Ingrid Bergman’s greatest performance?

Autumn Sonata. To think that if the Academy had just waited four more years to give her that richly deserved win instead of the kiss-off in '74 (which even Bergman herself knew she didn't deserve)...

Great actress, among my all time favourite. Her top 5 performances for me are the following:

1. Europe '51
2. Autumn Sonata
3. Gaslight
4. A Woman's Face
5. Stromboli
HM: Cactus Flower

Probably Notorious for me but I have talked about how important she was for setting up the "American female Brando" class - Page/Woodward/Laurie/Remick/Wood - those actress who were the Brando / Clift of their eras (late 50s) - that then setup Fonda/Burstyn .........and then Streep.

I always praise her in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941) - which is not a great movie - or a great performance in the lead either (Spencer Tracy was not an intellectual actor - he didn't think through parts quite on the level of Bogart/ Cagney / Robinson) - but here he goes full-on Cage and really pushes himself - it's a performance by an actor pushing against the upper limit of his range. He has his moments even if he fails......

BUT Bergman is a fascinating crash of the way we still like:

She's miscast (and knew it and sought this role out too!), her accent is shaky (who cares!), she seems above the role (again, who cares!) just on a "class" level.......but she gives a very complex, insanely sexual performance.

No actress sold sex like she did in this era (at least) - she was never above it, she suggested she enjoyed it (gasp!) or hated herself for it (her whole Casablanca performance can be read as being Slut Shamed even) - she is the only one of the "great" actresess in her era that is not in some way "man-ish" too (Garbo, Hepburn, Davis) which allowed her to cut hard across different material - she is always beautiful and feminine yet always great, serious and again sexually complex - she has a lot happening in the aesthetics of her acting and presentation.

This scene is one of the great female acted scenes ever - it is the "Method" pre-Method (like Cagney ripping his jacket off in Public Enemy or Robinson in everything in Scarlet Street):

Look at her hands - one clutched and shut .......but opening, one open and inviting and then clutched - she is acting what the scene is ABOUT - the scene is about sex and submission - there is nothing comparable by a GOAT in the same era.

Essential movie female acting scene if you want to see how just acting ........."became Acting":

Vulcano (1950)

Autumn Sonata blew me away

It will be quite the change of pace from Encanto! 

Oh honey, who?  Never heard of her!  It's Magnani that matters. 

I haven't seen Europe 51' but Autumn Sonata is the one that surpasses everything else I've seen by her. And I like a lot of her performances from her younger years too, so that says a lot. Fine actress.

Happy Birthday to the legend! Going to see her on the big screen tonight for the 80th Anniversary of Casablanca. I didn't even realize that it would coincide with her b-day. Kudos to that curator for knowing what's what.

You should must remember her. She was the swedish actress of The Damned, Salon Kitty, The four horsemen of the Apocalypse and Cries and Whispers!!!

I really like what she added to The Bells of St. Mary's.