out"; Al Pacino, 'The Godfather Part II"; Jack Nicholson, "Chinatown": Kathy Bates, "Misery."

Those are some old, old examples. I don't think the choices that Alec Guinness or Jason Robards made would be relevant to an actor in 2021.

Thank you for remembering Falconetti. The film was available with and without subtitles on YouTube the last time I looked.

I'll watch Phillip Seymour Hoffmann, Rod Steiger, and Gene Hackman in anything. Same with Judy Davis, Anna Karina and Charlotte rambling. Meryl Streep is good too but she is injudicious in her selection of roles. Maybe she just enjoys acting too much. I'd like to see less of her and in great roles. Why didn't she work with European directors, I wonder.

Rampling ^ . Sorry.

I should have also mentioned Julie Christie.

Yes r7 a thousand times yes.

I guess in your world there are no females in film, OP? Or is this the first time you took your mother's Adderall?

Renee (not Maria) Falconetti was considered the Carol Burnett of her day. Despite a few years with the Comedie-Francaise she became a very popular audience favorite doing lightweight comedic Parisian Boulevard fare. The equivalent of “Please Don’t Eat The Daisies,” or “The Solid Gold Cadillac.” Dreyer, thinking outside the box, saw something in one of her comic romps and hired her for La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc. The myth that Falconetti never made another film because the role and Dreyer drove her to have a nervous breakdown is total bullshit. She, like Vivien Leigh, was bi-polar. Except in her case, she was bi-polar on steroids. Read her daughter’s biography of her mother. I had her book translated into English, and it’s harrowing. She tired several come back attempts in the 1930’s and failed. She lost it all, and ended up forgotten and dying in Argentina in 1946 or 48. The only actor to reach out to help her was Charles Boyer.

Isabelle Huppert is, for me, in the same category as Charlotte Rampling: I'll watch them in anything. The same goes for Tilda Swinton.

BTW, R10, thanks for that post about Falconetti. Most of that was a complete revelation about a performer on whom there's just so little information out there.

I have never seen a more devastating performance than Anthony Hopkins in The Father. It shook me.

Treat Williams Ann-Margaret, Streetcar Named Desire. Better than BRando and Leigh

[quote] "Kathy Bates, "Misery."

This was very good, no doubt. But she was better in "Dolores Claiborne". She had so much more to do, and cover physically, psychologically, and emotionally.

And DL is divided, but I still love Charlize in "Monster".

Recently: Toni Collette in "Hereditary".

Op and r2, why did you each only name one woman's performance?

15 posts and no mention of Livvy in The Heiress?

Bette Davis in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" is one of the most brilliant screen acting jobs ever.

Imelda Staunton in "Vera Drake" gives an astonishingly good performance.

Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn in "Lion in Winter" are sensational.

Gloria Swanson in "Sunset Boulevard" is magnificent playing a character only she could play.

Martin Landau in "Ed Wood"

Yet another vote for Hopkins in The Father. A truly brilliant piece of acting.

Al Pacino, You Don't Know Jack.

Toni Servillo, Il Divo.

Guinness and Hayakawa, The Bridge on the River Kwai

Whoopi Goldberg, The Color Purple

Robert Donat, Goodbye Mr. Chips

Charles Laughton, Witness for the Prosecution and The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Simone Signoret, Madame Rosa/La Vie Devant Soi

Addendum R19 Ulrich Mühe, Das Leben der underen/The Lives of Others

Addendum R19 Laurence Fishburne, Othello

Geraldine Page in Interiors

John Savage, the Deer Hunter. Especially the greatest scream of fear/terror in film history. It was fucking agonizing to watch and it should have won him the Oscar.

Debra Winger, Shirley MacLaine, Terms of Endearment. A tour de force by both.

Jessica Lange, Frances. She should have won the Oscar for this. Her very best!

Maximilian Schell and Montgomery Clift, Judgment at Nuremberg. Both are shattering.

Emily Watson in Breaking the Waves. The saddest performance I've ever watched.

Madeline Kahn in Paper Moon. One of the best supporting performances ever in film history.

Djimon Hounsou, In America. A spectacular test of restraint, power and tenderness.

Mark Ruffalo, You Can Count On Me. A GREAT performance with such sadness and hope.

Gena Rowlands and Peter Falk, A Woman Under the Influence. That's 12 but I don't care. Both are electrifying! Rowlands was robbed at the Oscars.

Juliette Binoche in Blue

Agreed, Charles Laughton in "Witness for the Prosecution" is excellent, and just fascinating.

Madeline Kahn in "What's Up Doc?" has stood the test of time. It is a unique performance imo.

She was only 17 but Sarah Polley in The Sweet Hereafter. How she’s able to suggest her characters thoughts and motivations, that haunted face..

This:

Anna Magnani in Bellissima

R28 My god. Yes.

From left field: James Stewart in It’s a Wonderful Life - walking from the train right after finding out he’d been screwed into having to stay in Bedford Falls yet again. All in his face. -Ruth Nelson in Awakenings - heartbreaking as DeNiro’s mother throughout, but especially when reunited after he awakens from the coma. I can’t believe Whoopi was even nominated for Ghost. -Gene Lockhart in The Story of Alexander Graham Bell, reacting to his son’s speaking for the first time. -River Phoenix in Running on Empty. The entire movie. Honorable mention to everyone else in the cast.

When Eileen Atkins says "Time to go", I totally lost it.

R31 The diner scene when Christine Lahti asks her father, Stephen Hill, to take in her son. Tried but couldn't find the clip on Youtube.

Delphine Seyrig, Jeanne Dielman

Ronn Moss, dynamic fashion magnate on The Bold and the Beautiful, ep. # 2,345, “Brooke Suffers Miscarriage at Spectra Fashion House Launch”.

R5 Streep hasn't the face that most European directors would be interested in, and she has little body language. She can be stiff and meager.

Setsuko Hara in "Late Spring"

Ryan O'Neal, "Tough Guys Don't Dance"

I'd have to put Kirstin Dunst in Melancholia up there for recent film acting examples.

After a decade, the damn performance still haunts me.

Emma Thompson Wit

Judi Dench Notes on a Scandal

Forest Whitaker The Last King of Scotland

Liv Ullmann Face to Face

Jack Nicholson About Schmidt

Peter Postlewaite In the Name of the Father

Anjelica Huston The Grifters

Giulietta Masina Nights of Cabiria

Michael Caine Alfie

Edward Norton American History X

Deborah Kerr The Night of the Iguana

Robert Mitchum Cape Fear

Ed Wynn, The Great Man

Jim Broadbent, Topsy-Turvy

Cicely Tyson, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman

I'll have to think about this but these immediately spring to mind -

Max von Sydow- The Seventh Seal

John Hurt- The Elephant Man

Bruno Ganz - Wings of Desire

James Mason - Lolita

Shelley Duvall & Sissy Spacek in Carrie

Sally Field in Norma Rae

Jon Voight in Coming Home

Olivia De Haviland in The Heiress

Sissy Spacek & Piper Laurie in Carrie

Bette Davis in All About Eve

Joan Crawford in Mildred Pearce

Great Garbo in Ninotchka

Burton & Liz in Virginia Woolf

R43 Here. That should be Shelley Duvall and Sissy Spacek in 3 Women.

Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins in The Remains of the Day

Spencer Tracy in Judgment at Nuremberg and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

Judi Dench in Mrs Brown

James Stewart in Rope.

Alan Rickman in Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves (a masterclass in pitch-perfect scene-stealing)

Pierre Blaise in Lacombe, Lucien

Johnny Depp, Alan Rickman, Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen in Sweeney Todd

Gene Wilder in Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Gong Li - Raise the Red Lantern and Gui Lai/Coming Home

Lily Franky, Sakura Ando, Kirin Kiki - Shoplifters

Börje Ahlstedt, Allan Edwall, Ewa Fröling, Jarl Kulle, Gunn Wållgren, Jan Malmsjö - Fanny and Alexander

Erland Josephson, Liv Ullmann - Scenes from a Marriage

Max von Sydow - Pelle the Conqueror

Exceptional Child Actors or How in the world did they get such a performance outta those kids???

Jyo Kairi, Miyo Sasaki - Shoplifters

Bertil Guve - Fanny and Alexander

Christian Bale - Empire of the Sun

Jean-Pierre Léaud - The 400 Blows

...............

Emily Watson in Breaking the Waves (1996) and Synecdoche, New York (2008)

Janet McTeer in The Governor (1995-1996) and Tumbleweeds (1999)

Watch and learn.

r10 didn't Falconetti develop anorexia later in life, which led to her demise?

I thought I read that somewhere years ago.

Yes and then she ate too much and died.

Julianne Moore and her exquisite monsters in Safe, Boogie Nights, Magnolia…

1968

Jo Van Fleet I Love You, Alice B Toklas

Alan Arkin The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

Joanne Woodward Rachel, Rachel

Mia Farrow Rosemary's Baby

Beryl Reid The Killing of Sister George

Beatrice Straight in "Network."

Five minutes on screen, and flawless!

Sally Field in Sybil

Gena Rowlands- Love Streams

Jessica Lange- Music Box

Linda Hunt, Year of Living Dangerously

Kathy Bates, Primary Colors

Shirley Stoler, Seven Beauties

Judy Parfitt, Dolores Claiborne

[quote] Joan Crawford in Mildred Pearce

Oh, [italic]dear.[/italic]

Showing anybody any footage of Sir Larry doing Othello is a one-way ticket to the unemployment line now.

Helen Lawson in "Too Warm for Snow".

I'll add to r47 child actor list with Emma Bolger as Ariel, In America.

Any Sean Cody or Corbin Fisher "pron star."

Anybody who knows their way around another man's dick and asshole like these guys and still claim to be straight has to be a great actor.

Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada is an example of great film acting. The "stuff" scene is fantastic, even though there are too many edits away from Streep.

Nicole Kidman in Birth was a great cinema performance.

Julianne Moore in Magnolia. The pharmacy breakdown scene in particular. There's a moment where she moves her head and opens her eyes slightly.

I hate to distract from your post, but acting directors can be brutal. TOO FAT

Jessica Lange - The Postman Always Rings Twice, Tootsie, Frances, Country, Sweet Dreams, Music Box, Men Don’t Leave, Blue Sky, Losing Isaiah, Rob Roy, Titus

☝🏼😌

Please read reply 10 for what happened to Renee Falconetti post "The Passion of Joan of Arc"

R54 The relationship between Holden and Dunaway didn't seem like anything a man would leave the comfort and warmth of his family for. Just carry on the affair. He sees her as shallow and incapable of feelings and the sex with her on top having an orgasm while spouting ratings doesn't seem hot at all.

OP what does the expression ‘grit in the gate’ mean? Thx.

[quote] film acting

They wear clothes and stand in front of a camera. The director and editor do all the work.

What a desolation...

Good for posting Brando's eulogy in Last Tango. Always considered it his best.

R13 you are mentally deficient. Treat Williams was obe of the worst Stanley's I've seen. Played him like a mindless ape villain. No nuance, charm or softness. Margret was decent but tanked the last scene and played Blanche like a stereotypical lunatic and not like a broken destroyed woman.

On that note, miss Vivien Leigh in Streetcar. Particularly in the last scene...just hearing her heartbroken breathless wails as the nurse pins her to the floor knocks my heart out.

Also, for understated, subtle performances, I would go with Pacino in the 1st 2 Godfathers.

The red-haired sister from this commerical:

Mary Tyler Moore 🥶

Ruth Gordon in "Rosemary's Baby".

Great performances are when you can't imagine anyone else doing them as well.

French actress Bérénice Marlohe's 7 minute intro in Skyfall is absolutely remarkable: yes the scene is brilliantly written, but her performance is as finely calibrated as a Swiss watch, including the fear behind the fake smiles. Just thinking about how other actresses would have overplayed this, or gone bigger, is is realise how perfect it is.

Lupita N’yongo in Us (or Lupita in everything except Star Wars)

Here's another example of 4.30 minute sequence of great acting, where it's impossible to imagine anyone else doing the role. And this is a particularly good example, because the director Sam Esmail has said he was in despair having auditioned 100 actors before Rami Malek walked in, and this is one of the speeches that was used in the audition process. So it's interesting to speculate how the actors may have failed: being too earnest in their line readings, or perhaps just too unsympathetic, obvious, or unsubtle. Gloria Reuben, who plays the psychiatrist is also a brilliant subtle actress, so the two are perfectly matched. Just wonderful to watch.

Charles Laughton as Henry VIII (UK film. mid 30s, Korda production).

Glenda Jackson as Elizabeth I (early 1970s BBC miniseries also shown on PBS).

Everybody in the late 1970s BBC miniseries I, Claudius, based on the novel by Robert Graves (also shown on PBS).

Charles Laughton as Claudius in the abandoned late 30s film directed by Josef von Sternberg based on the same novel. Parts of his performance are preserved in the 60s documentary The Epic That Never Was, available on youtube.

Judy's dressing room scene from Cukor's 1954 A Star Is Born.

R80 Thanx for the heads up re The Epic That Never Was. Took a look on YouTube. Absolutely fascinating, especially Laughton's rather peculiar performance, probably due to the fact that, as one of the actresses stated, Laughton was having trouble "finding the man". Many of the greats of the English stage, including Flora Robson, Emlyn Williams, and Robert Newton.

Julia Roberts in Erica Brokovich

^at least get the name right!

When I replied to this post, it occurred to me that a number of performances I considered great, as per my reply, had a lot to do with the actor's face as well as, or even more than his/her acting. Some actors are lucky enough to have faces that express emotion well, and even speak of the human condition.

R42

R84 If you're looking for an actress with a great face, look at Anna Magnani.

Best emotional closeup since Falconetti by Mr. Timothee Hal Chalamet in CMBYN. you don't just do that shit. The boys a rock star.

Naomi Watts in Mulholland Drive, especially the audition scene but really the entire performance

Roseanne Barr in She-Devil.

This is a television series not a film, but for me, these two young French actors portraying a gay love story are stupendous. They say they aren't gay, but you'll never convince me that they didn't carry on after the cameras stopped rolling.

Axel Aurient and Maxence Danet-Fauvel in SKAM France

Sometimes a cigar's just a cigar and a performance is just a performance. Especially these days.

Christine Lahti in HOUSKEEPING (1987) and RUNNING ON EMPTY(1988)

Diane Venora in THE JACKAL(1987)

Dirk Bogarde---"Victim."

But to r5, my "I'll watch them in anything" actors are:

DB, Gene Hackman, Tom Wilkinson, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Benedict C., Tom HollandER;

Diane Lane, Helen Mirren, Deborah Kerr.

Forgot my favorite!

Patrick McGoohan!

All my performances!

Alicia Witt in Dune.

We have this thread about once a month and every time Thelma Ritter in Pickup on South Street is overlooked. One of the greatest moment is acting in American film.

Also, probably not popular choices, but I would add Lillian Gish's closet scene in Broken Blossoms and any of her scenes in Heart is a Lonely Hunter.

When I showed Broken Blossoms on the College Union Film program at Wake Forest University decades ago, a bunch of members of the football team for some reason came to heckle. By the time of the closet scene, they were dead silent. As was the rest of the audience when they left.

When Gish played Ophelia to Gielgud's Hamlet in the 1930s on Broadway, she got rave reviews, including from Gielgud. I don't think they worked together again but remained close friends for the rest of their lives. A much under appreciated actress.

R98, apparently she went full slutty for the mad scene, which was entirely unexpected for her. I am sure the performance would be considered very mild by today's standards, but for the time, it was pushing the boundaries.

R97, I would have said The Wind, but you and I are probably the only two on DL who know the film.

Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell in "Wolf Hall".

Loved how, when he eavesdropped on Court gossip, or was told it, his face's non-reaction reaction was everything.

R100, I haven't seen The Wind in forty years but at the time I was able to run a new print multiple times, sometimes by myself. God bless Doug Lemza and Films Inc.

Timothy Spall in "Perfect Strangers" aka "Almost Strangers," a 3-part BBC series by Stephen Poliakoff. He plays a bombastic, somewhat buffoonish man whose many allusions to his own business success may be bluster. At one point though he drops the frenetic act and gives a cold, clear analysis of himself and how he is seen in the world. I always liked.him in Mike Leigh and other roles, but here I thought it was a masterful turn from projection to introspection, from a character to someone very human.

R73 Pacino in Donnie Brasco

I studied film production and noticed a lot of these performances are big performances or long monologues. I think there is a lot to learn from quiet performances that depend on reactions.

Judi Dench in NOTES ON A SCANDAL: I love the narration. She is a lonely woman who doesnt understand how to back off a little when she makes a friend. It is sad to see a loner turn from hopeful to bitter.

Also Cate Blanchett has a slow realization that her friend is now in control of her life. You can see her barely tolerating Dench after she keeps having the affair with her student. She tries to act concerned about Denchs dead cat when she really just wants to get the hell on with her day..

THERE WILL BE BLOOD: Watching Daniel Day-Lewis try to bond with and then discard his brother and son was tough. He is a great ranter, too.

NIGHTMARE ALLEY: Love Cate Blanchett as the psychologist who uses Bradley Cooper. She sees right through him and is happy to use him and take his money.

R17 I love Gloria Swanson in this and William holdens repulsion towards her as she gives him more attention.

I think roles that show someone losing control are incredible.

Let me also add:

Gena Rowlands- Gloria, Opening Night, and Another Woman (someone already brought up A Woman Under The Influence and I added Love Streams)

Kristen Scott Thomas- I've Loved You So Long

This is such a good thread. I gotta rewatch Network now.

I too thought Bérénice Marlohe was excellent in Skyfall - a performance deserving of a better film.

Toshiro Mifune in The Seven Samurai - brilliant portrayal of a talented and courageous but hopelessly immature warrior.

Robert Downey Jr. in Less Than Zero and would say the same for James Spader.

Trixie...

R105. I would also credit the good writing that lets te actors flesh out the character. You need a good writer, editor, etc.

Mme. Huppert in La Pianiste.

Replying to reply 70. Grit in the Gate=crud on the camera lens, crud around the camera lens.

Frances Conroy in many SFU scenes. In particular there’s one where she’s just crying after Nate has died. She is a perfect actress.

Toni Collette crying the last 10 minutes or so or Japanese Story. She had done Muriel and things but when I saw this on TV I knew she was one of the greats.

Robert Mitchum THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER

Ayllene Gibbons as Joyboy's (Rod Steiger) Mother in The Loved One (1965)

Fred Schwartz in Besa Mi Culo.

[quote]I knew she was one of the greats.

Yet her performance in Emma was so skincrawlingly awful it almost hijacked the movie.

Robert Shaw in the Jaws drinking scene. He blew my mind. Great dialogue. Great character. Great support from Dreyfuss and Scheider.

This thread reads like drunken old fallen actresses leafing thru their 8 x 10 glossies.

Julia Roberts

Some great examples in this thread. I'll echo a some and add a couple more:

Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro sizing each other up in the coffee shop scene from "Heat"

Ellen Burstyn in the red dress monologue from "Requiem for a Dream"

Michael Chiklis in the confession scene in the penultimate episode of "The Shield"

Robert Shaw in the Indianapolis speech from "Jaws"

Daniel Day-Lewis in most roles but especially his subtle and sophisticated portrayal in "Lincoln"

Clint Eastwood picking up the whiskey bottle and reverting back into a murderer in "Unforgiven"

Javier Bardem in the coin toss scene from "No Country for Old Men"

Ellen Burstyn in "Resurrection".

Roseanne ruined the thread

Bardem was superb in No Country for Old Men, a very well-deserved Oscar win both for his performance and the fact that he did such a excellent job in a foreign language. The coin toss scene, the scene where the old woman sternly admonishes him "Did you not hear what I said??" and he's about to act on his impulse to murder the cunt, when he hears the sound of the toilet flushing, changing his mind. The look of seething madness on his face as he's strangling the sheriff with his handcuff chains. And the most memorable, after he's murdered (off-screen) Llewellyn's wife Kelly Macdonald, walking out the front door of the house and in one fluid almost absent-minded motion, lifting his feet and checking the bottom his boots for blood. Cinema at its most brilliant.

I was the one who said Roseanne in She-Devil, R124, and I stand by it. To me she really conveyed her character of an ugly, discarded, embittered spouse bent on revenge.

Her mere mention brought down the entire thread

No one has mentioned Judith Light’s amazing freak-out from “One Life to Live” as Karen, on the stand.

It’s funny that if one introduces a new actor in a great performance that the character needed to exist in a better movie, that people feel free to mention a guilty pleasure.

Meryl in Plenty.

Not to derail the thread, but I always thought Kevin Spacey gave a tremendously subtle performance in “LA Confidential.”

Another potentially controversial choice but Tom Cruise in “Magnolia” - he was the biggest star in the world at that time yet he disappeared into this tremendously unsympathetic character. It was a Nicholson-sized performance.

Heath Ledger in “Brokeback Mountain.”

Al was magnificent in “Needle Park,” the two Godfather’s, “Serpico,” and “Dog Day.” Then his career hit the wall. Booze and cigarettes finally caught up with him. Instead of his lithe, comedic, light touch, we get the heavy handed, raspy voiced, Bronx hood scenery chewer. The only two films from 1976 on, where the old Al came back to life, were “Carlito’s Way,” and “GlenGarry.” But the real jewel, the absolute brilliant gem in all his film work, is the one film no one talks about: “Scarecrow.” His performance will break your heart.

Charles Laughton was just brilliant in every role. Olivier teated him like shit because of he was envious of Laughton’s skill.

Not a single mention of Jack Lemon yet. I thought he was great in Glengarry Glen Ross.

R135 Also in The China Syndrome

The only thing I ever liked Jack Lemmon is was Some Like it Hot where he is the best thing in a film jammed with best things.

Jack Lemmon in Save the Tiger is his best.

Javier Bardem - Before Night Falls Al Pacino - Dog Day Afternoon John Cazale - Same Anthony Hopkins - Remains of the Day ( book scene) Robert Deniro - Taxi Driver Jeffery Rush - Shine Phillip Seymour Hoffman - Capote Marion Cotillard - La Vie En Rose Jaoquin Phoenix - The Master Chris Cooper - Adaptation

R 137

Absolutely.. Thank you for adding 'Save the Tiger' to this list. Lemmon's greatest performance (of many) and the one for which he won the Best Actor Oscar in 1974. Great movie (though not universally praised), great performance.

Yes, of course. Jack Lemmon, right up there. Thanks

Juliette Binoche in The English Patient.

So much of what her character experienced was unsaid.

Gena Rowlands in A Woman Under The Influence. Runners-up: Gena Rowlands in Gloria and Gena Rowlands in Opening Night.

Linda Blair in Sara T: Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic

“Booze is my mama now”!

Joan Crawford was an example of bad, really bad acting

The look Faye Dunaway gives to Warren at the end of Bonnie and Clyde is a split second shot, but it is the greatest acting moment in the history of film.

Ricardo Montalban inThe Wrath of Khan. I am completely serious.

Miranda Richardson in "Dance with a Stranger." She was phenomenal.

Only drama OP, comedy isn't acting?

R148 Sure there's comedy. Let's add Sandra Bernhard in the King of Comedy. Jerry Lewis was pretty good, too.

R148 I think Jacques Tati would be a great example of film acting for any acting student.

For comedy I like John Candy in Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Uncle Buck.

R141, Bitch stole my Oscar.

I like Sydney Greenstreet in anything but especially The Maltese Falcon. Subtle. Great line delivery. Unique.

Brendad Ickson- Welcome to My Home

Roseanne- She Devil

Fran Dresser- The Beautician and the Beast

Paris Hilton- One Night in Paris

Madonna- The Next Best Thing

Judith Light- The Audrey Marie Hiley Story

Bette Davis- The Nanny

Susan Lucci- All My Children

Tori Spelling- Mother May I Sleep With Danger?

Loni Anderson- The Jayne Mansfield Story

Pia Zadora in "Butterfly"

The entire cast of Otto Preminger's Anatomy of a Murder (1959) Lee Remick, Jimmy Stewart, George C. Scott . . .

Very funny r154

R132. Cruise was nominated for an Oscar that year for his performance in MAGNOLIA.

R154 William Dix who played Joey Fane opposite Bette Davis in The Nanny (1965) He was a better adversary than Mrs. Alfred Steele

If you are going to add Jacques Tati, I'll top that with Buster Keaton, though this tread is really about actors in talkies.

Donald Sutherland in Ordinary People.

SPOILER AHEAD: - - - - OP is old 🤫

Larry Hagman in Dallas 2012. He was dying of cancer but his performance was iconic.

Faye Dunaway, Chinatown. John Huston as well.

From above, Kristin Scott Thomas, I Have Loved You So Long, and Juliette Binoche in the English Patient.

The scene between Julianne Moore and Toni Collette in The Hours should be taught in every acting class.

Bryan Cranston as Walter White in the big reveal scene in the garage with Hank on Breaking Bad.

Hum...

Tom Cruise's performance in Magnolia is a good, if rather rare, example of bad acting well used in the context of the film it's in. It may be very impactful (it indeed was) but it's still not about good acting. Even if Magnolia was the only film released that year, Cruise shouldn't have been nominated since there were at least 5 better turns in his film alone. I'd nominate Philip Baker Hall, Philip Seymour Hoffman, William H. Macy, John C. Reilly and Jason Robards in the supporting actor category ahead of him,

All the women in The Importance of Being Earnest give masterful characterizations and lessons in comic timing.

^ Edith Evans, Margaret Rutherford, Joan Greenwood and Dorothy Tutin.

R155 If feelin' good is bad, then I want to be bad.

[quote]Cruise shouldn't have been nominated since there were at least 5 better turns in his film alone. I'd nominate Philip Baker Hall, Philip Seymour Hoffman, William H. Macy, John C. Reilly and Jason Robards in the supporting actor category ahead of him,

Personally, I would have nominated Frog #47.

Tom Cruise in "Magnolia" was good in the same sense that Samuel Johnson described: "Sir, a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all."

[quote] Tom Cruise's performance in Magnolia is a good, if rather rare, example of bad acting well used in the context of the film it's in. It may be very impactful (it indeed was) but it's still not about good acting

Not being snarky. I’d love to hear more about this. Like why you think Cruise’s performance was bad?

I just mentioned Cruise in Magnolia because someone posted that his “good performance” was not acknowledged ( which it was, obviously).

R150 But I wouldn't want to see him tackle a four hour movie of Shakespeare or Eugene O'Neill.

William H. Macy is one of the least appealing, schticky actors I've ever seen.

He makes Joan Crawford look like Laurette Taylor.

1967

Bibi Andersson Persona/ Marlon Brandon Reflections in a Golden Eye /Glenda Jackson Marat/Sade//Marjorie Rhodes The Family Way/Anne Bancroft The Graduate/Elizabeth Hartman You're a Big Boy Now/Ellen O'Mara Up the Down Staircase/Rod Steiger In the Heat of the Night/Scott Wilson In Cold Blood/ Edith Evans The Whisperers/Gene Hackman Bonnie&Clyde/Beau Bridges The Incident

Meryl in Plenty is one of her very WORST performances. Up there with The Iron Lady & The French Lieutenant's Woman -- which she considers her worst, and was praised to the skies by some when it appeared, but is excruiatingly mannered. For some reason, an English accent seems to leach all naturalism from her performances. It's as if she's only focusing on the getting the accent right.

^ Focusing… tick, tick, tick.

It's painful to watch.

[quote] William H. Macy is one of the least appealing, schticky actors I've ever seen.

Really? I don’t see him that way at all. That said I haven’t seen him in a ton of stuff. Never watched Shameless for example. I think he sometimes gives a wariness to his characters that he plays well.

Sorry I meant weariness.

R128 finally mentioned Judith Light's famous scene on 'One Life to Live'; it's notable and pertinent to this thread because that scene IS actually used in classes for acting students.

On a lighter note, William H. Macy's ass was terrific in the elevator scene on E.R.

While I've already contributed Jimmy Stewart's never leaving Bedford Falls upthread, also:

-From Q&A; Nick Nolte's entire performance and especially the neglected Paul Cauldron as the transvestite in the film. Both DeNiroesque in chameleon brilliance. Throw in Armand Assante for his sheer magnetism. Of course every Lumet film was full of superlative performances..

Genuine compliment to r41 for selecting "Ed Wynn, The Great Man ".

Wynn's old style vaudeville comedy is just painful to watch but in this film he surprised everybody with such a warm inner dignity. He should have received more recognition for his performance.

Bert Lahr in everything he ever did.

Susan Sarandon's career-defining turn in the film "Udders".

Marjorie Mains in Ma & Pa Kettle Go To The Fair

"Marjorie Mains"

Oh, dear.

"Marjorie Mains" not as good as "Sewer Mains"

[quote] grit in the gate

What is that, OP?

r24 wins. end of thread.

R177 watch his nervy, disturbing performance in Edmond (2005) with a screenplay by David Mamet based on his play and directed by Stuart 'The Reanimator' Gordon an unforgettable 82 mins.

I’m gonna pick this one every time - I guess I’m the official The Verdict stan. So understated and yet you see how weary and disillusioned he is from the whole thing - yet retains a scintilla of hope. Magnificent.

Crap that’s not even it. Here we go.

Forest Whitaker in The Crying Game. This is not his best scene, but it's one of them.

R194, I can't believe you didn't even mention Bruce Willis sitting on the far right in front of Deborah Ann's sister and brother-in-lal.

R193 - Macy is also good in the film version of Oleanna.

Someone above mentioned Geraldine Page in Interiors! She is hilariously bad.

Maureen Stapleton stole "Interiors".

R199 Maybe, maybe not, but here's Geraldine Page in The Pope of Greenwich Village. A master class in less than 4 minutes of screen time, and in her once scene. Plus a Supporting Oscar nom to boot.

^ her one scene

Patsy Smart having a scary and unhinged meltdown in Upstairs Downstairs with the cast (who knew that in real life she was just about completely nuts) looking at her wondering if they were going to have to call an ambulance after the scene was done.

She did ultimately kill herself with pills.

There's a few great moments in Moonstruck that I would use. But my favorite one is towards the end in the kitchen, the aunt and uncle enter the room and ask Loretta (Cher's character) what happened to the bank deposit for their store. Loretta didn't put the money in the bank because she got a makeover to go to the opera. They enter with so many emotions resting on their bodies. It was so out of character that they probably stayed up, expecting the worst. In that second, I knew everything about their 'moment before.' It moves me every time I see it. So many wonderful performances in that movie with an incredible script and directing.

Mariah Carey in Glitter

Sigourney Weaver in Death and the Maiden. Ben Kingsley wasn't bad, either.

[quote]Someone above mentioned Geraldine Page in Interiors! She is hilariously bad.

I always thought Geraldine Page was a big old ham bone and snatched the Oscar away from Whoopi.