Post your top 5 favorite actresses

[PT_Anderson]

As always I will start with my fave 5



1. Bette Davis.

(Is there really anyone better than her, I mean they say Merryl Streep is the Bette Davis of our generation, but I just don’t think she had the same craziness that Bette Davis had, and yes she made over 100 films in her career! Wether I’m watching “All About Eve”, “Whatever Happened To Baby Jane” or “Elizabeth”, I can’t think of any other actress that had the same passion and mastery of acting than Miss Bette Davis.

2. Judy Garland.

(The best Judy Garland film, in my opinion is Cukor’s “A Star Is Born”, in this film she shows the full extent of her talent, the singing and dancing, the comedic aspects that she shows are nothing short of legendary. And the most underrated aspect of Judy was the seriousness that she could bring to her roles that she later developed in “Judgement At Nuremberg” where she was nominated for her second Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress role. I also like her musicals, until this day there isn’t a single actress that could do what she could.)









3. Ingrid Bergman

(I really liked her when I first saw her in Casablanca. Then when I discovered TCM I had the enormous pleasure to see her in Intermezzo:A Love Story which was a remake from the silent film “Intermezzo - a Swedish version of the film. And then came the Hitchcock films which I now own, in Spellbound she is so great, I see that performance over and over and I just can’t get enough of it, I mean she falls in love with a man who might be a murderer but he doesn’t even remember if he’s murdered anyone. So it was a tricky role for her to play, and I think it is one of the most underrated performances ever. Also another George Cukor film that she won an Academy Award for was “Gaslight” - a film noir that I saw a long time ago on TCM, she was also great in that one, I can’t give you any spoilers if you’re still interested in seeing it.









4. Joan Crawford

(“Mildred Pierce”, “Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?”, “Sudden Fear”, “Johnny Guitar”. Again I discovered these great films through TCM, seriously I don’t ever change the fucking channel. She is just a tour de force from the moment she appears on screen and she always has these cool poses, I mean if you framed each shot of her in a movie you would have a bad ass picture.







5. Faye Dunaway

(I saw her first in Bonnie and Clyde on TV with commercials, and she gave me a stiff on when I saw her, I was like “woah, what’s going on down there”. And I thought that was one of the sexiest roles ever, I mean a hot chick killing people, that was great. Then came “Network”, “Chinatown”, “Three Days Of The Condor” in no particular order – I was won over. The funny thing is after she won her Oscar for Network she disappeared until recently, to my own surprise I saw her on a fucking “Grey’s Anatomy” episode! I guess once she aged people were not interested in her because her looks were “gone” - it happens to every other great actress. They do TV and then people forget completely. Lauren Bacall - the same thing she was like Angelina Jolie and Humphrey Bogart was like Brad Pitt, but they all just forgot about her and she did some TV stuff and then died. So Faye Dunaway was just so sexy on screen, especially in TDOTC, where Redford ties her up in a restroom. That was awesome.”

[Cyd]

1. Ellen Burstyn



What can I say about Ellen that others already haven’t said? She is more than an actress, she goes beyond just playing a character. She immerses herself into another human being. Would The Exorcist be as well respected and highly acclaimed had it just been about a little girl vomiting green sick? Ellen brought to that movie a sense of realism, a gritty and powerful performance which should have got her the Oscar. I don’t think I need to say anything about Requiem For A Dream. Without her, that movie would have been just another Trainspotting.







2. Meryl Streep



There are certain films I wont watch with Meryl, like Mamma Mia, which I think looks like it wastes her talent, but no one can take away Sophie’s Choice from her. It is one of the greatest female performances in cinema. And Meryl isn’t afraid to go the other way, as shown in The Devil Wears Prada, another highly memorable performance from her recent career choices.







3. Katharine Hepburn



She was something else, something unlike every other actress who emerged from her era. The Great Kate wasn’t your regular star of yesterday, she fought her way to stand tall in a man’s world and wasn’t prepared to just play the love interest of the leading man. Her stand out performances for me were Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, for her genuine emotion at Spencer Tracy’s monologue and Woman Of The Year.







4. Cate Blanchett



She is one of the few true Hollywood stars today who will be remembered in the same vein as Hepburn, Davis, Crawford and Garland. Cate Blanchett is one of the greatest actresses in the Hollywood history, and I say that bold, loud and clear. No one can touch her in terms of talent, she is The new Great Cate.







5. Holly Hunter



There is something very special about Holly. She is one of the most underrated actresses in the business but in two of my favourite performances by her, she has managed to be downright hilarious in Raising Arizona to perfectly calm, collected and focused in Copycat. I had to pick her for number 5, for the last moments we see her in Copycat, she doesn’t even speak in her last scene but her character contradicted everything she had stood for her in the whole movie and no words needed to be expressed. But her face said more than words ever could.

[PT_Anderson]

Cate Blanchett has nothing on Judy, but yes she’s great, I still think her best performance to date was in “The Aviator”.



The only Hepburn movie I’ve seen is Huston’s “African Queen” with Bogart. I thought it was a cool movie, just not much of a Hepburn fan.

[Cyd]

No one will tell me Cate isn’t as up there with the old dames of Hollywood

[PT_Anderson]

Of course she is as is Kate Winslet and others, I’m just saying Judy Garland is in a league of her own. She was multitalented and could do it all, you’d have to see her films to understand.

[Cyd]

I have seen her films, and yes, she was wonderful, but had Blanchett had lived through her era, then she would have overshadowed her with the talent she’s got.