- Ingrid Bergman
- Katharine Hepburn
- Meryl Streep
- Giulietta Masina
- Lillian Gish
- Jeanne Moreau
- Liv Ullman
- Catherine Deneuve
- Marlene Dietrich
- Barbara Stanwyck
- Faye Dunaway
- Diane Keaton
- Juliette Binoche
- Julie Christie
- Julianne Moore
- Audrey Hepburn
- Judy Garland
- Sissy Spacek
- Bette Davis
- Anna Karina
- Mia Farrow
- Ellen Burstyn
- Deborah Kerr
- Frances McDormand
- Elizabeth Taylor
- Jane Fonda
- Maria Falconetti
- Gena Rowlands
- Anna Magnani
- Emily Watson
- Shirley MacLaine
- Gong Li
- Naomi Watts
- Maggie Cheung
- Sigourney Weaver
- Kate Winslet
- Janet Gaynor
- Nicole Kidman
- Julie Deply
- Holly Hunter
- Uma Thurman
- Helen Mirren
- Scarlett Johansson
- Marion Cotillard
- Lauren Bacall
- Amy Adams
- Vivien Leigh
- Michelle Williams
- Charlize Theron
- Jean Arthur
- Liza Minnelli
- Isuzu Yamada
- Claudette Colbert
- Claudia Cardinale
- Natalie Portman
- Isabelle Huppert
- Tilda Swinton
- Emma Stone
- Joan Fontaine
- Cate Blanchett
- Susan Sarandon
- Joan Crawford
- Glenn Close
- Anne Bancroft
- Natalie Wood
- Simone Signoret
- Marilyn Monroe
- Maureen O’Hara
- Jodie Foster
- Shelley Winters
- Hilary Swank
- Anjelica Huston
- Grace Kelly
- Shelley Duvall
- Laura Dern
- Vanessa Redgrave
- Ruth Gordon
- Kirsten Dunst
- Hanna Schygulla
- Bibi Andersson
- Janet Leigh
- Jessica Chastain
- Patricia Arquette
- Harriet Andersson
- Anouk Aimee
- Kim Novak
- Greta Garbo
- Irene Jacob
- Lorraine Bracco
- Anna Paquin
- Bjork
- Rosalind Russell
- Catherine Keener
- Jennifer Lawrence
- Penelope Cruz
- Greta Gerwig
- Emma Thompson
- Gloria Swanson
- Cathy Moriarty
- Talia Shire
Whoaa there, its Emma Thompson! C’mon, she’s amazing!
Who would you put her above? Thompson is great– especially from 1992-1995– what an amazing stretch– I just have a hard time putting her accumulative work (which is impressive) over the one-time brilliance of actresses like Bjork or Lorraine Bracco who were spectacular in masterpieces
Good question, Hmm…I don’t know. It’s just, she is one of my favorites, and I don’t know a lot of these talented ladies, and I know this is performance and career based, but still, I personally thought she was going to be somewhere top you know? She just has this great presence on screen. Wit is one of my favorite films and her performance is just so incredible.
Milcah– appreciate your comments and opinion. I haven’t seen “Wit”- it’s been on my list to see I just haven’t gotten around to it. I’ll seek it out.
i think that jennifer jones ought to be on this list. her and montgomery clift did a short masterpiece called indescretion of an american wife directed by Vittorio De Sica merely an hour and 3 minutes but one of my favorite films- she is a great artist like clift and they have all time performances.
Hi – thanks for the comment– I’ve never seen “Indiscretion of an American Wife”- i’ll add it to the list. I adore De Sica but this has negative reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. Probably why I’ve skipped it until now.
Where are Irene Dunne, Carol Lombard, Olivia De Havilland, Ann Sheridan in the list???
@Oscar– thanks for the comment. I considered all of them but they didn’t make the cut. Dunne is great in “The Awful Truth” and Lombard in “To Be or Not to Be” but all of these actresses needed one more exceptional performance to crack the top 100
OK, so this right here is legitimately the best list I have seen so far on this subject. You are a clear cinephile and that is something that shows proudly in your well-researched choices. I love your picks of Anna Karina, Harriet Andersson and Irène Jacob, all very talented and underrated. I also really like the fact that you included the great Isuzu Yamada and that Juliette Binoche ranks so high on this list. Some omissions that I would include (I am struggling to make such a list on my own and it is difficult to say the least) are:
Julie Andrews (probably over Grace Kelly – I love her work, but it really seems that “Rear Window” cannot beat out “Victor/Victoria” for me, performance wise of course. There is just an unresistable quality about Andrews.)
Lena Olin (a personal favourite, she is incredible in “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” and “Enemies, a Love Story”)
Setsuko Hara (“Tokyo Story” and “The Idiot” are brilliant, possibly over Shelley Winters) and
Mari Törróscik (a Hungarian actress I came across in “Electra, my Love” and was completely taken with her, I would include her instead of Patricia Arquette)
I would probably also have mentioned someone like Olivia de Havilland or Cicely Tyson, but you have already well justified their omission (I do believe that Bjork and Bracco are somewhat unnecessary in the list, since their one-hit wonder is not that much of a wonder when compared to Marie Falconetti)
Overall, it’s a brilliant list, I really like your taste.
@G– well thought-out and studied comment here— thank you. I figured I’d get people who have a beef with Bjork and Bracco and that’s fine. But as you mention– Falconetti is a one-hit wonder too and she has to be on everyone’s list. Although she’s far superior in achievement to Bracco and Bjork that is reflected in the ranking (she’s 27 and Bracco and Bjork are 89 and 91) I put a lot of stock in actors that are superb in great films— and as talented as Olin, Andrews and Törróscik— i don’t think there in any of cinema’s greatest 500 films — and that makes it hard for me http://thecinemaarchives.com/2019/04/10/the-best-500-films-of-all-time/
Setsuko Hara will definitely be in my top 100 when i update it next– great call here- i did a large Ozu study in 2018 after making this list– it was a blind spot
Hey, thanks for answering to the comment, and I partially do get where you’re coming from (I have to admit, Bracco is just out of this world in “Goodfellas”, and I kind of agree with the statement that Meryl Streep has hardly ever topped this – maybe in “Sophie’s Choice” and that’s subjective).
After taking a look at my draft I would also like to mention the likes of Charlotte Gainsbourg and Geraldine Page. Gainsbourg is criminally underrated and has delivered some bravoura performances in “Melancholia” and “Nymphomaniac” (though I haven’t got around to “Antichrist” – I am just not THAT into von Trier yet). Page, on the other hand is a great actor with not-so-great films, so I clearly see why she is not here (after considering your criteria). I just felt obliged to mention her, she totally blew me away in “Interiors”, just such a internalized and deeply felt performance.
So, now I would like to ask something. I noticed the absence of three actresses who are normally very prominent in such lists: Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Jessica Lange. I am really not such a fan of none of them, so this is less of a complaint concerning their omission and more of an inquiry on why this is so. It would be very useful in my study, as well.
@G
so here’s the archiveable films on my list for Dench, Maggie Smith and Lange– I praise Smith here in 1964 for her longevity (7 decades with at least one archiveable film) http://thecinemaarchives.com/2017/09/20/1964/ and Dench here in 1986 http://thecinemaarchives.com/2017/10/18/1986/ but i really don’t have a single performance from the 3 of them that i thought was one of the 5-6 best of the year. That’s sort of my starting criteria for doing my top 100. I go year by year and select the standout performances. If you aren’t on one of those, over 100 years of cinema, i sort of let you go
Dench
1985- A Room With a View
1987- 84 Charing Cross Road
1988- A Handful of Dust
1989- Henry V
1996- Hamlet
1998- Shakespeare In Love
2000- Chocolate
2001- Iris
2005- Pride and Prejudice
2006- Casino Royale
2006- Notes on a Scandal
2011- Jane Eyre
2011- My Week With Marilyn
2012- Skyfall
2013- Philomena
Smith
1964- The Pumpkin Eater
1965- Othello
1969- The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
1976- Murder By Death
1978- California Suite
1981- Quartet
1985- A Room With a View
1993- The Secret Garden
1995- Richard III
2001- Gosford Park
2004- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
2011- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Lange
1979- All That Jazz
1982- Tootsie
1991- Cape Fear
1995- Rob Roy
2005- Broken Flowers
All right, thanks for taking the time to analyze this. I’m posting a new comment because otherwise it would be too narrow, lol. Anyway, I understand now. I also wanted to point out that I agree with your view on actors who collaborate often with a particular auteur. Some may see it as a lack of range, but tbh time has proven that good directors find the strengths and get the best out of their favourite actors. I like how Garbo is a little lower on this list, usually people regard her too highly and I think she is rather overrated. And how great is it to see Hanna Schygulla on this list!
One last thing. What’s your opinion on Isabelle Adjani and Lila Kedrova? Both have at least some great films (“The Tenant”, “Nosferatu the Vampyre”, ” Queen Margot”, “Zorba the Greek”) and a few notable performances in more low profile movies (“Camille Claudel”-“Possession” and “Torn Curtain”, respectively) but I am quite unsure, particularly of Kedrova. I am also trying to find a copy of 1980’s ” Tell Me a Riddle”. Thanks in advance, you’re probably quite busy anyway and I appreciate the time you allocate on these.
@ G — Thanks again for the comment. I think i just haven’t seen enough from Adjani and Kedrova yet at this point to put them on the list. I saw “The Tenant” but it was nearly 20 years ago and am long overdue— it’s a tough one to find.
Anyways- glad to hear we’re on the same page with Garbo. I like her, and her films, but i think she was a bigger “star” than great actress when you start breaking down her work in comparison with the other great actresses.
@ Drake – that’s great. I actually like Garbo. It’s just that I found her performance in Anna Karenina to be a far cry from her best (of what I’ve seen) and people consider her such a legend. She was a talented actress, but indeed a star would be a more accurate word to describe her.
Anyway, it’s great to see you keep up the good work and I can’t wait for you to complete your best directors’ list. It’s going incredibly well, I love your choices this far and I think this will evolve into your absolute best. Two names that I would recommend (I would expect them to be somewhere around 80th-100th anyway) are Sergei Parajanov and Theo Angelopoulos (I would suggest “The Colour of Pomegranates”-” Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors” and “Eternity and a Day”-” Voyage to Cythera”-“Landscape in the Mist”, respectively). I do like the Dardenne brothers, as well, though I think they were much less influential.
@ G– thanks for the suggestions- The Dardennes are coming up shortly— i’m a big admirer of their work. I was very late to the game with Parajanov but caught them earlier this year http://thecinemaarchives.com/2019/03/07/shadows-of-forgotten-ancestors-1964-parajanov/ and http://thecinemaarchives.com/2019/04/16/the-color-of-pomegranates-1969-parajanov/ — probably need some more time before adding him on my list. As far as Angelopoulos — i haven’t been able to catch most of his work. I have a really bad bootleg copy of few films but really need like TCM or Criterion or someone to make them available so i can study them.
@ Drake – I find it great that you’re a fan of the Dardennes. I am not very caught up with Parajanov myself tbh, but he is very interesting from what I’ve seen. As far as copies from Angelopoulos go, it’s truly a real headache trying to find them. Mubi made some of his films available recently (I think “Landscape in the Mist” and “Ulysses’ Gaze”), but one cannot of course subscribe to their services just in hope of reaching out to a few films they may never show again anyway – no matter how that goes, good luck with your latest list!
I love that Giulietta Masina is #4! And thank god no Julia Roberts.
@Mary— ahhh -a fellow admirer of Masina! Great! Thanks for the feedback here.
haha. I mean Julia Roberts has screen presence but yeah there isn’t a year in cinema history where i think she gives one of the best 4-5 female performances of the year (kind of the opposite of Masina where that happened at least 3-4 times).
You misspelled Isabelle Huppert
@Kidman69– thanks for the help. Fixed now I believe
I liked the list, but I wouldn’t put Meryl Streep at #3. She’s an amazing actress, but her only great movie is The Deer Hunter, both Gish and Masina have several masterpieces and great performances in their careers. And Bette Davis is criminally underrated here. She’s unarguably a Top 10.
@Nepomuceno– thanks for visiting the site and the comment here. Fair points. I basically say as much here on the Streep page. http://thecinemaarchives.com/2018/05/17/the-3th-best-actress-of-all-time-meryl-streep/ . It is a weakness for Streep but she has a ton of depth that becomes pretty hard to ignore. I think Gish and Masina (I have pages for them as well if you search by name) just lack the overall body of work in comparison with Streep. I wish Masina and Gish would have done something of more merit without Fellini and Griffith to let us know there’s more there.
Davis’ page is here… I’ve seen virtually everything she’s done. I appreciate your note but am confident in my ranking here.
Teresa Wright. Perhaps over Penelope
@AP — thanks for the comment. That’s fair and you wouldn’t get a big objection from me. I considered Wright– here’s why i went with Cruz–
Here’s a look at the resume for both. I have Penelope mentioned twice giving one of the best female performances of the year (2006 in Volver and 2009 in Broken Embraces)– just once for Wright (1943 in Shadow of a Doubt).
Cruz
1997- Open Your Eyes
1997- Live Flesh
1999- All About My Mother
2001- Vanilla Sky
2006- Volver
2008- Vicky Christina Barcelona
2009- Broken Embraces
2018- Everybody Knows
2019- Pain & Glory
Wright
1941- The Little Foxes
1942- Pride of the Yankees
1942- Mrs. Miniver
1943- Shadow of a Doubt
1946- The Best Years of Our Lives
1947- Pursued
1950- The Men