Top 15 Favorite Film Performances...
 

Have we done this before?

1. Robert DeNiro-Raging Bull
2. Jack Nicholson-5 Easy Pieces
3. Robert DeNiro-Taxi Driver
4. Daniel Day Lewis-There will be Blood
5. Al Pacino-The Godfather Part 2
6. Rovert DeNiro-The Godfather Part 2
7. Heath Ledger-The Dark Knight
8. John Travolta-Pulp Fiction
9. Robert DeNiro-The King of Comedy
10. Joe Pesci-Goodfellas
11. Dennis Hopper-Blue Velvet
12. Laura Dern-Wild at Heart
13. Song Kang-ho-Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
14. Robert Downey Jr.-Tropic Thunder
15. Jeremy Renner-The Hurt Locker (I was hestitant to put it on here as I've only watched the film twice, but this motherfucker had me on the edge of my seat every fucking scene. He needs the oscar. As much as I love the shit out of Jeff Bridges, "Tender Mercies" already got made almost 30 years ago.)

wow and here i was expecting a bunch of really obscure shit. [guess adam will do that]

good list dude.... i'll think about mine.

only major i see missing is Brando. brando in apocalypse now is so epic.

hopper in blue velvet will def be on mine. ddl in twbb, maybe in gony too.
de niro in taxi, and bull. ledger in dark knight, dern in inland empire, i'd choose dafoe or cage from wah. guy pearce in proposition and maybe in la confidential, or cromwell in confidential. jack in the shining and chinatown, huston in chinatown. faye dunaway and peter finch in network.hoffman in graduate. nic cage in adaptation. catherine keener in being jon malkovich.

this is really difficult.

river phoenix in idaho > everything ever

fuckin Bogart in maltese falcon.

fuckin Bronson in once upon a time in the west

fuckin james woods in once upon ... america and videodrome.

In no order

Zero Mostel - The Producers
Chris Tucker - Fifth Element
Robert Downey Jr. - Tropic Thunder
Jeff Bridges - The Big Lebowski
Gene Hackman - Royal Tannenbaums
Peter Sellers - Dr. Strangelove
Christopher Guest - Waiting for Guffman
Damon Wayans - Major Payne
Sean Penn - Fast Times At Ridgemont High
Bill Murray - Groundhog Day
Bill Murray - Caddyshack
John Belushi - Animal House
Tommy Chong - Up In Smoke
Groucho, Chico, Harpo Marx - ANYTHING

ah yes, Bill Murray in groundhog day and life aquatic.

hackman in tanenbaums

bridges and goodman in lebowski.

klaus kinski in aguirre

mark wahlberg in boogie nights.

philip seymour hoffman in punch-drunk love

gunnar bjornstrand in winter light.

max von sydow has gotta be in one there somewhere.

jack palance in contempt

Hard one.. at the top of my head:

1. DeNiro in Taxi Driver (also see: DeNiro in Deer Hunter, DeNiro in King of Comedy... actually, DeNiro in just about anything, probably the best actor ever)
2. Anna Karina in My Life to Live (and pretty much every other Godard movie)
3. Takeshi Kitano in Hana-Bi (lifetime achievement award.. how can a guy be so compelling when he mainly just stares into a camera?)
4. Kurt Raab in Why Does R. Herr Run Amok?
5. Tom Green in Freddy Got Fingered (so brave and so hilarious)
6. Rick Giovinazzo in Combat Shock
7. Marty Sader in Most High
8. Anne Carlisle in Liquid Sky
9. Sam Neill in Possession
10. Joe Shishido in Branded to Kill
11. Bruno S - Stroszek
12. Chow Yun Fat in the Killer (he made me cry!)
13. Tom Blair in Sure Fire (also see his performance in the Bed You Sleep In)
14. Jodorowsky in El Topo
15. Shinya Tsukamoto in Tokyo Fist
16. Joe Spinell in Maniac
17. Ben Gazzara in Killing of a Chinese Book
18. Chantal Akerman in Jeanne Dielamn, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
19. Tyree in Garbanzo Gas
20. John Travolta (!) in Blow Out

also: the entire cast in Satantango, but especially the little girl who kills the cat

My favorite actor ever is DeNiro, but Gary Oldman comes close (though I don't really like that many of his films, the dude has talent)... favorite actress of all time is actually probably Naomi Watts, who I find really interesting, I also think Gena Rowlands is amazing.. Nicolas Cage in Deadfall is the real best performance of all time, or at least the most fucking INSANE by a mainstream actor... pretty much anyone Godard, Fassbinder, Jost, or Cassavettes casts are always really good actors..

yeah i wasn't going for obscure at all. I'm into American cinema for the most part, all though of course I do love tons of foreign shit as well.

I was just picking comedies

too many dramas to pick from that

DeNiro is my favorite actor for sure. He is also humble and has tons of charisma off stage. Stand up dude. I want to interview him.

I actually wish I put Carl Boehm's performance in "Peeping Tom" though. Creepiest AND most sympathetic portrayal of a demented serial killer fuck ever. Better than "Psycho" than "Silence of the Lambs" and all the Lecter adaptations for sure. Scorcese has said the film was a big influence on him at NYU.

Scorsese has excellent tastes. He loves Branded to Kill, Funeral Prcoession of Roses, Pastoral:T o Die in the Country, Kenneth Anger stuff... excellent.

Sam Neil in "Possession" was great. He's very underrated. Probably the only redeeming aspect of that piece of shit Vampire flick that just came out "Daybreakers".

Favorite portrayal of a Vampire is for sure Willem Dafoe in "Shadow of the Vampire", Bela Lugosi and Klaus Kinski have nothing on that one.

Even though I couldn't think of a performance that stands out in my mind of his, the most consistently great actor of our generation besides DeNiro is Tadanobou Asano, I've seen probably 40 or 50 of his movies and he's great in all of them, and he always picks interesting roles... only film I don't really like that he's done is Gojoe (which is sad, since Ishii is one of my favorite directors too!).

Guy Pierce was a little one dimensional when he was younger, i.e. "L.A. Confidential", but for sure he blew me away in "The Proposition", I love that film.

Cromwell was ruthless in L.A. C though.

I wish I said Harvey Keitel in "Bad Lieutenant" as well.

Barbara Stanwyck in "Double Indemnity" always blows me away. Beautiful and sociopathic is enough to get my loins all buttered up.

Orson Welles in "Touch of Evil".

Harvey Keitel is probably my other favorite actor of all time but I couldn't think of a performance to put in there... he rules in Bad Lieutenant, but my favorite performance is either in Ulysseus Gaze or the Piano... haven't seen him in anything new in a while. A shame. A real hero.

I loved the shit out of "Mongol" and can't wait for the sequel.

Steve Buscemi in anything.

oh yeah, i always forget robert mitchum in night of the hunter, as far as creepy performances.


and i haven't seen Peeping Tom yet, but i think its on netflix, so I'll check it

Buscemi is really awesome, he's a good director too!...

Living in Oblivion and Fargo are my favorite performances by him..

harvcey keitel is like almost 71 years old! let hi m rest!

What about Robin Williams in One Hour Photo?



I never would've thought he could be so damn creepy.

I want to see that one flick Buscemi directed. Where he kills his mom or something. I can't even think of the title right now.

Fred's Mom is Dead (I know that isn't it) or something like that.

I guess he didn't direct it after all...

ned beatty is HILARIOUS in that

I saw this thread title, thought, "How silly," then took a shower and couldn't stop thinking about it.

Jack in Chinatown- Even though Jake Gittes is wrong about almost everything, he's cool and sardonic at first until things spiral out of control. Then he becomes desperate until he's finally crushed at the end. Amazing.

Keanu in My Own Private Idaho- IF Keanu is doing some theatrical/minimalist thing (which I'll admit is an "if"), then he's generally underrated. From insouciant tramp to hard-ass ("I don't know you, old man"), the transformation is complete.

Rod Steiger in Pawnbroker

Peter Lorre in damn near everything

Jennifer Carpenter in Quarantine- Not a great flick, but she's fantastic. Best known as the sister in Dexter. After watching the movie the first time, I went back to the first DVD chapter, then skipped to the last. I fully bought that she was scared shitless.

Daniel Craig in Casino Royale- He found dark, dark layers to Bond that no previous actor had ever found, stuff I'm sure Ian Fleming wasn't aware of. Plus, an utterly fascinating face.

Catherine Deneuve in Belle de Jour. Or maybe Repulsion.

Mia Farrow in Purple Rose of Ciaro

Leo in What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

Martin Sheen in Apocolypse Now- Especially that meltdown at the beginning. I guess this is a cheat, since from what I understand, he wasn't really acting.

Laurence Olivier- Just to be pretentious. No, he really is rather good. I'll pick, I dunno, Richard III.

Ian McKellen- Richard III

Gary Oldman- Bram Stoker's Dracula. Hey, you try to act under 50 lbs. of makeup.

John Hurt- Elephant Man- Same thing

Buster Keaton- Everything. My favorite actor of all time. The great "stoneface" does very little emoting, yet manages to get across every human emotion with authenticity. A minimalist master.

been thinkin bout it

non comedy personal favorites


Humphrey Bogart - The Treasure of The Sierra Madre
Alec Guiness - The Bridge on The River Kwai
Frank Sinatra - The Manchurian Candidate
Forrest Whitaker - Bird
Clint Eastwood - Million Dollar Baby
Sylvester Stallone - Rocky
Mickey Rourke - Angel Heart
Orson Wells - Touch of Evil
Martin Sheen - Apocalypse Now
Clint Eastwood - Unforgiven

Yeah I have trouble believing Jack Gittes was based on Phillip Marlowe, Marlowe was never that clueless. "Chinatown" is one of the most perfect films ever, deserves all the praise it gets.

Gary Oldman was fucking weak as Dracula.

Leo went full retahd in "Gilbert Grape", disqualified.

Forrest Whitaker is always amazing. "The Last King of Scotland" was one of the few films that deservedly got its Best Actor Oscar. He was the most sadistic sociopathic charachter I've ever seen. James McAvoy should have one best supporting actor.

yeah for some reason this thread has made me want to see Chinatown again. LA Confidential is such a good noir too. hard to believe it was made in the 90s

Sweet. I get one more.

How's this: Tony Perkins in The Trial. K?

Robert De Niro - Raging Bull
Al Pacino - Dog Day Afternoon
Peter Sellers - Dr. Strangelove
Dustin Hoffmann - Midnight Cowboy
Jack Nicholson - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Diana Ross - Lady Sings the Blues
Jeff Bridges - The Big Lebowski
Dennis Hopper - Blue Velvet
Uma Thurman - Kill Bill Volume 2
Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight
Alec Guinness - Star Wars
Clint Eastwood - Unforgiven
Ben Kingsley - Gandhi
Johnny Depp - Ed Wood
Robert Downey Jr - Chaplin

The Trial is a good one.

Ed Wood is by far the best flick Tim Burton and Depp ever did. And Landau as Bela Lugosi was fucking amazing. "Eddie, help me."

word. love that film. all the characters were amazing. Bill Murray as Bunny breckinridge = amazing casting. landau and depp were so good too, as you mentioned

i crack up everytime i watch this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdSFP9nu1R8

This is a hard one.

Dennis Hopper - Blue Velvet
Robert DeNiro - Taxi Driver
Isabelle Adjani - Possession
Harry Dean Stanton - Paris, Texas
Naomi Watts - Mulholland Drive
Jason Schwartzman - Rushmore
Anna Karina - Vivre Sa Vie
Bruno Ganz - Der Himmel über Berlin
Jack Nicholson - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Catherine Deneuve - Belle de Jour
Laura Dern - Inland Empire
Allan Edwall - Fanny & Alexander
Jeff Bridges - The Big Lebowski
Takashi Shimura - Ikiru
Daniel Day-Lewis - There Will Be Blood

My favorite actors are probably Jack Nicholson and Harry Dean Stanton.

Ed Wood and Batman are the only Burton films i like.

Great list, DanielCarlson... a LOT of my favorites in there... nice to see a Paris Texas and Belle de Jour fan...

Yes, those are two fantastic movies... especially Paris, Texas. Harry Dean Stanton might be my favorite actor. He doesn't always have the big parts, but whatever role he plays, he plays it perfectly.

wtf, keep hearing about possession today, not only from this thread...

guess its an omen. killer trailer too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxVdtYAs8-w

It's one of the best movies ever. I'd place it at my top 10.

there's too many movies

yeah, possession's in my top 5.