Best Ingrid Bergman Performance?

[Greg]

In this case I'm a traditionalist and am going to say Casablanca. Her work in Hitchcock's Spellbound and Notorious are close seconds and thirds.

[Sonic Youth]

If I'm the only one who loves Bergman's self-destructive performance in "Under Capricorn" best of all, I'm content with that.

[flipp525]

Who in their right mind would look at Hawn when they have the sublime Bergman to gaze upon in the same frame?

I agree. Susannah York or Catherine Burns should've won the Oscar that year over Hawn.



Edited By Big Magilla on 1243116854

[Big Magilla]

I voted in this poll so long ago I couldn't recall which performance I voted for, though I see by my post of nearly four years ago that it was The Bells of St. Mary's. It might just as easily have been Notorious or Autumn Sonata.

I only recently caught up with Europa '51. Aside from the fact that I hated the ending, I agree with Italiano that this was the best of Bergman's Rossellini performances and should be more widely known, but whether it was because of the ending or simply because I'd long ago made up my mind about Bergman's greatness it didn't supercede any of those three performances for me.

I have to agree with Aceisgreat regarding Cactus Flower. It isn't a great film by any means and Bergman's performance is far from her best but she is utterly charming and light years beyond Hawn, Who in their right mind would look at Hawn when they have the sublime Bergman to gaze upon in the same frame?

[ITALIANO]

To me, Ingrid Bergman's best "Italian" performance, and one of the best of her whole career, is in a movie called Europa 51, directed of course by Roberto Rossellini. This was the second film made by the couple and, like the first, Stromboli, a big hit in Italy (the problems started with Journey to Italy, which today is justly much admired and considered by many to be a masterpiece, and certainly ahead of its time, and even for this reason was a huge flop at the box office). It's a good, often powerful movie, which perfectly mirrors the ideological confusion in Europe, or at least in Italy, at the time. It starts with a terrible event, the suicide of a child, and shows the shattering effect this has on the child's mother. Bergman's performance is a real tour de force, as her character gradually leaves her safe high class background, slowly descents into a world of poverty, prostitution, violence, and finds herself there. One could also read it as a metaphor of a Hollywood star meeting uncompromising Italian neorealism; but more than that it is a wonderful, moving role, definitely the kind of role she could have never found in America, and Bergman is amazing in it. Both her performance and the movie itself should be more famous than they are.

[Hustler]

That´s a hard one. Autumn Sonata just to begin. But...How to forget Casablanca, Anastasia, even Murder on the Orient Express.

[flipp525]

Autumn Sonata.

[Big Magilla]

Adore "Anastasia" (the reunion scene is always deeply touching; how in the holy hell was Helen Hayes not nominated?)

Helen Hayes received equal billing with Bergman and Yul Brynner and was for Golden Globe and Academy purposes considered a lead, and in fact won a Goldebn Globe nod for Best Actress. By today's rules she would certainly be nominated in support and not have to wait another 14 years for her next Oscar.

[Aceisgreat]

Bad or not, it's still a striking likeness.

[Reza]

Hope I'm not the only one who's always mezmerized by the jaw-dropping - JAW-DROPPING! - resemblance Isabella Rossellini has to her mother.

Isabella Rossellini is a bad version of her mother.

[Aceisgreat]

I cannot choose....although I was this close to picking "Autumn Sonata."

Very pleased to see "Cactus Flower" on the list. Don't mind Hawn's supporting actress win, but Bergman damn near picks the film up and runs away with it whenever she's on the screen (the scene where she's dancing is priceless!).

Adore "Anastasia" (the reunion scene is always deeply touching; how in the holy hell was Helen Hayes not nominated?)

Great chemistry with Gregory Peck in "Spellbound," and Cary Grant in "Indiscreet" and "Notorious."

Hope I'm not the only one who's always mezmerized by the jaw-dropping - JAW-DROPPING! - resemblance Isabella Rossellini has to her mother.

[Big Magilla]

I voted for The Bells of St. Mary's, a superb piece of acting that real life nuns emulated for decades thereafter. Coming in a close second for me is Notorious, another beautifully modulated performance. Her swan song, A Woman Called Golda, which was made for TV, stands shoulder to shoulder with her best screen work.

[Eric]

Glad to see Journey to Italy is a choice here, but I haven't seen it yet. I have, however, seen Stromboli and so I voted "other."

[MCAR]

One of my favorite actresses. Which performance was best?