Girls Gone Wild -- Favorite Bad Girl Oscar Winners

Kieran, here. We've been celebrating Girls Gone Wild this month at The Film Experience. If you haven't already done so, make sure to check out Team Experience's wonderful relay-style Thelma & Louise 25th anniversary retrospective. 

As the month comes to a close, it felt fitting to take a look back at some of the Best Oscar-winning "bad girl" star turns. Here are 11 of the juiciest...

Honorable Mention:

Cristal Connors in Showgirls (Gina Gershon)

Should have been nominated. Very possibly should have won. Haters be damned.

Top Ten Oscar Winning Bad Girl Roles

10. Addie Loggins in Paper Moon (Tatum O'Neal - Best Supporting Actress 1973)

A charismatic yet unsentimental child performance that perfectly nails the tone of its film. The only complaint is that she wasn't promoted to lead Actress where (judging by that roster) she very well could have contended.

9. Barbara Grahame in I Want to Live! (Susan Hayward - Best Actress 1958)

Delightfully over-the-top and melodramatic. Barbara refuses to wear a nightgown while in prison for murder. She wants to "sleep raw!" 

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Lars Von Trier's Bad Girls of Cannes

It's Girls Gone Wild this month at The Film Experience. To coincide with the ongoing Cannes Film Festival, here's Chris on von Trier's wild women from Cannes past.

We miss you, Lars!

It's been five years since reigning Cannes bad boy Lars von Trier debuted a film at the festival - practically eons by the festival's standards for their many favorite auteurs. But he lost their favor for his glib Hitler comments during Melancholia's Croisette visit. The resulting Persona Non Grata Status has left us too long without a Cannes Von Trier (Anti)Heroine. Some call him a misogynist, but the provocateur has consistently given us fully-faceted women fighting against circumstance however they must. Let's take a look at their bad behavior:

Emily Watson as Bess - Breaking the Waves

How Bad?: 7/10 - Lots and lots of self-flagellating sex with strangers. Bess puts herself in increasing dangerous situations even when she knows the dangers of her actions.

But Really She's a Saint, It's All For Love!: She's only acting out at the request of her ailing, brain-damaged husband, to whom she relays her conquests.

Rewarded for Her Efforts: Watson didn't win Best Actress at Cannes (Brenda Blethyn was honored for Secrets & Lies), though this performance is the only Oscar-nominated in Von Trier's filmography.

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I've Loved Kristin Scott Thomas So Long

Josh here to celebrate a very particular mother. It’s 'Girls Gone Wild' month at The Film Experience, so it seems appropriate to visit one of the best performances of the last decade with Kristin Scott Thomas in I’ve Loved You So Long. She plays Juliette, a mother who everyone views as a someone who went “wild” once, committing a murder. Despite her cool exterior, everyone is waiting for her to break again at any point. This was writer/directors Philippe Claudel’s directorial debut after an esteemed writing career, and the novelistic approach to his characters pays off well; Juliette's still waters run deep...

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