Number 33: Katina Paxinou as Pilar in "For Whom the Bell tolls" (Best Supporting Actress Ranking)

Katina Paxinou’s functionality as Pilar, a powerful and man-like rebel fighter dwelling in the mountains of Spain in the movie model of Hemmingway’s For Whom the Bell tolls surely stands out among the winners in this classification – a character like Pilar has possibly never ever been observed on the monitor just before or would be once more.

Pilar is a headstrong and commanding woman, a born chief but also a sort of new mother for Maria (performed by Ingrid Bergman), a rape victim rescued by the rebels. All this allowed Katina Paxinou to produce a character who can be tender and loving but is also a accurate force of character, a woman who loves to give a loud giggle, who can combat as simply as any gentleman and who will not be intimidated by anyone. Before the character of Pilar even enters the 1st time, the rebels chat about her and say that she ‘fights like a bull’. And when Katina Paxinou finally appears, she does her very best to develop one particular of the most amazing, unique and impressing figures at any time witnessed on the display screen – everything by her is completed splendidly to craft a woman who, as she suggests it herself, ‘would have manufactured a great male.’

But the rebels in the mountains do not only have to battle towards the enemies outdoors – they also have trouble in the group: Pablo, the leader and also Pilar’s partner has become ‘lazy, a drunkard and a coward’ (the words and phrases of Pilar) and they really don't have faith in him any longer. So Pilar requires more than the management of the team, telling Pablo ‘You recognize now who commands? I command.’

But apart from becoming strong and established, Pilar also has a soft aspect. She attempts to provide Robert (an American fighter) and Maria collectively, constantly emotion like a mother to Maria and observing Robert really cautiously. Katina Paxinou’s most extraordinary scene comes when she tells Robert and Maria that ‘Many items tire me. And 1 of them is to be outdated and ugly.’ She tells the two how she has expended her life being unsightly, ‘how it is to be unsightly all your life and to truly feel in listed here that you’re lovely.’ The energy of this scene will come from the simple fact that Pilar could not be a typical elegance but she is still these kinds of a intriguing personality that it is fully believable when she provides that, even with her looks, many gentlemen have liked her. 

However, Katina Paxinou loses a lot of her impact on the story in the second half of the film in which she is by no means really yet again put in the highlight. Her wonderful voice can make some voice-over monologues extremely unforgettable but apart from this, she unfortunately by no means impresses as a lot once again as she did in the 1st 50 percent of the story. Nevertheless, Katina Paxinou’s work is nevertheless extremely powerful and entirely 1-of-a-type.