... is the best crier working in movies today.
JA from MNPP here. There is a scene in Summer Hours - a wonderful film, by the way - that exists only to play off of my above-stated theory. The film literally stops in its tracks, zooms in on her face and stares at her for what must have been at the very least a full minute and watches as she fights off tears, and it's perhaps the most hypnotic thing I've seen on a screen all year.
Obviously director Oliver Assayas knew what he was gonna get when he pointed his camera there, and Juli delivered, as she always does.
Obviously director Oliver Assayas knew what he was gonna get when he pointed his camera there, and Juli delivered, as she always does.
I dare anyone to name a better crier than her.
Double dog dare ya!
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Double dog dare ya!
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31 comments:
julianne moore or kate winslet.
Juliette Binoche is one of the best actresses working today. One only has to screen 'Flight of the Red Balloon' for proof.
Juliette Binoche is a great actress. On the top of my head I can't think of a better crier then her. On the other hand Summer Hours left me a little cold. Not a bad film, but not a great one either.
Naomi Watts.
I think she can blush on command as well.
At least it seemed so in ULoB.
Thank you for talking about Summer Hours... I have been singing praises since seeing it for the first time last year. My favorite film of 2008 and already among my all-time favorite films!!
Gotta go with Julianne Moore for sure, not really a contest in my opinion. Juliette is awesome though.
No one else comes to mind, Juliette is pretty brilliant on the big screen. Horseman on the Roof is my fav!
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Everybody's suggestions are greatchoices - how can I argue with Kate or Julianne or Naomi? But I can and will and maintain that Juliette wins! Forever Juliette! ;-)
Summer Hours is def. turning out to be a grower and not a show-er for me. I felt it a little cold at first too but I can already tell here a week later that it's gonna linger. It's actually reminding me of, of all things, Wendy & Lucy, in that and a couple of other respects. Firstly they're both films that did just that - didn't impress me tremendously at first but then camped out in my brain afterward for a long time. And secondly, they're both films that deal with the financial mechanics of an emotional experience in a brutally exacting fashion instead of through melodrama, and somehow this distance does both films an immense favor. They put you into the minutia of the situation of the protagonists and before you even realize it suddenly these characters have carved out a spot inside your brain.
Not sure if he's better, but Barry Pepper is one hell of a crier. Regardless of how you might feel about the film, I dare anyone not to get a little choked up when they show his face in that scene in THE GREEN MILE.
-Val
Naomi Watts for sure is also a great crier... The strip scene in Funny Games is still haunting me!
Julianne Moore for sure, especially in that scene from "Far from Heaven."
Worst crier ever? Maragaret O'Brien in "Meet Me in St. Louis." But I guess she was only 6...
Binoche in her small scene in Paris Je T'aime. All the proof I needed to concur.
Okay, since you double dog dared me I will say that Katharine Hepburn is the best on screen crier I have EVER seen. I think that that is indisputable. Three films come to mind in particular, GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER, ON GOLDEN POND, LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT. Just look at her eyes, she'll begin to tremble her jaw, and her head will start shaking (but she does that a lot) and then the tears will come and she will try to hold it back. She is good crier... but Juliette is the best LIVING crier.
La Huppert.
Again all the best choices are taken. My sister thinks Sandra Bullock is a great crier; her examples were "Premonition" and "Practical Magic."
I think the best crier has to be ALYSON HANNIGAN though. Everytime something dramatic happened on Buffy and she'd let the waterworks go, so would I. :)
Natalie Portman, cries in everything, and her tears are even used as a title sequence in Free Zone, where we watch her cry in for over ten minutes.
I'm trying to remember if Ms. Binoche cries in the last shot of "The English Patient" as she rides away in that car/wagon thing...it's such a gorgeous shot and ending. I think if she was, though, that they were tears of joy...or maybe relief that Ralph Fiennes was finally dead.
As much as I love Binoche, I'm afraid she doesn't hold a candle to Emma Thompson when it comes to crying. Thompson is an absolute expert at not crying when she should be, and then the tears get the better of her and they escape her. See: Sense and Sensibility and Love, Actually.
Natalie Portman in Leon, V for Vendetta, Free Zone, Closer, Cold Mountain (best thing in the movie by a zillion miles), to name a few. Just effortless and totally convincing.
Amy Adams in Junebug.
Susan and Geena in Thelma and Louise.
Heath in Brokeback Mountain.
Viola Dvais in Doubt.
Victoire Thivisol in Ponette.
Daniel Auteil in The Eighth Day.
Mr. Goodbar
I was gonna say Michelle Pfeiffer. She's rarely in a movie where she doesn't break out into tears...and she's believable every single time.
Viola needed to blow her nose in "Doubt." Honestly, that's all I could think about during her entire scene...all 5 minutes of it.
Yeah, Amy Adams totally got screwed by the Academy that year. That scene in the hospital is so affective.
How about Cate Blanchett in that scene in Heaven when she finds out who she killed?
Apparently Demi Moore can choose which eye the tears will come out of.
Laura Dern gives it a red-hot go sometimes.
Julianne Moore (bathroom scene in The Hours!)
My top choice would be:
Helen Mirren (Gosford Park)
others:
Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake)
Meryl Streep (Sophie's Choice)
Nicole Kidman (Dogville)
Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married)
Michelle WIlliams (Wendy and Lucy)
Excellent post, by the way!
Sean Astin cried beautifully in the Lord of the Rings films as Sam. And I'll never forget Ricky Schroder in The Champ.
Zhang Ziyi has a great cry scene in 2046.
Michelle Williams is good -- both "Wendy and Lucy" and "Brokeback Mountain" feature crying scenes that just hit you in the gut and knock the wind out of you.
Also: Alyson Hannigan is good at the crying (see Buffy), her full range is just not on display in How I Met Your Mother.
"... the director knew what he was gonna get when he pointed his camera there, and Juli delivered, as she always does"
How true! Which made the whole scene so contrived and embarrassing to watch. The point shifted from her character revealing her sorrow inside the story to the prowess of Juliette the actress shedding actress tears and the director reveling it her acting. It went on far too long and was distracting.
Two words: Toni. Collette.
See: Japanese Story, The Sixth Sense, Muriel's Wedding... pretty much any film she's ever been in. She cries, and my heart breaks every time!!!
Julianne Moore is also amazing at crying, ESPECIALLY in Safe.
Also, unexpectedly amazing at crying: SARAH POLLEY! Have you seen The Secret Life of Words? She has an amazing final monologue when tears just stream out of her. They just... flow. It's. Incredible.
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