@Jazz and @Apusansar’s lists are pretty great. I also second Ripley. Some other lady characters that have been indelible for me (sometimes identified by actress’ name only but I am talking about characters rather than just performances):
Emma Thompson in Wit and Sense and Sensibility
Elizabeth Taylor, Who’s Afraid of Virgina Woolf
La Binoche as Julie in Blue
Isabelle Huppert in The Piano Teacher
Isabelle Adjani as Adele H. in The Story of Adele H
Machiko Kyo as Mickey in Street of Shame
Isuzu Yamada in Osaka Elegy and Sisters of the Gion
Barbara Stanwick as Stella in Stella Dallas
Lady Kaede played by Mieko Harada in Ran
Olivia DeHavilland as Catherine in The Heiress
Naomie Harris as Selena in 28 Days Later
Makiko Esumi in Maboroshi
Rie Miyazawa as Eiko in Tony Takitani
Anna Karina as Nana in Vivre Sa Vie
Bette Davis as Charlotte and Margot in Now, Voyager and All About Eve
Natalie Portman as Mathilda in The Professional
Yeong-ae Lee as Geum-ja in Sympathy for Lady Vengeance
Holly Hunter as Ada in The Piano
Female characters who were not central yet turned out to be more interesting than their male leads or their supporting role called for (most of these are mainstream flicks):
Marcia Gay Harden as Lee Krasner in the mess that was Pollock
All of Bill Murray’s exes in Broken Flowers: Sharon Stone, Tilda Swinton, Jessica Lange, and Francis Conroy
Laura Linney‘s chilling Lady MacBeth turn in the mess that was Mystic River
Lena Olin in The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Debbi Morgan in Eve’s Bayou
Regina King in Boyz N’ the Hood
Gong Li in Memoirs of a Geisha
Amy Adams in Junebug
Angela Bassett as Betty Shabazz in Malcolm X
Norma Bengell & Odete Lara in Noite Vazia. ;)
I want to throw some names here from my region but I guess they’re not as “acclaimed” as Taylor or Schygulla, so…I’ll pass in hopes of a more universally approached thread about this topic with BOTH genders this time.
How about Tania Palaiologou, speaking of Landscape in the Mist.
Can anyone tell me whether it’s ‘Landscape’ or ‘Landscapes’? This is bugging the shit out of me.
Claire Dolan.
Monica Vitti in Antonioni’s “trilogy”.Basically most female characters in Antonioni’s films.
So there are no superfluous characters, male or female?
No, I don’t think so. Even a totally unnecessary character feeds our understanding of how a film works or doesn’t.
Yeah, it’s sort of like saying, “This grass wouldn’t be the grass that it is if it weren’t green”.
We are not allowed to imagine what a movie would be like if it were different? What if this character had been cut out? What if that scene were trimmed? What if they’d hired a different person to play this part? Maybe a film doesn’t work because it includes a superfluous character, scene, or dialogue.
While I believe that the main goal of film criticism should be to observe what is there and comment on it, I think imagination can play a healthy role, too.
In the last two decades, I haven’t seen a more powerful female presence
than Isabelle Huppert in THE PIANO TEACHER and Emily Watson in BREAKING THE WAVES.
Those are the gold standards for me right now.
I also greatly admire Amanda Root’s marvelously restrained turn as Anne in PERSUASION (1999)
a picture which happens to be the finest Jane Austin adaptation I’ve ever witnessed.
Another exercise in mesmerizing restraint, Tran Nu Yên-Khê as Mui in THE SCENT OF GREEN PAPAYA (1993).
Other standouts from further back:
Ava Gardner in NIGHT OF THE IGUANA is a force of nature, putting up the bravest front.
I love Celeste Holm as the gal Gregory Peck should have gone for in GENTLEMAN’S AGREEMENT;
she’s a totally grounded, hip kitty with a sense of humor taking a back seat to the wasp.
I never tire of watching Ruth Gordon in ROSEMARY’S BABY walking into scenes and just owning that movie.
Her only competition is Cassavettes, really.
Madelaine Kahn does a similar thing in PAPER MOON, even though we know who
that picture belongs to.
Shirley MacLaine’s adorable character in THE APARTMENT controls the screen
when she’s on, and her hot mess of a gal in SOME CAME RUNNING is equally memorable.
A jaw dropper: Tatiana Samoilova as Veronica in THE CRANES ARE FLYING
She becomes focus of final third of the story, allowing Urusevsky’s handheld camera to follow,
often in extreme close-up, an endearing, phenomenal performance.
Her highly expressive face and eyes generate an unforgettable screen presence;
at times Samoilova is an adorable blend of a young Ingrid Bergman and Jennifer Jones.
One of the most daring female characters, considering that the main characters and setting were ostensibly
a thoroughly detailed depiction of Anytown, USA, would be Charlie (Teresa Wright) in
Hitchcock’s SHADOW OF A DOUBT. That spooky speech about alienation and detachment
that Joseph Cotten gives at the dinner table? Young Charlie had said basically the same thing
at the film’s beginning. Still stunning that a young girl would express such sentiments in 1943.
Along those same lines, a young Pamela Franklin in THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE is something to behold. Maggie Smith is a phenomenal in the key role, and belongs on the list we are sort of all making in this thread, but Franklin has her day as well.
Vitti in Red Desert
Barbara Loden in Wanda
Natalie Wood in Splendor In The Grass
Pina Pelicer (One Eyed Jacks) and Elpidia Carriilo (Honorary Counel, Salvador, Mi Familia and Bread and Roses) two of the worlds finest actors ever! Their performances are are works that stand alone. One can completely forget that these were written words first, there is no acting, it is transcendent. I hope I make sense. I will remember their performances as if they were my own experiences and they are because they reflect humanity so truly, so universally..
MIEKO HARADA AS KAEDE IN RAN (KUROSAWA)
I second ^Mieko Harada as Kaede in Ran
Thelma Ritter- I’m surprised no one mentioned the little firecracker. She’s outstanding on every film she’d been in.
Kenji
Tanaka Kinuyo in The Life of Oharu
Nina Pens Rode in Gertrud
Louise Brooks in Pandora’s Box
Emilie Dequenne in Rosetta
Anne Bancroft in The Pumpkin Eater
Ana Torrent in Spirit of the Beehive
Yella Rottlander in Alice in the Cities
Naomi Watts in Mulholland Dr
Marie Riviere in The Green Ray
Kagawa Kyko in Sansho the Bailiff
Cyd Charisse in The Band Wagon
Marlene Dietrich in The Devil is a Woman (and others)
Zhang Ziyi in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
so many….