Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Best Actress 1977: Anne Bancroft in The Turning Point



Anne Bancroft received her fourth Oscar nomination for playing Emma Jackline in The Turning Point. Emma is a famous ballerina, who has been dancing in the company for 38 years. Years ago, she and her friend Dedee (Shirley Maclaine) were competing for the same part. Since Dedee got pregnant, Emma landed the part and became a huge star, but her life feels empty, and now that she is getting older, her stardom is going down.


The role of Emma is really a supporting one, the leading nomination is just weird, but I guess she was such a great actress, they couldn't deny her the leading nomination. Anyway, that didn't bother me. I was already prepared for the fact that she has small screen time. That isn't a problem really in her performance. Anne Bancroft does a wonderful job here, making Emma the most interesting thing in the movie. I couldn't help but feel sorry for her, since she is starting to realize that she is too old for the very best parts in ballet. Anne shows us that she is a sad woman, knowing that she could have had a life with meaning, like her friend did, and not a life with just success. I felt all her scenes with Shirley were excellent, but a problem is that these two do not seem like old friends at all. I mean, they seem like each other, but best friends? The script really should have developed they're relationship more. I also thought it was so stupid how we never actually saw either of them dance. I know we saw a bit of Emma dancing, but this woman is supposed to have been dancing for nearly her whole life, she's supposed to be amazing. I might have seen more of that had she been given more dancing scenes. And although this probably should have been in Shirley's profile, but WHY did we never see Shirley dance? Throughout the whole film, we here that Dedee was a great dancer too, but we never see her dance. NEVER.

But these are more complaints about the film then about Anne's performance. The onlly real problem with her is that there should have been more character development. I just wanted more. But Anne Bancroft really gives a very good performance here, and for this , she gets

8 comments:

dinasztie said...

Totally agree with everything.

joe burns said...

Thanks!

dinasztie said...

I've written two reviews. Babs, whom you requested and The Conclusion is for tomorrow.

Anonymous said...

Thought they were both good, but sort of preferred Shirley.

joe burns said...

They both have good things about them, but the film becomes awful and that affects everyone, most of all Shirley, whose performance seems to lose it's drive. I felt Anne's part was underdeveloped, but she made it interesting and enjoyable.


Leslie Brown was okay, but her part was badly writen too.

Alex Constantin said...

you're right, it is a supporting performance! I actually think I had Shirley's above this performance, which came 5th to me.

I'm curious what Audrey Hepburn would've done with this role.


HAPPY NEW YEAR!

dinasztie said...

Happy new year!

I saw The Fighter! You must see it, it's a brilliant movie, Christian Bale is amazing (he has the Oscar in the bag) and all the others are great. I'm not sure though if the ladies are deserving of the win.

joe burns said...

Alex: I felt they were both good, but Shirley stumbled more, Anne's could be a bit too stiff, but that's really her character. Overall, she did what she was supposed to do in the film very well.


Really? Audrey was up this for role? That would have been cool to see!

Happy New year to you too!


Dinasztie: Happy new year!

Oh, I really want to see it! I'll try to see it soon.