Best Lead Actor
10 – Deon Lotz (Beauty)
Watching Deon Lotz in Beauty is an uncomfortable experience.
We are observing a voyeur as he fixes his gaze on the beautiful young man he
has become obsessed with, and that obsession gradually overcomes him until it bursts
out of François in a shocking scene towards the end. Lotz gives an understated
performance that suggests the internal turmoil François is experiencing as he
fights emotions and desires that he has long repressed. It's a skilfully judged
and ultimately shattering piece of acting.
9 – Matthias Schoenaerts (Rust & Bone)
Marion Cotillard had the showier role in Jacques Audiard's
Rust & Bone, but the performance that really impressed me came from her lesser-known
co-star. Ali is a tough character to like at first – he's a deadbeat dad who
scrapes a living from shady security work and bare-knuckle boxing – but through
his relationship with Cotillard's disabled Stéphanie he reveals other
aspects to his character. Schoenaerts is tough and tender, and his forceful
presence anchors a movie that often seems on the verge of splitting in two.
8 – Liam Neeson (The Grey)
Liam Neeson has spent the last couple of years wasting his
talent on witless action movies and blockbusters, but he reminded us what a
fine actor he is in one of the year's biggest surprises. The Grey begins as a survival thriller, following a group of plane crash survivors as they are
menaced by a pack of wolves, but as the film takes on more existential overtones
Neeson's performance comes to the fore. He bears deep emotional scars as a man
pining for his absent wife, and when the supporting players leave the
stage, Neeson's turn only grows in stature, reaching its zenith in the poetic and moving finale.
7 – Suraj Sharma (Life of Pi)
Much of Ang Lee's Life of Pi unfolds with just one man on
screen, so it was essential that the director found an actor capable of holding
the audience's attention for the duration. The unknown Suraj Sharma steps up to the task
magnificently, perfectly expressing the wide range of emotions that Pi experiences during the course of his bizarre ocean odyssey. It's a testament to the visual
effects team, of course, that Pi's relationship with the tiger Richard Parker
feels so real, but most of the credit must go to the charming actor who plays
the role with such a sense of truth.
6 – Melvil Poupaud (Laurence Anyways)
Louis Garrel was lined up to play the title role in Xavier
Dolan's third film but pulled out at the 11th hour, which is a
blessing for the film as it's impossible now to imagine anyone but Melvil Poupaud
in the part. The strength of Poupaud's lead performance – as he portrays
Laurence's transition from awkward cross-dresser to confident older woman – is so
vital to the film, as it keeps his style-conscious, shallow director grounded
in a sense of emotional reality.
5 – Robert Pattinson (Cosmopolis)
Eyebrows were raised when David Cronenberg cast Robert
Pattinson in his adaptation of Don DeLillo's novel, but surely we should know
better than to second-guess this great director by now. Pattinson's work here
is the cinematic revelation of the year. His unsettlingly blank performance – he
first appears like a ghost or a vampire – is perfect for the emotionally dead
Eric Packer. As the film progresses, he gradually seems to become more human,
blood flows into his veins, his old life falls apart and he steps towards an
unknown future.
4 – Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix (The Master)
How can I separate them? Freddie needs Lancaster like
Lancaster needs Freddie, and the ying/yang nature of their relationship
generated some of the year's most astonishing scenes. Phoenix's astounding
animalistic performance couldn't be more different from Hoffman's calmly
manipulative approach, but watching their torturous, antagonistic love story play
out on screen is a mesmerising experience. I loved seeing Phoenix manically run from the scene of the crime early on in the film, and I was fascinated
in those brief moments when Hoffman allowed Dodd's mask to slip, but it was in
their scenes together than the movie came to life. The processing scene, in
particular, is dynamite.
3 – Denis Lavant (Holy Motors)
Denis Lavant didn't just turn in one of the year's best
screen performances in Holy Motors, he turned in several of them, as a variety
of distinctive characters whom Monsieur Oscar transforms himself into during
the course of this film. An old lady begging for change in the street, a
flower-eating leprechaun who kidnaps a model, a dying man, an assassin hired to
kill his own doppelganger – the manner in which Lavant immerses himself into
each of these roles is thrilling to behold. Holy Motors acts as a kind of
summation or apotheosis of Lavant's long collaboration with Leos Carax. It's
the performance, or performances, of a lifetime.
2 – Jean-Louis Trintignant (Amour)
At the heart of Michael Haneke's Amour there are two titanic
performances from legends of French cinema. Jean-Louis Trintignant is the
husband who has to watch as his wife deteriorates following a stroke, and as we
watch him care for her, doing whatever he can to make her comfortable, we bear
witness to an inspiring and heartbreaking act of pure love. Trintignant's
Georges closes ranks around his wife, even excluding his own family, and
devotes himself entirely to her. He can be a harsh, cantankerous character at
times, but what shines through in the actor's performance is his humanity, and
the quiet devastation that he hides from his ailing wife's eyes.
1 – Thomas Doret (The Kid With a Bike)
No male character made a deeper emotional impact on me in
the past year than Cyril, the 11 year-old protagonist in the Dardenne brothers'
latest masterpiece. As with most of the lead characters in the Dardennes'
films, however, it was by no means love at first sight. Cyril is headstrong and
volatile, occasionally violent, and he's a nightmare for the authority figures
who try to keep him under control. But all he really is underneath the feisty façade
is a little boy looking for a parent to love him, and we come to care deeply
for Cyril in a way that we rarely do for movie characters. There's never a
moment in Doret's performance that feels contrived or false; he simply makes
Cyril a living, breathing character before our eyes, and our heart breaks for
him.
Best Lead Actress
10 – Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook)
Jennifer Lawrence's acclaimed performances to date have
shown us a young woman determinedly standing up to whatever the world can throw
at her, but Silver Linings Playbook gave her new notes to play. She plays
Tiffany with an unpredictable screwball energy that enlivens the whole picture,
but never loses sight of the pain the character has suffered in the past. It's
a dazzling whirlwind of a performance, with Lawrence giving it a fiery,
sharp-edged undertone that sets it apart from all other recent romantic comedy
heroines.
9 – Charlize Theron (Young Adult)
The character Charlize Theron plays in Young Adult is a
monstrous creation. Mavis Gary is cold, narcissistic, selfish, cruel and Machiavellian. Theron
gives a carefully nuanced performance that shows us how truly desperate and
lonely this character is for all her posturing, but she doesn't try to soften
her or make her more likable for the audience. It's a smart and adventurous
piece of acting from this terrific actress; a performance that can make you
cringe and laugh in equal measure, often simultaneously.
8 – Cécile de France (The Kid With a Bike)
Why does Samantha take an interest in Cyril? Why does she
take him in and persevere through his violent outbursts? Perhaps because she is
simply a good woman who can't bear to see a young boy suffer without reaching
out to help. Cécile de France's performance in this role is one of 2012's
quietest but most deeply effective pieces of acting. As ever in the Dardennes'
films, it feels like the actor is living the role, not just playing it, and her
deepening love for the boy is evident throughout. For the simple act of opening
her heart to this troubled child, Samantha is one of the year's most heroic
characters.
7 – Nina Hoss (Barbara)
Barbara is a gripping exploration of paranoia and
suspicion in 1980s East Germany, and director Christian Petzold is smart
enough to let Nina Hoss's face tell much of the story. As the doctor with a past
that hangs over her like a dark cloud, Hoss is reticent and remote, fearful of
getting close to anyone or opening up in a world where revealing too much about
oneself can be costly. Hoss is an intelligent, watchful presence and Petzold
(in their fifth feature together) utilises her unusual beauty to brilliant
effect.
6 – Nadezhda Markina (Elena)
Elena is a dutiful wife, trying to do the best she can for
her family in trying circumstances. She has married into wealth but her husband
frowns upon Elena supporting her own lower-class family with his money. When
the situation pushes her to take a desperate action, Andrei Zvyagintsev
shoots the critical moment in a single take, which is where the brilliance of Nadezhda
Markina's performance comes to the fore. The variety of emotions captured by
subtle changes in her face and body language in this sequence is staggering.
It's a shocking rupture in the film, but Markina manages to maintain our
fascination with – and sympathy for – Elena.
5 – Lola Créton (Goodbye First Love)
Goodbye First Love covers a decade in the life of its
characters but Lola Créton, who plays Camille, doesn't alter much physically in
that time. Nevertheless, something does change in her, something almost
imperceptible that Mia Hansen-Løve's camera manages to find and draw out of
her. Créton is achingly vulnerable and a slave to her tempestuous emotions, but
this fine young actress charts her gradual maturation with the most subtle but
resonant details. Her role requires her to suggest Camille's inner conflict
without recourse to dialogue and she achieves this wondrously.
4 – Suzanne Clément (Laurence Anyways)
Laurence Anyways is a story about a man who wants to become
a woman, but it's also the story of the women who loves that man, and how she
copes with the changing nature of their relationship. Suzanne Clément had a
small role in Xavier Dolan's debut film but this performance is a real
announcement of her talent. Fred is torn by her love for Laurence and her
insecurity about what that love means, and she portrays Fred's gnawing self-doubt
brilliantly, exploding with pent-up rage in one extraordinary scene. Dolan's
camera loves her, and she responds with a thrillingly intense performance.
3 – Golshifteh Farahani (About Elly)
The film suggests that it's about Elly, but really it's
about Sepideh, who is played by Golshifteh Farahani. She's the one who decides
to play matchmaker and invite her single friend Elly on a group weekend away, and
she's the one whose lies create a bewildering web of deceit when a tragic twist
turns their brief vacation on its head. Sepideh is a well-meaning character but
every decision she makes somehow seems to make things worse, and Farahani is
particularly brilliant in the film's gripping climactic scenes, when the full
moral weight of the drama is resting on her shoulders.
2 – Aggeliki Papoulia (Alps)
Aggeliki Papoulia was a standout performer in Yorgos
Lanthimos' incredible breakthrough film Dogtooth, and her second collaboration
with the director showcases another extraordinary piece of acting. In a film
about people who play roles for a living, Papoulia has the most demanding task
of all, playing the nurse who gets so deep into her surrogate life that she
starts to lose sight of her own real life. She is brilliant at delivering dialogue
in the flat, almost robotic register that Lanthimos demands, and when she
breaks down towards the end of the film – desperately reciting the lines she
has learned – it's almost like watching a machine malfunction, its sole purpose
in life having been snatched away.
1 – Emmanuelle Riva (Amour)
People often talk of actors being brave in their
performances, but how can we talk in such a way again after watching Emmanuelle
Riva in Amour? This is a performance of extraordinary courage; a woman in her
80s giving herself fully to an elderly character's slow decline towards death.
Watching her in distress is all the more devastating because we see at the
start of the film what a luminous presence Riva still possesses, but in the
scenes of her body gradually failing her she doesn't display a hint of vanity.
This is an astounding, dignified, peerless piece of work from a great actress,
and it's a performance that I don't think I'll ever be able to forget.
