best film: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) leads the way ahead of Titanic (1997) by a decent margin here for the best film of Kate Winslet’s career. Michel Gondry directs Charlie Kaufman’s wild dream world. All of Kaufman’s work should be treasured and appreciated, but Winslet’s Clementine is his greatest single character, and the film does not work as well, and that character does not leap off the page as much, without Winslet.
uncontestably Winslet’s best work and film – Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – and it came during her run from 1995-2008 when she was one of the world’s best actors
best performance: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind but really her top four performances below are rock solid. Her two films co-starring alongside Leonardo DiCaprio are both extremely well-acted by the pair and of course she plays bedlam (or near) as well as anyone with her debut (Heavenly Creatures) and Eternal Sunshine.
stylistic innovations/traits: As previously mentioned above, in Winslet’s two best performances she plays characters with a real edge that play with reality and border on madness. Winslet can truly play anything though and her more grounded characters and performances (Quills, Finding Neverland) show poise and intelligence. Winslet was discovered by Peter Jackson at the age of 19 and cast her in Heavenly Creatures. Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility cemented her rise, and of course her place in cinema lore was sealed with Titanic. She remained one of the best actors on the planet for the next decade until her big year in 2008 (giving one of her performances in one of her best films, Revolutionary Road, and also winning the Oscar for The Reader). Winslet’s career has slowed since but even if she never full recovers, that is an extraordinary fifteen (15) year run at or near the top.
Winslet more than holds her own with DiCaprio in both Titanic and Revolutionary Road
directors worked with: Nobody more than once but James Cameron is on the list, Peter Jackson, Steven Soderbergh, Ang Lee, Kenneth Branagh, Sam Mendes, Danny Boyle and Woody Allen.
it is very clear from Winslet’s debut, Heavenly Creatures, that she was one of her generation’s most talented actors.
top five performances:
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
- Heavenly Creatures
- Revolutionary Road
- Titanic
- Sense and Sensibility
archiveable films
| 1994- Heavenly Creatures |
| 1995- Sense and Sensibility |
| 1996- Hamlet |
| 1997- Titanic |
| 2000- Quills |
| 2001- Iris |
| 2004- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind |
| 2004- Finding Neverland |
| 2006- Little Children |
| 2008- Revolutionary Road |
| 2008- The Reader |
| 2011- Contagion |
| 2015- Steve Jobs |
| 2017- Wonder Wheel |
@M*A*S*H-She won at the Golden Globes for both Revolutionary Road(Lead) and The Reader(Supporting).
I think Winslet sacrificed an easy Oscar nomination by going for the lead category for The Reader instead of Revolutionary Road in 2008. If she went for supporting for The Reader and lead for Revolutionary Road she most likely would have got 2 nominations and may have won for both. But she wanted to be 100% sure of the win for of the lead win than 100% sure of the supporting win. So sacrificed Revolutionary Road and another likely Oscar nomination.
@Anderson- it doesn’t really matter because at the end of the day she didn’t win for her best performances. But I think if she was supposed to win in 2008 , it should absolutely have been Revolutionary Road. It’s actually a very dynamic performance that ranks right there with Anne Hathaway and Michelle Williams in the same year. She would have been a very deserving winner.
What on earth actually happened to Kate Winslet? Only 3 archivable films in the last 15 years. And not working in any really promising upcoming projects it seems. She had 11 archivable films at age 33 in 2008.
Didn’t Carnage made the archives?
@Drake-Do you consider Avatar: The Way of Water an archivable film for Kate Winslet?
@Lionel- weird one – and I wouldn’t argue long with someone either way- but no- I do not.
I have been looking for Heavenly Creatures for a while with no luck. Any chance anyone knows where I can find it, I’ve checked all the usual places; Netflix, Criterion, Amazon Prime, MUBI, and others.
@James Trapp. Bummer. Take solace in the fact that there has never been less of these situations than there are now. It was harder 20, 10 years ago. I do hold on to my snail mail (I’m probably the last person to still have it) netflix subscription for situations like this.
@Drake – Yeah, I imagine so. I can’t really complain as there are not many films that I am not able to locate eventually. There are almost always free sites but the qualitiy is usually not up to par. Given that there are so many great films out there I would rather wait to be able to watch properly than settle for less. Also, my computer is fairly small so I prefer watching on my flatscreen, another reason to avoid the free sites.
@James Trapp That is the right answer. I’ve certainly made some compromises on quality in my time over the years- and I’ve almost always found it is better to wait- as frustrating as that may be