Cate Blanchett is one of the greatest actresses of her generation and has produced a string of wonderful big screen performances over the years.
Cate Blanchett in Carol
Blanchett returns this week with her new film Carol, which sees her reunite with director Todd Haynes for the first time since I'm Not There. The movie is already surrounded in Oscar buzz and Blanchett is set to be in the Best Actress Oscar race once again.
To celebrate the release of the film, we look back over Blanchett's career and some of her best movies - of which there were plenty to choose from.
- Elizabeth (1998)
While Blanchett was no stranger to film when she landed the role of Elizabeth I in 1998, it was her first high-profile international role and the movie that really did send her star rocketing. The film saw her team up with director Shekhar Kapur for the first time, while Geoffrey Rush, Joseph Fiennes, and Christopher Eccleston were just some of the other names on the cast list.
The movie followed Elizabeth as she took up the throne and had to bring stability to the realm - facing pressures to marry as quickly as possible and produce an heir. She faces threats from both home and abroad but establishes herself as a monarch who knows her own mind and will not be forced into anything.
Elizabeth was the movie that really propelled Blanchett to fame as she delivers a truly complex picture of one of this country's most iconic and successful monarchs. She captures the strength and the resolve of this young Queen as well as her naivety and her vulnerability. I love these two sides of her and Blanchett balances them beautifully. By the end, she is a strong and confident young woman who knows how to lead her country and people forward.
Elizabeth is an enthralling and entertaining movie and Kapur really has put danger around every corner for this young Queen. Blanchett is supported by a wonderful cast but it is Rush who delivers the standout performance as Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth's protector and confidant.
Elizabeth went on to be nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Blanchett. The film scooped Best Makeup. This was the first Oscar nomination of Blanchett's career and she lost out to Gwyneth Paltrow for Shakespeare In Love.
Blanchett would go on to reprise the role of Elizabeth I in Elizabeth: The Golden Age nearly ten years later. While the sequel is a good watch, it is not quite as good as its predecessor.
- The Aviator (2005)
In 2005, Blanchett took on a supporting role in The Aviator, playing Katherine Hepburn alongside Leonardo DiCaprio. The movie was directed by Martin Scorsese and was a biopic of the director and aviator Howard Hughes.
The movie chronicles is life between the late 1920s and late 1940s where he was a successful director, rubbed shoulders with some of Hollywood's biggest stars, before surviving a plane crash and struggling with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
From start to finish, there is something so incredibly rich about The Aviator as Scorsese captures the look and feel of this period perfectly. There is also a gloss and a slickness to this biopic that doesn't allow you to take your eyes off the screen for a second.
Of course, DiCaprio takes centre stage as Hughes but that doesn't mean that Blanchett doesn't steal her scenes as Hepburn. There is a striking resemblance between the two actresses and Blanchett captures her haughtiness and insecurities incredibly well. The scenes that DiCaprio and Blanchett share really are gold and I would love to see them work together again.
The Aviator was a huge critical success upon release and went on to be nominated for eleven Oscars; including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for DiCaprio, and Best Supporting Actress for Blanchett.
Blanchett triumphed for Best Supporting Actress and it was the first Oscar win of her career. The Aviator went on to win for Cinematography, Film Editing, Art Direction, and Costume Design.
- Notes on a Scandal (2007)
In 2007, Blanchett teamed up with fellow Oscar winner for Notes on a Scandal, which was an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Zoe Heller and saw Richard Eyre in the director's chair.
Dench took on the role of veteran high school teacher, Barbara Covett, who befriends a younger member of staff, Sheba Hart (Blanchett), who has just joined the staff. When Barbara discovers that Sheba is having an affair with one of her fifteen year old student, she uses it to insert herself into the young woman's life... turning it upside down.
Dench and Blanchett are just wonderful together and any time they share the screen in Notes on a Scandal it is just magic. There is a real strength in the writing of both of these female characters and both actresses really do get their teeth stuck into these interesting and very complex roles.
Notes on a Scandal really is a movie that is a battle of wits and it is truly engrossing from the opening scene to the closing credits. The film explores the themes of desire as well as social envy as well as a controversial topic - all of which is done with huge assurance and confidence by the director.
For me, Notes on a Scandal was one of the best films to hit the big screen in 2007, with Dench and Blanchett giving two of the year's best performances.
Notes on a Scandal was a critical hit and went on to be nominated for four Oscars, including Best Actress for Dench and Best Supporting Actress for Blanchett - they lost out to Helen Mirren and Jennifer Hudson for The Queen and Dreamgirls.
- Blue Jasmine (2013)
Blanchett's moment of Oscar triumph came in 2013 when she finally got her hands on the Best Actress gong for her performance in Blue Jasmine.
Blue Jasmine saw her team up with filmmaker Woody Allen for the first time to take on the role of Jasmine, a New York socialite who deeply troubled and in denial after the actors of her husband turn her life upside down and all the fine things she's use to are gone.
Blanchett is the reason that this whole movie works - as well as good writing of course. But in less experienced hands Jasmine could end up being a character that you don't like because of the way that she behaves.
And yet Blanchett plays her in a way where you can't help but feel sorry for her. Jasmine is a complex and interesting character as this film is really about her own self-destruction and fall from grace. She finds herself in her current position because she can't truthfully look at her own life and the people in it.
This is a character that is charming, funny, lonely, pathetic, damaged, and brutal and Blanchett captures all of the different and contrasting facets with ease. Just about everyone was raving about her central performance and no other actress was even in with a sniff of stealing the Best Actress Oscar away from her.
Blue Jasmine was nominated for three Oscars, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress for Sally Hawkins and Best Original Screenplay for Allen. Blanchett got the one and only win for the film on the night.
Other great performances by Blanchett include, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Cinderella, Hanna, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
Carol is released 27th November.
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