Curses at the Academy Awards?
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Tonto4848 — 13 years ago(August 16, 2012 09:17 PM)
Whilst Ellen Burstyn is a great actress and performed well in Alice, Gena's role in A Woman Under the Influence was sublime ! It was head and shoulders above all the performances that year !
But there is no accounting for taste and judgement by the voting members of the the Academy, is there ?
For goodness sakes ! Glenn Close has not even been awarded one yet ! -
SimplemindedSociety — 13 years ago(September 13, 2012 09:24 PM)
why do people think Burstyn's role was less impressive and less changeling? Maybe Burstyn had more levels to reach in her role than Gena, I don't know. Have any critics been outpsoken about the two? It's not as though Ellen won as a "make-up" award or longevity.
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Tonto4848 — 13 years ago(October 07, 2012 04:24 PM)
Well obviously the Academy thought Burstyn's role was impressive, they gave her the Oscar ! Even critics opinions are just opinions !
Judging acting performances, after all, is such a very subjective matter of opinion. My own opinion is, that on watching both actressses in their nominated performances a number of times, is that Gena Rowlands' performance was far superior in its depth and range than Burstyn's and Gena would have been my choice for the Best Actress Oscar that year.
Obviously others, who actually had the vote, di2000d not agree with me ! -
SimplemindedSociety — 12 years ago(June 19, 2013 02:34 AM)
Let me elaborate:
If John's film are well-known for improvisation,there may be a bias by the AA,since improvising is easier than sticking to the lines. Even though the performance does not suffer, it takes more effort to say lines as written then the lines coming from yourself. -
elisedfr — 12 years ago(June 19, 2013 09:44 AM)
I agree with you Cassavetes' films were never very popular at the Academy Awards. There was no big mogul or producer behind them, and they were mainly seen as "underground" even though critics often praised them to the skies. Still, I do not think improvisation came into the picture then: I know Cassavetes had the reputation of encouraging ad-libbing and spontaneity. But the truth is his films relied on an elaborate script, written by himself. So even though dialogs were more than once out of the script, and imagined by the actors "in live", one could not say in fact Gena was add-libbing all her performance. (By the way, even if she had done that, it would have been quite a challenge !)
Still, I have not seen the other actress' performance, so it's difficult for me to judge. But Gena's Mabel remains in my mind one of the best piece of acting ever.
" You ain't running this place, Bert, WILLIAMS is!" Sgt Harris -
SimplemindedSociety — 12 years ago(January 21, 2014 02:34 AM)
We don't how close the votes were,which I find annoying. If Ellen won by one vote,that makes it almost meaningless.
But how did Ellen not have range? She was humble,sympathetic,bitchy,strong,weak,.funny,angry -
john-s-2 — 10 years ago(August 31, 2015 03:14 PM)
It is generally thought that Burstyn's Oscar was a "Make-Up" Award for not receiving it the Previous year for "The Exorcist" when Glenda Jackson inexplicably won for a lightweight Comedy turn in "ATouch of Class"
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Panthers4848 — 9 years ago(January 09, 2017 08:34 PM)
If y5b4ou want another truly great performance from Gena, I would recommend another Cassavetes gem in " Opening Night" (1977). Gena was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actress for that performance. Also for 'The Betty Ford Story "(1987) where she won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television. Others worth seeing would be Faces (1968) , Minnie & Moskowitz (1971), Gloria (1980) & Love Streams (1984).