Best Actress: Barbra Streisand

 Hello gorgeous.

via bardems

With those words, history was made. Funny Girl was Barbra Streisand's film debut, after years of successfully playing Fanny Brice on Broadway in the production of 'Funny Girl', she, of course, played the role in the film adaptation and won an Oscar for her efforts.

Having read Barbra's memoirs over the summer, all of the work she put into developing the character through its Broadway development and then again when it came time to make the film was still front of mind. Knowing that she had such a hand in creating this character and influencing the set (while also looking at it all critically, knowing that she had ideas about direction, score, soundtrack and more) almost added to this watch. 

I didn't much care for Funny Girl the first time around. I thought it was overly long and I was so new to Barbra Streisand (I know, I know, but we were a rock 'n roll house, we didn't have any of Barbra's recordings) that I was mostly like "Okay, cool. That's cool that she tied with Katharine Hepburn. Fun bit of lore." This time around, I paid attention to the small things. The way she'd hold her body as she sang. The bits of physical comedy. Where she'd look and how she'd react to other characters. If this could be considered Barbra's signature role, it felt important to pay attention to everything, and I'm really glad that the Academy rewarded her for Funny Girl.

As we know, Barbra tied with Katharine Hepburn (The Lion in Winter) and it's almost perfect: the ultimate dramatic performance of the year from Katharine and the ultimate musical/comedy performance of the year from Barbra. They were nominated against Patricia Neal (The Subject Was Roses), Vanessa Redgrave (Isadora), and Joanne Woodward (Rachel, Rachel). 

As I said in Katharine's post, I do adore how Joanne Woodward was so open and vulnerable in Rachel, Rachel, but these two winning performances are perfect and I wouldn't change this history-making result for anything! 

DID I LIKE FUNNY GIRL? I did!
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Did you like Funny Girl? What are your thoughts on Barbra Streisand's Oscar win?

Keep up with all my Rewatching the Best Actresses posts here!