Beauty vs Beast: Emma Times Two
Monday, April 15, 2019 at 3:00PM Jason Adams of MNPP here with a brand new edition of our weekly "Beauty vs Beast" poll -- it is the 60th birthday of the great Emma Thompson today! And age thankfully hasn't slowed her down a bit -- she's got several projects in the works (I'm pretty excited about her upcoming series called Years and Years with Queer as Folk UK and Dr Who writer Russell T Davies) not to mention I just had a, "Wait, who is that talking...?" moment two days ago when she turned up as the voice of a queenly ape-person in Laika's Missing Link. But for her birthday let's look back at her two great great great Merchant Ivory roles of the early 90s, because who could I put against Dame Emma Thompson for a true contest other than but Dame Emma Thompson herself.
PREVIOUSLY It's not easy to beat down Divine but Kathleen Turner managed to do just that with last week's John Waters poll -- the Serial Mom herself, which just celebrated its 25th anniversary this weekend, took a full 75% of your vote. Said ?:
"Beverly/Kathleen Turner all the way. Personally I would have given her all the awards for "War of the Roses", but "Serial Mom" was a fun outing for this gifted actress. At least at TFE she is remembered and revered appropriately."
Reader Comments (12)
Miss Kenton is a bit of a fag hag, isn't she?
This is the hardest "Beauty vs Beast" poll ever.
How dare you make me choose!
About time she was made a Dame.
She is awesome!
Some readers may appreciate this
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/apr/14/emma-thompson-attacks-hollywood-lack-of-respect-for-writers
Wow. Impossible. Both great movies and great performances. I picked Miss Kenton for her warmth.
But also, if either of these had been up against her Sense and Sensibility performance, no contest. One of my favorite screen performances ever.
I agree about her Sense and Sensibility performance - it is fantastic - but voted for Margaret Schlegel here, because the character is such a great match for Thompson's intelligence, pragmatism and affection.
I was afraid this was going to be tough and I'd have to make the near impossible choice between Margaret Schlegel and Elinor Dashwood.
But it turned out to be much simpler since I hated The Remains of the Day so very much, I know that's not the popular opinion and I was massively disappointed myself. I love everything there is about Howards End so Margaret Sclegel it is.
@peggy stevens is so totally closeted!
I love Howards End, but The Remains of the Day is one of the best movies I've ever seen. That's my tie-breaker.
1993 Emma had the best film year any actor has ever had, right?
I mean you can make a really strong case for three nominations. Are there other cases of this? I can't think of one.
"Remains of the Day" is the better film imo, but her performance in "Howards End" sticks with me a little more.