ITALIANO wrote:
We Italians, being famously less sophisticated than our neighbors and cousins, always found that there was something missing in Adjani, and with the exception of Adele H, Camille Claudel and Queen Margot her movies were usually box office bombs here. (When Margot went to Cannes, Adjani was epected to win the Best Actress prize, and when they gave it to our own Virna Lisi for the same movie, in which she had a showy but clearly supporting role, you could feel Italian pride in the next day's newspaper comments). Too remote probably, or too cold, and I remember that many years ago I saw, well, at the time it seemed to me less a movie than a cure against imsomnia, anyway a VERY French thing about the Bronte sisters. Adjani and that other Iabelle, La Huppert, costarred, and it was obvious, even in such circumstances, who was the better actress.
Thank you for writing this. I've also always found that there was something missing from Adjani – like I was supposed to be fascinated with her gaze, her face, etc though I never really was. She's at her best, probably, in Truffaut's film simply because she's relatively unaffected. But later on in her career, especially, I'm afraid she became a total ham – all tricks with little feeling (this is especially how I felt about her work in Camille Claudel). So of course the Academy would recognize her. She seems to be worshipped in many quarters and I can't quite subscribe. It's especially disheartening when this blind love for her comes at the expense of appreciating other thesps in Adjani's generation. Huppert is universally loved, but, let's see, you don't hear many people talking of Nathalie Baye, a performer who is truly amazing and free of affect, too often.
Voted for Ann-Margret here (I think I did, at least). It's an odd and hilarious performance, self-aware in the best way possible. I love Ken Russell, too.
Florinda Bolkan absolutely should've been nominated, I agree. For anyone who's interested, the Times gave this list of women they thought had a remote chance at being nominated:
Marisa Berenson (Barry Lyndon)
Faye Dunaway (Three Days of the Condor)
Karen Black (The Day of the Locust)
Barbra Streisand (Funny Lady)
Liza Minnelli (Lucky Lady)
Diane Keaton (Love and Death)
Goldie Hawn/Julie Christie (Shampoo)
Anne Bancroft (The Prisoner of Second Avenue)
Stockard Channing (The Fortune)
Diana Ross (Mahogany)
Katharine Hepburn (Rooster Cogburn)
Marilyn Hassett (The Other Side of the Mountain)
Florinda Bolkan (A Brief Vacation)
Marthe Keller (And Now, My Love)
Mariangelo Melato (Swept Away)