'97 til Oscar
Monday, November 19, 2018 at 7:00AM It's 97 days til Oscar so we thought it might be fun to discuss Best Actress 1997. When I asked on twitter and here at the site what everyone's first Oscar ceremony was, this one came up alot. Titanic-mania was in full force in March 1998, bringing the Academy Awards many new young viewers! In fact, Titanic which had opened for Christmas had never left the number one spot at the top of the box office by the time Oscar night rolled around 14 weeks later. (Titanic spent 15 weeks at #1 in total. Can you imagine? in today's movie culture you're basically a true phenomenon if you can stay on top for more than 3 weeks - only Black Panther managed it this year with 5 weeks)
Do you remember these gowns? And who would you have voted Best Actress that year?
click to embiggen
- Judi Dench, Mrs Brown
- Helen Hunt, As Good As It Gets
- Kate Winslet, Titanic
- Helena Bonham-Carter, Wings of the Dove
- Julie Christie, Afterglow
Kate Winslet wasnt winning anything (besides millions upon millions of fans), but the rest of them divvied up the Best Actress gongs. Helena and Julie were neck and neck when it came to critics awards; Bonham-Carter snagged the NBR, BSFC, and LAFCA while Christie swiped the NYFCC and NSFC. That was it for both of them because Dench and Hunt both took home Golden Globes. It was something of a nail-biter between them on Oscar night, though Hunt had the edge given her SAG win. But would they really give a TV star the Oscar (remember the TV and movie divide was so much greater in the 1990s) ???
Reader Comments (79)
The nominees as a group of actresses are dreamy as hell.
I understand the Hunt and Dench love, and there is some lovely notes to the performances, but they wouldn’t be winner.
I think it’s all Bonham Carter for me. She’s plays conniving and intelligence with such ease. It doesn’t have the swooning romance of A Room with the View or the over zealous fervor of Howards End. It’s a side to her that no one casts her to play. It’s a widely underrated film overall.
I think of this a lazy Oscar voter year. It was like 95% of Oscar voters saw only three movies that year - Titanic, As Good As It Gets, and Good Will Hunting. The other 5% saw maybe one or two more movies.
HBC deserved that win hands down. She makes you care about what is really an unredeemable character, all the while giving a borderline soapy performance. It's true genius.
I would have given it to Helena Bonham-Carter, although Julie Christie was also superb in 'Afterglow'. And, as much as I love Kate Winslet, her slot should have been for Julia Roberts in 'My best friend's wedding'.
another vote for HBC
It would have been a more exciting category with Julia Roberts, Pam Grier or Joan Allen.
I never had any doubts that Helen Hunt was going to win. She had the right momentum and she was the only American.
Helena has never been better and Julie Christie is very good in a very dull movie, but I would have voted for Judi Dench.
Considering the nominees only: HBC. Masterful.
My nominees:
HBC (BRONZE)
Dench
Jodie Foster, Contact (SILVER)
Pam Grier, Jackie Brown (GOLD)
Winslet
Helen Hunt
So tender, funny, dramatic and emotional
Julie should have taken this. A sublime performance.
I am a Julie Christie fan. Whenever her name pops up in a Best Actress list, she has my vote (though both Judi Dench and Helena Bonham Carter would have also been much worthier winners than Helen Hunt that year)
After 20 years i'm still with HBC as my winner but think Hunt gets too much flak for this win,she is great with every scene partner and sells the relationships,confidante,mother,daughter,lover,working mum,she is funny too "Ok" is a great one word line she fills with so much and her chemisty with Kinnear is esp touching,it's hard to show caring believably on screen but she does..
Winslet got swept along with Titanic most say but it's hard to make an audience care about you for 3 hrs and then make them come back for repeat viewings.
One person whom i feel was let down by her film was Jessica Lange in A 1000 Acres.
Dench is very good in Mrs Brown but it was one of those were has this lady been hiding moments most knew she'd be back,shame she wasn't recognised for a win in Notes on a a Scandal..
Christie's fine in the reminiscence scenes in Afterglow but gets lost as the film progresses.
All still working on quality projects and all have followed this nomination with 1 or more.
Julie Christie all the way
HUNT4EVA
I would absolutely have voted for Julia Roberts in My Best Friend's Wedding; it's one of my favorite comedic performances of all time. Of these five actresses, though, I would have voted for Winslet (and I believe Leo should have won Best Actor as well). I agree with markgordonuk - when a three-hour historical epic is THAT MUCH of a phenomenon, the stars have a great deal to do with it, and they should have been awarded.
Some snubs that annoyed me at the time:
Joan Allen, The Ice Storm
Pam Grier, Jackie Brown
Jodie Foster, Contact
Joey Lauren Adams, Chasing Amy
Tilda Swinton in Female Perversions!
I think we all know the true Best Actress of 1997 was Lisa Kudrow for Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion.
Of the nominees, I prolly would've given my vote to Kate at the time. Not sure who it would be now (having not seen Afterglow or The Wings of the Dove)
The interesting thing with Best Actress is most winners have at least another nomination to their name, before or after the win. Only Larson, Berry and Paltrow in the last twenty years just have their winning nomination, and only, I think, 9 Best Actress winners total in the 90 or so years of awarding have only had the one acting nom.
It's about 22 for Best actor, Discounting Multi-noms in the one category in a year as happened early on.
Helena Bonham-Carter all the way. Underrated movie, wonderful performance. My second choice would be my top choice as far as these looks/dresses go - Julie Christie.
I'm all Winslet all the way. She carried that enormous production on her shoulders and entered the pantheon of great screen actresses.
Off topic, but this site’s been quiet on Buster Scruggs. Want me to write the article? I happily would, hahaha. Honestly, I think it has some real awards potential, and isn’t that largely Netflix’s goal in acquiring it? Eager to hear your thoughts!
I'm giving the edge to Julie Christie in Afterglow with Helena Bonham-Carter a very close second. Truth is when I heard that HBC will play Kate Croy I thought she will be miscast, but she very beautifully delineated a woman who was truly in love but had to forgo that love for something more material. I thought Alison Elliott was beautiful as the tragic Millie. But yeah, Julie Christie all the way for me.
@PoliVamp -- I had to agree that Lisa Kudrow was at the top of her game as Michelle. After all she really is the Mary, right?
I thought all the performances were excellent except for winner Helen Hunt, God I HATED that movie!
Normally my vote would go to my favorite living actress Julie Christie but I really feel Helena Bonham Carter gave the most in depth vivid performance that year.
Yas! Helena Bonham-Carter is also my pick. Amazing performance.
Another vote for Helena. She should have at least 5 nominations and a win by now. Helen Hunt should've won for The Sessions instead.
You can debate if Sarah Polley's performance was leading or supporting. But the vote for my in either would have been for Sarah Polley in The Sweet Hereafter.
That film was snubbed in way too many categories (6) that year Best Film, Best Actor, Best Actress or Actress in a supporting role, best editing (Susan Shipton), best cinematography (Paul Sarossy) and best Original Score (Mychael Danna)
This race is HBC or bust for me (she is SUBLIME in that wonderful movie), but of the snubs Grier's definitely stings the most--she gave my single favorite performance ever in a Tarantino movie in Jackie Brown. Julia for MBF'sW (a top ten all-time favorite for me) also easily makes it into my top 5 of the year.
Judi Dench. A star was finally born.
Such a lackluster quintet, made all the more vexing by the snubbing of Joan Allen and especially Pam Grier. With that said, either Christie or Dench would earn my vote. I'm actually quite fond of AS GOOD AS IT GETS but Hunt's histrionics haven't aged well.
Helena Bonham-Carter deserved it. Frankly I blame William Goldman, who, in a much read newspaper column suggested the only reason Helen Hunt WOULDN'T win was anti-American/pro-British snobbery by the Academy. He was a great screenwriter, but he made a lot of these groan-worthy pronouncements.
Another vote here for HBC. I haven't seen Afterglow, so I can't comment on Christie's performance. But the other three nominees were doing pretty solid work, even if I didn't love all the screenplays. And, as others have mentioned, there was more fine work going on that year that didn't get recognized. A good actressing year.
Yes v good
Lange and Pfeiffer both excellent with Lange giving her movie real depth and Pfeiffer providing grounding and venom.
Allen and esp Weaver in The Ice Storm I know it's supporting but I think it's one of the best roles she ever had and so wish she had won for it
Grier the single best unnominated performance from QT
Roberts giving us our generations Katharine Hepburn comedy performance
Foster holding Contact together with steel will and tears
Romy and Michele are both The Mary
Jennifer Lopez in Selena confirming her new star in the ascent status
Weaver again having heaps of fun in Alien Resurrection
Where is she now Dominique Swain in Lolita
Jurnee Smollett for Eve's Bayou
Ha ha, I really hated As Good as It Gets and held Hunt's win against her for many years. But I liked her again after her excellent performance in The Sessions. I'm not sure who I would have awarded BA for '97. I don't remember HBC as being particularly amazing in Wings of a Dove but I thinking I ought to give that another look-see after all the raves here. I love Kate Winslet but her best work was yet to come, I feel. To this day have still not seen Mrs. Brown or Afterglow. It was the prior year, 1996, that the BA race was really captivating for me (Blethyn, McDormand & Watson, all amazing - with Scott Thomas & Keaton as very respectable nominees as well). Anyway, really enjoyed this blast from the late-90s past!
I'm a sucker for James L. Brooks so Hunt's win doesn't bother me in the slightest.
Carol Connelly is not Mary Richards, Jane Craig or Aurora Greenway but Hunt definitely packed the role with heart.
Devin - I watched Buster Scruggs yesterday, and then watched it again as soon as it was finished. Incredible acting, photography. I loved Tyne Daly, Tim Blake Nelson, Tom Waits, the acting was sublime...
I think Hunt deserved it. She perfectly balanced the tone of the movie and beautifully played off Nicholson and Kinnear.
HBC and Winslet are close second.
Please remember that the first thing Helen said in her acceptance speech was how much she loved Mrs. Brown. I love when they do that and it feels sincere. I'm also thinking of Cherry Jones at the Tony's praising The Turner. So Classy.
Helena Bonham Carter, no doubt.
Personally I've given it to Pam Grier without a blink, but I think Helen Hunt is so underrated in AGAIG.
Nicholson gives a towering performances , though she was not a single second in his shadow . She stand up to him when needed and was with him when needed.
Peggy Sue: totally. I am always moved by winners celebrating the "competition" in their acceptance speeches. The classiest-ever at this was in 2000, when Michael Caine won BSA (undeservedly, I thought) for Cider House Rules and proceeded to pay tribute to each one of his fellow nominees, at some length & with total sincerity. It was a beautiful speech - made his win a little easier to take! (I'd have given the award to Haley Joel Osment for his now-classic performance in Sixth Sense - no one remembers CHR much today).
Pam Grier was robbed.
1. Helena (masterful; her finest work)
2. Judi (still feel like she won for this performance a year later)
3. [Pam Grier - robbed]
4. Hunt (always resented her win, but always better than I remember)
5. Winslet (hampered by the dialogue, but those eyes of determination as she goes back down that flooded corridor)
6. Christie (only saw Afterglow once, post-nomination, but she didn't register much for me)
Also, I'm not sure Kathy Burke's Cannes winning (and BAFTA nominated) work in Nil By Mouth was eligible for the 1997 Oscars, but I think that's incredibly special.
HBC was incredible in that film. I was a huge Titanic fan but there wasn't never any doubt in my mind that Helena should have won.
Semi-related...We've got to be days away from the Actress Roundtable, right?
Judi Dench should have won this easily.
Judi Dench
Helena Bonham Cárter
Julie Christie
Kate Winslet
Helen Hunt
Hayden - The LA Times already taped their roundtables. Nicole is doing both THR and LA Times. I'm not sure about who else is participating with THR, but Viola, Nicole, Melissa McCarthy, Lupita, Saoirse, Amy Adams, and Marina de Tavira (Roma) are participating with the LA Times. (Ethan Hawke, Steven Yeun, John C. Reilly, Dafoe, Michael B. Jordan, and Viggo are doing the LA Times's Actors' Roundtable.)
I haven't seen Julie Christie or Judi Dench's performances, but of the rest, I'd have given it to Helena Bonham Carter by a whisker over Helen Hunt. Hunt, though, is excellent, for reasons others have pointed out here.
But I also think that Pam Grier should have been nominated. She might have been close (she got GG and SAG nominations) and she is excellent in Jackie Brown.
Ralph: I too feel that Sarah Polley is wonderful in The Sweet Hereafter. (And to me, it's a supporting role.)
For me,
1. Pam Grier-Jackie Brown
2. Patricia Arquette-Lost Highway
3. Susanne Lothar-Funny Games
4. Francesa Neri-Live Flesh
5. Julie Christie-Afterglow
Honorable mention to Kate Winslet for Titanic. Fuck As Good as It Gets.... an overrated and overwrought piece of shit film that hasn't gotten any better since its release and the only reason Jack Nicholson won was because he played nothing more than an exaggerated version of himself.