MovieChat Forums > A Woman's Face (1941) Discussion > Breaks my heart

Breaks my heart

posted 16 years ago by silver_wing9000-1
20 replies | jump to latest

I think I'm starting to have an obssession with this film. I have watched i think 5 times in the last 2 days and I still cant get enough. Joan Crawford here breaks my heart. Her charcter is so sad and so vulnerable and i just want to slip into the screen and hug her, because she plays such a sad charcter. The one scne that gets me is when she comes home from shopping and is proud at a ruffled shirt she bought, and her shy, coy and repressed excitability just breaks my heart. I love Joan in this picture and I think outside of Mildred Pierce, this is my favorite Joan film...its the first time for me that I see joan play a character with so many layers and so many complexities. How she didn't win an oscar for this or at least get a nomination is beyond me because she is beyond perfect in this picture.

*sigh* I love Joan

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[–] atlantajoseph 16 years ago

Joan certainly delivers a quality performance in this one, and the role is quite unique among the many characters she played. I also thought the scene with the ruffled shirt was a good one!

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] LionHearted99 16 years ago

I agree. Ms. Crawford inpires pathos and compassion in this film. I've only seen it once. But TCM is running it again and I will burn it onto a DVD and watch it again.
Conrad Veidt always gives a solid performance.

[–] shandy8 16 years ago

How right you are. Joan Crawford gives a performance in this film the should be required viewing for any person who declared that she was not a talented actress. This is by far the most rewarding period in Joan Crawford's enduring career, and I am so glad that posterity is finally embracing the film.

[–] mrplankton 16 years ago

quite appreciate youre assessment of joan crawfords character in this film silverwing. im generally not a fan of her's tho i admit she was rather stunning in this film and displayed sensuality and vulnerrability i did not generally see before from her. now i daresay i should give her other films a chance

cheers

[–] truthseeker1 16 years ago

Amen to all of your posts about Joan in this film. She is amazing & touching. I've watched it about 3 times in the past month. It is that good. I recently saw "Sadie McKee" also from around this period & she turns in another great performance there. I'll admit, I am a Bette Davis fan, & have been a bit prejudiced to Joan Crawford in the past. But now I am taking a closer look at Joan's films from the 30s & 40s in particular & loving what I see. She shines in every role & is a credit to the field of acting, no doubt about it. Mea culpa, dear Joan, RIP.

[–] Alexandrico 16 years ago

Any idea where I can watch this movie online. I can't find it anywhere and I can't buy dvds online.

[–] jaddeo 15 years ago

That Joan didn't get at least an Oscar nomination for this film is truly baffling. MGM never supported Crawford for an Oscar bid and at around this time was starting to put all it's weight behind Greer Garson. Louis B. Mayer did not like this film as it was not his type of wholesome, family drama and I truly believe, even though Joan defends him, that he was not the best guide for her career. Irving Thalberg, although married to Shearer, was probably more instinctivley accurate regarding the types of roles Joan should play and had he lived may have allowed her to play this type of meaty, complicated role which she craved and excelled at. This is a GREAT Crawford performance and for that matter a GREAT performance by any actrees any time, any where. I LOVE YOU JOAN!!!!!!

[–] ManWithoutFriends 15 years ago

its actually on youtube, but god knows for how long.

i rank "a womans face" as crawfords greatest performance, and one of the best of all time.

"they should give nicole kidman an oscar for being able to show any emotion after THAT much botox".

[–] Filmrabid 14 years ago

Joan's performance still rings true today. In an era of melodramatic over acting, she gives a truthful, sympathetic characterization. She makes you believe in her character's arc. Great stuff!!

[–] cnicknz 14 years ago

Joan is brilliant in this film, as she was in countless others. Like any talented actress, she was only as good as the material she was given, and here, even though it is implausible melodrama, she makes the most of every opportunity. A great job that should have definitely been recognized with an Oscar nomination.

[–] Head_Banging_Brunette 15 years ago

*sigh* Me too. I think I've fallen in love with Joan Crawford. I also just wanted to slip into the screen and hug her and protect her character from all the cruelty. I love the ending and how her character changed throughout the film. It was an amazing performance.

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[–] jillianburks 15 years ago

I do admit the scene about the ruffled shirt broke my heart. Only seconds before that woman had been making fun and laughing at her because of her face... and then Joan Crawf runs to her, proud of her new shirts, thinking she was talking to a friend rather than someone who laughed her. I almost started crying because she didn't even realize that she didn't truly have friends.

[–] Regina_Giddens 14 years ago

It breaks my heart also...yes, especially the shirt scene. I'm a little bit obsessed with it also, although I only saw it for the first time two nights ago.

This movie is so underrated. Contains one of Joan Crawford's best performances that i've seen. She could convey so many emotions with just her eyes.

But you are, Blanche. You are in that chair!

[–] dmedinacooper 13 years ago

Just saw this yesterday. The scene that sells it to me is her in the hospital getting her bandages unwrapped. She is so terrified and so overwrought and just so sad, that it makes the doctor uncomfortable, but even he can't look away. I've watched that scene 10 times already. With half a face, she delivered more emotion than anyone with their entire faces shown! Brilliant work!

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] pelscc2000 13 years ago

Joan Crawford's face was absolutely beautiful in this film. So soft and vulnerable. So unlike her face in Torch Song where she looked like a clown.

[–] PussyCrusher_Principal 12 years ago

"Joan Crawford's face was absolutely beautiful in this film. So soft and vulnerable. So unlike her face in Torch Song where she looked like a clown."

I agree...ironically, even though she plays a physically scarred and therefore "ugly" woman, Joan's face seems less severe and her features less sharp than usual, closer to the "softer" way she looked in Grand Hotel than in later films like Daisy Kenyon and Mildred Pierce, when her character was supposed to be a glamourpuss and had men chasing after her (not that she wasn't playing a beautiful character in Grand Hotel). I find her oddly beautiful in A Woman's Face, even with that horrible scar. I'll have to watch it again to see if I can put my finger on why this is so (maybe her eyebrows are deemphasized?), but I wouldn't question it if someone told me this was an intentional effect on the part of Cukor and his makeup department on AWF.

"The things I do for love..." Jaime Lannister