Best Actress 1928
I know I’m not the first one to write about it, but I’m thrilled to be able to do the first year in Oscar history, and write about the first line-up of Best Actress nominees. I’m gonna profile the 5 nominated performances, of which right now I know very little about (no, I haven’t even seen Sunrise). The category is generally known as Best Actress 1927/1928, but I’m keeping it simple as Best Actress 1928.
As you know, Janet Gaynor won and it was the only Best Actress year where they had an actress win for more than one performance. Of course, she didn’t receive 3 Oscar statuettes, and I’m gonna judge them separately, so there will be just one winning performance from me. I’m not sure how I’ll manage to judge these silent movie performances, as I’m not that used to this type of films. We’ll see. I hope it will be fun.
Also, I need to mention I couldn’t have done this without the help of Cal, who’s blogging from thefilmlair.blogspot.com Thank you!!!
The 3 ladies that Oscar had chosen for 1928, in alphabetical order:
Louise Dresser as Mrs. Pleznik, in
A Ship Comes In
Janet Gaynor as Diane, in 7th Heaven
Janet Gaynor as Angela, in Street Angel
Janet Gaynor as The Wife, in Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
Gloria Swanson as Sadie Thompson, in Sadie Thompson
I usually start with the winner, but in this case I’ll alternate Janet’s performances with the ones from the other 2 actresses. But before the first profile, there will be a film homage later this week.
6 comments:
Hmmm. It's really interesting.
I'm really interested in your thoughts on that race. I have only seen Janet Gaynor's performances and they were all very beautiful and I guess the combination of all them helped her to win.
Yay the first year! Personally I'm not a fan of silent films and I agree it's a bit different if not tougher to judge silent performances. I hope you enjoy Gloria as much as I did!
Ahh, I will be back in a month or so when you have a bit more of a modern showdown.
Brad M. :)
@Brad,
you know, after this (which I won't really hurry into), I'll be doing either 30s, 40s or 80s, (most likely 40s) because these are the 3 decades left from which I've discussed just one BA year.
@Fritz,
I shamefully admit to seeing none. I did see Wings, if that counts for anything :))
I'm quite a beginner with the silent ones.
@Allen,
yes, I saw your ranking before I posted this. We'll see. Gloria sure looks fabulous in her film.
Brave year to take on - I've recently been watching some films from the early 30's and noticed how much film-acting styles changed in just a few years between the over-played staginess of silent work and the relative modernism we see in Rebecca and Gone with the Wind.
At least with only silents the acting will suit the medium.
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