Best Supporting Actress 1982

[mayukh]

I adore Lesley Ann Warren but I've never gotten the appeal of her broad, totally uninteresting performance in Victor/Victoria. I am a gay male.

Kim Stanley was clearly an imaginative performer but I didn't find her approach effective in Frances, especially next to Lange's more expressive and naturalistic fireworks.

Jessica Lange doesn't get enough credit for her sweet, and, as Italiano has said, quietly complex performance. Beautiful work.

I agree that Glenn Close is absolutely magnetic in Garp – dynamic and warm – but I love Teri Garr in Tootsie. I'm not familiar with her other work, so I found her approach to comedy here really inventive – in just a few scenes she made her character touchingly, achingly pathetic.

[ksrymy]

For me, the three with the most votes are the only three I'd put in contention.

I only very recently watched Garp and found it very pre-Forrest Gump [/i]Forrest Gump[/i]. Glenn Close was absolutely spectacular. Very motherly and a fabulous debut performance. This is probably her best performance (possibly tied with Dangerous Liaisons).

Teri Garr is leagues beyond Jessica Lange. It's obvious that Lange's win was for the fact that she wouldn't win for Frances because of Meryl's playing one of the all-time greatest performances in film history. Where Lange gets the better storyline being a single mother and all, Teri Garr gets to play around with much more. Her neuroticism is spot-on.

But Lesley Ann Warren is the only winner here. I was first introduced to her in Pure Country, one of my dad's favorites, but on my own in Clue. Her Miss Scarlet is marvelous, but her Norma Cassaday is belly-achingly hilarious. What she's able to do with her Jean Harlow Dinner channelings is what Jennifer Tilly failed to do in Bullets Over Broadway. Her one number in Victor/Victoria is very well-executed and she deserves this award.

[nightwingnova]

Lange was fine, but the part was not much. Garr, I seem to recall, lacked good technique (unpolished) but was ok funny.

Stanley was good, better than solid, but not brilliant as she's often been.

[The Original BJ]

At a film festival I was at last year, I attended a panel featuring Dabney Coleman, who had a number of great stories about Tootsie. He said it was a pretty grueling shoot: no one thought the script was funny (he swore by this, because he said people nowadays never believe him), and no one had fun making the film.

My favorite story? Near the end of the shoot, he and Jessica Lange were preparing for a scene, and Coleman told her it sure didn't feel like they'd actually been shooting a movie this whole time. Lange's response was something along the lines of, "It doesn't matter. No one's going to see this piece of crap anyway."

[Big Magilla]

Blame it on Dustin Hoffman.

According to Wikipedia:

Pollack's disputes with Hoffman during the filming of Tootsie became well-known. Eventually Hoffman began pushing the idea that Pollack play the role of his agent, and Pollack reluctantly agreed despite not having had any film roles in 20 years. Their off-screen relationship added authenticity to their scenes in the movie, most of which feature them arguing.

[rudeboy]

I can't stand the movie for any number of reasons, but one thing that has always stuck in my craw is that you have a movie, a major theme of which is how hard it is to make a living as an actor. And then the director -- who was already pulling down $3 million dollars for his mediocrity behind the camera -- took it upon himself to play a major supporting role, one which any number of talented New York character actors could have played more ably and in doing so earned a comfortable year's income from this one role.

While this is an interesting point, Pollack's performance is, to me, easily the highlight of Tootsie. I've always far preferred him as an actor than as a director and he gets some genuine laughs and mileage out of his few scenes.

[Sabin]

I can't stand the movie for any number of reasons, but one thing that has always stuck in my craw is that you have a movie, a major theme of which is how hard it is to make a living as an actor. And then the director -- who was already pulling down $3 million dollars for his mediocrity behind the camera -- took it upon himself to play a major supporting role, one which any number of talented New York character actors could have played more ably and in doing so earned a comfortable year's income from this one role.

I don't love this point.

[Eric]

To further muddy the waters of the gay/straight question, I'm only a soft supporter of Victor/Victoria (which is to my taste just as awkward lumpen as Tootsie but thankfully lacks that movie's self-importance and is, in its good moments, much more humorous). I think Warren is good enough to vote for here over Lange (sad, boring) and Garr (constipated, charity case), but certainly there have been other, better dumb blondes. I guess it would be nice for the smart blonde to win this time around, but hey. Them's the breaks.

As for a certain type of performance appealing to gay people, well, there's reams of cultural criticism on the subject. I guess the only problem is when one blocks oneself to all performances of this type (whether good-bad or just bad-bad) simply out of the presumption that they wouldn't appeal to their sensibility. Of course, I'm just as guilty of not giving certain types of performances their fair shake. Perhaps as a not-famous person, the appeal of someone impersonating a famous person eludes me.

[Damien]

Tee, it's funny that you found Victor/Victoria overlong because, although I have no recollection as to how long it actually is

This is one of my favourite films but the second half does tend to drag especially the repititious scenes with the french detective, Sherloque Tanney (played by Herb Tanney....incidently Tanney was Blake Edwards' dentist and appeared in every one of his films after Darling Lili). The editing could have been tighter in the second half of the film............but I'm not complaining.

The film is a joy from start to finish and I never fail to fall down laughing during the cockroach scene when the camera goes outside the restaurant and captures the mayhem inside.

And Andrews singing ''Crazy World'' is a magical moment.

Reza, you misread my post. I was saying that I don't recall how long Tootsie is but it seemed to go on forever (or, to quote me, it was "a meandering interminable mess."

Victor, on the other hand, is perfectly paced and just flies by and when it's over I always just want more.

And yes, "Crazy World" is one of the transcendental moments in cinema.

[Reza]

Tee, it's funny that you found Victor/Victoria overlong because, although I have no recollection as to how long it actually is

This is one of my favourite films but the second half does tend to drag especially the repititious scenes with the french detective, Sherloque Tanney (played by Herb Tanney....incidently Tanney was Blake Edwards' dentist and appeared in every one of his films after Darling Lili). The editing could have been tighter in the second half of the film............but I'm not complaining.

The film is a joy from start to finish and I never fail to fall down laughing during the cockroach scene when the camera goes outside the restaurant and captures the mayhem inside.

And Andrews singing ''Crazy World'' is a magical moment.



Edited By Reza on 1284523418

[Damien]

Tee, it's funny that you found Victor/Victoria overlong because, although I have no recollection as to how long it actually is, I found Tootsie to be a meandering interminable mess.

I can't stand the movie for any number of reasons, but one thing that has always stuck in my craw is that you have a movie, a major theme of which is how hard it is to make a living as an actor. And then the director -- who was already pulling down $3 million dollars for his mediocrity behind the camera -- took it upon himself to play a major supporting role, one which any number of talented New York character actors could have played more ably and in doing so earned a comfortable year's income from this one role.

As for Glenn Close, I had seen her on stage twice prior to Garp, in Crucible of Blood and Barnum, and she was absolutely luminous. I couldn't wait for her to cross over to films. But that luminosity was missing in Garp, and it made little sense in the film that hers was such a supposedly charismatic figure. Italiano is right, George Roy Hill was so much the wrong director for this material.

[FilmFan720]

I have to agree with what has been said about this line-up...it is one of the best I can remember (at least of those where I've seen all 5 nominees).

I am not a big fan of Tootsie, a movie I have never found overly funny or charming. Garr and Lange are both very good here (although they are much better in other places), but to me neither stands out too much. In the same league, Stanley is real good in Frances, and does not fall into any of the traps of the role.

Still, this category belongs to two women: Warren and Close. Tee is right that I really love Victor/Victoria (even as a straight man!), and I think Warren gives a hilarious and charming performance. The category belongs to Glenn Close, though. John Irving is probably my favorite author, and while the film doesn't live up to the source material in the least, Close couldn't have been more pitch perfect. She gets my vote easily.

[ITALIANO]

Italiano apparently is closer to my view,

Hey, are you implying that I am gay?!

No, but seriously, I don't believe in this difference in tastes between gays or straights - I've noticed, certanly, that on this board a certain kind of performance seems to be more appreciated than others (and by the way Lesley Ann Warren's isn't even the worst example of this kind), but I tend to see it more as an American thing. I don't deny that sexuality (like other very personal factors) can have an influence on our view of films, but it's like saying that all straight guys like war movies. Some do.

Like Mister Tee, even I don't think that Victor/Victoria is a great comedy - though it certainly contains some very good things, Robert Preston's performance especially. And to be completely honest, I'm surprised that it can be considered a cult movie by American gays - it is, I think, if not downright homophobic, definitely very safe, not daring at all, and, most importantly, not sexual (homo or hetero). My homophobic friends (of that time) absolutely loved it.

[Bruce_Lavigne]

Four excellent-to-great performances (including Lange, who deserves dismissal from this race only because her "supporting" status is highly dubious) with no one really standing head-and-shoulders apart from the others... and Teri Garr, who's very good with what she has in the all-around wonderful Tootsie.

I'm voting for Close. I could just as easily go for Warren or Stanley, but while both bring freshness, humanity, and originality to stereotypes (the dumb-blonde moll and the overbearing mother), Close is equally terrific with an only-slightly-diminished screen representation of a great character.



Edited By Bruce_Lavigne on 1284493371

[Mister Tee]

I presumed the Victor/Victoria crowd would be out in force for Lesley Ann Warren. This is another "too broad for my taste" performance, but, as with the film in general, every gay friend I know thinks she's divine. To each his own.

Thanks for the historical viewpoint of the '82 race in real-time, Tee. Your time capsule perspective is always appreciated, especially this one where the behind-the-scenes stuff played such a factor in the result.

I have to say though that I really resist this meme (somewhat impled by your post) that gays naturally just gravitate toward Lesley Ann Warren's performance (because...well, I can't even think of why you might say that, just because the film itself is gay-friendly?) As if the sparkling fabulousness of all things Victor/Victoria surely must blind "the gays" to any other factor and/or deserving performances for that year. I'm speaking hyperbolically in order to make a point.

I think in my post, I clearly expressed enthusiasm for several of the other nominees in addition to the superb non-nominated work of Dana Hill. Not to jump down your throat and I don't think you meant it that way, but I found it ever-so-slightly dimissive.

Isn't it possible that, subjectively, we just thought that she gave the best performance of the year?

I'm certainly not implying anyone's affection is insincere; what you feel, you feel. It's just been my experience -- to a degree well beyond coincidence -- that people I know who are gay think Victor/Victoria is a knockout, where people who are not don't tend to rate it nearly that high (I find it alarmingly slow-moving for a comedy; it feels half an hour too long, to me).

Obviously there are exceptions -- Italiano apparently is closer to my view, where FilmFan has expressed great love for it. But by and large that's been my experience. It doesn't mean anyone's right or wrong, smart or stupid; just a neutral observation.