best film: Cries & Whispers. Ingird Thulin is in five Ingmar Bergman films from 1957 to 1972 (Bergman was at the height of his powers, in particular, during this stretch) so she is loaded with options here in this category. Wild Strawberries, Winter Light and The Silence all warrant consideration. Even Visconti’s The Damned (also during that era- from 1969) would give a cinephile reason to pause on this category. But, ultimately it is Bergman’s 1972 crimson-soaked masterpiece (his fourth film in color- and this one won the Oscar for cinematography for Sven Nykvist) that wins out. Bergman fades to color, splices in cutaways to clocks, sparingly squeezes in some Chopin and Bach. The cinematic paintings (transcendent use of both color and staging from Bergman) of the drawing room with the white robes juxtaposing with the red décor are simply stunning. This is a film about pain… about suffering (a Biblical amount). Thulin plays Karin and she is not the only standout in the ensemble. Harriet Andersson plays the decaying Agnes. Liv Ullmann and Kari Sylwan are also marvelous.
At the 52-minute mark, Thulin gets one of Bergman’s spectacular close-ups with the shadow splitting half her face. Ullmann received the same treatment earlier in the film- a treat for any actor- and the sequence is repeated for both.
best performance: Thulin really has a four-pronged Mount Rushmore of top performances rather than one big performance that stands above the rest. Thulin’s exemplary work in Winter Light, The Silence, Cries & Whispers and The Damned all have a case here. Thulin’s performance in Winter Light may, ever so slightly, edge out the other three. Thulin plays the crucial role of Märta Lundberg, opposite Gunnar Björnstrand’s Pastor Tomas Ericsson. The film is just 81-minutes in length and the events depicted take no more than a few hours on a Sunday in two different churches (the first service takes 12 of the film’s 81 minutes). The film has the nuclear dread from Max von Sydow’s Jonas character- and Pastor Ericsson’s spiritual (and other) postmortem. He eviscerates Thulin’s clingy Märta. Thulin is superb here- made to look ugly and in one long shot (well it is technically two, as Bergman breaks it up once) she reads a letter to the camera in closeup. The film opens in a church and closes in one- and it is Thulin’s Märta, a non-believer, who starts praying.
Gunnar Björnstrand has a very capable sparring partner in Ingrid Thurlin- from 1963’s Winter Light
stylistic innovations/traits: Thulin is from Ingmar Bergman’s stable of talented Swedish actors. If one looks on the female actor side of Bergman’s trope, she arrives in 1957 after both Harriett and Bibi Andersson—but nearly a decade before Liv Ullmann. Thulin’s resume cannot match Ullmann (losing out on Persona and Scenes from a Marriage hurts) but Thulin has the best performance of the four in a film not from Ingmar Bergman- and that has to mean something. Thulin’s range is a strength for sure. It is hard to believe that the meek, homely Märta from Winter Light is played by the same actor as confidently duplicitous Baroness Sophie Von Essenbeck from The Damned. And Thulin’s 1963 is still one of those all-time great years from an actor as she was an essential part of both Winter Light and The Silence.
Thulin’s versatility on display in The Damned-– a performance which also serves to cripple the argument that Thulin was solely a product of Ingmar Bergman’s creation.
directors worked with: Thulin acted in nine Ingmar Bergman films with seven (7) landing in the archives. and one all-important film with Luchino Visconti.
Thulin as Ester in The Silence. Bergman’s 1963 (The Silence, Winter Light) may be even stronger than his 1957 (The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries) and Thulin is a major contributor to both of his 1963 efforts.
top five performances:
- Winter Light
- The Silence
- Cries & Whispers
- The Damned
- Wild Strawberries
archiveable films
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What a pick. This made my day.
Does Ingrid Thulin gets a mention as one of the year’s best in 1969 for The Damned.
@MASH- Great catch- yes, I had it on my side but had not updated the 1969 page to include her (I actually saw The Damned for the first time not long after completing the 1969 page)
Ooh. This is a huge step up. Bergman really had the best recurring actors
Yes! So pleasantly surprised by this one. Brilliant actress, as all of Bergman’s regulars were. Well deserved.
Though I am also surprised at Julie Christie’s fall from the top 22 so far. Sissy Spacek too I hope to see coming soon.
Drake, I stumbled upon a comment from you on the It’s A Wonderful Life page where you listed the top 25 acting performances ever. These were all of the female entries:
Naomi Watts- Mulholland Drive
Emily Watson- Breaking the Waves
Maria Falconetti – The Passion of Joan of Arc
Mia Farrow – Rosemary’s Baby
Giulietta Masina – La Strada
Ingrid Bergman – Casablanca
Ingrid Bergman – Notorious
It’s interesting looking back at this now that the female rankings are being updated. Of the 6 females that have a performance on the top 25 performances list, 4 of them are from actresses outside the top 20. And 3 have yet to even pop up on this list (we are already at #22). With 4 of the 7 best performances being from female actors outside the top 20/yet to even be included in the list yet. Is that not strange? That has to be because of depth/them never reaching anywhere near that level again. But why is it like this for the females so much and not the males (see below)? I’m pretty sure that it’s probably just a coincidence but it caught my eyes when comparing it to men.( I’ll throw this in too, maybe the best female performance since Watts-Mullholland is probably Portman in Black Swan and Portman is pretty lame outside of Black Swan.) The best female performances seem to come from women who don’t seem to have much outside of that initial behemoth performance.
Now look at the male performances you included:
Jimmy Stewart – It’s a Wonderful Life
Jimmy Stewart – Vertigo
John Wayne – The Searchers
Robert De Niro – Raging Bull
Robert De Niro- Taxi Driver
Peter O’Toole- Lawrence of Arabia
Daniel Day Lewis – There Will Be Blood
Peter Lorre- M
Charlie Chaplin – The Gold Rush
Joaquin Phoenix – The Master
Jean-Paul Belmondo – Breathless
Marlon Brando – On the Waterfront
Marlon Brando The Godfather
Al Pacino – The Godfather Part II
Humphrey Bogart – Casablanca
Denzel Washington – Malcolm X
Marcello Mastroianni – 8 1/2
12 of the 17 best came from top 12 actors.
And I think the performances that you can argue are replaceable with those 17 above would include a lot from the top
12 (Brando-Streetcar/Tango, De Niro-GFII, Pacino-GF1/Dog Day, Nicholson-Cuckoos Nest), Mifune-Seven Samurai, Mastroianni-La Dolca, Grant-North by Northwest, Bogey-Sierra Madre, Chaplin-City Lights)
And I think out of the the arguable ones not in the top 12, most are close:
Fonda (#13) Grapes of Wrath
Newman (#14) – Cool Hand Luke
Klaus Kinski (#16) – Aguirre
Hoffman (#17) – The Graduate
Von Sydow (#21) – The Seventh Seal
PSH (#24) – The Master
James Cagney (#32) – White Heat
Gable (#38) – Gone with the Wind
Shimura (#44) – Seven Samurai
Joe Pesci (#45) – Goodfellas
(I’m sure I’m forgetting people, but I think most should get the point)
Maybe (probably) this point is ultimately futile as I’m listing way more male performances than female, and if we expanded the female list (whether that is to 17 or 30) more we would see that the top 12 (or so) females dominate the larger rankings, but I’m just throwing around ideas. Still though, if you make it completely even and do the top 7 (or even up to 10-12) male performances, I think only Toole would really make it and the rest of the list would be of the top 7-12 male actors. Just a thought and an observation. Most of what I say above could be flawed/wrong, but I think the core point-that the peak female performances don’t often come from the very best of the female actors)-is correct.
@Matthew – Very cool. I’d say its just too small a sample size (6) but the most glaring omission to that list may be Gena Rowlands in A Woman Under the Influence so maybe you’re on to something! What do you think? Maybe I’m weighing the absolute best performances too much for the men? Too little for the women?
I don’t think this is some kind of methodological issue on your part to be honest. I think what it has to be is that the rest these females’ (the one that gave us these best performances ever) careers unfortunately didn’t live up to their best performance. It’s unfortunate because they showed talent levels beyond many people who just simply outworked them. I mean, look at Maria Falconetti for example, she gives what is (in my opinion) easily the greatest female performance ever and she has only 2 other IMBD credits (and one of those is a short film which I don’t think you include?) outside of Joan of Arc.
I think calling Portman lame is a bit much, I think she’s had at least a few really good performances for padding but I do feel annoyed that she barely utilized her momentum after her Oscar win (I imagine her career could have gone in so many directions). Nonetheless I certainly think her work in Black Swan is enough to land in the top 50.
@Drake-Wasn’t Ingrid Thulin and Monica Vitti included in the previous top 100 female actresses list?
@Malith- Crazy omissions from the previous list I believe. Happy to have remedied that.
What grade did you assign to Winter Light and The Silence on your recent revisit?
@M*A*S*H – MP and MP
@Drake- wow!
Did you upgrade Shame and The Passion of Anna as well? If yes, then what grade did you assign them?
@M*A*S*H- Thank you for the interest. I’ll have all the updates on the new Bergman page when that comes out.