And speaking of great actresses...
Anjelica Huston in The Witches is one of THE great performances of all time. No, seriously. I think she's oscar-worthy in it... very Meryl Streep in Prada. If she hadn't also been in The Grifters that same year and given an even MORE genius performance, I'd give her the statue for this. OK, I haven't seen too many 1990 films, but still... she kicks Kathy Bates' sorry ass. Genius, genius work. And totally inspired casting. She's PERFECT.More on The Witches later...
Okay, maybe I'm overstating the case a bit. It's not like the Grand High Witch is actually a "real" person who we care about. But still. One of THE great screen villains of all time. The subtle sexual thrusting during the witch convention scene was pure genius. At the very least, Huston was robbed of a GG-comedy nomination. ROBBED.
She's amazing.
posted by adam k. @ 2:41 AM
6 Comments:
i love this performance too. The Oscar shoulda been hers that year for sure (the grifters -holy mackerel that performance!)
Yeah, and what's worse is that I really don't see what was so special about Kathy Bates in Misery at all. She was pretty funny and pretty scary, but the performance was so broad and unspecial in general... as was the film. It was basically just generic horror.
Whereas Anjelica was genius not just once but twice, and in two polar opposite ways. I just don't get what voters were thinking.
Plus they shafted Postcards and Edward Scissorhands in almost everything. I mean, how do you not nominate the Postcards script and Johnny Depp's Scissorhands perf? How???
Yeah, she had a great year on 1990. I do really like Bates' perf but I'd rank Huston's two perfs above it.
But not only was this a Genre movie, it was a kids genre movie and it was a British kids genre movie. It never stood a chance.
But at least all the critics assosciations gave her their Best Actress awards for The Grifters and Witches.
I know this puts me in the minority and people will hate me for saying it, but I didn't think Huston was all that special in The Grifters. I thought she was strangely muted and a little too composed for the character. I understand where she was going with it, but she bordered on being a non-entity at times. I believe Bening showed everyone up in that film (don't get me started on John Cusack, who plays himself in every single film, except Malkovich.)
I think The Witches is *the* Huston performance of that year, and should have nabbed her a statuette. She is so ridiculously terrifying and yet hilarious as The Grand High Witch. Even though she is the most evil creature on the earth, I was kind of sad to see her go in the end. Enormously entertaining turn.
Hey Ali, I'm kind of with you, actually. I mean, I loved her in Grifters, too, but I would've been fine with her being up for The Witches. I love all the critics' groups that gave her awards for both. I think her Grifters performance offered the more rounded character in what was obviously a far more "oscary" film, but in terms of pure LOVE, I do love her more in The Witches.
"Ridiculously terrifying and yet hilarious" is right. SO inspired. Loud and obvious, yet deceptively subtle. So many outrageous yet perfect choices. And that voice? Genius. And I do mean "genius." I'm not just saying that for fun.
i agree she was great in this...
and this was definitly a great roald dahl adaptation as well.
--RC of strangeculture.blogspot.com
Post a Comment
<< Home