256. Anaconda

256. (28 Oct) /Anaconda/ (1997, Luis Llosa) 51



I feel like I've been misinterpreting directorial ineptitude as hokey charm, as Anaconda has never seemed so choppy as it did on this viewing. There's still camp value to spare in the effects, Jennifer Lopez's sincerity and particularly Jon Voight's terrible performance. But the movie that was so impossibly fun when I was a teenager now seems slow, sloppy and very, very poorly written. It's still an entertaining jungle adventure movie and a guilty pleasure, but I'm far guiltier now about thinking it's anything more than what it is.

235. Campfire Tales

235. (03 Oct) Campfire Tales (1997, Matt Cooper, Martin Kunert & David Semel) 36



Not that Urban Legend is a classic or anything, but I'd take that over this weak anthology film any day. Every segment could pass for one of the lamest Tales from the Crypt episodes. "The Locket" is probably the strongest effort. The lame and too familiar "The Hook," featuring James Marsden and Amy Smart, at least doesn't outstay its welcome.

219. Miss Evers' Boys

219. (22 Sep) Miss Evers' Boys (1997, Joseph Sargent) 61



Alfre Woodard dominates this conventionally made, moving story about the Tuskegee experiment. She brings her usual pathos and dignity to a role that requires such a sympathetic, likable presence. Her chemistry with Laurence Fishburne only elevates this. The structure is typical telefilm stuff, full of flashbacks and melodrama. But Sargent has made a message film spanning decades that feels understated and accomplished.

200. Romy and Michele's High School Reunion

200. (11 Sep) Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997, David Mirkin) 58

Review: Jackie Brown (1997)

Grier and Jackson in Tarantino's fine film.

Directed by Quentin Tarantino
Produced by Lawrence Bender
Written by Quentin Tarantino (script); Elmore Leonard (book)
Starring Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Forster, Bridget Fonda, Michael Keaton, and Robert De Niro

****

Releasing this three years after Pulp Fiction won him an Oscar, Tarantino continues to amaze and delight with this witty crime film. The title is the name of the film's protagonist, played by Pam Grier, who is a flight attendant mixed up with an arms dealer named Ordell Robbie (Jackson). When Jackie is caught smuggling his money and some cocaine from Mexico into the U.S. by a detective (Michael Bowen) and an ATF agent (Keaton), she manipulates the criminals and the cops, concocting a plan to get out of this predicament. In the process, weathered bail bondsman Max Cherry (Forster) falls into Jackie's scheme, and the other cast of characters are hurled into a web of deception and violence to get the rest of Ordell's money back to the States. As she plays both sides, Jackie must balance her relationship with Ordell and with the cops through a series of lies and backcrosses. These events culminate in a surprisingly heartwarming ending that isn't typical of the genre.

While Pulp Fiction (1994) and Inglourious Basterds (2009) are often regarded as Tarantino's best, Brown tends to be left out. This film is anything but highly touted, which astounds me. The dialogue is unique to these oddball characters, and Tarantino, as usual, keeps this lengthy ensemble piece from dragging. His writing is one of the best parts of this adaptation because he gives each of the characters a voice and lets each of them have his or her moment. Not a scene is wasted, and the cast backs up the director's vision of Leonard's material marvelously. Grier and Jackson are at their best as a clever, desperate woman and a devious, charming criminal. And the supporting cast is just as strong, especially Forster's masterful performance as Jackie's new friend and ally. Tarantino's wicked sense of humor, gift for pacing, and strong casting choices are on full display, and this ranks as one of his finest films.

Oscar Tally: Nomination for Best Supporting Actor (Robert Forster)

180. Speed 2: Cruise Control

180. (30 Aug) Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997, Jan de Bont) 24



A sinking ship if ever there was one, the most pleasurable thing about Speed 2: Cruise Control is seeing Sandra Bullock drown in her own lack of talent. She's screechy and incompetent, downright embarrassing when set against the virile, charismatic Jason Patric who's entirely credible as the film's leading man. Everything else is a failure. The action is non-stop, but always tedious. Attempts at humor uniformly fall flat. Willem Dafoe's villainous turn is inconsequential where it might've been at least fun in its hamminess. The digital effects are heinous. In a year where Titanic set the bar and The Lost World: Jurassic Park did a similar boat crash, this is especially shameful. Kudos to Keanu Reeves for not climbing on-board.

171. The Toilers and the Wayfarers

171. (24 Aug) The Toilers and the Wayfarers (1997, Keith Froelich) 45



Considering the film centers around serious issues like post-coming out rejection, daddy issues and hustling, it's odd that The Toilers and the Wayfarers is cute where it should be gritty. The tone is detrimentally off considering much of the film is watching lower class gay men and a German immigrant struggling to make ends meet. Beautifully shot in black-and-white, this at least looks far more mature than the amateurish scripting and acting. Mala Noche, a probable influence, makes this look crummy. The score is one of the worst I've ever heard.

163. Snow White: A Tale of Terror

163. (20 Aug) Snow White: A Tale of Terror (1997, Michael Cohn) 34



More fun in concept than in execution, this so-called tale of terror offers next to nothing in the way of thrills or scares. Sigourney Weaver is devious fun as the wicked stepmother, taking a commendably over-the-top approach. Otherwise, the cast is completely unremarkable and even the most basic plot points are tackled with utter clumsiness. John Ottman's score is the sole technical accomplishment.

Titanic

Titanic, 1997
Directed by James Cameron
Nominated for 14 Oscars, Won 11
Up Against: As Good As It Gets, Full Monty, Good Will Hunting, LA Confidental

We all know the story of Titanic, especially now, with the world reminding us of it's 100th anniversary since it's sinking. For those of you who've been hiding under a rock, Titanic was, at the time, the largest ship in the world, and was struck by an iceberg on it's maiden voyage, killing 68.2% of all people on board, around 1523 people. The movie follows 2 young people. Jack Dawson, a young man who wins his ticket onto the Titanic in a poker game. He's poor, but has big dreams and takes nothing in life for granted. When he sets eyes on Rose, he makes a connection that will change his life. Rose is an upper class lady, engaged to marry a very rich man. But Rose is unhappy with her life. She detests everyone around her, and wants to live life, and see the world, not to submit to a husband whom she doesn't love, or do what people tell her to. She meets Jack while trying to work up the courage to jump off the end of the Titanic, to kill herself. He convinces her to stay, and saves her life when she slips and almost falls into the water after trying to climb back onto the boat. After this, the two find themselves falling in love.

While watching this movie, I realized I had come to see it on an interesting day. April 14th. The Titanic went down very early (2:20am) on April 15th. It was uncanny timing, as I hadn't planned it, but it was eerie nonetheless. The Titanic is a topic I find extraordinarily interesting and a story I've always felt myself drawn to. While it definitely wasn't the largest boat accident/sinking, it sunk under such unusual circumstances, and on it's maiden voyage, leaving so many dead and frozen in the waters. I hadn't seen this film in a really long time. I've seen bits and pieces over the years when it plays on TV, but haven't watched the whole thing for probably 4 or 5 years. So it was almost like watching a whole new film, as I remembered so little.

If I'm correct, this film is what really brought Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio into the international limelight. Kate, playing Rose, received her first Academy Award nomination. Kate was delightful as Rose. She captured her spirit, her ambition, and her fire and really made her believable. Leonardo DiCaprio played Jack, who had initially turned the role down. Leo was also great in his role, playing the smart but poor young man who finds himself falling for Rose. Surprisingly, he received no nomination.

This film is incredibly stunning. The shots of the ship are gorgeous. James Cameron did a phenomenal job with everything set related. He studied everything he could on the Titanic for several years, and even organizaed several dives to the wreckage site over 2 years, and having filmed and looked farther into the Titanic than anyone else had been since it's original passengers. All the footage seen in the film was Cameron's own footage of his dives. Cameron constructed a replica of the Titanic which was almost to full scale, thought the lifeboats and funnels were 90% to scale and only the starboard side of the ships exterior was completed. The sets were reconstructed either by or under the supervision of researchers of the White Star Line, the company that created the original ship. Cameron studied the Titanic for 5 years before going into production. As a result, his film is made incredibly accurately. The interior set designs were based off the original blueprints of the ship, and modeled after her sister ship, Olympic.

The filming of the sinking scenes were 90% filmed on set. The replica boat was able to be put on an angle to make it appear as though it's sinking, and the destruction of the infamous staircase was truly destroyed by the water. The scene of the ship splitting was also the actual replica. It was split into several sections, and was actually sunk, and filmed. Cameron was really striving for accuracy when filming, and wanted to show it's sinking as it probably actually happened, and did this, for the most part, without computer generated effects.

James Horner, no stranger to the film world at that point, composed the music, as well as the song "My Heart Will Go On". The music in this movie is gorgeous, with a flicker of Irish, and really captures the love between Rose and Jack. And everything technical, whether it be costumes, art/set direction, cinematography, everything was so well done. It's even said that every single female extra wore corsets, even if they were in the background and hardly seen.

What I love about this film is how it portrays the sinking. It doesn't talk facts, or stats, or anything like that. It focuses on two people, who were there and experienced it, and makes you realize as interesting as something like the Titanic sinking was, it was a real story, and so many people were lost. And that's the point Cameron really wanted to get across. While the story of Jack and Rose is a little cliche, it made the story of the Titanic personal, and real. And that came across so well.

Titanic really is an epic film. We get the real story, and see what it was like from several different points of view. We see how the third class were locked in for so long, many of them drowning in the ship. We see the first class people in the boats, not willing to turn back and save those who were in the water, stranded. We see that only one life boat went back to find survivors, only to find it was too late. We see people jumping off the boat, people hanging on for dear life. We see the people who willingly stayed behind; an elderly couple who laid in bed as the water drifts in, and a mother with her two children telling them a story. We see things from all different kinds of perspectives, making this story all the more heartbreaking. We're frustrated with the workers on the ship when we hear they're sending out lifeboats not even half full, even though there's not enough boats for even half the people on board. We see the captain go down with the ship, and people killing themselves. All of this perfectly executed by Cameron, and most of it filmed, as I mentioned before, on set, rather than visual effects. 

This movie has come down as a classic. It's won 11 Oscars, tied for the most won. It was nominated for 14, tied for most nominated. It's the 2nd highest grossing film in the world (was the first until 2010). It's regarded as one of the best romance movies, and it spent the most weeks at the top of the box office, consecutively. It gave Leonardo DiCaprio international "hottie" status, and sprung both Kate Winslet's and Leonardo DiCaprio's career to a higher level. The film was made after dedicated research and even several Titanic historians were hired to validate much of what Cameron was doing.

Honestly, I really loved this movie. The acting is great, the story is tragic, and just everything is so accurate, you can tell James Cameron has such a passion for this story and for this event. He made it personal, instead of just facts and being an "interesting event". While many criticize it for being a love story, being long, etc, this is something I really liked. I like that sometimes romances win Best Picture. They're a part of the movie culture, and it's a part of most everyone's lives. The film was exceedingly well done, and had so much heart and soul put into it. Plus I'm a girl, and I'm allowed to love romance movies right?

8.75/10

096. Hercules

096. (19 Mar) Hercules (1997, Ron Clements & John Musker) 36



I'm not clear who supported this departure in Disney style. The harsh lines and cheesy background and character design are often shockingly ugly. Ron Clements and John Musker are also saddled with a truly lame score and an irritating plot. It's hard to believe they ever made The Little Mermaid even in Hercules' fleeting moments that work.

The generic, but amiable "Go the Distance" and cute "I Won't Say I'm in Love" suggest Alan Menken, but it's about as minor as his work gets. The music's just not ingrained into the story, which isn't surprising considering how muddled the script is. The wacky concepts, unnecessary sidekicks, and underdeveloped relationships in Hercules are reminiscent of the issues Pocahontas had. That pair of clunkers could've sunk any studio.

041. Mimic

041. (04 Feb) Mimic (1997, Guillermo del Toro) 50



Mimic makes a noble attempt to be Alien's successor. Shoddy visual effects and an overall lack of tension prevent that from becoming reality. Guillermo del Toro has an especially difficult time establishing space, a rather deadly shortcoming in a creature feature that spends most of its runtime confined to the claustrophobic subways of Manhattan. This is nevertheless fun, particularly in some of the surprising kills like when one of the monsters kills a couple small children. Mira Sorvino's desire to channel Sigourney Weaver fails, but it's oh so fun watching her try. Kudos to the sound designer.

The Final Conclusion - Best Actress 1997

1997

So the much anticipated ranking is:

5. Julie Christie in Afterglow

I'm not one of the fans of Julie Christie in Afterglow. She has some nice moments and she nails to emotional scenes to a certain extent but it's not enough to win me over. I really missed the wildness or the subtlety of her other great performances. But the fact that she wasn't great is mostly due to the horrid movie. Still, she's not great.

4. Kate Winslet in Titanic

This is great work by Kate Winslet. I don't want to take away anything from it as it's great work but she pales a little bit in comparision with the epic movie that she's in. Kate perfectly portrayed all the negative emotions and fears of the character and therefore she was really haunting in the beginning.

3. Helen Hunt in As Good as it Gets

Helen Hunt almost crossed the line of fantastic with her performance as Carol Connelly in As Good as it Gets. Hunt added wonderful, loveable realism to this character and she made the audience really care about her. Those, who keep saying that she's one of the worst winners, really need to shut up. Helen Hunt is just excellent as this loveable character.

2. Judi Dench in Mrs Brown

This is a wonderful performance by one of the greatest actresses ever on this planet. Although it may not be the best achievement of the brilliant Dame Judi Dench, she perfectly inhabited this very complex character and nailed the emotional scenes. This is excellent work that is a real joy to watch. It's not fantastic or mindblowing, it's "just" absolutely wonderful.

1. Helena Bonham Carter in The Wings of the Dove

As Kate Croy, Helena Bonham Carter managed to create fascinating, multi-layered and mysterious character that is surely very interesting. I was totally blown away by Helena who gave astonishing work and I am not surprised at all at the amount of love that Helena gets for this great achievement. Haunting, disturbing, beautiful.

So I can proudly announce

that my winner is...

Helena Bonham Carter

in

The Wings of the Dove

Just loved Helena

Final thoughts: Why do I have mixed feelings? This was an enjoyable year with very good performances and mostly not-so-great movies. Afterglow was T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E but Christie made it a bit less intolerable, Mrs Brown was quite boring with Judi Dench who gave a wonderful but definitely not her greatest performance (interesting enough, that was the movie because of which I wanted to do this year), As Good as it Gets was very entertaining and Hunt really elevated the material (I'd say she was the best thing about it). Helena was just thrilling and her movie was very interesting. I'd say Titanic was the best movie in the bunch, a real epic and Kate was really good in it though not brilliant. I would say that this year was worth reviewing because of the fantastic, gutwrenching performance of Helena Bonham Carter and the great Dame Judi. I could live without the rest, though.

The ranking of the reviewed years:

1. 1944
2. 1969
3. 1974
4. 1989
5. 1959
6. 1964
7. 1939
8. 1977
9. 2010
10. 1997
11. 2009
12. 1980
13. 1941
14. 1963
15. 1966
16. 1973
17. 1990
18. 1978
19. 1954
20. 1948
21. 2002
22. 1957
23. 1940
24. 1998

About the next year: I AM SO DAMN SORRY! I've just realised that The Whisperers was removed from Youtube! I'm so f-ing nervous right now. I'm feeling very sorry but I'm going to do another great year instead. I'm so sorry again. Really, really sorry. Basically, the poll was useless and I didn't get the other movies of the years in the poll. So I had to think quick. And I have my year, which is (I promise) a great one. It's an incredibly similar one to 1997 and not only in the types of roles (single mom, royal) but also some people. :)

What do you think?

Kate Winslet in Titanic

Kate Winslet received her second Oscar nomination (and the first one in the Best Actress category) for playing Rose DeWitt Bukater, a young upper-class girl falling for a poor artist in James Cameron's epic Titanic. Titanic was pretty much a phenomenon and I think that helped Kate get many votes. I think the reason why I think she (and Gloria Stuart) didn't win was that most of the voters might have been tired of voting for Titanic and they wanted to give at least the acting prizes to other movies. I think Winslet was third or second in the end.

Titanic is a really huge movie, which is (in my opinion) worthy of all the Oscars it won. What an achievement! I know that many disagree with me and it's kind of chic to criticise this one (and Avatar). Just to make things clear, I also love Avatar very much. The amount of work James Cameron puts into his projects is so astonishing. Wow, I always keep being amazed by his dedication. The actors give excellent performances, Leo is way better than he's said to be and Gloria Stuart was really worthy of the nomination she got. I think the cause of the hate towards Titanic can be summed up in one word: envy. :)

Kate Winslet is quite definitely the most talented actress of her generation. She's really so talented and despite the fact that sometimes her off-screen persona annoys me, she's a brilliant, shining talent. Many compare her to Deborah Kerr but that's one of the most stupid comparisions I've ever heard. Kerr used to play these very proper and gentle ladies while Kate can do almost everything. All in all, Kate is a brilliant actress and I can't wait to see her in the adaptation of God of Carnage.

The role of Rose is something that seems to be very baity on the outside but just like any other performances in epic movies it's a bit outshone by the gigantic movie. Titanic didn't have a very strong screenplay (it's quite standard, actually just put The Poseidon Adventure together with a soap and you get the story) but the character of Rose was probably the best written one of all. It's probably the only one that has a real emotional depth and is a real challenge for a performer.

There's one thing that we shouldn't forget about Rose (and that's soemthing that Kate forgot once in a while): she's a seventeen-year-old girl, full of anger, defiance and mixed feelings about her future. I don't even think that Jack was really the love of her life, he was just rather a symbol of the life and freedom that Rose desperately wanted. So the Rose is a very complicated character who needs very much care from the performer.

In the beginning, Kate is just brilliant as Rose. Kate was able to become so haunting. She showed the frustration of this girl so terrifyingly that I was totally blown away by her. Those empty looks on her face said so many things about Rose. The beginning was quite probably the best thing about this whole performance. Everything was so well put together and I could always identify with Rose. Kate knew Rose's motivations and I actually fogot that she wasn't a very experienced actress at the time. Thanks to her intuitive talent, Kate was full of self-confidence and she really nailed the part.

Kate's chemistry works excellently with Leonardo DiCaprio and they really make a great couple in the movie. Although Titanic doesn't have the tension of Revolutionary Road, it's still a great co-operation between the two of them. So, everything is alright there.

However, there comes the disaster of the Titanic and unfortunately, Kate's performance almost becomes the victim of the movie. The stunning visuals, costumes, art direction, the directing, the music, everything are so overwhelming that you just cannot really focus on Kate because there are so many things that are more impressive. The achievement of Kate keeps really fading and everything she achieved in the beginning almost disappears but fortunately, it wasn't too late and the ending saved her performance. Still, thanks to the movie, Winslet was never consistently great.

Still, this is great work by Kate Winslet. I don't want to take away anything from it as it's great work but she pales a little bit in comparision with the epic movie that she's in. Kate perfectly portrayed all the negative emotions and fears of the character and therefore she was really haunting in the beginning. Although the overall effect of her work is a bit ruined, this is still a very great job.

What do you think? (no predictions now)

The Final Conclusion will be posted in a couple of hours.

Helen Hunt in As Good as it Gets

Helen Hunt received her first and (to date only) Best Actress nomination and Oscar for playing Carol Connelly, a waitress and a single mom in the Best Picture nominated comedy, As Good as it Gets. Many were surprised to see her win but I really don't see why. She won SAG, the Golden Globe. Of course, many thought Judi Dench would win but Hunt triumphed in the end. I guess that her stardom she reached with Mad about You helped her. It's an interesting and very controversial decision, not very typical from teh Academy.

As Good as it Gets is an entertaining but really overlong movie. Had it been 30 minutes shorter, I would have enjoyed it way more. That Best Picture nod was a bit much, I think. I mean being very entertaining doesn't equal an Oscar nomination in my book. Furthermore, this movie has such a TV feel to it (just like everything by James L. Brooks). Brooks does things as if this movie was 20 minutes long. And what works in a sitcom doesn't necessarily work in a feautre film. Jack is naturally great but that Oscar might have been a bit much. Greg Kinnear was not bad but nothing particularly amazing, really.

Whatever happened to Helen Hunt? Seriously, what's going on with her right now? Apart from the funny, but insignificant What Women Want, she didn't make many successful movies until As Good as it Gets. I guess the fact that she kept on working on television after her Oscar win might have been one of the main reasons why she didn't succeed after all. I think she's very much like Tina Fey though their characters are a bit different (but their acting style is quite similar). The other odd thing is that I wouldn't really expect to write so much about sitcom actresses on this blog, in my Best Actress reviews (only Mary Tyler Moore comes to my mind now).

Comedy is extremely hard to pull off. There's always the danger of overacting and unfortunately we don't really get great great comedy nowadays. I mean, how does The Hangover compare to Some Like it Hot? All in all, great comedy performances are mostly given on television, I feel. Hunt's previous experience with comedy certainly helped her a lot in portraying the character of Carol Connelly. However, it's not only comedy skill that she needed to do this role well. Carol is a bit boring character and you've just got to make her more interesting and loveable. And Hunt really succeeded in doing so, thanks to her immense charisma.

The first thing I noticed that (just like with Dame Judi Dench in Mrs Brown) Hunt doesn't get enough screentime and that's really the movie's fault. I just couldn't decide who's the one I should be rooting for. There was Melvin, Carol and Simon. Jack had the advantage of being Jack and getting the juicy lines, Kinnear is the one the audience feels sorry for and there's Hunt. The thing that really elevated this performance above the two male actors is that Hunt added some bitterweet realism to Carol. Carol is a very ordinary woman with problems at home, with her love life and her child. She seems to exist inside a bubble and the only think she can care about is her only child. Hunt heartbreakingly showed the pain of this character and her performance is unusually deep for this movie. I mean, As Good as it Gets lacks emotional depth and stays on the surface with emotions but Hunt (in my opinion) went inside the head of this character and understood all her actions perfectly.

There's the scene where Hunt says a hysterical monologue (it's probably her most famous moment and people still keep talking about it). She's so heartwrenching and it's just impossible not to feel for her character. And the delivery of the lin "OK" is simply perfect. I dare say that it's probably one of the best acted scenes of 1997.

I must admit, though, that I was a bit underwhelmed by the beginning of the performance but after a while it became so easy and wonderful. It started out a bit forced with Hunt's overdoing Carol's character but in the end it really became something utterly loveable and wonderful. Her reaction, when Simon wants to paint her, is just unforgettable. On a personal level, I might say that's my favorite scene of this performance (despite the fact that I appreciate that big monologue a bit more).

So, to sum up, Helen Hunt almost crossed the line of fantastic with her performance as Carol Connelly in As Good as it Gets. Hunt added wonderful, loveable realism to this character and she made the audience really care about her. Those, who keep saying that she's one of the worst winners, really need to shut up. Helen Hunt is just excellent as this loveable character. Well done.

What do you think? It's time for your final predictions! :)

Interesting coincidence: I just noticed that I wrote about the ladies in alphabetical order. LOL :D

NOTE: I know that it's only Kate left but you might just have to wait for her until next Friday or Saturday. But I might have time for her eariler. I'll do my best, I just have a lot of things to do. :)

Judi Dench in Mrs Brown

Judi Dench received her first Best Actress nomination (and much more) for playing Queen Victoria, the legendary queen in Mrs Brown. I suspect it must have been a tight race between Helen Hunt and Judi Dench. Judi Dench won Best Actress - Drama at the Golden Globes Hunt won for Comedy and got SAG. Dench had the advantage of being a respected British stage actress who was yet to be recognised and Hunt was "just" a sitcom star. Still, Hunt won the Oscar, causing controversy (which was helped by Hunt's acceptance speech, too) that even lead to an Oscar win for Dench the following year.

Mrs Brown is interesting but a bit too slow for me. It's slow-paced and therefore it can get quite boring sometimes. The reason for that is that the movie concentrates so much on Billy Connolly's character. I would have preferred if it had focused more on Queen Victoria and Judi Dench whom I love immensely. I must say, though, that Connolly is quite good in this movie but his talent is so behind Dench's. Still, Mrs Brown is a very enjoyable and it's worth watching once or twice.

I admire, love and worship Dame Judi Dench. She's greatness. She has one of the best voices ever, her face can express thousands of feelings and the subtle emotions that she gives to her characters are all so impressive. And anyone who can give a performance like her in Notes on a Scandal at least once, they deserve to be praised. She wasn't very well-know outside Britain before Mrs Brown so we could even call her performance as Queen Victoria a breakthrough in a way. And I'm eternally grateful that this movie introduced her to the whole world. Her talent is one of a kind.

Queen Victoria is a really interesting role and it certainly pays off with the Academy. First of all, they just love Brits. What they love more than Brits, is a monarch. And what they love above all, is a British monarch. And same goes with me. I also love them. It's always wonderful some real dignity in a movie. Queen Victoria is certainly one of the greatest monarchs ever, plus she was a very interesting personality. Her character needed a very exprienced and careful performance who possessed real talent and much subtlty. Judi Dench, I believe, was the perfect choice for the part.

To put it simply, Judi Dench is just great as Queen Victoria. Dame Judi perfectly showed the insecurities and fears of this woman who always tries to look very organised and strong. However, we get to know Victoria's weaknesses through Judi's sympathetic and wonderfully subtle acting style. I felt that she understood Victoria's problems perfectly well and she tried to approach her with very much respect and dignity. This woman was famous for caring very much about formalities, the outside. And as I see, she was also a bit of a drama queen, too. In the movies, she has dramatic outbursts. Sometimes it's just tears and whining, sometimes she even loses her temper. Victoria was a very moody person who liked to take control of everything. Judi nailed this side of her just perfectly. All the dramatic scenes were handled well by her and she was neither too over-the-top nor too subtle. She found the perfect balance between the faces of this complicated woman.

Dame Judi's chemistry with Billy Connolly is just excellent. Every time they are together on the screen, it's a very intense scene, full of tension and sparkling. Although it's true that Dench is a way more talented performer than everyone else in this movie, she knew perfectly worked together with everyone. I loved the scene where John Brown announces his resignal to Victoria and she refuses it instantly. That tender confession there to Brown is just wonderfully played by Dame Judi. Also, I must mention the dinner scene where the Queen gets a little drunk. It's so full of humor and it was perfectly acted by Dench.

However, there's one thing that seriously works against Dench in this movie. And that's the lack of screentime and really greatly written scenes. Of course, she's wonderful as always but I would have loved to see something more gutwrenching and dramatic. The bit lightweight story drags Dame Judi's performance down a little bit.

Still, this is a wonderful performance by one of the greatest actresses ever on this planet. Although it may not be the best achievement of the brilliant Dame Judi Dench, she perfectly inhabited this very complex character and nailed the emotional scenes. This is excellent work that is a real joy to watch. It's not fantastic or mindblowing, it's "just" absolutely wonderful.

What do you think, dear readers? You've been so active in commenting lately, so thanks. :)

Julie Christie in Afterglow

Julie Christie received her third Best Actress nomination for playing Phyllis Mann, a former B movie actress in Afterglow. 26 years after her nomination for McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Julie was back in the race. She even won Best Actress from the New York Film Critics, which seems to really be in love with her. Still, I feel she was the only one in the race who didn't have a prayer of winning that year. She was the only previous winner plus her nomination was a miracle itself, I think.

Afterglow is horrible, horrible and oh yeah, horrible. It's the worst Oscar nominated movie I've seen since Gloria (for a while I thought it would top even that). I think the filmmakers that they were making something very artsy and fashinable but instead it's one huge flop. I haven't seen such a failure for a while. The soundtrack of the movie is so damn annoying and it doesn't fit the movie. I always felt that this movie was a failed attempt to create an Altman-movie (who was BTW the producer). Moreover, the actors give laughable performances. Nick Nolte is as awful as ever, Lara Flynn Boyle is astonishingly horrible, not to mention Johnny Lee Miller. So, no, this movie didn't work with me at all.

In such an awful cast and movie, you would expect a brilliant actress like Julie Christie to elevate the material a little bit. To tell the brutal truth, she doesn't and yet she's the shining light in this mess, which I won't call a movie. Julie Christie is an astonishingly beautiful and superbly talented actress who has such radiation that it's almost toxic. I would say that she's one of the most beautiful actresses ever (if not the one). Her beauty is so superior and she's so great in every possible way.

The screenplay of Afterglow is simply awful and Phyllis is one of the weirdest characters I have ever seen. She's a broken down, unhappy, former B actress who doesn't get much joy out of life, expect for some of her old movies she watches on her telly. Her life (like Afterglow) is a mess, she has to live with a disgusting man and she has to listen to his snore every night. In short, Phyllis is very unhappy and she's longing for some happiness.

The one thing that really bothered me was that I never really understood this character. I don't get her motives, her emotions and Julie Christie couldn't really give much more to the role than the screenplay. She is very interesting for sure and yet I never got very engaged by Christie's performance even though everything was there for me to like her. Although she had that radiation that I'm mad about and she nailed some of the scenes, there wasn't a moment when I was able to honestly say "OMG! She's terrific!".

I would expect such a character to always reminisce about her days of glory and yet it's not there in Christie's performance. It's no problem at all, don't misunderstand me. Actually, I was very happy that Christie didn't make Phyllis a very standard has-been. There was a kind of depth in Phyllis that I love and yet it wasn't enough somehow. One word perfectly sums up this word: lacking.

Julie Christie's chemistry with the male actors doesn't even exist at all but I must say that it wasn't really Christie's fault. It had much more to do with the horridness of the two guys than Christie's acting as she did everything possible to make this movie work and yet everything and everybody else in the movie dragged her down so much. Had she been given more to do with the character, she could have been way better. But there's a scene where Christie is actually laughable: at the very end, she cries hysterically and it was a really ridiculous moment. I don't even want to think about it because it cracks me up so easily.

So, to sum up, I'm not one of the fans of Julie Christie in Afterglow. She has some nice moments and she nails to emotional scenes to a certain extent but it's not enough to win me over. I really missed the wildness or the subtlety of her other great performances. But the fact that she wasn't great is mostly due to the horrid movie. Still, she's not great.

I was quite generous.

What do you think?

Helena Bonham Carter in The Wings of the Dove

Helena Bonham Carter received her first Best Actress nomination for playing Kate Croy, an impoversihed woman in the movie, The Wings of the Dove. Although nowadays Judi Dench and Helen Hunt are said to have been favored to win the Oscar, Helena received the most of the critics' awards. She was pretty much a dark horse to win and I think she had her share of fans in the Academy, too. Still, she was the fourth in the voting. She got more votes than Julie Christie, I think but she couldn't really overcome the strength of the other three nominees.

The Wings of the Dove is such a great, stylish movie that has mindblowingly beautiful cinematography and fabulous costumes. Titanic was wonderful but I would have given the technical awards to this movie. OK, I admit being extremely fond of period pieces and this one is not an exception, either. The actors give very proper performances, the directing is quite good and the screenplay is excellently written. All in all, the movie is a real joy to watch and I would gladly see it once again.

I also admit being very fond of Helena Bonham Carter. Some may be tired of her usual "Tim Burton's leading lady" self but I simply love her in every possible way. She's so fun and unusual and I always love the touch subtle humor she adds to her characters. That's why I really liked her The King's Speech and I wouldn't have minded had she won this year. All things considered, I expected something very dark and unusual in this performance.

However, this is not the Helena Bonham Carter, I've known and loved so far. This performance is truly unusual and unorthodox and yet it's very different from her usually unusual movies. this is early Helena Bonham Carter we know from A Room with a View and Howard's End mixed with her newest works. And what an astonishing, breathtaking, gutwrenching combination it is. To put it shortly, this performance is Helena is amazing. Amazing and pitch-perfect in every possible way.

Kate Croy is such a terrific, complex character that's incredibly hard to play for the actress who has to inhabit her. On the one hand, she's very loving and has a certain kindness in herself. On the other hand, she can be extremely manipulative and jealous. Just think about the dancing scene at the Venice carnival when her boyfriend dances with the dying American girl. Helena has a visible disappointment on her face but also she has a kind of "I hope you die soon, bitch." face. Kate's emotions are very hard to interpret and they can be so easily misunderstood by both the performer and the audience.

The thing I admire most about this thrilling, confusing performance is the effective subtlety and the distance that she adds to this character. The fact that Helena made Kate such a mysterious person, made her ten times more interesting. Whenever she's on the screen, there's a kind of electric, sizzling feeling in it. Although she's quite often off-screen, her effect is so so strong that I was haunted by her even when she wasn't there. I wasn't waiting for her to come because I wanted more of her but because she was so great that I couldn't have enough of it.

Furthermore, it's not only about her overall effect but also the fabulous scenes that totally blew me away. One is the previously mentioned one in Venice and the one after that when she revealed the truth to her lover. She seems to be so manipulative and yet I couldn't help feeling really sorry for her character. Helena reveals the darker side of this character so thrillingly and fascinatingly and I was simlpy mesmerized by her.

Also, I must mention the monologue that was her Oscar clip. Boy, they couldn't have chosen a better one if they had tried even harder. Helena delivered the line "I love you more" so heartbreakingly that I was feeling sorry about her. And her very last scene with her lover is simply stunning. She starts crying while she's having sex and her desperation was so close and believable there. It was probably the most miserable moment of this character. I never felt that Kate was a real ice queen, she was just really desperate and I think her last scene confirms my point.

So, to sum up, this is a fantastic, subtle performance by a very unusual actress who's at the top of her game here. As Kate Croy, Helena Bonham Carter managed to create fascinating, multi-layered and mysterious character that is surely very interesting. I was totally blown away by Helena who gave astonishing work and I am not surprised at all at the amount of love that Helena gets for this great achievement. Haunting, disturbing, beautiful.

I so want to be stingy with my 5s but I cannot resist. She's so brilliant.

What do you think?

The Next Year

1997

So the nominees were:

• Helena Bonham Carter in The Wings of the Dove
• Julie Christie in Afterglow
• Judi Dench in Mrs Brown
• Helen Hunt in As Good as It Gets
• Kate Winslet in Titanic

I almost did not do this year but it looked unusually great for the 90s and I haven't covered a year from the 90s for a while, so I decided to take a look at this exciting year.

What do you think? Who's your pick? What are your predictions for the contest?