Best performance by a child in a film

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Two good examples for all you English-US/UK Centric crowd.

Nobody Knows (2004, Japan) - Yūya Yagira. Won Cannes Best Actor Award in 2004, also main star of the film.

Come And See… (1985, Soviet Union). Main star: Aleksei Kravchenko.

Aleksey Kravchenko said that he underwent “the most debilitating fatigue and hunger. I kept a most severe diet, and after the filming was over I returned to school not only thin, but grey-haired.”
 
7_Sorrows said:
I didn’t either. My family was watching the movie the other night and I did a double take. I asked “is that christian bale?”.
They said it was. Now I learn heath ledger was in the same movie!
That was a good movie by the way.

I thought Hayley Mills was a good child actor. Also Patty Duke in the Miracle Worker. Natalie Wood and Margaret O’Brien.
The little girl who played Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird. <Mary Badham
Elizabeth Taylor.
There were many good child dramatic actors in the 40’s and 50’s and 60’s.
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Giorgio Cantarini - who played the child “Joshua” in the 1997 masterpiece “Life Is Beautiful” is worthy of note. He’s great. Or is it that I love the film so much? No. He’s great! 😃

youtube.com/watch?v=LIABhwFVbqk < excerpts with Giorgio in them.

Any movie that can make me laugh hard and cry hard in the same sitting goes into a special category.

“Life Is Beautiful” is one of these. The original “Rocky” was another.
The Musical “Damn Yankees” … ah, I digress - oh, The Music Man did that to me too … and it did have little Ronny Howard (who was better in his TV role of Opie actually, but a good child actor).
 
The Music Man was one of my favorite musicals.
Yes Opie was cute in that movie. Ron Howard has had a long career.
 
CaptFun said:
Thanks so much for the clip Mary Gail. What a little trouper! Superb performance.

I’ll have to get his name … and see if he did any MORE acting. I don’t remember seeing him again that I can remember. But 👍
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The little boy was played by Enzo Staiola, he did have a bit of an acting career, but his last film was made in 1977.

Here is his IMDB page: imdb.com/name/nm0821543/?ref_=tt_ov_st

I had seen that film the first time at 21. Now I’m almost 45, and hit it me differently.

The little boy is so sensitive and mature (in the opening scenes we see that he has a job at a gas station. He should be at school) I can understand his dad losing patience, yet at the same time, I can understand the little boy feeling hurt. I think the scene I included showed him hesitating to eat his lunch, because he was worried that his dad could not afford it.
 
CaptFun said:
Giorgio Cantarini - who played the child “Joshua” in the 1997 masterpiece “Life Is Beautiful” is worthy of note. He’s great. Or is it that I love the film so much? No. He’s great! 😃

youtube.com/watch?v=LIABhwFVbqk < excerpts with Giorgio in them.

Any movie that can make me laugh hard and cry hard in the same sitting goes into a special category.

“Life Is Beautiful” is one of these. The original “Rocky” was another.
The Musical “Damn Yankees” … ah, I digress - oh, The Music Man did that to me too … and it did have little Ronny Howard (who was better in his TV role of Opie actually, but a good child actor).
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“Life is Beautiful” is a wonderful film. I loved how Benigni’s character courted his wife. I saw it at the movies when it first came out, and I think I started crying when they were at the train and didn’t stop until the end.
 
Freddie Bartholomew in Captains Courageous.

Hailee Steinfeld in the Coen Bros. version of True Grit
 
KevinAK said:
Freddie Bartholomew in Captains Courageous.

Hailee Steinfeld in the Coen Bros. version of True Grit
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Wasn’t freddie bartholomew also in david copperfield?

I didn’t know the Coen brothers had made a version of true grit.
What was it callef?

Judy Garland in wizard of oz was great.
 
7_Sorrows said:
Wasn’t freddie bartholomew also in david copperfield?

I didn’t know the Coen brothers had made a version of true grit.
What was it callef?

Judy Garland in wizard of oz was great.
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I think he was. He was also in Little Lord Fauntleroy
 
7_Sorrows said:
No. Dial M for Murder was remade and they called it A Perfect Murder.
I am sure there are other examples.

Now I do remember the movie. I wanted to see the remake but never
did. Glad you liked it. A lot of times the remakes are not as good as the originals.
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I didn’t say I liked it. I had a chill, like walking on the Duke’s grave. Some things should never be done. No matter how much talent or artistry. Could the Mona Lisa be done with greater detail now? Perhaps. But it shouldn’t be. The remake was quality, but unsettling like a widower marrying his former bride’s younger sister.😃

It was however, Truer to the book than the Duke’s.
 
Hoosier_Daddy said:
I didn’t say I liked it. I had a chill, like walking on the Duke’s grave. Some things should never be done. No matter how much talent or artistry. Could the Mona Lisa be done with greater detail now? Perhaps. But it shouldn’t be. The remake was quality, but unsettling like a widower marrying his former bride’s younger sister.😃

It was however, Truer to the book than the Duke’s.
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Yes. I don’t think I would like to see a remake of Gone with the Wind!
They wrote a sequel and I don’t think it did well.
They did a remake of The Postman Always Rings Twice.
The original had Lana Turner and John Garfield.
The remake had Jack Nicholson and I can’t think of who the actress was. The original was classic. The remake couldn’t top it.
 
Weighing in from foreign films:

Catherine Demongeot in Zazie dans le Métro, a very funny film by Louis Malle; and Jean-Pierre Léaud in *Les quatre cents coups *(The 400 Blows), directed by François Truffaut. Léaud also appeared in the sequels.
 
7_Sorrows said:
I don’t know if she has been mentioned but shirley temple was a great child actress for many years!
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Shirley Temple is THE ORIGINAL child star. I used to love her movies when I was a kid and she was waaaaaaaaaaaaaay before my time! 🙂 I used to love The Little Rascals too. 🙂
 
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