Luise Rainer Has Died

For as many years as I can remember, Rainer was the reigning chronologically and longest-lived competitive Oscar-winner, having won Best Actress for the films of 1936 and again the next year for films 1937. I thought for sure Shirley Temple would be the last Oscar winner left from the 1930s, but Rainer outlasted her. Rainer was to be 105 in just two weeks, she died Dec. 30 (her birthday is January 12th). 98-year-old Olivia de Havilland remains the very last Oscar nominee of the 1930s— apt since Gone With the Wind is one of the most famous of all '30s movies. Below is Rainer's (staged-for-the-newsreels) acceptance of the '36 Oscar.

84th Annual Academy Awards: A Review

Billy was back, and he nailed it! In his opening montage (which I was actually dreading, fearing, “old hat”) he was very funny, as were the cameos: To George Clooney: “Say ‘I’m Batman’”/ Justin Bieber (“Good luck, Bob”), Sammy Davis Jr./ The Help gag: “It’s your duty isn’t it?”/ Billy as Tintin. Crystal’s perennial Best Picture nominee medley was terrific too, especially the Hugo bit “…shoot Ben Kingsley in bed, ‘cause you’re Marty!” and even the Tree of Life digs, sung to Alfie: “What’s it all about Malick?…. I heard it even freaked out God.”

Of Crystal’s countless gags that hit the mark:

- Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: That’s how my relatives are watching the show.

- We’re here at the beautiful Chapter 11 Theater.

- The movies have always been there for us. They’re the place to go to laugh, to cry, to question, to text.

- Nothing can take the sting out of the world’s economic problems like watching millionaires present each other with gold statues.

- The Academy bought a pair of ruby slippers, that Tom Sherak is wearing tonight.

- Harry Potter’s movies made $7.7 billion and yet they only paid 14% income tax, which is interesting.

Only a couple missteps for Billy, like that semi-racist Beverly Hills gag and his Christopher Plummer age stuff, as well as his off-the-mark this time “what are they thinking” bit.

The best comedy bit was with Melissa McCarthy backstage with Billy— started rocky, but had a great pay-off. Additionally, I loved after the big splashy Oscar score thing Billy went, “eh”.

So many really good presenters too this year: Chris Rock— side-splittingly funny, on doing animated films (It’s getting dark outside”); Cymbals bit with Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis; Jennifer Lopez and Cameron Diaz doing that strange butts to camera over-the-shoulder thing actually was refreshingly silly, since they were so stiff up until then, saving them in the end (no pun intended); Ben Stiller and Emma Stone— at last Ben owns up to his usual over-the-top presenting and Emma was fun!

A few “not great” presenters: The Robert Downey Jr. documentary bit wasn’t at all funny and was endless; the Muppets kind of flopped; Bridesmaids humor was pretty lame.

Most stunning looking: Penelope Cruz (again) and Berenice Bejo.

The clip packages were not great.  Especially poor were the celebs talking about “the movies”—they seriously needed to be scripted because people just talking never works [what was Brad Pitt saying about gargantuas?]—Billy was hilarious when he deadpanned after one of them “I’ve never had any of those feelings.”  “The Wizard of Oz” bit with the Christopher Guest regulars was OK amusing.

The Cirque du Soleil act was pretty entertaining (only one slight slip up by one performer).  They should do it every year.  It broke things up, and is better than performing Best Songs—which they left out this year.

Oscar trivia appeared mid-show: 9 SNL cast members who are Oscar nominees (only a few were revealed), sent us scratching our heads at my Oscar party. They are: Dan Aykroyd, George Coe (obscure early cast member; short film nominee), Joan Cusack, Robert Downey Jr., Michael McKean (song), Eddie Murphy, Bill Murray, Randy Quaid, Kristen Wiig.

Odds and ends: I wish they’d go back to the Best Supporting Actress Award as the first given, starting on a “technical” award is always a bore; the band in the balcony was a strange shot to see over and over (the music was good, just the shot was weird); I’m so glad they continued the reading of the name of the movie when announcing winners for the technical categories before the names of the winners, so viewers at home could score their ballots; Descendents co-writer (TV’s Community co-star) Jim Rash mimicking Angelina Jolie’s stance was hilarious and Alexander Payne’s thing about his mother was good too; not just your TV award: the audio was strange at times (weird piercing/beeping sound as people spoke).

La Streep triumphs! Oscar records scorecard time: Meryl Streep is now only one of five actors who have won 3 Oscars (the others: Walter Brennan, Katharine Hepburn [won 4], Ingrid Bergman, and Jack Nicholson).

To sum it up: Billy, we’ve missed you! Another good one, Billy on Academy President Tom Sherak’s speech: “Thank you Tom, and thank you for whipping the crowd into a frenzy”—haha! Billy, please come back next year.

Just Six Best Director Nominees from the 1960s Left

With the passing of Michael Cacoyannis at age 89, just six Best Director Oscar nominees from the 1960s are still alive. Cacoyannis was nonimated for 1964s Zorba the Greek.  Only one pre-60s Best Director nominee is still alive: Michael Anderson (Around the World in 80 Days, 1956).  Only one winner is alive from the 1960s- Mike Nichols, who won for The Graduate.






Below is the full list of living '60s nominees and the films they received nominations for in this decade:



Claude Lelouch (b. 1937): A Man and a Woman (1966)
Mike Nichols (b. 1931): Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), *The Graduate (1967)
Norman Jewison (b. 1926): In the Heat of the Night (1967)
Franco Zeffirelli (b. 1923): Romeo and Juliet (1968)
Anthony Harvey (b. 1931): A Lion in Winter (1968)
Costa-Gavras (b. 1933): Z (1969)

With Lumet's Passing, One '50s Best Director Oscar Nominee Left: Michael Anderson

With the passing of Sidney Lumet— a Best Director Oscar nominee for 1957's 12 Angry Men— just one Best Director nominee from the 1950s is still with us: Around the World in 80 Days' Michael Anderson. Anderson, who was nominated for an Oscar just this once for the 1956 Best Picture winner, is 91 years old.

Eight 1950s Oscar Nominated (Male) Actors Left

Today came the news that Tony Curtis and Joe Mantell died, Best Actor nominee 1958 and Best Supporting Actor nominee 1955, respectively. This leaves just eight (male) actors left among 1950s Oscar nominees, as follows— Best Actor nominees (three): Ernest Borgnine [the last male '50s Oscar winner; photo], Kirk Douglas, and Sidney Poitier. Best Supporting Actor nominees: Don Murray, Mickey Rooney, Russ Tamblyn, Theodore Bikel, and Robert Vaughn. Surprising how few remain.

1940s Oscar-Nominated Actors Dwindling

With the passing of Richard Todd and Jennifer Jones in December, and now Jean Simmons last week, there are but eight living Oscar-nominated actors from the '40s [three winners], plus two winners of the special award for juvenile performers, as follows:

Joan Fontaine (b. 1917), nominated for films of 1940, 1941, and 1943 (winner, Best Actress 1941)

Olivia de Havilland (b. 1916), nominated for films of 1939, 1941, 1946, 1948, 1949 (winner Best Actress, 1946 & 1949)

Mickey Rooney (b. 1920), nominated for films of 1939, 1943, 1955 (winner of Honorary Oscar in 1983)

Angela Lansbury (b. 1925), nominated for films of 1944, 1945, 1962

Ann Blyth (b. 1928), nominated for films of 1945

Joan Lorring (b. 1926), nominated for films of 1945

Celeste Holm (b. 1917), nominated for films of 1947, 1949 (winner, Best Supporting Actress, 1947)

Kirk Douglas (who'll outlive us all) (in photo above in 2009) (b. 1916), nominated 1949 (winner of Honorary Oscar in 1996)

Margaret O'Brien (b. 1937) and Claude Jarman, Jr. (b. 1934) won Special Awards for Juvenile Acting in 1944 and 1946 respectively

There are no nominated actors alive from the 1920s, and four alive from the 1930s: Jackie Cooper (Best Actor nominee 1930-31), Luise Rainer (Best Actress winner 1936 & 1937), Mickey Rooney (Best Actor nominee 1939), and Olivia de Havilland (Best Supporting Actress nominee 1939), plus Special Award winner Shirley Temple (films of 1934).

Producers and Marketing People Screw Over Oscars

This is a shocker.... the idea to have more nominations for producers at the Oscars came from Bill Condon and Laurence Mark who most assuredly would have seen a Best Picture nomination had the rule existed when DREAMGIRLS was in contention. And even more shocking the head of the committee was Tom Sherak, a marketing dude. Plus "marketing guru Cheryl Boone-Isaacs" was also on the committee that pushed this one through. Hmmmmmm. And it all came out of a post-mortem following the OSCARCAST.

I'm glad this decision was all about honoring more ""excellence" and not some ploy to get producers more noms, the show higher ratings, and bump up the profiles of marketing executives.

Link to Los Angeles Times article.

Oscars Will Have Ten Best Picture Nominees in 2010

This announcement had me reeling today! It is a BAD idea and will serve no other purpose than to dilute the awards and lead them down the path of the Grammys and the Emmys, where they give so many out that they no longer have meaning. Ten Best Pic noms today, ten best director noms tomorrow, Best Voice-over performance, etc. It will never end if you open this can of worms.

The people who are all excited on the boards about how wonderful this is are not thinking clearly. This will NOT open up the race to a better mix of movies. The Academy is NOT going to suddenly nominate the likes of the SUPERBADs and THE DARK KNIGHTs. Who said that THE DARK KNIGHT placed 6-10 last year. It probably didn't. Do you think the Academy REALLY would have nominated THE WRESTLER for Best Picture?

In addition to the five nominated films (SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, MILK, FROST/NIXON, ... BENJAMIN BUTTON, and THE READER) we'd more likely have...

AUSTRALIA
DOUBT
GRAN TORINO
THE VISITOR

and for the "surprise" nominee, December fav MARLEY & ME.

Trust me, if this thing goes through STAR TREK is NOT gonna be on that Best Picture list.

This is only going to muddy the waters. A Best Picture nomination won't carry half the weight (literally as the number is doubling). And it'll make the Best Animated Film category a complete joke, because there will probably be an animated movie stuck into that Best Picture category every year (after all its safe to nominate an animated film without the corresponding director and the voters are going to have to come up with FIVE of these). So when UP is on the Best Picture list it's not gonna take a genius to figure out it's gonna win Best Animated movie. And no, the Academy would also never put TWO animated movies up for best picture.

What's really got me riled up is this rule change is all about ratings for the show and not, as much as the Academy would like you to believe, or moviegoers would like to think, to honor excellence.

This idea is a TRAVESTY.

Just Eight '60s Best Director Nominees Left

With the passing of Jack Cardiff at the ripe old age of 94, just eight Best Director Oscar nominees from the 1960s are still alive. Cardiff was nonimated for 1960s Sons and Lovers. There are but two pre-60s Best Director nominees alive: Michael Anderson (Around the World in 80 Days, 1956) and Sidney Lumet (12 Angry Men, 1957), neither won the Oscar. Only one winner is alive from the 1960s- Mike Nichols, who won for The Graduate.






Below is the full list of living '60s nominees and the films they received nominations for in this decade:


Arthur Penn (b. 1922): The Miracle Worker (1962), Bonnie and Clyde (1967), and Alice's Restaurant (1969).
Michael Cacoyiannis (b. 1922): Zorba the Greek (1964)
Claude Lelouch (b. 1937): A Man and a Woman (1966)
Mike Nichols (b. 1931): Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), *The Graduate (1967)
Norman Jewison (b. 1926): In the Heat of the Night (1967)
Franco Zeffirelli (b. 1923): Romeo and Juliet (1968)
Anthony Harvey (b. 1931): A Lion in Winter (1968)
Costa-Gavras (b. 1933): Z (1969)

81st Annual Academy Awards: The Final Tally

Ten feature-length films join the list of Oscar-winners this year, as follows:

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE— 8 Oscars

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
— 3 Oscars

THE DARK KNIGHT
— 2 Oscars
MILK
— 2 Oscars



DEPARTURES— 1 Oscar
THE DUCHESS— 1 Oscar
MAN ON WIRE— 1 Oscar
THE READER— 1 Oscar
VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA— 1 Oscar
WALL•E— 1 Oscar

81st Annual Academy Awards: Interesting Facts

With the Awards over, here are some statistics about the winners:


• Slumdog Millionaire is the 11th film to win Best Picture without receiving any acting nominations. The other 10 are: Wings, All Quiet on the Western Front, Grand Hotel, An American in Paris, The Greatest Show on Earth, Around the World in 80 Days, Gigi, The Last Emperor, Braveheart and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

• Sean Penn is the ninth actor to win two Best (Lead) Actor Oscars, following: Spencer Tracy, Frederic March, Gary Cooper, Marlon Brando, Dustin Hoffman, Tom Hanks, Jack Nicholson, and last year's Daniel Day-Lewis.

• Heath Ledger is the second posthumous winner in acting following Peter Finch for Network.

• Woody Allen has tied Elia Kazan as the director responsible for the most wins in the Best Supporting Actress category-- with four each [Allen: Dianne Wiest in Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Dianne Wiest in Bullets Over Broadway (1994), Mira Sorvino in Mighty Aphrodite (1995), and Penelope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008); Kazan: Celeste Holm in Gentleman's Agreement (1947), Kim Hunter in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Eva Marie Saint in On the Waterfront (1954), and Jo Van Fleet in East of Eden (1955)].

• Japan won three of the eight awards for foreign-language film in the pre-1956 Oscars ceremonies when the award was an honorary award; this year, Departures becomes the first Japanese film to win a competive award for Best Foreign-language film.

• This is the first year since the 2004/05 (Million Dollar Baby) Oscars that Entertainment Weekly correctly predicted 6/6 of the top awards-- the last three years they were off by one (the incorrect predictions were-- 2005: Best Picture, Brokeback Mountain/ 2006: Eddie Murphy, Best Supporting Actor/ 2007: Julie Christie, Best Actress)

• The least amount of feature films (ten) took home Oscars since 2003 (nine).

• This year's Oscars had the ceremonies' third-smallest audience (36.3 million) in forty years, following 2003 (33 million viewers) and 2008 (32 million).

The Oscars that were: the 2007 Oscars, Plus a Review of "There Will Be Blood"

The 2007 Oscars legitimized 1980s-90s upstarts Joel & Ethan Coen (who's FARGO only managed Actress and Screenplay) with an awards sweep; gave a rare Oscar for a foreign-language performance to Marion Cotillard (her surprise win explained after-the-fact: there was a major under-the-radar publicity campaign being run for her); and gave Daniel Day-Lewis a second Oscar, solidifying the world's belief that he is one of the screen's greatest actors.

The film that was getting the most attention was NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, but had it not been for NO COUNTRY, THERE WILL BE BLOOD would easily have been the Best Picture front runner; the Coens were "due," however, so there wasn't even a whisper of an upset. And certainly, NO COUNTRY received the lion's share of the Best Film awards, but time will tell whether BLOOD will overtake it in the "critical" long run.

JUNO was another highly discussed film (and Best Picture nominee) and had Ellen Page pulled off a surprise Best Actress win, it would have solidified its heir-apparent status to LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE [Diablo COdy's win just wasn't enough]. Instead, what seems to have happened is the "little movie" and the "foreign film" both of which have always been slighted by Oscar have morphed into the runaway success story of 2008's SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE. The other little-movie-that could of 2007, ONCE, was given a shot in the arm, when couple and film co-stars Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, stole the show with their win of Best Song.

ATONEMENT ran a successful Oscar campaign in terms of reaping nominations, but only managed a Best Score win. The film seems to have lasted in memory more for a green dress than anything else. Plus, it has the dubious distinction of being one of the ten worst-rated Best Picture nominees of all-time in Leonard Maltin's annual guide (with a ** rating). And for better or worse, Maltin's ratings have a great deal of historical influence.

The shut-out of the year was Sean Penn's INTO THE WILD. Although it got some attention, it was left out of Picture/Director categories and received no Oscars. Early front runner AMERICAN GANGSTER was shut out of Picture/Director as well. Additionally, Sideny Lumet's first hit in years, BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD received no nominations.

The Oscars frequently share-the-wealth, but of interest was the fact that only one movie managed multiple acting nominations: MICHAEL CLAYTON-- all others received just one acting nomination. The last time that this happened was movie year 1935 (with MUTINY ON THE COUNTY, the only multiple acting nominee)!

Veterans Hal Holbrook and Ruby Dee scored their first Oscar nominations and Julie Christie was easily the front-runner for Best Actress (it would have been her second Oscar).

This awards year will also be noted for the fact that all four acting winners-- Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Javier Bardem, and Tilda Swinton-- are all non-Americans. The last time that happened was the 1964 Oscars (Rex Harrison, Julie Andrews, Peter Ustinov, and Lila Kerdrova).

What loomed large over the Oscars though was the writer's strike, ending just-in-the-nick-of-time for the Oscars, but spoiling the entire awards season (including the cancelling of the Golden Globes ceremony). The Vanity Fair Oscar party, the au currant place to be after the Oscars, was cancelled as well.

THE CEREMONY was hosted by Jon Stewart, who, barring a major success from Hugh Jackman this year, just may become the go-to guy for the Oscars. He ran the show reminiscent of the old Johnny Carson Oscars, with equal parts humor and class. The show itself was marred only by few genuine “moments” (although there were some). It was Stewart himself (at Gil Cates' request) who engineered the best speech of the night by bringing out slighted ONCE singer-songwriter Markéta Irglová to speak after she’d been cut off unjustly. Both “parts” of the ONCE Best Song acceptances were the highlight of the show. “Make art” said Glen Hansard; “no matter how far out your dreams are, it's possible,” said Markéta Irglová. And the performing of “Falling Slowly” was so charming: love that Glen Hansard used the damaged guitar from the film. The acting winners though all each had a clippable moment: Daniel Day-Lewis kneeling before presenter "Queen" Helen Mirren; Marion Cotillard's exuberant take on Los Angeles being a city of angels; Javier Bardem's speaking in Spanish to his mother (in the audience); and Tilda Swinton's odd jokes about her agent's behind resembling Oscar and something about George Clooney's wearing his Batman costume "with the nipples." Additionally, the use of old Oscar footage (which dated back to the 1939/40 ceremony and Hattie McDaniel) was well played and gave the show the sense of history it always seems to be missing, plus the last vestige of Alfred Hitchcock-honoring occured with art director Robert Boyle receipt of his Honorary Oscar. The Coen borthers speech(es) were cocky and mostly pointless, but, then again, it would have been worse if they suddenly weren’t themselves, just to please “Oscar.”

There Will Be Blood was the also-ran at the 2007 Oscars. Based on the novel by Upton Sinclair, it tells the tale of an "oilman" whose ambitions replace his own sense of humanity. The film starts out in 1898, eventually shuttles to 1911 (where most of the story takes place) and offers a twenty-odd minute coda in 1927-29. We follow the oilman's path in which he has several opportunities to "make good" but who can only see truth in the oil itself, until there is none of it left. Daniel Day-Lewis plays oilman Daniel Plainview and our introduction of him sets up the tone of the piece and provides valuable information about the man.

As the film opens, the audience is struck by it's most unusual score. Reminiscent of the opening music of Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, it too creates a sense of the otherworldly. Daniel is almost instantly branded a sinister man, and we come to compare him to the devil himself at various intervals in the movie. In this wordless opener, Daniel is seen digging for silver/gold, by himself. He has an accident and must pull himself out of the hole to reap the benefits of his discovery. Thus the film offers the two main character traits of Daniel: his go-it-alone dislike of his fellow man, and his boundless drive.

We elapse four years and see that Daniel has realized he needs help to reach his goals. Throughout the film we see Daniel's frequent "necessity" in bringing in others (very few at a time) to help him. Daniel strikes oil, then that strange musical score kicks in, with its sense of evil. We see, from above, through an overhead shot, a great pool of oil, it's blackness frightening. Soon thereafter, disaster strikes again.

When we hear the music for the third time-- it's when Daniel (now accompanied by his "son" H. W.-- actually an orphan) finds another rich deposit of oil. When nothing immediate happens there is an eerie sense that this time there will be a series of calamities-- and there is.

Daniel Day-Lewis and local preacher Paul Dano are the whole show in a nearly two-person story. A few important characters come in and out along the way but it is these two who we follow most closely. Both Day-Lewis and Dano give hearty, bold performances. The command of the screen tips to Day-Lewis's favor, but then again, his character is the dominant one anyway.

The film is filled with unforgettable scenes of Daniel's rage against humanity. His dismissal of man is complete when he runs across Dano's Eli-- who Daniel knows to be a false prophet. His early dismissal of Eli's mass is both a blasphemy and a confirmation that man is to be manipulated (and can be) by the stronger among us: "one goddamn helluva show" compliments Daniel.

The epic scale of the film does not overtake its small cast of characters. It's about the charcters; the land, the oil, the rural life is just the background. But it's an often barren landscape and certainly a remote one, which fits with the piece as a whole.

The final sequence of the film has a certain redundancy... the audience could have guessed at this turn of events or an approximation thereof. However, on the surface we have audience-pleasing dialogue, rich with memorable one-liners, and, structurally, various comeuppances to offer a complete (if openended) finale, to forgive the extra length.

On the whole, the movie has a cold detachment. It could be argued that it's coldness is fitting per Daniel's character, but that's far too simplistic. We watch Daniel and Eli as if under a microscope. The storyline is superfluous to the raw character study. The third main character, H.W., has an interesting trajectory but its all in the purpose to show us more of what Daniel is like. This can be said of the brother character, that shows up in the third act, as well.

There Will Be Blood is rich in motifs and deliberate in filmic devices of framing, editing, pace; so much so that it seems endlessly worthy of study. Like a Hitchcock film, it's entertainment value (ponderous as it might be compared to Hitchcock's suspense) will make it a favorite of all future film scholars. It is a movie for which everyone will want to have an opinion, none of whom will dismiss it outright. It's the kind of movie you might buy stock in for its longevity.




There Will Be Blood (2007): An atmospheric if cold character study that holds the attention if not the heart.

The Academy Preps for the 81st Oscars

Was at Hollywood and Highland this past weekend and took a few shots on how the front of the Kodak looks, as AMPAS preps for the Oscars. Inside of a week to the Oscars!

Oscar Producers Talk with "USA Today"

There was an interesting article from a week or so ago, regarding this years Oscarcast. In case you didn't catch it, here's the link: USA Today Oscar article.

I'm happy about several things, as stated by the producers: (1.) Less "canned" clip reels (2.) That they are making it a celebration of ALL movies of the last year (I've been saying this for years!) (3.) They want a "party" atmosphere. (Although that sounds a little too like Allan Carr, and we know how the 89/90 Oscars turned out.)

The oddest thing in it was Bill Condon's comment that the 1968 show represents the "gold standard." Well, when did he see it last? 1968? When he was what, fifteen years old?

Anyway, I'm actually looking forward to this year's Oscars more than usual as a result of this article. Even a catastrophe would be a welcome sight.

Rex Reed Grumpy about Oscars '69

Flipping the dial so-to-speak on You Tube, I came across a bitch-and-moan session by Rex Reed on the eve of the 1969/70 Oscars. Despite his bitterness, of course, Oscar went ahead and picked Midnight Cowboy as Best Picture that year despite Reed's assurances that Oscar wouldn't dare be that hip. He gets every pick WRONG, except John Wayne. Here is the first two parts of his appearance on The Dick Cavett Show (below). Even Cavett can't take him. "Isn't this fun folks?" he says at one point to the audience. And best of all is when Cavett says to Reed regarding Reed's complaining that the right people aren't given the Oscar, "If they're so silly what does it matter who wins them?"

Heston Passes, Leaving One Best Actor from the '50s

With the death of 1959 Best Actor Charlton Heston, only one Best (lead) Actor remains from the 1950s: Ernest Borgnine. Borgnine, who won his Oscar for the title role in 1955's Marty received a surprise Golden Globe nomination this year for the television movie A Grandpa For Christmas (photo left).

When the WGA went on strike, Borgnine was quoted as saying that he was still going to go to the awards show. The show was canceled opting for a televised "press conference"/pseudo-show, and Borgnine lost anyway. Now, Borgnine says that with his total movie tally at 198 feature films and television movies [although imdb lists far less], he hopes, despite being 91-years-old, to make at least 2 more movies and reach the 200-films mark.

Good luck, Ernie!

Anthony Minghella's Passing Breaks String of Living Best Directors

With many directors since the 1970s winning the Oscar for Best Director in the early-to-prime of their careers, every single Oscar-winning director was alive from Francis Ford Coppola's win for THE GODFATHER, PART II (1974) to present, until Anthony Minghella's (pictured with THE ENGLISH PATIENT Oscar) premature passing at age 54.

Here's a list of the 32 living Oscar-winning Best Directors as it now stands:

1. Mike Nichols: The Graduate (1967)
2. William Friedkin: The French Connection (1971)
3. Francis Ford Coppola: The Godfather, Part II (1974)
4. Milos Forman: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
5. John G. Avildsen: Rocky (1976)
6. Woody Allen: Annie Hall (1977)
7. Michael Cimino: The Deer Hunter (1978)
8. Robert Benton: Kramer Vs. Kramer (1979)
9. Robert Redford: Ordinary People (1980)
10. Warren Beatty: Reds (1981)
11. Richard Attenborough: Gandhi (1982)
12. James L. Brooks: Terms of Endearment (1983)
—. Milos Forman: Amadeus (1984)
13. Sydney Pollack: Out of Africa (1985)
14. Oliver Stone: Platoon (1986)
15. Bernardo Bertolucci: The Last Emperor (1987)
16. Barry Levinson: Rain Man (1988)
—. Oliver Stone: Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
17. Kevin Costner: Dances with Wolves (1990)
18. Jonathan Demme" The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
19. Clint Eastwood: Unforgiven (1992)
20. Steven Spielberg: Schindler's List (1993)
21. Robert Zemeckis: Forrest Gump (1994)
22. Mel Gibson: Braveheart (1995)
23. James Cameron: Titanic (1997)
—. Steven Spielberg: Saving Private Ryan (1998)
24. Sam Mendes: American Beauty (1999)
25. Steven Soderbergh: Traffic (2000)
26. Ron Howard: A Beautiful Mind (2001)
27. Roman Polanski: The Pianist (2002)
28. Peter Jackson: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
—. Clint Eastwood: Million Dollar Baby (2004)
29. Ang Lee: Brokeback Mountain (2005)
30. Martin Scorsese: The Departed (2006)
31 & 32. Joel and Ethan Coen: No Country For Old Men (2007)

80th Annual Academy Awards: Interesting Facts

With the Awards over, here are some statistics about the winners:

• For only the second year in Oscar history have all four acting winners been of foreign descent. The only other time was for films 1964: Rex Harrison, Julie Andrews, Peter Ustinov, Lila Kedrova.

• Marion Cotillard is the first winner ever for a French-speaking performance.

• Marion Cotillard is the second Best Actress winner ever for a foreign-language performance; the first was Sophia Loren for TWO WOMEN (1961).

• Of the 11 times an actor has been nominated in both lead and supporting categories in the same year, Cate Blanchett joins the losers of both, making it 7 to 4 in favor of the winners.

• The Coen Brothers are only the second "duo" to win Best Director (following Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins for WEST SIDE STORY [1961]).

• Austria won its first Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film with THE COUNTERFEITERS.

• ENCHANTED joins last year's DREAMGIRLS as the two films that received three Best Song nominations but failed to take the category (BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and THE LION KING are the only other films to get three nonminations— both won the award).

• Kevin O'Connell, Oscar's "biggest loser" after twenty nominations and no wins, retains his unfortunate title having lost for Best Sound for TRANSFORMERS.

80th Annual Academy Awards: A Review

Jon Stewart has become the Johnny Carson of Oscar hosts with this year’s awards. He brought a low-key classiness to the show, which was mared only by less-than-memorable speeches and few genuine “moments.” In fact, it was Stewart himself who engineered the best speech of the night by bringing out slighted ONCE singer-songwriter Markéta Irglová to speak after she’d been cut off unjustly.

Both “parts” of the ONCE Best Song acceptances were the highlight of the show. “Make art” said Glen Hansard; “no matter how far out your dreams are, it's possible,” said Markéta Irglová. And the performing of “Falling Slowly” was so charming: love that Glen Hansard used the damaged guitar from the film.

Stewart was not the right choice I thought a couple years ago, but this year following the WGA strike and it being an election year, he was perfect. I can easily see him becoming an Oscar-show-host fixture: the heir to Billy Crystal following the reigns of Bob Hope (40s, 50s, 60s), Carson (70s, 80s), and Crystal (80s, 90s).

The evening was off brilliantly with Stewart zeroing in on the VANITY FAIR party as the target for humor (rather than going for the studios or producers). His political jokes fared well too (AWAY FROM HER is about a woman who forgets her husband— Hilary Clinton thought it was the “feel good” movie of the year; Oscar is 80 which makes him the front-runner for the Republican nomination.)

The use of old Oscar footage (which dated back to the 1939/40 ceremony and Hattie McDaniel) was well played and gave the show the sense of history it always seems to be missing. The only famous clip I missed was Art Carney kicking his foot up in the air when he won in the 70s: they hit ALL the biggies though. Oddly the reel that DIDN’T work for me was the Best Picture rundown, and I think I know why. Because there have been so many oddball winners over the years, the reel should have included sound-ups on the BIG winners: the CASABLANCAs and the LAWRENCE OF ARABIAs to cover the CIMARRONs and the BEAUTIFUL MINDs. The way they did it gave every film equal weight: but time has exposed the duds. The “interview” bites with Barbra Streisand and Michael Douglas/Catherine Zeta-Jones actually worked, but they were dropped halfway through the show: it would have been better not introducing these at all, if they would just be in the first half (you know others were done but cut for time).

What we could have done without is the Jerry Seinfeld “Bee” from BEE MOVIE! Can we be finally be freed from this movie? It wasn’t even nominated for Best Animated Film: doesn’t this tell the Oscar producers something?

Jennifer Hudson’s appearance was a little startling in a way we all could have predicted last year: it was like oh yeah Jennifer Hudson has an Oscar, weird. Liked John Travolta’s entrance even if his hair is totally bizarre. Nominee Viggo Mortensen resembled Michael Douglas in KING OF CALIFORNIA. Katherine Heigl was a bundle of nerves. Jonah Hill and Seth Rogen’s Halle Berry/Judi Dench thing went on far too long and was barely amusing. BIZZAREST cutaway of the night: Cameron Diaz (for several seconds) during the Robert Boyle tribute.

Robert Boyle: nice speech and actually his extreme age didn’t really come off that badly, which I had feared. It was nice that he rattled off directors that he was honored to work with. This is EASILY the last hurrah for Mr. Hitchcock at the Oscars.

Winner Tilda Swinton’s paleness, particularly in a black dress, was disconcerting. Note to nominess: try to look AT LEAST as good as you did in the movie you’re up for. I will say this for Swinton though, when she was harassed on the red carpet about who she’d thank if she won (TRANSLATION: you have no chance), she declined to answer. And then Richard Roeper had the nerve to say that SHE didn’t think she’d win: no bonehead, she didn’t want to answer a question that ASSUMED she wouldn’t.

And now, the Coens. Yes, their speech(es) were cocky and mostly pointless. But, then again, it would have been worse if they suddenly weren’t themselves, just to please “Oscar.” So, I’ll just say I’m mixed on their acceptances.

Marion Cotillard is as cute as a button. I think she expected to be clapped off sooner, which is why the end of her speech got a little rambly and overdone. Still, she was genuinely overwhelmed and she was sweet. And her win was groundbreaking, since it was a foreign-language performance. The Oscars have slighted foreign-language performances more than any other “minority” through the years— they’re only just getting around to honoring them. I also liked Javier Bardem’s speech when he talked about (and to) his mother, and included a little Spanish.

Diablo Cody wisely stepped away from the mike when she began to cry at the end of her speech: it made for a heartfelt moment rather than a potentially awkward one.

Other funny Stewart bits: LAWRENCE OF ARABIA on the iphone, the Angelina Jolie “and the baby goes to” award, playing Wii tennis with young actress Jamia Simone Nash.

This was the best Oscars in recent history. Not very many AMAZING moments, but quietly classy.

The Oscars that were: The 2006 Oscars, Plus a Review of Little Miss Sunshine

The 2006 Oscars honored a small independent film (dark horse Best Picture nominee LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE), punished too-early Oscar buzz (DREAMGIRLS received the most nominations of any film, but was shut out of the Best Picture race), and gave Martin Scorsese his belated Oscar for Best Director (for THE DEPARTED).

The film that was getting the most attention was LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE. This movie opened the door for a low budget character-driven, under-two-hours-in-length film to compete in the Best Picture derby (again). Although it didn’t take home the top prize, just the notion that it might was enough to keep Oscar-watchers excited by the final envelope. And, after all, the film did manage to win two of its other three nominations (Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor [Alan Arkin’s surprise win]). JUNO’s 2007 nomination for Best Picture is easily attributable to LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE’s trailblazing.

DREAMGIRLS offered a legacy of nervous Oscar campaigners in the fall of ’07, worried about a DREAMGIRLS backfire. But if anything, the movie with early buzz was ATONEMENT, which did not suffer the same fate, reaping plenty of Oscar nominations, including a Best Picture nod. DREAMGIRLS did not seem to have any real excitement surrounding it at the 2006 Oscars, a combination of its no-Best-Picture-nomination stigma and the fact that Jennifer Hudson was such a shoo-in to win for Best Supporting Actress that it offered no suspense. Additionally, Eddie Murphy’s loss for Best Supporting Actor ratcheted-up DREAMGIRLS also-ran status.

Meryl Streep landed a record fourteenth acting nomination for THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, and if not for Helen Mirren, would have easily taken home her third Academy Award. VENUS brought Peter O’Toole his eighth nomination, which only served to make him the sole all-time Best Actor loser, separating him from Richard Burton’s losing streak (with seven nominations). When Peter O’Toole initially refused his Honorary Oscar, saying he was still in the running for a competitive one, he may have had a point. Surely this honorary win hurt his chances just a little bit this year. On the other side of the age barrier, Kate Winslet became the youngest person (at age 31) to reap a fifth acting nomination.

2006’s Oscars will also be remembered for the films of the Mexican trio of directors (“the three Amigos”): Alfonso Cuaron (CHILDREN OF MEN), Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (BABEL), and particularly Guillermo del Toro (whose PAN’S LABRYINTH took home three Awards [although oddly didn’t win foreign language film]). And a footnote would be Al Gore’s prominence on the show as well as AN INCONVIENT TRUTH’s win for not only Best Documentary, but for Best Song.

THE CEREMONY was hosted by Ellen DeGeneres, who seemed more excited about getting the job, than really hitting it out of the ballpark (although she got in a few laughs there seemed to be too many “borrowed” bits from her previous hosting gigs). The show was entertaining on the whole, however, with a fun recurring bit in which interpretive dancers “acted out” symbols of nominated films in silhouette. Of course, there were the usual out-of-left-field clip packages to drag the show out. The best speech of the evening could have been Alan Arkin’s— but by reading it off a sheet of paper, its impact was totally lost. Best Actor Forrest Whittaker also read from a sheet of paper, however, he recited it in such a way as to pull it off the page (and since he’d been stumbling through his speeches all through awards season— it was good he wrote it down this time). Who knows what he really meant though by thanking God for giving him “this moment in this lifetime that I will hopefully carry to the end of my lifetime into the next lifetime.” I guess Martin Scorsese’s career win and gracious speech would have to rate as the best speech and moment of the evening.

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE is one of those little-films-that-could that keeps you rooting for it along the way, with a finale that doesn’t let you down.

The movie is about a dysfunctional family who tries to hold things together as they travel several hundred miles to Redondo Beach, California for seven-year-old Olive’s chance to compete in the “Little Miss Sunshine” beauty pageant. Abigail Breslin’s Olive hoping up-and-down and screaming when she hears the news that she’s in the competition is just one of those classic moments in movies— and since it starts the film rolling, a fortuitous one for the filmmakers.

The main thrust of the story and the central characterization never falters: we want Olive to compete and win-or-lose to take something away from being a part of this mixed-up family— who may be better for her than what the outside world has to offer. Screenwritery characterization (Frank is a suicidal Proust scholar/ Richard is a screwed-up motivational speaker who has an impending book deal/ Grandpa Edwin is an bigot with “Nazi bullets in him”) set up a built-in weakness to the piece as a whole. It’s made worse by having each of the subplots tidy themselves up in obvious and/or convenient ways. Only Frank’s story is left dangling, thankfully unresolved. Although I wouldn’t begrudge the film’s Oscar win for Best Original Screenplay, it does seem to have won for being brilliant in part.

The ensemble give solid individual performances, but more importantly the actors work well with each other. The conflict between Greg Kinnear’s “Richard” and Steve Carrell’s “Frank” (“Sarcasm is the refuge of losers.”) works particularly well. It’s nice that although the film is mostly a black comedy, it does have its share of laugh-out-loud moments, such as when the not-speaking Dwayne writes in his notepad that he hates everyone and Frank asks, “What about your family?” to which Dwayne underlines the “everyone.” The dialogue is very sharp throughout (Toni Collette’s Sheryl talks about Grandpa Edwin: “The intervention was a fiasco: he was like a two year-old.”).

Conceit with the VW bus’ “trouble” is smart and works very well within the plot, since because of it, like it or not, it forces the whole family to work together. Their arrival at the pageant is a great set piece with the various car troubles: very funny (although a mild repetition of it doesn’t come off as well when they depart— it’s just a expedient “out”).

Alan Arkin won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and the deal may have been sealed when Grandpa Edwin tells Olive that she’s the most beautiful girl in the world. Although “grumpy old man” may not have been much of a stretch for Arkin, he does offer a certain pro’s eye to the cast: an effortlessness that deserved praise.

Dwayne (Paul Dano)’s freak-out toward the end rescues the film from possible isn’t-life-quirky oblivion and leads to that oh-so-perfect final pageant sequence. When the family comes together to protect Olive and then to support her, we see a critical glimmer of hope.

Little Miss Sunshine (2006): Funny black comedy with an irresistible central character whose journey to happiness is found without any traditional success.