Premiere has compiled a list of the 100 Greatest Performances of All Time in the April issue of their magazine. I stumbled onto this list after watching Sophie's Choice for the first time only a few days ago. I had been completely mesmerized by Meryl Streep's performance. She filled the character of Sophie with so much nuance and thorough attention to detail, that it was the most impressive performance I had seen since I watched My Left Foot. She was so completely captivating that I had forgotten that it was an actor I had been watching.
Her performance in that film ranks at number 3 on Premiere's list. Of course their list is subjective, and mainly contains performances from English-language films, but they've made some very interesting and inspired choices, and it's definitely worth the time to go through it and read their captions (I read most of the blurbs, but not all). I was surprised but pleased at their choice of the overall best performance.
