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..