Your Fav' Eighties Ladies!

Over the past couple of months we've been holding "Best Character" polls for Oscar's Best Actress category history. We asked not who should win the Oscar but which characters own real estate in your memory. Previously you selected Miranda Priestley, Clarice Starling and other iconic bitches as your favorites from the Nineties and the Aughts. 

But what of the 1980s? Here are the results. *asterisks indicate Oscar winning performances.

Three unarguably iconic characters: Sophie, Celie and Aurora

1981-1985

1. *SOPHIE ZAWISTOWSKI (Meryl Streep) from Sophie's Choice
2. CELIE (Whoopi Goldberg) from The Color Purple 
3. *AURORA GREENWAY (Shirley Maclaine) from Terms of Endearment
4. KAREN SILKWOOD (Meryl Streep) from Silkwood
5. VICTORIA GRANT (Julie Andrews) from Victor/Victoria

Diane Keaton's wondrous performance in REDS (1981) has not been forgotten.Runners Up: To complete the top ten you'd need (in descending order) a third Streep with KAREN BLIXEN from Out of Africa, Debra Winger's EMMA GREENWAY from Terms..., Jessica Lange's rendition of troubled movie star Frances, and with nearly a tie for tenth place Katharine Hepburn's *ETHEL THAYER from On Golden Pond and Diane Keaton's LOUISE BRYANT from Reds. 

Observations: The Streepster's reascendance in the Aughts has obviously polished her earlier work to a healthy shine which would partially explain her tremendous lead as "Sophie" (well, that and the performance itself) and Karen Blixen's near top five placement, despite being hardly as memorable as Sophie or the other Streep/Karen. 

Weakest Showing: While Jessica Lange was an Oscar favorite in the 1980s, her JEWEL IVY in Country received 0 votes. But then Oscar's oft-derided "Year of the Farm Wives" fared terribly, with all three of the farm women failing to muster much enthusiasm. And to think they could have had Kathleen Turner's fiction writer Joan Wilder from Romancing the Stone in there. (She would've hit the top five most memorable characters, don'cha think?)

1986-1990

Dangerous Ladies ruled the Late Eighties

1. LT ELLEN RIPLEY (Sigourney Weaver) in Aliens
2. ALEX FORREST (Glenn Close) in Fatal Attraction
3. *ANNIE WILKES (Kathy Bates) in Misery
4. SUSIE DIAMOND (Michelle Pfeiffer) in The Fabulous Baker Boys
5. MARQUISE DE MERTEUIL (Glenn Close) in Dangerous Liaisons

Runners Up: Completing the top ten in descending order are Julia Robert's Pretty Woman VIVIAN WARD (who initially looked like a top three threat but kept fading throughout the course of voting), Cher's *LORETTA CASTORINI in Moonstruck, Streep's SUZANNE VALE (AKA CARRIE FISHER) in Postcards from the Edge, Anjelica Huston's hard as diamonds LILLY in The Grifters and in a tie for tenth place Holly Hunter's JANE CRAIG from Broadcast News and Jessica Tandy's *MISS DAISY the one who who drove right over the Pfeiffer/Oscar dream. Damn you, Oscar voters!

Observations: Looking back it looks like Meryl Streep owned the first half of the 1980s while Glenn Close threatened her dominance in the decade's second half. And to think they might go at it again this year?!? This poll was the most contentious of the six polls we've held with very small differences in rank between the winners and much in the way of surges and drops. A certain formidable alien fighting woman was always out front but Alex Forrest refused to be ignored and wouldn't allow her a huge lead. Spots 3 through 10 shifted repeatedly with my beloved Kathleen Turner's PEGGY SUE just missing the top ten. [Sniffle]

Fonda and Bridges in THE MORNING AFTER (1986)Weakest Showing: Jane Fonda's ALEX from The Morning After  (which Nick and I tried to recall on the "1986" podcast) received 0 votes from the nearly 800 cast. Of Fonda's seven nominations it's her last and (obviously) her least remembered. It's currently available on Netflix's Instant Watch. Sadly Sally Kirkland's ANNA only barely registered. Kirkland is best known to today's audiences as that crazy-dressing lady who sometimes shows up at the Oscars but that surprise nomination for 1987 was hard-earned. Don't believe me? Watch the movie on Netflix Instant Watch.

Should we do the 1970s?  
What do you make of these 80s polls? Did your fellow TFE readers choose well or would you like to stalk them with Alex Forrest's butcher knife, Ripley's flame-thrower or Annie's hobblin' hammer and right the wrongs they done?

Best Actress "Character" 1981-1990

Time for more polls! Same situation as before. I'm asking not who you think should have won the Oscar but which Best Actress nominated roles are the most memorable for you. Who are the characters you think of the most from movie history (albeit through the lens of Oscar since some great role aren't nominated).

Two polls ahead -- I think we'll quit here since fewer people will play from the 70s backwards -- so please vote on both. Pick the 5 roles that are the "stickiest" in your head, the most memorable, from each poll of Best Actress nominated characters.

1981-1985
Choose up to 5 women

poll by twiigs.com

1986-1990
Choose up to 5 women

poll by twiigs.com

Does anything surprise you while reviewing your options?

Clutch The Pearls! "The Iron Lady" Teases

What timing!

Oscar nominations are exactly 200 days away. Immediately after hearing that Glenn Close's Albert Nobbs now has a distributor, her ostensible "overdue" Best Actress competition -- that'd be Meryl Streep -- starts teasing us with this one minute teaser clip, the first from The Iron Lady.

We'll save the "Yes, No, Maybe So" for a full trailer. But you are immediately forgiven if every line reads as an Oscar tease as well.

You've got it in you to go the whole distance!"

Consider eyebrows raised, but why can't I shake the vocal / aural image of Streep as Julia Child on first glimpse of Streep as Margaret Thatcher? Is it just the Oscar proximity? (Can you?)

P.S. Oscar Prediction Pages updates have begun starting with Best Actress

Halfway Honors. Best of 2011 Thus Far

This year seems to be off to a slow start but here's what I'd choose as the best of the year thus far. I've excluded films that are still waiting for their proper release like Andrew Haigh's finely tuned miniature gay drama Weekend (which has been collecting festival trophies and which I loved) and Paddy Considine's discomfiting abuse drama Tyrannosaur which I did not love but which boasts impressive acting.

TOP TEN PICTURES (alpha order)
The Arbor, Beginners, Bridesmaids, Certified Copy, Jane Eyre, Midnight in Paris, Poetry, Rango, The Tree of Life and Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. You can see a complete list of what I've seen here.

[Notable films that I did plan to see but will have to catch on DVD include: Hanna, The Housemaid and Win Win]

DIRECTOR
Clio Barnard - THE ARBOR
Lee Chang-dong - POETRY
Abbas Kiarostami -CERTIFIED COPY
Terrence Malick -THE TREE OF LIFE
Mike Mills -BEGINNERS

notes: I gave Barnard the slight edge over Apichatpong Weerathesakul mostly because I far prefer "Joe's" earlier effort Tropical Malady to Boonmee. But not without some hesitation. I appreciated the bold experimentation of The Arbor, a documentary/narrative hybrid about the life and work of playwright and screenwriter Andrea Dunbar (Rita, Sue and Bob, Too). I just wish the film had been tighter and less relentless in its last 45 minutes. It had already done so much surgical socioeconomic surveillance damage by that point that rather than feeling devastating it started to feel exhausting. But it's definitely worth a look.

ACTRESS
Juliette Binoche - CERTIFIED COPY
Yun Jeong-Hie -POETRY
Mia Wasikowska - JANE EYRE
Kristen Wiig - BRIDESMAIDS
Michelle Williams -MEEKS CUTOFF

actors and the supporting crop and even a few technicals if you just...

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Actress "Characters" Wins: Miranda, Clarice, Clementine

Talking Points!

Last month I asked you to vote on the most memorable characters within the ranks of the Best Actress nominees. It wasn't about who gave the best performances but which characters have stuck with you the most. Here are the results -- I assumed you'd like to see.

1991-1996 

1. *CLARICE STARLING (Jodie Foster) from Silence of the Lambs
2. THELMA (Geena Davis) from Thelma & Louise
3. LOUISE (Susan Sarandon) from Thelma & Louise
4. *ADA MCGRATH (Holly Hunter) from The Piano
5. FRANCESCA JOHNSON (Meryl Streep) from The Bridges of Madison County
   
   runners up (in descending order):  (four way tie for sixth place!!!) SERA Leaving Las Vegas, TINA TURNER What's Love Got to Do With It,  ELINOR DASHWOOD Sense & Sensibility and *SISTER HELEN PREJEAN Dead Man Walking and... coming in tenth *MARGARET SCHLEGEL Howards End
   
   observations: Clarice Starling had the widest margin of victory in any of the polls, a classic character indeed. I was a bit surprised to see Thelma just edge out Louise for #2 given that Sarandon was the "leader" but perhaps people still get the characters mixed up? Thelma, Louise and Ada were pretty evenly matched with Francesca just barely edging out that cluster of women competing for the the 5-Spot. I'm surprised that Margaret Schlegel was as low as she was (I would've voted for her myself) but I have noticed that today's film culture has greatly devalued the Merchant/Ivory filmography. A true shame because nobody does Brit lit adaptations like that historic team.
   
   weakest showing: Rose (Laura Dern) from Rambling Rose, Viv (Miranda Richardson) from Tom & Viv barely made a blip with 1% of the vote each. The surprise there is Rambling Rose since Dern's Oscar breakthrough was quite a memorable girl. But it's true that you never hear people talk about that film these days.

1996-2010 AFTER THE JUMP

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