1. Sissy Spacek
2. Ellen Burstyn
3. Gena Rowlands
4. Goldie Hawn
5. Mary Tyler Moore (a recent second viewing did not change general dislike of this performance or the film).

My own personal choice:

1. Sissy Spacek (Coal Miner’s Daughter)
2. Theresa Russell (Bad Timing)
3. Susan Sarandon (Atlantic City)
4. Shelley Duvall (The Shining)
5. Ellen…[Read more]

All of them have given a couple of great performances over the year but they all have delivered some real turkeys. I’ll pass.

Bacurau is not eligible as it was released in Brazil in August 2019.

Actor Birol Ünel best known for Fatih Akin’s Head-On (2004): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birol_Ünel

In this order:

Ralph Finnes
Willem Dafoe
Jake Gyllenhaal
Ian McKellan
Edward Norton
Liam Neeson
Robert Downey Jr.

Harrison Ford (Honorary Oscar)

Re: Winter of Our Dreams, Pennies From Heaven, Cutter’s Way & Eye of the Needle.

All those titles are worthy tracking down. Winter of our Dreams & Cutter’s Way are two of the most bleakest films ever made. Pennies From Heaven though a musical is also rather bleak – great stuff.

Bernadette Peters won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a…[Read more]

Some of us go by first commercial release date anywhere in the world, some people go by imdb date and no doubt there are other reasons people make their choices to determine their respective year placements. Though Atlantic City didn’t play in the US until 1981 it opened in France, West Germany, Canada & Italy in 1980.

Faye’s work in Mommie…[Read more]

Gee, if that’s the best Switzerland could come up with it must have been slim pickings.

1. Susan Sarandon
2. Marsha Mason
3. Diane Keaton
4. Katharine Hepburn
5. Meryl Streep

My personal choices:

1. Sissy Spacek, Raggedy Man
2. Lisa Eichhorn, Cutter’s Way
3. Kate Nelligan, Eye of the Needle
4. Susan Anspach, Montengro or Pigs and Pearls
5. Marsha Mason, Only When I Laugh

**I have Susan Sarandon in Altantic City listed in 1980…[Read more]

Sent mine off yesterday.

Thank you for the opportunity to participate in the poll.

Actress Linda Manz (Days of Heaven) aged 58 has passed away:

An interesting one. I note some people are claiming racism and that may very well be true to some degree. After all we don’t know the real personal views of voting members.

However, I think that ones of the primary reasons that Denzel Washington has failed to gain any BFTA nominations is that his Oscar nominated films don’t really resonate…[Read more]

1. Kate (Lion)
2. Liz (Virgina Woolf)
3. Maggie
4. Sophia
5. Patricia (though it is supporting)
6. Julie C.
7. Anne
8. Julie A.
9. Kate (Guess)
10. Liz (Butterfield)

1. Peter Ustinov, Spartacus
2. Melvyn Douglas, Hud
3. Peter Ustinov, Topkapi
4. Gig Young, They Shoot Horses Don’t They?
5. Walter Matthau, The Fortune Cookie
6. Ed Begley, Sweet Bird of Youth
7. Jack Albertson, The Subject Was Roses
8. George Kennedy, Cool Hand Luke
9. Martin Balsam, A Thousand Clowns
10. George Chakiris, West Side Story

Sometimes Warhol actress Brigid Berlin. She was quite a character: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigid_Berlin

I could never barely stand Benigni before he hit the big time internationally and I found Life is Beautiful puerile. The only saving grace of the film was Nicoletta Braschi. But I remember people at the time who never went to films much particularly foreign language films loving it and being dismayed when I screwed up my face at the mention of the…[Read more]

Actress Kelly Preston at just 57. This is a shocker: https://people.com/movies/kelly-preston-dies-of-breast-cancer-at-57/

Documentary filmmaker Kevin Rafferty whose films included The Atomic Cafe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Rafferty

Richard Farnsworth, Comes of Horseman (1978)
Tuesday Weld, Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977)

Bergman probably with Fellini, Ford & Tarkovsky close behind.

Then Kurosawa.

Hitchcock & Scorsese have some great films but Scorsese in particular has a number of low points.

Welles comes next.

Spielberg comes next – the occasional very good film but most of his stuff is fluff.

Nolan???? There are more than 200 better directors than him.