Best Actress 1972

1927/28 through 1997

Best Actress 1972

Liza Minnelli - Cabaret
27
56%
Diana Ross - Lady Sings the Blues
10
21%
Maggie Smith - Travels With My Aunt
1
2%
Cicely Tyson - Sounder
6
13%
Liv Ullmann - The Emigrants
4
8%
 
Total votes: 48

Big Magilla
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Re: Best Actress 1972

Post by Big Magilla »

As it happens, I re-watched Travels with My Aunt for this week's cinematography discussion. I thought Maggie Smith's performance held up extremely well. Often when an actress steps in to take over a role either played by, or intended to be played by, another actress, you get the feeling she is trying to imitate that actress, but not here. There isn't an ounce of Katharine Hepburn evident in either her performance or George Cukor's directing of her. In fact, I couldn't imagine how Hepburn would have done the flashback scenes. They would have had to use another actress, but Smith is totally convincing whether playing close to her actual age or playing the older Augusta of indeterminate age.

I also watched a 2005 documentary on the making of The Emigrants and The New Land with Liv Ullmann who insists that Kristina was both her favorite role and her best performance. I'm not sure that I agree with the latter comment. Her role in Scenes from a Marriage is equally unforgettable, but I never cared much for Face to Face or her performance in it, although an Oscar nomination was not unwarranted given the lack of strong alternatives.

I really like all five of this year's nominated performances, with Joanne Woodward in The Effect of Gamma Rays in Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds the only other actress I would have liked to have seen nominated, but not at the expense of any one of the actual nominees.
The Original BJ
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Re: Best Actress 1972

Post by The Original BJ »

I generally find Maggie Smith a delight, but in Travels With My Aunt she's just way too broad, in a part for which she's decades too young, impeded by layers of makeup, in a lame movie.

Diana Ross acquits herself surprisingly well in Lady Sings the Blues -- you don't see the strain of a singer trying to prove herself a serious actress. But at the same time, I don't think that you see a great actress either, and I wouldn't award her simply for carrying her movie respectably when her competition brings a lot more to the table.

It's nice that an actress with as long and worthy a career as Cicely Tyson has one Oscar nomination on her resume, and it's quite well-earned. She has a sensual, earthy quality in Sounder that's a perfect fit for the film's rural milieu, and her portrait of motherhood is genuinely moving. She's not as central or dominant a figure within her movie to merit the win, though.

Liv Ullmann had a face for the ages, and an intensity as an actress that was put to smashing use in countless films this decade. Kristina in The Emigrants was a perfect part for her, and the actress realizes the severity of her character's hardships with typically striking reaction shots and dialogue exchanges of spitfire potency. This isn't her career peak -- this doesn't reach the heights of Scenes From a Marriage or Face to Face -- but it's another worthy nominee.

But Sally Bowles is the role that Liza Minnelli will be remembered for through all eternity, and she gets my vote with ease. Some years back I attended a movie musical concert at the Hollywood Bowl, and the title number was used to showcase Cabaret. At the end of the number, I turned to my friend and we both just said, "WHOA," before catching our breath -- Liza just burrows herself so physically and emotionally into that performance, its climax gives you goosebumps. But she's a life force beyond the musical numbers as well, using her unique energy to find unexpected notes of humor in her dialogue scenes, and harnessing a persona that's full of emotional neediness to deeply moving effect. An excellent winner.
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Re: Best Actress 1972

Post by LoganJ20 »

Reza wrote:
LoganJ20 wrote: why?
The million dollar question.
I'm still confused
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Re: Best Actress 1972

Post by Reza »

LoganJ20 wrote: why?
The million dollar question.
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Re: Best Actress 1972

Post by LoganJ20 »

ksrymy wrote:
LoganJ20 wrote:
mojoe92 wrote:I just watched Cabaret for the first time about a month ago. I don't understand the hype. Especially for Joel Grey's horrible performance. Not Oscar worthy at ALL. Liza was great yes. But compared to the Brilliant work done by Diana Ross in Lady Sings the Blues? Not even close. Ross was amazing in the film and Cicely Tyson was a super close second. Minelli third. Shame.

Completely Agree
Do you also agree with Michelle Williams and Jacki Weaver in 2010 as well as Bette Midler in 1991 and Joan Cusack in both years she was nominated and Ellen Burstyn in 1973? Because they also got votes since you've joined and a lot have been thrown their way since a certain member joined.
Jacki Weaver yes, Michelle Williams no ( Jennifer Lawrence), Bette Midler in 91 yes, Cusack in 97 yes, Cusack in 88 no ( Michelle Pfeifer), and Ellen Burstyn in 73 no ( Glenda Jackson), why?
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Re: Best Actress 1972

Post by ksrymy »

LoganJ20 wrote:
mojoe92 wrote:I just watched Cabaret for the first time about a month ago. I don't understand the hype. Especially for Joel Grey's horrible performance. Not Oscar worthy at ALL. Liza was great yes. But compared to the Brilliant work done by Diana Ross in Lady Sings the Blues? Not even close. Ross was amazing in the film and Cicely Tyson was a super close second. Minelli third. Shame.

Completely Agree
Do you also agree with Michelle Williams and Jacki Weaver in 2010 as well as Bette Midler in 1991 and Joan Cusack in both years she was nominated and Ellen Burstyn in 1973? Because they also got votes since you've joined and a lot have been thrown their way since a certain member joined.
"Men get to be a mixture of the charming mannerisms of the women they have known." - F. Scott Fitzgerald
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Re: Best Actress 1972

Post by LoganJ20 »

mojoe92 wrote:I just watched Cabaret for the first time about a month ago. I don't understand the hype. Especially for Joel Grey's horrible performance. Not Oscar worthy at ALL. Liza was great yes. But compared to the Brilliant work done by Diana Ross in Lady Sings the Blues? Not even close. Ross was amazing in the film and Cicely Tyson was a super close second. Minelli third. Shame.

Completely Agree
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Re: Best Actress 1972

Post by mojoe92 »

I just watched Cabaret for the first time about a month ago. I don't understand the hype. Especially for Joel Grey's horrible performance. Not Oscar worthy at ALL. Liza was great yes. But compared to the Brilliant work done by Diana Ross in Lady Sings the Blues? Not even close. Ross was amazing in the film and Cicely Tyson was a super close second. Minelli third. Shame.
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Re: Best Actress 1972

Post by Big Magilla »

dbensics wrote: Also in the audience that night was Liza then-boyfriend, Desi Arnaz Jr. If I remember correctly, Mama Lucy went apeshit crazy in opposition to the romance, which seems interesting given that Lucy and Judy were very good friends.
Could be, but I thought Lucy encouraged that one. It was Desi's romance with Patty Duke that she went nuts over. Rumors persisted for years that Duke was pregnant by Desi when she married John Astin on the rebound and that Sean Astin is really Lucy's grandson.
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Re: Best Actress 1972

Post by dbensics »

Watching the YouTube clip of Liza's 1972 win, it's lovely to watch how thrilled Vincente Minnelli is for his daughter.

I've always wondered what it must have been like for Vincente's other younger daughter to compete with a supernova step-sister like Liza.

Also in the audience that night was Liza then-boyfriend, Desi Arnaz Jr. If I remember correctly, Mama Lucy went apeshit crazy in opposition to the romance, which seems interesting given that Lucy and Judy were very good friends.

Oh, they don't make stars like the old days anymore.
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Re: Best Actress 1972

Post by mayukh »

Watching The Help this past weekend got me thinking about Cicely Tyson. I love her. She's wonderful. Her face was beautiful back then, of course (I think it still is) but it was also very expressive, and this quality obviously served her well as an actress. I've never quite responded to her work in Sounder (a nice humanist piece, I think) as much as everyone else has, but, reading reviews from that period, looking at the fact that she won NSFC, etc makes it seem like that performance was really something of an "event" back in '72. Quite frankly I've always struggled with the way her character was written and how she exists only in relation to the men around her (like, maybe this is a good comparison, Streep in The Deer Hunter). I'm not trying to be political in saying this; I just admit that this never made her character a very interesting one. But I'd love to get some insight on this from those who were around at the time – Kael's review describes her as the "first great black heroine on the screen" and that has me curious as to how the performance was perceived in that specific time, place, etc in Hollywood and in America.

On the race: I haven't seen Smith, so I don't think I voted, but the choice is something of a no-brainer. I can't stand silly bitches who think Ross should've won. Though I somehow, perhaps, MAYBE understand the fetishistic appeal of watching everyone's favorite diva playing dress-up, this has nothing to do with good acting, and Ross obviously, clearly, wasn't an accomplished actress. Tyson, like I said, was expressive as hell (the "Nathan" scene is rightly praised) but the character she was playing was somewhat blank. Ullmann, more or less the same thing – amazing actress, perfect face, so expressive, not-so-developed character. I mean, yes, objectively, she did invest Kristina with some idiosyncrasies – naive, stubborn, also endowed with resolve – but I guess that, for me, it's weird that she'd get noticed when von Sydow was right alongside her creating a more complex, interesting character. (I think The Emigrants is a masterpiece, by the way, and it totally should've won Best Picture that year.) And then there's Liza, whom I won't waste too much time on. I thought she was even better in 1969, but I thought she was divine – funny, sad, self-destructive. It also pains me when people talk of her acting in this film as an afterthought – "oh, yes, she's really a good singer, but she's not even that bad when she acts!!" As if she's Jennifer Hudson. I like Liza's acting a hell of a lot more than I do her singing, and that's saying something.
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Re: Best Actress 1972

Post by ksrymy »

Linda Lovelace? Really?
"Men get to be a mixture of the charming mannerisms of the women they have known." - F. Scott Fitzgerald
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Re: Best Actress 1972

Post by Mike Kelly »

As requested, here's the National Society of Film Critics Best Actress Award tally for 1972-3:

Cicely Tyson - Sounder - 30 Points - Winner
Harriet Anderson - Cries and Whispers - 23 Points (also received 9 points for Supporting Actress)

Bulle Ogier - La Salamandre and Mad Love - 20 Points

Janet Suzman - A Day in the Life of Joe Egg - 16 Points

Liza Minelli - Cabaret - 9 Points

Liv Ullman - Cries and Whispers - 6 Points
Diana Ross - Lady Sings the Blues - 6 Points

Ingrid Thulin - Cries and Whispers - 4 Points
Susannah York - Images - 4 Points

Cybill Shepherd - The Heartbreak Kid - 3 Points (also received 10 Points for Supporting Actress)

Zouzou - Chloe in the Afternoon - 2 Points

Joanne Woodward - The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds - 1 Point
Linda Lovelace - Deep Throat - 1 Point
Barbra Streisand - Up the Sandbox - 1 Point
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Post by Hustler »

Liza all the way.
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Post by Big Magilla »

I'm not going to get into the vote splitting argument again, but it's always bothered me that Tyson and Ross were expected to cancel each other out simply because they were both black. The two women couldn't be more different. One is a gifted actress with many great performances to prove it even if her career topping Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman was still two years down the road. The other is a singer who unexpectedly proved sensational in her acting debut.

Ross deserved the nomination, but there was no way she was going to win. If you wanted a black actress to win because you thought it was time, then you had to have supported Tyson who along with Ullman was the year's best dramatic actress. If you wanted to reward a musical performance you had have supported Minnelli who was everywhere in 1972, the year she also won acclaim for TV's Liza With a Z. She was indeed Hollywood royalty at the top of her game then.
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