martedì 4 ottobre 2016

Best Actress in a Supporting Role 1976: Beatrice Straight in Network

Beatrice Straight won the Oscar from her only nomination for her performance as Louise Schumacher in Network.


Network is a brilliant film about a television network that decides to exploit a former anchor's ravings and outbursts for its own profit, turning him into an icon. It's an absolutely amazing movie that finds its biggest strengths in the acting and its terrific, intelligent screenplay that manages to stop short of turning the satire into parody. I don't even think it's flawless - there are a couple of moments that are a bit poorly shot in my opinion and the subplot about the Ecumenical Liberation Army is a bit heavy-handed - but still the good aspects of the movie are so great that they easily overshadow the few minor flaws. It's a movie that completely lives up to its reputation.

Beatrice Straight's performance is particularly famous for being the shortest performance to ever win an Oscar. And indeed, with little more than 5 minutes of screen-time and overall three scenes, two of which are extremely brief, it is a very small role. Her first scene is not a big one or even a truly important one for the character: we see Louise getting out of bed and finding out that her husband's (William Holden) friend, Howard Beale (Peter Finch), has left the house at night. It's just a very small scene and technically Straight doesn't do much in it, but nonetheless she manages to give us some clues about Louise: we certainly can see she loves her husband and she appears as an intelligent and caring woman. She doesn't seem to be doing anything special but this first scene of hers actually amplifies the impact of her big scene later on. Her second scene barely counts as we just see her from the back as she watches TV. 

Her big scene comes in the second half of the movie, when her husband Max confesses his infidelity to Louise and leaves her. What Beatrice Straight manages to accomplish in this single scene is something absolutely astonishing - Louise is not a very original character, and even the scene itself is technically something we've already seen: but rarely such a scene has been portrayed with the same amount of rawness and viscerality as this was. Straight is excellent in this scene as in just a few minutes she has to display a rather extreme range of emotions, from anger to desperation to finally acceptance, and she does it exceptionally: at the beginning, Straight is terrific as you can see Louise's heart breaking but at the same time she tries to mantain a rather calm and dignified façade; as the scene progresses, I love how she becomes gradually becomes more aggressive until Max finally admits he is in love with Diana (Faye Dunaway): then she delivers a brilliant, devastating monologue that Straight delivers with an incredible amount of both fury and grief. I actually don't think that the scene itself is perfect as I kind of hate how the camera often focuses on Holden and not on Straight, even as she delivers her monologue, but Straight's acting is nothing short of astonishing - she conveys 25 years of marriage in just a few moments and even if Holden and Straight barely shared the screen together previously it feels as if we had already seen a movie just about the two of them, as if we truly knew the characters and their history. In a movie like Network, where basically every character is soulless or insane or both, Beatrice Straight's Louise becomes the emotional center of the whole story and the fact that the movie around her is so rid of humanity only makes her single big scene stand out even more - her scene in the movie is simply unforgettable and absolutely necessary because it reminds us that among people like Diana and Frank (Robert Duvall) there are also people that care and that have feelings. Her final moments in the scene are much subtler and equally outstanding: I love that slight, empathetic smile on her face as she listents to Max talking about the affair and her very last moment when she softly puts her hand on his face and tells him that Diana is going to make him suffer is a touching closure for the character. 

This is a brief performance but Beatrice Straight completely manages to defy the limitations of the script by delivering an emotional powerhouse: her Louise is the movie's conscience and emotional crux because of the humanity and honesty of her portrayal that constrast so beautifully against the other characters in the movie. It's a wonderful, poignant performance that goes far beyond what was required and left me wanting more of her while still making her work feel whole. An unusual choice for an Oscar, but a great one as well. 

4.5/5

19 commenti:

  1. For me its between 4 and 4.5, but ill go with 4. I like actors who turn their small roles(or camoes) into miracles(Laura Dern-Wild, Jane Fonda Youth..), but somehow i wasnt blown away with her performance like i expected. She is very good, but she didnt steal the film(which belong to other 3 lead actors, who are mindblowing, thats the first problem). Another thing is that i ve read or heard somewhere that for this scene they needed to shot it many times until Straight finally understood or was able to show real emotions. I know this should be irrelevant but it somehow destroys the effectivness of her performance knowing now that at first she didnt know how or wasnt able to to play it like she should. And another thing is that the whole scene was supposed to be her acting showcase, so she didnt steal that scene form anyone. For me its more like she had a little showy scene and she did it like she should. But i must say that i really liked her character and its role in the story. But back to Straight, i think she had a really unique face and eyes that were really born for camera.

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    1. I totally agree about her face and eyes! I would say I also agree she doesn't steal the movie, but it doesn't really bother me as I don't think she was supposed to. I also don't mind the fact that the scene had to be shot many times as I simply judge what is on-screen, which is in my opinion excellent. And I also think that her scene could have easily been a showcase for William Holden, as it is proved by the fact the focus he is given throughout the scene, and she completely held her own against him. Anyway, to each his own :)

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    2. I dunno again she was not mindblowing to me as i expected and i think her performance is as effective cause not just the fact that she is a great performer but also cause of the brilliant screenplay and direction. Again for me in the end its a great performance, but nothing THAT groundbreaking in my opinion. And i think she is an ok winner but the fact that she won over Piper Laurie makes her undeserving.

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    3. Anyway i saw the clip again(its on you tube) and OMG THOSE EYES!! And yup she is great but i dunno im still not THAT impressed :P

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    4. Anyway i saw the clip again(its on you tube) and OMG THOSE EYES!! And yup she is great but i dunno im still not THAT impressed :P

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  2. Thought and rating for Duvall?
    And what Are your top 10 One-Scene Wonders?

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    1. Duvall - 4.5 (I thought he was excellent at portraying his character's lack of morals and inability to feel empathy towards anyone. He really inhabits the soulless quality of his character but what I particularly appreciate is that he manages to avoid to become a copy of Faye Dunaway's performance by toning down the insanity of his character and giving a much more restrained depiction of a technically very similar character)

      Obviously I won't mention nominated performances I haven't reviewed yet. Most of my list is not quite made of one-scene-wonders strictly speaking, but rather of very brief performances that mostly come down to a single scene (such as Straight, who has three scenes in the movie but it's almost a one-scene-wonder considering that her other two scenes are so small).

      1. Jane Fonda - Youth - 4.5
      2. Beatrice Straight - Network - 4.5
      3. Matthew McConaughey - The Wolf of Wall Street - 4.5
      4. Ed Harris - Snowpiercer - 4.5
      5. Dean Stockwell - Blue Velvet - 4.5
      6. Jessica Lange - Broken Flowers - 4
      7. Jo Van Fleet - Cool Hand Luke - 4
      8. Patricia Clarkson - Shutter Island - 4
      9. Vanessa Redgrave - Atonement - 4
      10. Jackie Earle Haley - Shutter Island - 4

      I might be forgetting something.

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    2. I'd add Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross, Christopher Walken in Pulp Fiction, Gary Oldman in True Romance, and Collin Wilcox in To Kill a Mockingbird. My favourite one-scene wonder of all-time though would be Robert Duvall in To Kill a Mockingbird.

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    3. I'd add Keitel in Pulp Fiction, Penelope Allen in Scarecrow and Welles in The Third Man

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    4. @Calvin: Duvall is great in To Kill a Mockingbird. He should be in my top 10 between Lange and Van Fleet. Wilcox is also very good and she misses my top 10 just barely. I don't remember Walken very well in Pulp Fiction (I've seen it long ago and I only really remember Mia's storyline and Jules' one) and I haven't seen Baldwin and Oldman.

      @omar: I haven't seen Allen and Welles, as for Keitel I remember him being good but I should really rewatch the movie.

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    5. Giuseppe: Have you seen Zodiac? Because based on what I've heard, John Carroll Lynch is one of the best one scene wonders ever.

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  3. I LOVE Straight's work in this. It's another element that adds to this film's greatness, and her scene is probably my second favorite in the whole film (with Finch's iconic mad as hell speech being my favorite)

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    1. My favorite scene is Max's and Diana's break-up. Straight's scene is my second favorite and Finch's speech my third.

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    2. The break-up scene is my favourite as well, both actors excel.

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  4. I have seen Straight's performance in this, but not the rest of this movie. I think I would give her a strong 4.5, as well.

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    1. See the movie! It's amazing, and probably my winner for Best Picture although I've yet to rewatch Taxi Driver.

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  5. Like the film a great deal (#4 for 1976 behind All the President's Men, Rocky and The Omen), but to be honest the one main thing that always sticks out for me is Finch. Straight is very good though and I agree with all your thoughts.

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    1. My top of 1976 would be:

      1. Taxi Driver
      2. Network
      3. All the President's Men
      4. The Omen
      5. Carrie

      I haven't seen Rocky yet though.

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