OSCAR! OSCAR! OSCAR!
By Scott Bettencourt
On Sunday, March 23rd, Elliot Goldenthal won the Oscar for Original
Score for his work on FRIDA: Here is his acceptance speech:
Wow. To be around such remarkable women, Julie Taymor, Salma Hayek,
Sarah Green, Margy Perenchio. Thank you Miramax. But what I really want
to say, and I'll do it quickly, is I want to dedicate this award to the
bridges that we try to build, to the people of Mexico, to the artistic
tradition and legacy of personal and political art. For you, Mexico.
And here are excerpts from his interviews in the press room during the
broadcast:
Q: As An American, what was your experience in composing for a
foreign country? And two, what would you say to all those Mexican people
who attacked FRIDA so hard for not being Mexican enough? What would a winner,
an American guy composing music for FRIDA, say to all those people that
attacked it for not being Mexican?
GOLDENTHAL: Well, first question, as a New Yorker, I was lucky enough
to grow up with tremendous diversity. It's one of the largest Latino culture
capitals in the world. And I was lucky enough to have to be acquainted
with the music and the art and the cuisine of all these countries. And
it felt so natural for me as a New Yorker, to express myself in multi,
quote, unquote, ethnicities. I don't consider any of the music authentic
Mexican music, but it is authentic Elliot Goldenthal, but what it is is
an open letter to that culture and beginnings and the continuation of forming
bridges between our nations. Artistically, I think you build a bridge,
you build a bridge, and you build a bridge, and we keep doing that no matter
how turbulent the waters are you just keep doing that.
Q: What can you say about, what are your ideas of future musicals
in Hollywood?
GOLDENTHAL: Well, I think in two years in a row with two musicals
being honored in one capacity or another, MOULIN ROUGE and then this [CHICAGO],
I think that people want to see full drama that includes music and dance.
It's something that we really -- we really crave as another form of cinema.
That's that. And I'd love to see more and more new original musicals being
written and not just recreations.
Q. Any plans -- do you have any plans to work on one?
GOLDENTHAL: Well, Julie and I are in the early, early stages of a
movie musical at this point.
Q. Original?
GOLDENTHAL: An original.
Q. Will this CHICAGO victory make it easier in some way?
GOLDENTHAL: In some way, yes, certainly it will.
Q. I guess, in terms of --
GOLDENTHAL: It will bring it up to the consciousness of the studio
where the money is.
Q. I know that there's been a little bit of bad blood between
you and Harvey Weinstein. I was just wondering if the Oscar evens the score
a little, or what the status is of that?
GOLDENTHAL. No one was ever keeping score, and I think that you just
have to at one time let it go. Whether it's the potato famine or the Holocaust
or the second World War, eventually, you just have to move on. You know,
even if it was -- whatever. I mean, you just have to move on. He's at Miramax.
Goldenthal was also asked about the trend of "Music Inspired By" albums
which have little to do with the movie--
Somebody has got to make money, but often the artists and composers
are hurt by this situation. I was kind of promised a CD [of Batman and
Robin], and I had one finished, and it was over an hour and a half of new
original music put together and the album never came out. I think it hurts
the art of film composing and it dupes the public into thinking they're
buying something that was somehow part of the original artistic conception.
Goldenthal's victory was surprising but also deserved,
though the group of nominees this year was so strong that any of them (except,
in my opinion, Philip Glass's The Hours) would have been a deserving
choice. Glass and Elmer Bernstein were widely considered the front runners,
but though as many people probably would have voted against Glass as for
him, the award ballots aren't ranked the way nomination ballots are.
Williams didn't really have much of a chance -- does he really need
a sixth Oscar? -- but his Catch Me If You Can score was highly acclaimed,
especially by those who normally pan his work (and it was also my favorite
score of the year, but my vote doesn't count).
Thomas Newman also had a decent chance for his first rate Road to
Perdition score, and for me one of the personal highlights of being
at the Governors' Ball (the Academy's official post-Oscar party) -- besides
being mere feet away from Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Peter O'Toole, Elliot
Goldenthal, John Williams, Meryl Streep, and a few other similarly successful
film industry professionals -- was giving Thomas Newman directions to the
men's room ("You take the road to perdition, turn left at the red corner
until you find yourself in the great outdoors--" Okay, I didn't really
say that.)
I did find it odd that the Frida song was introduced by Y
Tu Mama Tambien star Gael Garcia Bernal -- only because his Y Tu
co-star, Diego Luna, was not only in the audience but was actually in
Frida, unlike Bernal.
Even more shocking than Goldenthal's victory was the Best
Song winner, 8 Mile's "Lose Yourself," written by Luis Resto, Jeff
Bass, and of course Eminem. (Especially ironic since "Lose Yourself" was
the only nominated song not performed on the broadcast. Presumably when
Eminem became unavailable, the producers decide that a cover version wouldn't
cut the mustard -- they probably flashed back on Ann Reinking's much maligned
cover of "Against All Odds.")
One of the most symbolic moments of the entire ceremony was seeing John
Williams physically step aside to allow Eminem's co-writer make his way
to accept his Oscar. Here is Luis Resto's acceptance speech:
Oh my. This all goes to Marshall. I'm privileged, grateful to be
involved with the song, along with my co-writers and friends, Jeff Bass,
Marshall Mathers, who couldn't be here. It's a great thing working with
Marshall day in, day out. He's creative. He has symphonies in his head
that I'm privileged to put on the tape. He's a good man, good heart. Here's
to you, Marshall. Thank you so much. I love you, Colleen, Kyle, Olivia,
everybody. Thank you.
This year I managed to see every single nominated film,
short or feature, except for the documentary Daughter From Danang,
and I thought the winners were a pretty solid group, not a Roberto Benigni
in the bunch, though I definitely wouldn't have picked Chicago for
Art Direction and I felt Prisoner of Paradise was the strongest
of the Documentary Features. Oh, and I would have picked Y Tu Mama Tambien
and Adapation for screenplay.
It would have been nice if Julianne Moore had won, but she's bound to
have plenty more opportunities. I think the show may prove a huge boost
to Catherine Zeta-Jones' career -- not just her win, but her appearance
on the show. Plump with child, speaking in her natural Welsh accent,
she seemed warmer and more human than she's ever been on the screen.
As far as the show itself is concerned, I can't really
judge how well paced it was, since I watched it a little at a time on tape
over several days. Overall, I thought it was one of the best Oscar shows
I've ever seen. Steve Martin was an ideal host, with impeccable delivery
and consistently funny jokes:
"By the way, the proceeds from tonight's Oscar telecast
-- and I think this is so great -- will be divvied up among huge corporations."
"Writers, directors, actors -- if we're stuck here together and
we run out of food, that's the order of whom we eat."
"Barbra Streisand is here -- she's just here tonight to enjoy the
show, and direct."
"Halle Berry is here. And notice -- I am standing exactly twenty
two feet away from Halle Berry -- in compliance with the court order."
"Queen Latifah -- or as I like to call her, 'sequel money.'"
"Roman Polanski is here -- get him!"
"Remember, there are no losers here tonight. But we're about to
change all that."
"It was so sweet backstage, you should see it. The teamsters are
helping Michael Moore into the trunk of his limo."
"I have so many people to thank tonight, but especially Steven Spielberg.
Why? Because it can't hurt."
Back in 1986, after a friend of mine saw Three Amigos, he remarked
"Steve Martin is funny, he was always funny, he always will be funny."
I'm glad to see that these words are still true.
Even one of his weakest jokes, about how Chicago is a contender
due to Miramax's unfair behavior in making "a really good movie that everyone
likes," is pretty close to the truth. Whatever you may think of the film,
I was at the very first Academy screening of it last year, before the Oscar
campaign had started, and the members absolutely loved it. They applauded
after every musical number, and they even applauded during the end credits
when each of the leads was credited with her/his own singing and dancing.
So Chicago's Best Picture win was no surprise to me.
One of the biggest surprises was Adrien Brody's richly
deserved Best Actor win for The Pianist, and his thoughtful, moving
(and orchestra silencing) speech put such grandstanders as Halle Berry
and Julia Roberts to shame (Berry's speech could be used to torture political
prisoners). If you look at the tape, you can actually see each of the other
Actor nominees say "Wow" or "Whoa" when Brody's name was announced.
A nice segment they added this year was "Sounds of Oscar", a sort of
instant replay where we got to see each of the acting winners again as
they heard their names announced. This was especially memorable in the
case of Adrien Brody -- I could swear he audibly says "Holy sh-t" on national
television.
Bill Conti managed to work in a couple of his compositions
into the festivities -- "For Your Eyes Only" played at the start of the
Past Oscar Winners (or as they were called behind the scenes, "POWs") segment,
and "Gonna Fly Now" played at the end of the end credits. John Travolta
personally introduced Conti to the audience right before the song from
Chicago -- a mild irony, since the only Travolta film Conti ever
scored was Two of a Kind, and the Conti score was thrown out at
the 11th hour.
Though Goldsmith received a prominent mention in the end credits for
his "Fanfare For Oscar," I did not hear it anywhere in the broadcast. Conti
did frequently use a fanfare that sounded reminiscent of the opening of
Alfred Newman's All About Eve, while Mark McKenzie received a credit
for "Blizzard," the piece played over the show's main title graphic depicting
the previous seventy four Best Picture winners.
As usual, movie themes were played for the stars making their way onto
the stage, either from their latest movies -- Gangs of New York
for Cameron Diaz, About Schmidt for Kathy Bates, The Hours
for both Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore -- or their classics -- the James
Bond theme for Connery, "Stayin' Alive" for Travolta, Lawrence of Arabia
for Peter O'Toole.
Another highlight of the show was the montages showing each of the past
winners in the four acting categories, and each montage was accompanied
by a film theme pertaining to one of the winners -- Best Actor was Gladiator,
Actress was Shakespeare in Love, Supporting Actor was The Untouchables
and Supporting Actress was A Beautiful Mind.
The montage of past winners discussing their reactions included a shot
of Stephen Sondheim, as well as clips of Carly Simon ("Let's see, who should
you thank? Your manager. Oh god, whatís your manager's name?"), Randy Newman
("Really touched me. A big rush of -- if I had a heart, what would be called
emotion."), and John Williams showing off his Star Wars Oscar.
Otherwise, film music got surprisingly short shrift during the broadcast.
Not only was there no medley of the five nominated scores, but when the
Score nominations were announced there weren't even little snippets of
the scores to accompany the shots of the composers. This is especially
odd since the sound and sound effects nominations each featured lengthy
and audible clips, many featuring their scores prominently (like Minority
Report and Spider-Man).
The only film composer thanked onstage was Phil Marshall (composer of
Why Me? and Kicking and Screaming, and son of The Munsters'
Jack Marshall), for his work on the winning documentary short Twin Towers.
One of the most perverse highlights was, as always, the
"In Memoriam" montage, highlighting the filmmakers who have died since
the last broadcast: Lew Wasserman, Richard Sylbert, Eddie Bracken, George
Sidney, Katy Jurado, Jack Brodsky, Dudley Moore, John Frankenheimer, Rod
Steiger, Norman Panama, Horst Bucholz, J. Lee Thompson, Leo McKern, Kay
Rose, Milton Berle, Ward Kimball, Margaret Booth, Signe Hasso, Daniel Taradash,
Richard Crenna, Walter Scharf, Rosemary Clooney, Charles Guggenheim, Kim
Hunter, Adolph Green, Alberto Sordi, Marvin Mirisch, Conrad Hall, George
Roy Hill, Richard Harris, James Coburn, Billy Wilder.
One oddity: they misspelled Frankenheimer's name "Frankeheimer," especially
surprising since he was on the Academy's Board of Governors at the time
of his death. I was sorry Ron Goodwin didn't make the cut, but obviously
they can't include everyone. The montage played over a vaguely familiar
waltz theme which Iím sure came from some recent movie -- if any of our
readers can identify the piece, I'd appreciate it.
After the "In Memoriam" montage, Martin quipped "Later, we're doing
a montage of people you think are dead but aren't."
The montage of musical numbers from Oscar broadcasts past
made me almost want to see them again -- I have dim memories of Telly Savalas
and Pat Morita singing together, and I'm damn curious why there was a dancer
in John Chambers' Planet of the Apes makeup -- it wasn't an interpretive
dance to Goldsmith's nominated Apes score, was it?
I hate the fact that nearly all the Best Picture clips these days (except
The Two Towers, which featured the memorable Gollum vs. Gollum argument)
are just mini-trailers instead of actual scenes from the movies, but apparently
that's what the studios submit.
Meryl Streep seemed to have a bad case of the giggles while introducing
Peter O'Toole, but that was certainly preferable to Dustin Hoffman, who
introduced the clip from The Pianist with such glacial ponderousness
it felt like he was personally trying to stretch the show past the four
hour mark.
And for those who are curious about the full list of winners,
which is available only in every publication in America, here they are:
PICTURE
CHICAGO, MARTIN RICHARDS, PRODUCER
DIRECTOR
ROMAN POLANSKI, THE PIANIST
ACTOR
ADRIEN BRODY, THE PIANIST
ACTRESS
NICOLE KIDMAN, THE HOURS
SUPPORTING ACTOR
CHRIS COOPER, ADAPTATION
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
CATHERINE ZETA-JONES, CHICAGO
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
PEDRO ALMODÓVAR, TALK TO HER
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
RONALD HARWOOD, THE PIANIST
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
NOWHERE IN AFRICA (GERMANY)
ANIMATED FEATURE
SPIRITED AWAY, HAYAO MIYAZAKI
ART DIRECTION
CHICAGO, JOHN MYHRE, GORD SIM
CINEMATOGRAPHY
ROAD TO PERDITION CONRAD L. HALL
FILM EDITING
CHICAGO, MARTIN WALSH
COSTUME DESIGN
CHICAGO, COLLEEN ATWOOD
MAKEUP
FRIDA, JOHN JACKSON AND BEATRICE DE ALBA
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE, MICHAEL MOORE AND MICHAEL DONOVAN
DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
TWIN TOWERS, BILL GUTTENTAG AND ROBERT DAVID PORT
LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
THIS CHARMING MAN (DER ER EN YNDIG MAND), MARTIN STRANGE-HANSEN
AND MIE ANDREASEN
ANIMATED SHORT FILM
THE CHUBBCHUBBS!, ERIC ARMSTRONG
ORIGINAL SCORE
FRIDA, ELLIOT GOLDENTHAL
ORIGINAL SONG
"LOSE YOURSELF," 8 MILE, MUSIC BY EMINEM, JEFF BASS AND LUIS RESTO,
LYRIC BY EMINEM
SOUND
CHICAGO, MICHAEL MINKLER, DOMINICK TAVELLA AND DAVID LEE
SOUND EDITING
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS, ETHAN VAN DER RYN AND MICHAEL
HOPKINS
VISUAL EFFECTS
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS, JIM RYGIEL, JOE LETTERI,
RANDALL WILLIAM COOK AND ALEX FUNKE
One last Oscar list: here are my predictions of the next
composers, actors and actresses to become first time Oscar nominees (and
keep in mind that a few years ago I never would have predicted that Angelina
Jolie, Jennifer Connelly, Halle Berry and Catherine Zeta-Jones would be
nominees, much less winners):
COMPOSERS
Mychael Danna
Jan A.P. Kaczmarek
Wojciech Kilar
Michael Nyman
Christopher Young
ACTORS
Kevin Bacon
Dylan Baker
Christian Bale
Billy Crudup
John Cusack
Philip Seymour Hoffman
David Morse
Dennis Quaid
Ving Rhames
Mark Ruffalo
ACTRESSES
Sandra Bullock
Claire Danes
Kirsten Dunst
Edie Falco
Allison Janney
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Mary Louise Parker
Robin Wright Penn
Christina Ricci
Naomi Watts
Keep an eye on Oscar for the next few years, as I'm proved tragically
wrong in all these predictions.
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