Kate Winslet's Top 10 Best Performances

From her debut in Celestial Creatures to the series Mare of Easttown, via Titanic or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, we make the best of the English actress.

“Kate Winslet gives it all and heads to the Oscars again“. The American press is these days praising the performance of the English actress, war photographer in the cinema in Lee Miller. A biopic where the 49-year-old Briton still displays all her dramatic power. As for three decades, on the big and small screen. To the point of already having 6 Oscar nominations including 1 Best Actress statuette on her mantelpiece, placed alongside her 2 Emmy Awards and 5 Golden Globes. So on the occasion of the release of Lee Millerwe classified the best performances of Kate Winslet.

10) Iris, in The Holiday (2006)

We start this ranking with an exception: this fireside romantic comedy was poorly received by critics upon its release. Yes but here we are, over the years (and end of year celebrations), The Holiday gained credit with the public. To the point where the little bluette at four (Kate Winslet And Jack Black / Cameron Diaz and Jude Law) has become an essential rom'com. In the skin of the feverish journalist, pathetically in love with her boss who made her go crazy, the Briton makes a perfect ersatz of Bridget Jonestender and soft like a cinematic cuddly toy.

9) Nancy, in Carnage (2011)

Should she do more comedies? Obviously, when we review Carnage today: very comfortable in this game of massacre, she finds her place effortlessly in front of a five-star cast (Jodie Foster, Christopher Waltz And John C. Reillyjust that). Initially a preppy mother who defends her son against all odds, her character subtly slides towards furious madness as the social veneer cracks. Completely stiff, she says: “I'm glad our son beat yours up and I'm wiping my ass with your Human Rights.“You have to see her make fun of her image as an Oscar-winning actress and act drunk until she proudly vomits in large streams onto the coffee table. A great burlesque moment that is far too rare in her filmography.

8) Juliet, in Celestial creatures (1994)

When she bursts into this fantastic thriller by Peter Jackson – not yet director of Lord of the Rings – Kate Winslet is not completely unknown, but almost. The character of Juliet, this English teenager who becomes obsessed with Pauline (to the point of killing her), remains a turning point in her life and career. If Jackson's phantasmagorical production, his avant-garde visual effects which evoke the fanciful world of young girls remain in mind, Winslet's ability to make her character more complex than expected, her hallucinatory naturalness, make it the one of his great roles.

7) Ruth, in Holy Smoke (1999)

What to do after the tidal wave Titanic ? Which films, which filmmakers, to choose? In the aftermath of the triumph of Cameron's film, Leo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet were spoiled for choice. The actress decided to head to Australia, to film with Jane Campion this wacky UFO with new age accents, a strange behind-closed-doors setting in the desert where she plays a young woman whom her parents believe to be under the influence of a guru, and who finds herself confronted with a mustachioed “disenchanter” played by Harvey Keitel. “ This is the film of an angry woman “, says Campion of this fable about male domination. Maybe two angry women, judging by the fierce energy that carries here Kate Winslet. She stands up to the super macho Keitel so well that he, disconcerted, ends up wandering the bush in a very becoming red dress.

6) Hanna, in The Reader (2009)

Impressive in the role of this former Nazi guard, stationed at Auschwitz during the War, with a tortured past, to say the least, Kate Winslet delivers a tough and courageous performance. If the film Stephen Daldry (too conciliatory?) did not escape controversy, the actress was acclaimed for the accuracy of her interpretation. Moreover, she received her one and only Oscar for this role.

5) Marianne, in Reason and Feelings (1995)

With her classic look and silhouette, Winslet was obviously perfect for period films. Despite everything, she avoided roles involving crinolines, probably to avoid being locked up. But Reason and feeling is the exception that proves the rule. In this uninterrupted quadrille where lovers left to their own devices come closer, move away and reunite, here she plays Marianne Dashwood, a lover character who gets rid of the dashing Greg Wise to find herself with a Alan Rickman crazy intense. Facing him (and facing Emma Thompson), she proves that she can compete with the biggest British actors.

4) Mare, in Mare of Easttown (2021)

A total masterclass. Surfing on the concept of the tormented local cop – made hyper-popular by True Detective – the HBO series focuses everything on the English actress, the perfect inspector from the Philadelphia suburbs, a taciturn and divorced cop, struggling in her life and stuck facing the sordid murder of a 17-year-old girl. Kate Winslet got her hands dirty for this larger-than-life role, transforming herself into a pure Pennsylvanian (going so far as to master the local rural accent) and carrying on her shoulders this incredibly captivating naturalist thriller.

3) Clementine, in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

It would have been easy to make Clementine the villain of the couple she formed with Joel (Jim Carrey), since it is she who charms him, helps him come out of his shell, then decides to erase him from his memory by understanding that they are too different to live together. However, Kate manages to make her heroine shine, to offer her several lives and facets. Whimsical, romantic, deep, it's a character that she adores. So much so that she could see herself one day finding this key role in her career: “Clementine, I would love to play her again, she confided in 2017. I like the idea that she lets herself go, that she has become fat… But that she likes it, that she feels good…”

2) Pink, in Titanic (1997)

Of course, Rose DeWitt Bukater (or Rose Dawson if you prefer) was the most important role of Kate Winslet. If only because Titanic is in the top 5 biggest hits in the history of cinema (4th with 2.2 billion dollars). But also because the British actress, aged around twenty at the time, is luminous. Solar. Both strong in the face of her horrible mother and her horrible fiancé, and passionate with her Jake. Their love story on this liner never ceases to thrill spectators, generation after generation. But couldn't she have left him a place on that door?

1) April, in The Rebel Wedding (2008)

A decade after playing the ideal couple Rose and Jack, Kate and Leo meet to dissect all the flaws of life together, through April and Frank. This drama, a terribly pessimistic portrayal of the American dream, is all the sadder because this talented duo was associated in the public's mind with an idea of ​​pure love. The fact that it was staged by Winslet's then-husband, Sam Mendesfurther adds to the realism of this tough, but strong project. She embodies with enormous emotion this woman who gradually loses her illusions and dreams of another life, even though she and her husband had sworn to never fall into the clichés of married life, in the conformism they observe in their neighborhood. If the filming was by their own admission grueling, Kate and Leo both deliver a performance of exceptional accuracy.