#barbara bracken 01

[oftybolt]

As one conversation finished up, he automatically began to search for the next, keen gaze landing on a familiar brunette not too far away from him. “Barbara Bracken.” Bright smile slid smoothly onto his lips as languid steps carried him over to where she was stood. “I wouldn’t have put this down as your kind of event.” It wasn’t particularly meant as an insult, more an observation when she’d always seemed to be more at home in other scenarios. But he would be the last to say that people couldn’t be multifaceted. That was half the fun of the many conversations he had with people - working out their different sides.

“Still, it’s good to see you.” He wasn’t lying really nor was it a simple platitude that he’d been churning out all evening when he’d found much to admire in the brunette since he’d hired her. She had more than a few talents he valued and he was keen to know just what she made of all the drama that had unfolded and he says as much with a wave of his hand around the room. “I’d love to hear your take on all this.”

@thebarbarabracken​

[aliveandfullofjoy]

Hi friends! Yesterday I shared my ten favorite new-to-me movies of 2021. Just for kicks, as a bonus, here are ten(ish) performances that I saw for the first time last year that I found especially moving! No extensive writing because I’m a little pressed for time, but please as always consider this a personal endorsement of these performances. I’ll also include ways to watch them (as of this current writing: January 18, 2022).

So! Ten(ish) new-to-me film performances that I found moving in 2021, in alphabetical order!

01. Eddie Bracken, Hail the Conquering Hero (dir. Preston Sturges, 1944) I watched two very similar Preston Sturges films in 2021, and I fell in love with both of them - this one and The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek - and while Bracken is the male lead of both, he competes with his equally funny costars in that film. Not so here: this one is all Bracken all the time. He makes an absolute meal of this film, a ridiculous wartime farce that feels almost like a more self-aware Dear Evan Hansen. By far the funniest performance I saw last year. (Hail the Conquering Hero is available to rent online and can be viewed at this link.)

02. Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil, Sidney Poitier, and Diana Sands, A Raisin in the Sun (dir. Daniel Petrie, 1961) I may be cheating a bit by including four performances in one slot, but the Raisin quartet share so many scenes together that I think it works. The rest of the cast is great too (including Ivan Dixon and Louis Gossett, Jr.), but it’s these four who have the film’s most memorable and moving moments. They share so many scenes and they’re all tremendous: McNeil as Lena the matriarch, Sands as the radical Beneatha, Dee as Ruth, and the recently departed Poitier as Walter. This is a beautifully rendered adaptation of a landmark play, and these four give unforgettable performances. (A Raisin in the Sun is currently streaming on the Criterion Channel.)

03. Alex Descas, 35 Shots of Rum (dir. Claire Denis, 2008) Such deep, sad eyes on Alex Descas. I wrote about how much I loved 35 Shots of Rum on my top ten films post, so I’ll keep this brief, but Descas absolutely owns his long stretches of silence more than many other actors could. His chemistry with his onscreen daughter Mati Diop is palpable in its bittersweet, frustrating complexity. A beautifully understated performance. (35 Shots of Rum is currently streaming on MUBI.)

04. Barbara Loden, Wanda (dir. Barbara Loden, 1970) Calling Wanda a landmark film almost feels like an understatement. With it, Barbara Loden became the first woman in cinema history to direct, produce, write, and star in a film. Even without Wanda, Loden is a fascinating figure in her own right, as a Tony-winning character actor who died far too young of breast cancer, but it's her staggering directorial debut that will probably prove to be her most enduring work. Her direction is astonishing, feeling like a predecessor to A Woman Under the Influence and Mikey and Nicky, but her performance is the heart of the film. She's onscreen for almost every minute of the film's runtime, and she's utterly mesmerizing in her soft-spoken desperation. It's remarkably unaffected work, and undoubtedly one of the finest leading actress performances of the decade. (Wanda is currently streaming on the Criterion Channel.)

05. Giulietta Masina, Nights of Cabiria (dir. Federico Fellini, 1957) Sweet Charity, the Broadway musical adaptation of Nights of Cabiria, has some great moments, but I tend to struggle with the ending. After spending all this time watching this woman suffer at the hands of everyone she knows, how could she possibly resolve to move forward, smiling? It always leaves me more gutted than moved. Turns out the source material got it right the first time. Through Cabiria's tears and smiling face, there is no doubt that she'll be okay. Giulietta Masina’s performance is one that defies description. She embodies all of Cabiria’s heartache and dashed dreams and somehow, even in the face of her most crushing blow yet, she finds hope. It’s a magical, phenomenal performance. (Nights of Cabiria is currently streaming on MUBI.)

06. Walter Matthau, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (dir. Joseph Sargent, 1974) The Taking of Pelham One Two Three was one of the great surprises of my film-viewing life last year. I knew it existed but I was floored by how great it was: Sargent’s taut direction, Peter Stone’s masterful script, a huge cast of great actors gleefully digging into their roles, the delicious grime of 1970s New York City, the music... it’s all great. Walter Matthau, perhaps at his sleepiest and droopiest, is the bone-dry stoneface at the film’s center. He walks the tonal tightrope perfectly, and he’s responsible for the final shot in the film, one of the absolute best I’ve ever seen. Everything about this movie is great, but he’s the MVP. (The Taking of Pelham One Two Three is available to rent online.)

07. Madhabi Mukherjee, The Big City (dir. Satyajit Ray, 1963) Madhabi Mukherjee is the heart of The Big City. This is another film I wrote about at more length on my top ten films post, but her performance is the reason why the film works as well as it does. She beautifully and honestly realizes Arati’s journey from shy housewife to a profoundly skilled worker and the various shades of confidence and conflict that comes with that. Just breathtaking. (The Big City is currently streaming on the Criterion Channel and HBO Max.)

08. Rosaura Revueltas, Salt of the Earth (dir. Herbert J. Biberman, 1954) Made in the shadow of the Hollywood Blacklist, Salt of the Earth feels like something that almost shouldn't exist. Written, directed, and produced by men who were blacklisted, the film is so unapologetically leftist that it’s not hard to imagine a hypothetical campaign from conservative McCarthyists to destroy the film. The vast majority of the actors are non-professionals, but the film's key role of Esperanza is given to the great Mexican actress Rosaura Revueltas. Esperanza is the emotional center of Salt of the Earth and Revueltas delivers one magnificent performance in bringing her to life: her journey from reserved housewife to radicalized unionist is thrilling and deeply moving. Revueltas was also blacklisted from working in Hollywood, but it's impossible to imagine her getting a role half as good as this in the racist studio system at all. It’s a tremendous performance. (Salt of the Earth is currently streaming on Prime Video and can be viewed at this link.)

09. Gena Rowlands, A Woman Under the Influence (dir. John Cassavetes, 1974) If Gena Rowlands never made another film, she would still be a titan of acting for her performance as Mabel in A Woman Under the Influence. She's legendary, and rightfully so: her Mabel emerges as an unflinchingly authentic human being, a whole bunch of nervy contradictions bundled together into one woman stuck in a marriage with an emotionally stunted husband who doesn't fully understand her. Watching her relationship with Peter Falk in all its tumultuous episodes is an exercise in strength. That the film was so brilliantly directed by her real-life husband Cassavetes only makes it that much more special. (A Woman Under the Influence is currently streaming on the Criterion Channel and HBO Max.)

10. Hideko Takamine, Twenty-Four Eyes (dir. Keisuke Kinoshita, 1954) I can't believe I hadn't seen any of Kinoshita's other films up to this point, but Twenty-Four Eyes seems like a great place to start. Anchored onto a devastating performance from the great Takamine, the film follows roughly two decades in the life of a woman who works as a schoolteacher during the rise and fall of Japanese nationalism. An unambiguously anti-war film released less than a decade after the end of World War II, the emotional climax hits like a ton of bricks, and Takamine’s performance is a huge reason why. It’s an unabashedly sentimental film, but thanks to the sensitive filmmaking and Takamine’s complex performance, it thoroughly earns the audience’s tears. (Twenty-Four Eyes is available to rent online and can be viewed at this link.)

Honorable mentions, in alphabetical order: Lucille Ball in Dance, Girl, Dance (dir. Dorothy Arzner, 1940), Jeannie Berlin in The Heartbreak Kid (dir. Elaine May, 1972), Roscoe Lee Browne in Uptight (dir. Jules Dassin, 1968), Dorothy Dandridge in Carmen Jones (dir. Otto Preminger, 1954), Mati Diop in 35 Shots of Rum (dir. Claire Denis, 2008), Heather Donahue in The Blair Witch Project (dir. Daniel Myrick & Eduardo Sánchez, 1999), America Ferrera in Real Women Have Curves (dir. Patricia Cardoso, 2002), Jane Fonda in Barbarella (dir. Roger Vadim, 1968), Dolores Gray in It’s Always Fair Weather (dir. Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly, 1955), Dan Hedaya in Blood Simple (dir. Joel Coen, 1984), Judy Holliday in It Should Happen to You (dir. George Cukor, 1954), Boris Karloff in The Body Snatcher (dir. Robert Wise, 1945), Burt Lancaster in Sweet Smell of Success (dir. Alexander Mackendrick, 1957), Ida Lupino in The Bigamist (dir. Ida Lupino, 1953), Marcello Mastroianni in Big Deal on Madonna Street (dir. Mario Monicelli, 1958), Jack Nicholson in The Last Detail (dir. Hal Ashby, 1973), Edmond O’Brien in The Bigamist (dir. Ida Lupino, 1953), Stig Olin in To Joy (dir. Ingmar Bergman, 1950), Laurence Olivier in The Entertainer (dir. Tony Richardson, 1960), Peter in Funeral Parade of Roses (dir. Toshio Matsumoto, 1969), Michelle Pfeiffer in Grease 2 (dir. Patricia Birch, 1982), Parker Posey in Josie and the Pussycats (dir. Deborah Kaplan & Harry Elfont, 2001), Pete Postlethwaite in Distant Voices, Still Lives (dir. Terence Davies, 1988), Edward G. Robinson in The Sea Wolf (dir. Michael Curtiz, 1941), Renato Salvatori in Rocco and His Brothers (dir. Luchino Visconti, 1960), Sylvia Sidney in Fury (dir. Fritz Lang, 1936), Nicholas Smith in Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (dir. Nick Park & Steve Box), Jean-Louis Trintignant in Three Colors: Red (dir. Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1994), Orson Welles in Touch of Evil (dir. Orson Welles, 1958), Natalie Wood in Splendor in the Grass (dir. Elia Kazan, 1961), Wu Nien-jen in Yi Yi (dir. Edward Yang, 2000), and Zhang Ziyi in 2046 (dir. Wong Kar-wai, 2004).