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THE
TOP 5
PROJECT

WEEK NO. TWENTY
Main Page (including links to all past Top 5 weeks)

THE TOP 5 PERFORMANCES BY AN ACTRESS:

view full results       see how points are awarded
Rank Film Points L #1
#1 Maria Falconetti as Jeanne d'Arc in La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc 44 10 7
#2 Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond in Sunset Blvd. 12 4 1
#3 Ellen Burstyn as Sarah Goldfarb in Requiem for a Dream 10 2 2
TIE Katharine Hepburn as Mary Tyrone in Long Day's Journey Into Night 10 3 1
#5 Anna Karina as Nana Kleinfrankenheim in My Life To Live 9 2 1
L=How many lists each film appears on             #1=How many number one votes each film recieves

A runaway victory for Maria Falconetti this week, winning with 44 points (32 over her closest competition) for her role in La Passion de Jeanne d'arc. Not that this comes as any surprise to this critic.

Also coming as no surprise was Gloria Swanson coming in second place as the larger-than-life Norma Desmond in Sunset Blvd.

As far as the rest of the field went, there were votes all over the place (more votes than in any previous Top 5 category). Some actresses were spread out too, with such ladies as Vivien Leigh, Audrey Hepburn, Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck and La Streep getting votes for several different roles. Only Kate Hepburn managed a consensus enough to reach the Top 5.

Before I send you off to read all the individual lists, I want to apologize for the lack of visuals this week. I usually include poster images (most courtesy of Posteritati) but with being rushed this week, I tended not to add many. Anyway, enjoy the lists and we will see you back here next week for the Actors side of things.

Individual lists:

Albert H. Muth
Auteurophile

  1. Maria Falconetti as Jeanne d'Arc in La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc

  2. Vanessa Redgrave as Isadora Duncan in Isadora

  3. Elizabeth Taylor as Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

  4. Geraldine Page as Mrs. Carrie Watts in The Trip to Bountiful

  5. Katharine Hepburn as Mary Tyrone in Long Day's Journey Into Night

ALSO: Gloria Swanson (Sunset) Meryl Streep (Sophie's) Anderssen/Ullman (Persona) Sophia Loren (2 Women) Bette Davis (Eve) Simone Signoret (Room) Vivien Leigh (GWTW) Judy Garland (Star) Anouk Aimee (8 1/2) Monica Vitti (L'aventura) Ingrid Bergman (Casa) Ellen Burstyn (Requiem) Kim Stanley (Seance)


Michael Wilmington
Film Critic, Chicago Tribune
Professor & Film Scholar, University of Chicago

  1. Katharine Hepburn as Mary Tyrone in Long Day's Journey Into Night

  2. Maria Falconetti as Jeanne d'Arc in La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc

  3. Anna Magnani as Camilla in The Golden Coach

  4. Shirley MacLaine as Fran Kubelik in The Apartment

  5. Vivien Leigh as Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire



David Sterritt
Chairman, National Society of Film Critics

  1. Anna Karina as Nana Kleinfrankenheim in My Life to Live - Close to perfection.

  2. Katharine Hepburn as Mary Tyrone in Long Day's Journey Into Night - Probably the legendary actress's finest sustained work.

  3. Agnes Moorehead as Fanny in The Magnificent Ambersons - Quintessential tragicomedy.

  4. Gong Li as Qiu Ju in The Story of Qiu Ju - Make this a tie with Gong Li in Ju Dou, also by Zhang Yimou.

  5. Sue Lyon as Lolita in Lolita - Simply amazing from start to finish.



David Ehrenstein
Film Critic & Entertainment Writer
Author, Open Secret: Gay Hollywood 1928-1998


  1. Edith Clever as Kundry in Parsifal

  2. María Casares as Hélène in Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne

  3. Valerie Bruni-Tedeschi as Claire in Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train

  4. Vivien Leigh as Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire

  5. Bette Davis as Leslie Crosby in The Letter



Jeffrey M. Anderson
Film Critic & Freelance Entertainment Writer
San Francisco Examiner, Las Vegas Weekly, Oakland Tribune

  1. Maria Falconetti as Jeanne d'Arc in La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc

  2. Barbara Stanwyck as Lily Powers in Baby Face

  3. Myrna Loy as Nora Charles in The Thin Man

  4. Meryl Streep as Francesca Johnson in The Bridges of Madison County

  5. Maggie Cheung as Su Li-zhen Chan in In the Mood for Love

Good grief, was this hard! I had a list of 50 or so that I had to whittle down. So difficult to get rid of Rosalind Russell, Thelma Ritter, Nicole Kidman, Janet Gaynor, Audrey Hepburn, Holly Hunter, Gloria Grahame, Annette Bening, Pam Grier, Joan Fontaine, Marilyn Monroe, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Peggy Cummins, Greta Garbo, Lillian Gish, etc.


Christopher Null
Founder, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief, Filmcritic.com


  1. Faye Dunaway as Diana Christensen in Network

  2. Anne Bancroft as Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate

  3. Holly Hunter as Ada McGrath in The Piano

  4. Diane Keaton as Annie Hall in Annie Hall

  5. Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's



Rick Curnutte
Film Critic & Editor, The Film Journal


  1. Maria Falconetti as Jeanne d'Arc in La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc

  2. Lillian Gish as Rachel Cooper in The Night of the Hunter

  3. Ellen Burstyn as Alice Hyatt in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

  4. Holly Hunter as Jane Craig in Broadcast News

  5. Meryl Streep as Sophie Zawistowski in Sophie's Choice



David Oppedisano
Film Critic and Researcher

  1. Katharine Hepburn as Susan Vance in Bringing up Baby

  2. Ona Munson as Mother Gin Sling in The Shanghai Gesture

  3. Kinuyo Tanaka as Oharu in The Life of Oharu

  4. Marlene Dietrich as Concha Perez in The Devil Is a Woman

  5. Vivien Leigh as Cleopatra in Caesar and Cleopatra

    and...

  6. Madeline Kahn as Mrs. Montenegro in The Cheap Detective

  7. María Casares as Hélène in Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne

  8. Greta Garbo as Marguerite Gautier in Camille

  9. Rosalind Russell as Mrs. Howard Fowler in The Women

  10. Jodie Foster as Eleanor Arroway in Contact [notably the pod sequence]

  11. Edith Evans as Lady Augusta Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest

  12. Cloris Leachman as Ruth Popper in The Last Picture Show

  13. Meryl Streep as Madeline Ashton in Death Becomes Her

  14. Diane Keaton as Luna Schlosser in Sleeper

  15. Maggie Smith as Patty Terwilliger Smith in Hot Millions

And numerous performances by Bette Davis, Mary Astor, Irene Dunne, Claudette Colbert, Agnes Moorehead, Judy Davis, Eileen Brennan, Barbara Stanwyck etc.

I have chosen performances based on screen presence – existenz – with emphasis on comedy and tragedy rather than Oscar-type 'serious', worthy drama.


Peter Sobczynski
Film Critic, eFilmCritic.com

This category seem ridiculously rigid and narrow by comparison. Needless to say, I shall attempt to rally forth and produce something. However, even after sticking to a couple of arbitrary rules meant to cut down the potential names--no selections from actresses whose careers are too vast and filled with riches to boil down to one or two performances (as a result, no Garbo, Streep, Hepburn, Bergman or Davis) and no selections that actually won a Best Actress Oscar (even though it meant leaving Hilary Swank's otherwise deserving work in "Boys Don't Cry")--I still had no room for too many to go into here.

My narrowed-down and wholly inadequate list is as follows:

  1. Maria Falconetti as Jeanne D'Arc in La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc

  2. Anna Karina as Nana Kleinfrankenheim in Vivre Sa Vie

  3. Julie Christie as Mrs. Constance Miller in McCabe & Mrs. Miller

  4. Isabelle Adjani as Adèle Hugo in The Story of Adele H

  5. Sarah Polley as Nicole in The Sweet Hereafter



Eric Enders
Film Critic, Out There in the Dark


  1. Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond in Sunset Blvd.

  2. Rosalind Russell as Hildy Johnson in His Girl Friday

  3. Sissy Spacek as Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner's Daughter

  4. Elsa Lanchester as The Bride of Frankenstein in The Bride of Frankenstein

  5. Barbara Stanwyck as Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity



Dan Jardine
Film Critic, Cinemania


  1. Maria Falconetti as Jeanne d'Arc in La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc

  2. Björk as Selma Jezkova in Dancer in the Dark

  3. Giuletta Musina as Maria 'Cabiria' Ceccarelli in Nights of Cabiria

  4. Naomi Watts as Betty Elms/Diane Selwyn in Mulholland Dr.

  5. Catherine Deneuve as Carole Ledoux in Repulsion



Film Prophet
Film Critic, FilmProphet.com

  1. Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind

  2. Kim Novak as Madeleine Elster/Judy Barton in Vertigo

  3. Naomi Watts as Cristina Peck in 21 Grams

  4. Audrey Hepburn as Princess Ann in Roman Holiday

  5. Maria Falconetti as Jeanne d'Arc in La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc

The next 5:
Katharine Hepburn - (The Lion in Winter)
Teresa Wright - (Shadow of a Doubt)
Gloria Swanson - (Sunset Blvd.)
Judy Garland - (The Wizard of Oz)
Louise Fletcher - (One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest)


Michael Parent
Film Student

  1. Jeanne Moreau as Catherine in Jules et Jim

  2. Diane Keaton as Annie Hall in Annie Hall

  3. Louise Fletcher as Nurse Mildred Ratched in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

  4. Giulietta Masina as Gelsomina in La Strada

  5. Frances McDormand as Marge Gunderson in Fargo

Runners-up: Faye Dunaway in Chinatown, Uma Thurman in Kill Bill 1&2, Liv Ullman Cries And Whispers, Claudia Cardinale in Once Upon A Time in The West, Kim Novak in Vertigo, Gloria Swanson in Sunset Blvd. and many more...


Jeff Cardarelli
Film Enthusiast


  1. Ellen Burstyn as Sara Goldfarb in Requiem for a Dream

  2. Gena Rowlands as Mabel Longhetti in A Woman Under the Influence

  3. Elizabeth Taylor as Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

  4. Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond in Sunset Blvd.

  5. Helen Hunt as Carol Connelly in As Good As It Gets



Matt Severson
Film Enthusiast

  1. Maria Falconetti as Jeanne d'Arc in La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc

  2. Gena Rowlands as Mabel Longhetti in A Woman Under the Influence

  3. Meryl Streep as in Sophie Zawistowski in Sophie's Choice

  4. Bette Davis as Margo Channing in All About Eve

  5. Bibi Andersson/Liv Ullman as Alma/Elizabeth in Persona



Kevin Cassidy
Film Enthusiast


  1. Setsuko Hara as Noriko in Tokyo Story

  2. Peggy Cummins as Annie Laurie Starr in Gun Crazy

  3. Kim Novak as Madeleine Elster/Judy Barton in Vertigo

  4. Susan Kohner as Sarah Jane in Imitation of Life

  5. Wei Wei as Zhou Yuwen in Spring In a Small Town



Billy Wilson
Film Enthusiast


  1. Uma Thurman as Beatrix Kiddo/The Bride in Kill Bill

  2. Rosalinda Celentano as Satan in The Passion of the Christ

  3. Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley in Aliens

  4. Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's

  5. Marilyn Monroe as Sugar Cane Kowalczyk in Some Like It Hot



Andrew Horbal
Film Enthusiast

What an impossible task, plucking just five peformances from the whole of film history! It will be fascinating to see what kind of a consensus emerges. I make no claim for this list as a "Greatest Performances" list, these are simply five of my favorites. Apologies to Audrey Hepburn's Sabrina Fairchild (Sabrina) and Faye Wong's Faye (Chunggking Express): I'm still madly in love with you both...

  1. Carol Kane as Gitl in Hester Street - Even when Kane's Gitl is just arrived in the United States it's obvious that she's an intelligent, capable woman and that she will be all right. And this is what makes her assimilation process so interesting: she's actively figuring out how to live in this new country, this new world. We watch her grow more and more confidant as she grows more and more comfortable and by the end of the film she acts and talks differently than she did at the beginning, but she's still clearly the same person. It's a remarkable achievement, a truly virtuoso performance that reminds us that assimilation doesn't necessarily mean changing, a person isn't any better just because he or she has become an American! I choose Ms. Kane for my number one not necessarily because hers is the best performance by an actress that I know (mind you, it might be) but because it is at least the most underrated, the most under appreciated.

  2. Maria Falconetti as Jeanne d'Arc in La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc - Falconetti's turn as Joan of Arc defies description by anything more than single adjectives like "shattering," "devastating," "brilliant." Defiance, hope, sorrow, acceptance: all of these slowly move across her face, and it becomes essentially a map of human emotion: this is what people think, this is what they feel. Falconetti's face is one of the most memorable images ever immortalized on celluloid, ever projected onto the silver screen, and she haunts my dreams.

  3. Isuzu Yamada as Lady Asaji Washizu in Throne of Blood - Yamada's Lady Asaji Washizu doppelgänger: the human being in all of her cunning, all of her malice. Yamada's performance is controlled, minimal and yet her walk, her blank expressions exude rage. How such intensity is possible I don't even know, but this is the one film character I wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley.

  4. Giulietta Masina as Gelsomina in La Strada - Masina' Gelsomina is the human being purged of all evil: completely innocent, completely guileless. Her performance is so masterful that I watch La Strada and I weep for all mankind: Gelsomina is a tribute to the way things were before the Fall, or the way things never were.

  5. Judy Garland as Vicki Lester in A Star is Born - "This is Mrs. Norman Maine." Is there a moment in Hollywood history more clichéd, more histrionic? And yet, it gets me every time...



Doug Pratt
DVD Critic, DVDLaser.com

  1. Agnes Moorehead as Fanny in The Magnificent Ambersons

  2. Judy Garland as Vicki Lester in A Star Is Born

  3. Meryl Streep as Sophie Zawistowski in Sophie's Choice

  4. Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind

  5. Barbara Stanwyck as Jean Harrington in The Lady Eve



Lucas McNelly
Film Critic

  1. Ellen Burstyn as Sara Goldfarb in Requiem For a Dream

  2. Liv Ullmann as Marianne in Scener ur ett äktenskap

  3. Vivien Leigh as Blanche DuBois in Streetcar Named Desire

  4. Greta Garbo as Nina Ivanovna 'Ninotchka' Yakushova in Ninotchka

  5. Meryl Streep as Sophie Zawistowski in Sophie's Choice



Mathew Viola
Film Fanatic

All these performances transcend mere greatness and achieve immortal status:

  1. Maria Falconetti as Jeanne d'Arc in La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc

  2. Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond in Sunset Blvd.

  3. Jane Fonda as Bree Daniels in Klute

  4. Vivien Leigh as Blance DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire

  5. Katharine Hepburn as Alice Adams in Alice Adams

Honorable mentions: Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde, Diane Keaton in Annie Hall, Judy Garland in A Star is Born.


Kevyn Knox
Film Critic, Essayist + Historian

First off I would like to place Miss Maria Falconetti, the seminal St. Joan, where she belongs - far above any other performance. Her performance transcends any lame attempt at list-making and is therefor held above all others. This of course has no effect on the outcome of the Top 5 Project this week, since there was such a great concensus on Miss Falconetti, that my measley vote would not and could not change the inevitable outcome of these proceedings.

With that said, I give you my Top 5 Performances by an Actress (holding to just one performance per actress) - a list that, due to my being a Sarrisian revisionist, may very well completely change with a second thought.

  1. Naomi Watts as Betty Elms/Diane Selwyn in Mulholland Dr.

  2. Isabelle Huppert as Erika Kohut in The Piano Teacher

  3. Nina Pens Rode as Gertrud Kanning in Gertrud

  4. Elizabeth Taylor as Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

  5. Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmondin Sunset Blvd.

Special Jury Prize: Bibi Andersson/Liv Ullman as Alma/Elizabeth in Persona

Runners-up: Meryl Streep, Catherine Deneuve, Nicole Kidman, Katharine Hepburn, Barbara Stanwyck, Giulietta Masina, Marlene Dietrich, Vivien Leigh, Judy Davis, Judy Garland, Sarah Polley, Diane Keaton, Ellen Burstyn, Anna Karina, Gena Rowlands, Jeanne Moreau, Janet Gaynor, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Greta Garbo, Grace Kelly, Anne Bancroft, Maggie Cheung, Faye Dunaway...my God, I could go on forever...

*points are given as follows: for numbered lists, first place recieves 5 points, second place recieves 4, third place 3, fourth place 2 and fifth place gets 1 point; for unumbered lists, each film will recieve 3 points; total points are then tallied up and a comprehensive Top 5 list is created


The Next Topic is:
Name The Top 5 Performances by an Actor

e-mail me at kevynknox@thecinematheque.com with your picks for week #21,
no later than 4pm on Sunday, Sept 3, 2006.

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