2nd Annual Filmspotters' Top 100 Performances: Your Lists

[MartinTeller]

Martin, I watched your video, it was impressive work to get all those snippets. Most interesting was the 3 cast members from Linda, Linda, Linda all in a group.

4 members, actually!  Yes, I'm "throwing away" four slots on my ballot, but I don't care.  I just love those gals, and I'm making up for the mistake of leaving LLL off my 100 films list.

! should have learned to count better. I do not see it as throwing away four slots, my comment was more around the little surprise I got when the 2nd name from the same clip turned up, then a third and, if I had properly counted, the forth.

It's kind of hard to tell that two names are listed in the first shot, it goes by a little too quick.  I should have positioned the text better.

Also, the rankings of the four members is only to fit in with the timing of the scene.  The drummer is really the least memorable of the four, but since she appears last in the clip she gets the highest number.  All my rankings are a bit arbitrary anyway.  I just copied last year's list and started making substitutions, only moving a few names up or down.

[Dave the Necrobumper]

I also will be starting with last years list and making only a few changes, I have seen so few films this year there has been little chance to experience new great performances.

[StudentOFilm]

So, before you read this and get pissed off  ... Let me say what I wanted to accomplish with this list.

These are of course personal favorites. I was so tempted to put in performances that are favorites around here and were acclaimed by critics/audiences, but I figured I'd rather stick with what I knew for sure I responded to. That was my main criteria- how strong of a response did I have to the performance. Don't get me wrong, Filmspotters have hooked me on some fantastic movies and just as well I've seen some highly acclaimed films that have met the buzz/hype and some of those are reflected on the list. I also did try to go for diversity. I could've just nominated the cast of Magnolia, but I really sat and thought about each performance's position on the list. I guess this is me sort of showing my cards and letting on how I really feel about certain films/performances. Ranking is a bitch. We all know that. I'm standing by this.

Last year I didn't even get to 100 favorites, so I never saved my list. I'll just mark which ones are new (many of which I've seen in the past year).

1. Roy Scheider (All That Jazz)
2. George Clooney (Michael Clayton)
3. Ulrich Muhe (The Lives of Others)
4. Johnny Depp (Finding Neverland)
5. Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole)- NEW
6. Paul Newman (The Verdict)
7. Al Pacino (The Godfather Part II)
8. Jack Lemmon (The Apartment)- NEW
9. Kirk Douglas (Paths of Glory)
10. Kevin Spacey (American Beauty)
11. Marlon Brando (On the Waterfront)
12. Peter Finch (Network)
13. Orson Welles (Citizen Kane)
14. Marlon Brando (The Godfather)
15. Robert De Niro (Taxi Driver)
16. F. Murray Abraham (Amadeus)- NEW
17. Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake)
18. Liam Neeson (Schindler's List)
19. Tim Robbins (The Shawshank Redemption)
20. Al Pacino (Dog Day Afternoon)
21. Henry Fonda (12 Angry Men)
22. Kevin Kline (The Ice Storm)- NEW
23. Meryl Streep (Adaptation)
24. David Strathairn (Good Night and Good Luck)
25. Jack Lemmon (Glengarry Glen Ross)
26. Choi Min-sik (Oldboy)
27. Ralph Fiennes (Schindler's List)
28. Nicolas Cage (Adaptation)
29. Tom Cruise (Born on the Fourth of July)
30. Johnny Depp (What's Eating Gilbert Grape?)- NEW
31. Kate Winslet (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind)
32. Susan Sarandon (Dead Man Walking)
33. Jim Carrey (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind)- NEW
34. William Holden (Network)
35. Sean Penn (Dead Man Walking)
36. Jim Carrey (The Truman Show)
37. Tom Cruise (Magnolia)
38. Timothy Hutton (Ordinary People)
39. Daniel Craig (Casino Royale)
40. Sharlto Copley (District 9)
41. Tony Leung (Happy Together)- NEW
42. Viggo Mortensen (A History of Violence)- NEW
43. Haley Joel Osment (A.I.: Artificial Intelligence)
44. Alec Guinness (The Bridge on the River Kwai)- NEW
45. Gene Hackman (The Conversation)- NEW
46. Robert Duvall (Apocalypse Now)
47. Tom Hulce (Amadeus)- NEW
48. Michael Stuhlbarg (A Serious Man)- NEW
49. Sean Penn (Mystic River)
50. Clive Owen (Children of Men)- NEW
51. Shirley MacLaine (The Apartment)- NEW
52. Melanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds)
53. Morgan Freeman (The Shawshank Redemption)
54. Joaquin Phoenix (Walk the Line)
55. Albert Finney (Big Fish)- NEW
56. Faye Dunaway (Network)
57. Benicio Del Toro (Traffic)- NEW
58. Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line)
59. Warren Beatty (Reds)
60. Jack Lemmon (Missing)
61. Tim Robbins (Mystic River)
62. Chris Cooper (Adaptation)
63. Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds)
64. Diane Keaton (Reds)
65. Alan Rickman (Die Hard)- NEW
66. Al Pacino (Glengarry Glen Ross)
67. Gene Hackman (The French Connection)
68. Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lambs)
69. Ray Winstone (The Proposition)- NEW
70. Daniel Day-Lewis (Gangs of New York)- NEW
71. Martin Sheen (Badlands)
72. Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
73. Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men)
74. Sissy Spacek (Badlands)
75. Jodie Foster (The Silence of the Lambs)
76. Faye Dunaway (Bonnie and Clyde)
77. Al Pacino (Serpico)
78. Orson Welles (The Third Man)- NEW
79. Warren Beatty (Bonnie and Clyde)
80. Sergi Lopez (Pan's Labyrinth)
81. Sidney Poitier (In the Heat of the Night)
82. Elliott Gould (The Long Goodbye)
83. Chris Cooper (Lone Star)
84. Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix)
85. Jack Nicholson (The Departed)
86. Frances McDormand (Fargo)
87. Gene Hackman (The Royal Tenenbaums)- NEW
88. Ruth Gordon (Harold and Maude)- NEW
89. Will Ferrell (Anchorman)- NEW
90. Brendan Gleeson (In Bruges)
91. Peter Sellers (Dr. Strangelove)- NEW
92. Sigourney Weaver (Aliens)- NEW
93. Colin Farrell (In Bruges)
94. Jeff Bridges (The Big Lebowski)- NEW
95. Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat)
96. Mia Farrow (The Purple Rose of Cairo)- NEW
97. Sissy Spacek (Missing)
98. Vincent D'Onofrio (Full Metal Jacket)
99. Jason Schwartzman (Rushmore)- NEW
100. Rod Steiger (In the Heat of the Night)

[Dave the Necrobumper]

Nothing to get pissed about. The first one I hit that caused only a slight pause was 39. Daniel Craig (Casino Royale), but it was only a slight pause. Some awesome performances in the list. My favourites of yours from the top 10 is 10. Kevin Spacey (American Beauty), my favourite from the whole list is 46. Robert Duvall (Apocalypse Now), because is it such a large and distinctive character.

[GothamCity151]

24 overlap with my list. I am still shocked by Clooney at #2, but it is a good performance. Remember to PM me your list to officially submit it.

[oneaprilday]

I guess people aren't so into videos anymore     I know it's not Verite-quality, but I did put quite a bit of time into it.

I've bookmarked it!  I just haven't had the chance to watch it properly yet.

[MartinTeller]

I guess people aren't so into videos anymore     I know it's not Verite-quality, but I did put quite a bit of time into it.

I've bookmarked it!  I just haven't had the chance to watch it properly yet.

Cool


As I go through the top half of my list, I'm finding a few more I want to switch out.  Ultimately this means that the order on the list I submit will be slightly different than the ordering in the videos (because the ones I want to swap in would probably be ranked lower than 51, and I already put 100-51 out there).  Not that it matters to anyone but me, just don't pay much attention to the rankings in the videos.

[verbALs]

My list of the 100 best performances from the past 12 months of film watching. Those that had the most impact even in some films that would never get near a favourites list for story or direction; some are great despite the films they are in!

1   Paul Newman	The Verdict
2   Naomi Watts	Mulholland Drive
3   Peter Finch	Network
4   Yeong-ae Lee	Sympathy for Lady Vengeance
5   Humphrey Bogart	The Maltese Falcon
6   Toshiro Mifune	Yojimbo
7   Klaus Kinski	Fitzcarraldo
8   M Emmett Walsh	Blood Simple
9   Malcolm MacDowell	A Clockwork Orange
10   Ian Holm	Alien
11   Kathleen Byron	Black Narcissus
12   William Holden	Network
13   Edward Woodward	Breaker Morant
14   Kang-ho Song	Joint Security Area
15   Burt Lancaster	Sweet Smell Of Success
16   JP Leaud	Stolen Kisses
17   Alec Guinness	The Bridge on the River Kwai
18   Gene Hackman	The Conversation
19   James Stewart	The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
20   Peter Boyle	The Friends Of Eddie Coyle
21   Ned Beatty	Network
22   Charles Aznavour	Tirez sur le pianiste
23   Deborah Kerr	The Innocents
24   John Wayne	The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
25   Harvey Keitel	Mean Streets
26   Tony Curtis	Sweet Smell Of Success
27   Gloria Graheme	The Big Heat
28   Carl Boehm	Peeping Tom
29   Chiwetel Ejiofor	Redbelt
30   Michael Caine	Get Carter
31   Roger Duchesne	Bob Le Flambeur
32   Barbara Stanwyck	Double Indemnity
33   Gabriel Byrne	Miller's Crossing
34   Cary Grant	North By Northwest
35   James Stewart	Rear Window
36   Roger Livesey	The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp
37   Robert de Niro	Mean Streets
38   Kurt Russell	The Thing
39   Burt Lancaster	The Leopard
40   Betty Davis	All About Eve
41   Richard Widmark	Pickup on South Street
42   Steven Keats	The Friends Of Eddie Coyle
43   Willem Dafoe	To Live And Die In L.A.
44   Anne Bancroft	The Miracle Worker
45   Richard Harris	This Sporting Life
46   Anton Wallbrook	The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp
47   JP Belmondo	Léon Morin prêtre
48   Melvyn Douglas	Hud
49   Richard Attenborough	Brighton Rock
50   John C Reilly	Cyrus
51   Johnathon Price	Brazil
52   Henry Fonda	12 Angry Men
53   Anne Baxter	All About Eve
54   Spencer Tracy	Adam's Rib
55   Simone Signouret	Army of Shadows
56   Harrisson Ford	Blade Runner
57   Alec Guinness	Kind Hearts And Coronets
58   James Mason	The Verdict
59   David Thewlis	Naked
60   Harry Dean Stanton	Paris Texas
61   Bibi Andersson	Persona
62   Leslie Manville	Another Year
63   Jack Nicholson	Five Easy Pieces
64   John Polito	Miller's Crossing
65   Thelma Ritter	Pickup on South Street
66   Madhabi Mukherjee	Mahanagar
67   Daniel Day Lewis	The Last of the Mohicans
68   Lino Ventura	Army of Shadows
69   Catherine Deneuve	The Last Metro
70   George C Scott	The Hustler
71   Warren Beatty	The Parallax View
72   Victor Sjostrom	Wild Strawberries
73   Bruno Ganz	Wings of Desire
74   Cillian Murphy	The Wind That Shakes The Barley
75   Riz Ahmed	Four Lions
76   Bruce Campbell	Evil Dead 2
77   Elizabeth Taylor	Who's Afraid Of Virignia Woolf
78   Robert Mitchum	The Friends Of Eddie Coyle
79   Joseph Gordon Levitt	Brick
80   Yuzo Kayama	Red Beard
81   Jean Gabin	Touchez Pas Au Grisbi
82   Michael Gambon	The Cook, The Thief, His Wife And Her Lover
83   Delphine Seyrig	Last Year At Marienbad
84   Tom Courtenay	The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner
85   Ricardo Darin	The Secret In Their Eyes
86   Peter Dinklage	The Station Agent
87   Tim Spall	Secrets & Lies
88   Gabe Nevins	Paranoid Park
89   Ava Gardner	Pandora and the Flying Dutchman
90   Ralph Meeker	Kiss Me Deadly
91   Brendan Gleason	In Bruges
92   Jean Martin	Battle Of Algiers
93   Corinne Marchand	Cleo from 5 to 7
94   John Garfield	Force Of Evil
95   Timothy Carey	The Killing
96   Constance Towers	The Naked Kiss
97   Hermione Baddelley	Brighton Rock
98   Marisa Tomei	Cyrus
99   Judy Halliday	Adam’s Rib
100   Sidney Greenstreet	The Maltese Falcon

[MartinTeller]

Some interesting choices there, including a number from my own list, or that I considered for my list.  I really wanted to make room for a Tim Carey role but none of them felt quite right (except maybe World's Greatest Sinner for its sheer insanity).  Naomi Watts still might make it, but I'm running out of people I can cut.

I find your Delphine Seyrig selection interesting.  I adore LYAM, but it seems to me that Seyrig's performance is kind of a non-entity most of the time.  What in particular about that performance grabs you?

You've got 15 from movies I haven't seen. 

[verbALs]

Yeah I just have these images of Seyrig stuck in my head, so the impact is in images more than spoken performance- which is how Marienbad has stuck with me, as much for images of statues as anything- pretty unique in that regard.

I like the impactful cameos & Carey's little part of The Killing is so much of what I remember from the film; his confrontation in the car park and the racist abuse he blurts out to get rid of the attendant, again pretty unique.