The Rose
Thursday, May 5, 2011 at 1:14PM may flowers, blooming each afternoon
Just remember.... in the winter... far beneath the bitter snow...
How beautiful is that song? On a scale of 1-10? 11! One of the all time classics.
I don't think we've ever discussed that particular Best Actress race. Sally Field took her first Oscar for Norma Rae "UNION!". But who gets your vote?
- Jill Clayburgh, Starting Over
- Sally Field, Norma Rae
- Jane Fonda, The China Syndrome
- Marsha Mason, Chapter Two
- Bette Midler, The Rose
I've just realized that the reason we've never discussed it here at The Film Experience is that I barely remember these movies (and have never seen Starting Over ... which sounds like a spiritual sequel or straight up remake of An Unmarried Woman). I remember really liking the other four performances when I saw them on VHS (gulp) in the late 80s. I was a huge fan of Chapter Two in particular for a split second but barely remember it now. No one speaks of Marsha Mason anymore...
Best Actress, May Flowers, Oscars (70s)
Reader Comments (31)
Was Hanna Schygulla eligible that year for 'The Marriage of Maria Braun'? If she was, she should have been nominated and won hands down.
Of the three nominated performances I've seen, it's a tough pick between Bette Midler and Jane Fonda, but I'd probably go for Bette (although that might be only because Fonda is only the second best thing in 'The China Syndrome', after Jack Lemmon).
MrW., yes Hanna Schygulla was eligible (Release in October 1979 in NYC). Also she was runner-up at National Society of Film Critics.
For me, it was a meh year in this category. Good performances but not for remember by years. My line-up:
1. Hanna Schygulla - The Marriage of Maria Braun: She really deserved the nom and even the win
2. Bette Midler - The Rose
3. Sally Field - Norma Rae
4. Romy Schneider - Une Histoire Simple: She's also eligible for that year
5. Jill Clayburg - Starting Over
Schygulla blows everyone out of the water. The China Syndrome is really dated, but it's still really entertaining, and Jane Fonda is great in it as always.
bless Fonda. when is she less than wonderful? I really need to see THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN. [hides head in shame]
I love Bette Midler to pieces... Someone get her a heavy dramatic role again STAT!! Although she kills even in lightweight comedy fare like Outrageous Fortune and Ruthless People too :-)
Love Bette!! The Rose is beautiful!
I watched The Rose not too long ago and sadly, though I love Bette Midler, the movie is pretty lousy. And the SONG doesn't get sung in the movie but over the final credits which left the whole thing feeling....wilted.
I think Oscar got it right with Sally Field in Norma Rae.
You will love The Marriage of Maria Braun. It's really entertaining, actually. Fassbinder basically wanted to make a historical epic of the type people would make in Hollywood.
I never understood what was soooo special about S.Field. 2 Undeserved Oscar (worst than the Swank who at least deserved the first one). I think Bette Midler should've won hands down that year. A very, VERY strong & affecting performence.
Haven't watched "Rose" but I LOVE the song!
I remember singing it once and my mother was impressed.
(Other times she's not :p)
I must stand up for Jill Clayburgh here.... I thought "Starting Over" was a great movie, and she was wonderful in it. Simply wonderful. The character is VERY different from "An Unmarried Woman" - Nathaniel, you should totally seek it out and see it, not only for her performance but also for Candace Bergen's HILARIOUS turn as the ex wife. They were both nominated and rightly so!
that said, I would have given it to Bette Midler as well.
That's a tough year. Although I always liked Jill Clayburgh I didn't think Starting Over was anything special at all, Candice Bergen had her moments but even she has been better elsewhere. Jane was very good, she's always very good, in the China Syndrome but it was more of an ensemble effort and she melded into the tapesty of the piece beautifully, she's had better showcases and worthier nominations. Have never seen Chapter Two and it's hard to find now plus Marsha was playing a character based on herself, a bit of an unfair advantage. So that leaves Sally and Bette, both great talents and as different as night and day and both excellent that year. I'd have to give a slight edge to Bette since her's required a bit more heavy emotion but then subtle work is harder so it a difficult race to call. Although Sally does have two so to be even handed and since she was deserving Bette.
On a side note a friend just worked with Marsha Mason on a play within the last year doing her wardrobe and said she's a doll. Funny and sweet.
I haven't seen any of these films. I love Field and The Midler -- I feel so bad that Bette doesn't have one -- her 1991 nomination For the Boys seems like a cruel waste of space since they weren't going to give it to her over Foster or Sarandon -- my personal favs that were nominated.
i wasn't a fan of Midler and then i saw The Rose, i honestly didn't expect her to show an acting range that high. Wonderful performance in every possible way
Ah, the old "playing herself" marginalization. I remember it's casting a pall over Courtney Love's performance in 'The People Vs. Larry Flynt," too. The thing is, seldom is public perception spot on with the reality of how someone is (or actually lived). So, with that vantage point, Midler's performance in 'The Rose' may very well have been just as "challenging" as Field's, it's just that no one had seen -- or would've expected -- Field to turn in the kind of performance she did in 'Norma Rae'. That said, I think it's a draw between those two, with Clayburgh (R.I.P.) a warm and distant third.
Interestingly enough Marsha Mason, Jane Fonda and Jill Clayburgh all passed on Norma Rae, I think my vote has to go to Bette Midler. She is put it all out there on the table, the sad thing is she might not ever get a chance to win again. For the Boys her performance was fine but the makeup was so awful.
She tried to get an Oscar with Stella but it just didn't work for her.
weak field of nominees that year.
Jane Fonda is so great that she plays two news reporters in the same year (the other one is in The Electric Horsemen) and two performances can't be more different.
Ok, the winner: I've seen and loved Maria Braun, but Schygulla wasn't better than Judy Davis in My Brilliant Career, sorry (I'm sure it's a 79 film, but I don't know if it was eligible).
Watch "Starting Over" now. It's a ton of fun and Clayburgh doesn't give the performance you expect of her. She's hilarious and sympathetic, but builds her character differently from before. Also, Candice Bergen's "Better than ever" scene is worth it alone.
Of the nominees, I'm with Sally Field. It's a career defining performance and she fits it like a glove. It's not a great movie, but she really does work it.
I absolutely loved Jill Clayburgh in Starting Over, such a beautiful performance. But against Clayburgh and Midler, I literally don't understand how Field won. Either of her Oscars.
Oh mah Gah, "The Rose"!!! I was *this close* to putting that it as my favorite musical on my Reader Spotlight!
I love "Norma Rae" and Sally Field in it. I see it as that year's "Erin Brockovich" and "The Rose" was "Requiem for a Dream". Bette is astonishing, but Field gives such a STAR performance that I can't find fault with her win despite, probably, Midler being better.
I am fortunate (and dedicated) enough to have seen 99% percent of ALL performances ever nominated for an acting Oscar since 1927. More than 1,500 I think. I'm missing some early films, including Lewis Stone's lost film, The Patriot, so I will never see 100% of all.
I remember this particular year very well. I believe there was a three-way split of votes, among Field, Midler and Fonda. Midler I adored and I had been following her career from the very start back in 1972. Fonda's performance is truly spectacular, and so is Field's. I would have been pleased with any of the three winning.
However, as we all know, there's these factors to weigh in :
* If Fonda won the Oscar, it would have been the second in a row for a total of 3. Maybe the voters thought it would be too much.
* A Midler victory would have been the third debut film by a legendary singer who goes on to win the Oscar... and in little more than 10 years. Barbra in 68 and Liza in 72 (yes, I know, it was not her first film). And by the way Liza beat out Diana Ross. However, out of the three, Midler was the least "conventional."
* This leaves us with Field. She received the kind of recognition that the Oscars bestow upon those who transcend initial stereotypes. Field was the saccharine Gidget-turned-Flying Nun who had already surprised everyone with a stellar performance in Sybil. Then came her powerful Norma Rae (the type of role voters love) and the Academy decided to honor her.
The Rose is a mess of a movie...it's an endless cycle of the same ol' same ol'. You think things are working out, she falls back again, things are good, things are bad, and then she dies. You think it's gonna end and then it keeps going with more drama - it drags on.
HOWEVER, I love it solely for Bette. She is AMAZING. One of my favorite female performances ever. A debut performance too?? And from someone who was a singer first? Just wow. She should've won the Oscar, in my opinion.
Side note: I love the song too...my favorite Bette song.
My Brilliant Year is a 1979 film but wasn't Oscar-eligible until 1980.
I'm about evenly torn on Fonda and Midler from this group, for reasons everyone has already covered, pro and con.
Anyone seen Clayburgh in La Luna? Mason in Promises in the Dark? Adjani in Herzog's Nosferatu, the Vampyre? Keller in Fedora? Remick in The Europeans? They were all eligible.
oooh. Adjani in Nosferatu. love that movie and performance. but i guess i've never thought of it in an awards context, but it sure works in terms of star presence.
1979 was my first oscars, so i'm ridiculously attached to it even though i think they got most of the winners wrong (i should've learned that lesson back then)
i do wish there could've been a tie between field and midler. with our 20/20 hindsight knowing that field would win a second time a few years later it does seem like midler was robbed, but at the time both performances were revelations
fonda and clayburgh were great, but that was no surprise at the time
all those masha mason/neil simon comedies blur into one nowdays. i know she still works but she does seem like a creature of the 80s, all but forgotten now
Oh, THE ROSE is excellent. I know I've seen all (but for, The China Syndrome) and they're all nice enough but I say boot the entire lineup for Bernadette Peters in THE JERK. Yes, it's nepotism but Bernadette Peter is amazing.
(But I do feel badly for Marsha Mason. I feel as if Shirley MacLaine inherited all her potential roles in the mid to late eighties, not that I don't love Shirley but I always think that Marsha would have won an Oscar for a TERMS OF ENDEARMENT-esque mother role if Simon and her hadn't split. Of course,that's probably because I find that kvetchy humour that Simon and Brooks do quite similar.)
I've never particularly understood the praise for Jane Fonda in this role. She's one of my favorite actresses, but I frankly think The China Syndrome was one of her weakest performances...not bad by any means, but it was such an ensemble film and not truly a best actress showcase, in my opinion. Jack Lemmon was fantastic in this though.
The best thing about Fonda's performance in this movie is the way she handles a simple-minded and struggling reporter who believes can grow up as a professional but it is still very ordinary, until things star to happen and she has to trust her intuition.
It's not really what Fonda was used to do, since she always had that old-pro know it all (some would say arrogant) persona, and knew how to work it into beautiful performances by showing those powerful women's vulnerabilities. As an actress, she deconstructs her characters.
In The China Syndrome it is always a building process, brick by brick. Building a personality in events that will change her forever. In a few days, she finds herself, and Fonda handles these shifts beautifully.
That said, it's Lemmon's show.
I think Sally Field rightfully won the Oscar that year. Wasn't Norma Rae nominated for Best Picture? Now that's the true headscratcher when there were so many great films in 1979.
Better Midler first and Fonda second (very close)