It’s time to put The Spin in your hands!
This is the first round of a new recurring feature where you, the reader, get to vote.
Your first decision point: The Most Memorable Cinematic Performance by an Actress…EVER. Yup, ever.
And the nominees are:
- For becoming the saint Reincarnate – Maria Falconetti – The Passion of Joan of Arc
- Because, frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn – Vivien Leigh – Gone with the Wind
- For suposin’ we should get out but quick – Barbara Stanwyck – Double Indemnity
- For knowing when to walk away – Alida Valli – The Third Man
- For becoming One – Bibi Andersson & Liv Ullmann – Persona
- For being television incarnate and madness, Diana, virulent madness – Faye Dunaway – Network
- Because you told me every man’s voice you hear is mine – Nastassja Kinski – Paris, Texas
- For showing us hard work pays off – Linda Fiorentino – The Last Seduction
- For being Good – Emily Watson – Breaking the Waves
- For knowing that killing people is the one thing you’re not about to stop – Charlize Theron – Monster
- For making me fall in love with you and the city of dreams – Naomi Watts – Mulholland Drive
Think we left someone out? Start the debate in the comments form and then vote!
The Schleicher Spin 
I would include on this list…..
Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz
Bette Davis in All About Eve Lillian Gish in Way Down East Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca Diane Keaton in Annie Hall
Greta Garbo in Queen Christina
Jon – oh….how could I forget Bergman in Casablanca?! Good call, sir!
My Top 50:
1. Falconetti (The Passion of Joan of Arc)
2. Gloria Swanson (Sunset Boulevard)
3. Harriett Andersson (Through A Glass Darkly)
4. Vera Baranovskaya (Mother)
5. Vivien Leigh (Gone With The Wind)
6. Lilian Gish (The Wind)
7. Bette Davis (All About Eve
8. Ryan Lingyu (The Goddess)
9. Katherine Hepburn (The Lion in Winter)
10.Barbara Stanwyck (Double Indemnity)
11.Louise Brooks (Pandora’s Box)
12.Lili Darvas (Love)
13 Bibi Anderson (Persona)
14. Maria Schell (Une Vie)
15. Simone Signoret (Casue d’Or)
16. Catherine Deueve (Belle de Jour)
17. Celia Johnson (Brief Encounter)
18. Judy Garland (The Wizard of Oz)
19. Vivien Leigh (A Streetcar Named Desire)
20. Setsuko Hara (Late Spring)
21. Madhabi Mukherjee (Charulata)
22. Jeanette MacDonald (Love Me Tonight)
23. Janet Gaynor (Sunrise)
24. Judy Garland (Meet Me in St. Louis)
25. Maggie Smith (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie)
26. Sandrine Bonnaire (O Nos Amour)
27. Hideko Takamine (24 Eyes)
28. Miriam Hopkins (Trouble in Paradise)
29. Julianne Moore (Far From Heaven)
30. Olivia de Havilland (The Heiress)
31. Joan Fontaine (Letter From an Unknown Woman)
32. Elizabeth Taylor (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?)
33. Krystyna Janda (Interrogation)
34. Magda Vasaryova (Market Lazarova)
35. Harriett Andersson (Cries and Whispers)
36. Mary Pickford (Sparrows)
37. Isabelle Huppert (The Piano Teacher)
38. Laura Dern (Inland Empire)
39. Lillian Gish (Broken Blossoms)
40. Bette Davis (Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?)
31. Jeanne Moreau (Jules and Jim)
42. Anne Bancroft (The Miracle Worker)
43. Maria Schell (Gervaise)
44. Meryl Streep (Sophie’s Choice)
45. Giulietta Masina (La Strada)
46. Deborah Kerr (Black Narcissus)
47. Irene Jacob (The Double Life of Veronique)
48. Margaret Sullavan (The Shop Around the Corner)
49. Katherine Hepburn (Bringing Up Baby)
50. Irene Papas (Iphigenia)
Amazing list – I was tempted to included Harriet Andersson from Through a Glass Darkly as well.
Loved Meryl Streep in a role she was NOT nominated for an Academy Award………..The Manchurian Candidate!
I should’ve just included Meryl Streep – In Anything.
Even if it’s just this one flick where she proved her mettle, Natalie Portman deserves to be in your list for Black Swan.
That’s another great one, too, Prakash – I thought that would too heavily lean the list to the “moderns” though.
[…] winner of the last round, where tasked with choosing The Most Memorable Cinematic Performance by an Actress, was Maria Falconetti for The Passion of Joan of […]