The original post: /r/movies by /u/bkat004 on 2024-12-29 12:31:00.
It may be sexist to take out the Males from a List of Greatest Lead Cinematic Performances of All Time - and yet, here I am doing so.
It's only fair.
Brando in "On the Waterfront" has become so mythologized that there's no point in continuing that conversation, let alone all the other Male performances in history that were influenced and spawned by him, especially when I'm wanting here, to focus only on female performances.
Before I tell you my three, let me just say, that I haven't analyzed any films in the 21st century, because I really need more than that to evaluate them. But that's just me.
In addition, thanks in part due to Brando, any performance from the Golden Age of Hollywood always seems too stiffling and wooden for my tastes - even from the great Bette Davis and Katherine Hepburn.
Don't forget, Lead not Supporting.
Anyway...
3 - Isabelle Adjani, Possession, 1981
2 - Jodie Foster, The Silence of the Lambs, 1991
1 - Gena Rowlands, A Woman Under the Influence, 1974
Thank you