5. Anton Walbrook in The Queen of Spades - Walbrook's role is a touch limited however he is an effective coldly manipulative Lothario then incredibly entertaining in portraying the glee and madness of his greedy soldier who believes he's found the key to his success.
Best Scene: "MY WIN"
4. Howard Vernon in Le Silence de la Mer - Vernon gives a moving performance within the limits of his film through his humane depiction of a Nazi coming to terms with his situation.
Best Scene: Finally a message.
3. Robert Ryan in The Set-Up - Ryan gives a terrific portrayal of a hopeful desperation of a man trying just for one last shot in the ring.
Best Scene: The Fight
2. Chishū Ryū in Late Spring - Ryū gives such a remarkable modest performance that creates such naturalistic and downright heartbreaking depiction of a man quietly letting go of his daughter.
Best Scene: Peeling the apple.
1. David Farrar in The Small Back Room - Good Predictions
Luke, Jackiboyz, RatedRStar and
Michael McCarthy. Farrar gives an outstanding complex portrait of a brilliant man, yet one suffering from pain, doubt, and self-pity.
Best Scene: Tearing apart the room.
Update Overall
Next: Review of Juano Hernandez in Intruder in the Dust, and updated Supporting.
33 comments:
Louis:
Your rating and thoughts on:
Burt Lancaster in Criss Cross
James Mason and Robert Ryan in Caught
Spencer Tracy in Adam's Rib
Cary Grant in I Was A Male War Bride
James Stewart in The Stratton Story
Robert Mitchum in The Big Steal
Edward G. Robinson in House of Strangers
Joseph Cotten in Under Capricorn
Dana Andrews in My Foolish Heart
Louis: Myself and Michael McCarthy won the prediction contest. They're on Ryan's review.
Kind of sad that Douglas wasn't upgraded to a 5, but oh well.
Louis: Have you now settled on Douglas in Champion or are you still in need of a re-watch.
Louis , what is your favorite out of the 2008 best picture noms and what would do you think was snubbed?
Anonymous: It's Frost/Nixon, though it's not saying much and The Dark Knight is the biggest snub.
I think JackiBoyz and RatedRStar also won the predictions, which also came from Robert Ryans review.
Rating/thoughts on Holm and Lanchester in Come to the Stable and Jeanne Crain in Pinky?
Louis and Giuseppe: your thoughts on the scene with Gordon Cole and Shelly Johnson in the cafe? I think that just might be one of the sweetest scenes I've ever scene involving Lynch.
Louis: can i have your thoughts on Hepburn and Holliday in Adam's Rib, Svedlund in Prison, Greer in The Big Seal and Bergman in Under Capricorn?
@Calvin: One of my favorite scenes of the second half of the season, mostly due to Lynch's performance. He's so endearing in the role.
Louis: Your thoughts on Richard Roeper.
The only time I did like Roeper was when he did Ebert and Roeper which wasn't as good as Siskel obviously but it was still interesting and funny on occasion but ever since then I think he too often has poor judgement.
Anonymous: Agreed.
Luke: Funnily enough from both those 74 lineups I only have one person in mine at the moment lol =D (Caan)
1974 Lead
Warren Oates - Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia
Pierre Blaise - Lacombe, Lucien
John Hurt - Little Malcolm And His Struggle Against The Eunuchs
Bruno S. - The Enigma Of Kaspar Hauser
James Caan - The Gambler
1974 Supporting
David Warner - Little Malcolm And His Struggle Against The Eunuchs
Christopher Lee - The Man With The Golden Gun
Holger Lowenadler - Lacombe, Lucien
Gunnar Hansen - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
RatedRStar: Once again, I'd recommend Letterboxd over IMDB and sometimes I would have to look at the critic award winners as well.
Had to put Blaise higher, because his life was tragically cut short not long after and it's a pretty interesting role.
Luke: for 1974 i would also recommend Dick Bogarde in Il Portiere di Notte and El Heidi ben Salem in Ali: Fear Eats the Soul.
Louis: To be honest I dont even think there are any more films from 49 to see, since all the ones I would have put in a 49 supporting lineup are from pretty poor films.
RatedRStar: I'm rather glad about that, to be honest. I really want to move on back to the 70s again, then 88 with those long awaited reviews for Willem and DDL.
Luke: any chance of Jackman making the top 5 for Louis, you reckon?
Calvin: He has an outside chance sure, it is my favourite lead performance of the year so far after all but I think he'll be no higher than 5th.
I think his current top 5 at the moment is:
1. Jackman
2. Renner (2 and 3 are interchangeable)
3. Fassbender
4. Farrell
5. Kaluuya (Before the likely re-watch)
Fassbender has been staying with me a bit less than I thought he would. I think it was more of a very fun performance than a great one.
I agree with Michael.
I'd say my favourite fun Fassy performance is still Inglorious Basterds. I still liked him a lot in Covenant but on re-watch the more poorly directed quality of those scenes really stuck out and hurt his performance a bit for me; he's not in my top 5 anymore, unfortunately.
Renner is in a weird position for me. He gave a performance I love, but at the same time I think his casting was a mistake. That role needed to be Native American. Zahn McClarnon could have pulled it off. Granted, I have a three-mile list of issues I had with Wind River.
I will be saving my request until the nominations are announced and I currently plan on requesting Fassbender. It's a performance that I still greatly enjoy.
For some reason i don't see Kaluuya making Louis' top 5.
Richard Roeper just gave IT ( 2017 ) 4 stars. To me that movie is maybe a 3.
IT is kind of a four-star movie for me. Like, I know I should find fault with it, but everything just clicked with me.
Anonymous:
Lancaster - 4.5(This is terrific work from Lancaster as a more vulnerable version of his character from the Killers in a way. Lancaster though finds a real emotional desperation that makes the character really comes to life effectively by portraying the way the man's railroaded that is fairly unique for the time. He carefully never makes him a villain within the noir showing always the very honest turmoil in the character as he is so brutally strung along in the plot. Lancaster always brings a very real human element particularly in the final scenes, portraying such a powerful overt fear, that is quite remarkable.)
Mason - 4.5(This is just sheer charm from Mason and one of the very best examples of him being incredibly charming. He's just so charismatic in every scene effectively stopping his potentially boring character from being so. He actually steals the film strangely enough in portraying such sincerity in the character's goodness and doing it in such a way that is absolutely endearing.)
Ryan - 4(Ryan on the otherhand is a pretty good slimeball though. He's a bit different here, as usual Ryan finds some variation in the heavy. He portrays certainly the possessive worst of the man quite effectively. Ryan however does balance his role in portraying moments of alluding to potentially a better man, however he makes these properly brief, almost as just a second thought.)
Tracy - 4(The best place for Tracy is in such role. He has great chemistry with Hepburn here and the two are a whole lot of fun together. Tracy as usual does best when he is not burdened by too distant of a character for him. He's allowed to relax in the role and that's is where he excels. He's quite funny in the role by being so straight most often though throwing in the occasional wily moment that is quite hilarious such as when he reveals a licorice nature of a gun.)
Grant - 4(Nothing stressing him too much here but it's a charming and funny turn you'd expect from him. He has strong chemistry like always, and his comedic timing makes the most out of every situation as per usual.)
Stewart - 4(This role really didn't stress Stewart much. It's extremely aw shucks here, but hey Stewart doing aw shucks is still something quite special. It's not a great performance by him by any measure but as usual it's quite a good one.)
Mitchum - 4(A particularly efficient noir turn by Mitchum in a way. In that he delivers being the tough no-nonsense guy, but with that certain Mitchum charisma to go along with it. It's not his best work by any measure but it's a good rendition of a song he often played so to speak. Plus he has some nice chemistry with Judy Greer here, this playing a much nicer person than in their previous noir collaboration.)
Robinson - 4(You get signs of what his Vito Coreleone might have looked like here, which is a good and not great thing here. There are times where he goes a touch too far with the Italian mannerisms so to speak. There are other times where he absolutely excels though in the role and he really finds that presence of the absolutely dominant father who somehow makes it seem like he's right even when he's very wrong.)
Cotten - 2.5(Yeah not Cotten's best work. He's not terrible by any margin but he fails to really infuse any life in the strangely lifeless film, that I would never have believed Alfred Hitchcock had directed if I had not already known.)
Andrews - 3(Charming bit of work from him, but he isn't given much to do other than be charming.)
Anonymous:
Luke's statement is correct. Although I'd love to think In Bruges in the running, The Dark Knight was the only other major contender for Best Picture that year given its PGA, and DGA noms.
Giuseppe:
Holm - 3.5(Her accent is quite good without becoming caricature. She is mostly there to be just charming and delightful. Well Holm is charming and delightful in the role, so a job well done.)
Lanchester - 3(She's fine in just fulfilling the role of the likable older respected woman role. She's not really there for anything to offer that sympathetic support, which she does well but it's a very limited role.)
Calvin:
Oh that's scene is marvelous moment and again is a testament to what a delight he is as Gordon Cole.
Omar:
Hepburn - (Very much in sort of her early days comfort zone yet with perhaps an even greater confidence in the role. She's terrific her in part due to her chemistry with Tracy but also just her willingness to go for every moment all the way which she does so so well there. It's a wonderful performance and along with Tracy creates such hilarious moments throughout the film.)
Holliday - (She's very good in being funny in her usual way but also effectively bringing just a touch of dramatic heft to the film. Not much, intentionally so, but she balances the tone so well in combining her comedic character with just enough of real emotion within it to make it all work.)
Svedlund - (As per usual with Bergman her performance captures the intention of the film so effectively. She creates a portrait of her particular sort of mental decay so effectively in portraying exactly within herself, but also in a most pivotal way by realizing the her reactions to the decay of the others. She attaches a real human quality within the central idea of the hell on earth idea in a way that is never melodramatic but rather finds the core of it.)
Greer - (She's incredibly charming here and it is nice to see her in contrast to her work in Out of the Past. She has that same edge to her as she did there, but here in reveals a real endearing confidence in the character. She's terrific with Mitchum here in that they make for such a likable duo who both manage to bring out the severity of the story, but keep the right light humorous touch as well.)
Bergman - (She avoids some of her worst tendencies in portraying the alcoholic decay of the character. She however can't quite make the film compelling though she does try very hard to do so. She's effectively in creating the slow improvement within the character. It never quite emotionally resonates, but she does deliver what is needed.)
Luke:
I should note I had not re-watched Champion yet when I originally posted the results now that I have Douglas is an easy five, and both Kennedy and Ruth Roman actually stood out better for me as well.
There isn't anything about Roeper as a critic really, and he had a tendency with Ebert to become a little bit petulant at times, which Ebert usually called him on sometimes rather hilariously. Ebert's response to his "it grew organically" in regards to his praise of the lesbian scene in Laurel Canyon was legendary. He also just didn't debate him in the way Siskel was able to. He's not a horrible critic by any means, he does a little bit of the punny stuff but never went too far with it. I however don't find he ever has that interesting or engaging of a take on films. He's fine as just giving an opinion goes, but he's not a great critic by any margin.
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