17 March 2025

5 Best Performances By An Actress

I had an earlier entry in which I listed the ten best performances by actor.  It was difficult choosing the ten, there could have easily been thirty, forty, even fifty other performances just as worthy.  Not so for actresses.  It was a struggle coming up with even five.

Marina de Van, In My Skin: Her character forecast the total annihilation of identity in Western culture, so alienated by the electronic age, even gender is a mystery.  Perhaps the best performance of all-time, either by a male or female, the most convincing psychological breakdown ever presented on film.  When I see all the lost souls around me, without any authentic sense of self, I am reminded of de Van's character, who literally cannibalizes her own identity.

Ann Savage, Detour The wildest, most over-the-top femme fatale in all of Film Noir. She’s got dirty hair and a dirtier mouth and an even dirtier mind. All gas, no brakes in this madwoman's performance.

Brigitte Bardot, Contempt: We first see her as her husband's naked play thing, but as her contempt for her husband grows, she morphs from affectionate wife to silent antagonist.  Not regarded as a serious actress, she delivers here the most nuanced and compelling portrait of existential disillusionment in screen history.

Barbara Hershey, The Entity: Playing a victim of supernatural rape, she make this hard-to-believe story completely believable with her lacerating portrayal of both physical and psychological trauma.

Franka Potente, Run Lola Run: Physically demanding and emotionally resonant, her performance meets the demands of the script's breakneck pacing.  With a raw authenticity that makes her character's desperation seem real, she lifts the film from simple thriller to an existential meditation on destiny.

Honorable mention: Elizabeth Taylor, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Kristen Stewart, Love Lies Bleeding.

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