Day: February 24, 2008

Variety critic Robert Koehler wrote a while back to ask if Marion Cotillard‘s Best Actress win is a first for a French actress or not. Is it? Koehler believes either way that it’s the first time that the same actress has won the French (i.e., Cesar) and American Oscars in this category.

Joel and Ethan Coen have won the Best Director Oscar for No Country for Old Men. Appropriately. Modest, thankful, self-effacing. Loved Frances McDormand‘s “yeah, yeah!” expression as they walk off stage.
And here’s a shaved-head Denzel Washington (for what role?) handing out the Best Picture Oscar for No Country for Old Men. No Clayton or Juno surprises. All according to general expectations. This is producer Scott Rudin‘s moment, all right. A happy man, “thank you so much.” And it’s over, dude. Three hours, 17 minutes.
I missed the opening monologue. Watching it now on replay. Best line: “If Vanity Fair wants to show respect to the writers, next year they could invite some of the writers to the Vanity Fair party.” And the withdrawing-the-Iraq-movies line is pretty good.

It can’t not be Daniel Day Lewis for Best Actor. No disputes or challenges (except from Tom O’Neil). And the Oscar goes to DDL, who kneels before Helen Mirren, the presenter, as he arrives at the podium. “This sprang like a golden sapling out of the mad beautiful head of Paul Thomas Anderson,” he says. “Thank you, Paul.”

Diablo Cody‘s win for her Best Original Juno Screenplay was mostly expected. A moving moment because she dropped whatever it is she’s been carrying around for the last few months. She mentioned her parents, teared up, delivered. Good for her. Eight to ten years of fat checks — originals, adaptations, punch-ups — are all but assured.

The winner of the Best Documentary Feature Oscar is a surprise. All along I was hearing No End in Sight, No End in Sight, No End in Sight. Hooray for Alex Gibney‘s Taxi to Dark Side, which won, but it’s a surprise is all. Nobody I know called this. That I can think of.

The Best Original Score Oscar should go to Atonement…and it does!

The Oscar for Best Cinematography ( a word that Cameron Diaz can barely pronounce) goes to There Will Be Blood‘s Robert Elswit. This is a surprise. I’m sorry, but the cinematography of Roger Deakins in The Assassination of Jesse James loses? On top of his work in No Country? That doesn’t feel right. At all. I loved Elswit’s work but…I don’t know. Conflicted.

There’s no doubt about the Oscar winner for Best Song. Once‘s Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova are the champs…of course! Deserved, fated, ordained. Stewart’s line about Glen — “Wow, that guy is so arrogant!” — is hilarious.

Penelope Cruz presents the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar to…does anyone care? The Academy didn’t even nominate the best film in this category, and I haven’t discerned any real enthusiasm for the nominees that made the cut. It will probably be The Counterfeiters. And the Oscar goes to…The Counterfeiters. Enthusiasm in the room is muted. I’ll rent it down the road.

The third Oscar of the night for The Bourne Ultimatum, this one for editing. Because of the velocity, speed, number of cuts per minute, etc. It’s a beautifully edited film. A honor well deserved.

The Best Actress Oscar presented by Forrest Whitaker. Marion Cotillard! Great! Amazing! Julie Christie almost had it. I don’t know what happened but this was the right call. The Real Geezer vote didn’t materialize as expected. Tom O’Neil or whomever it was who claimed that the Julie Christie thing was the Evolving Big Turn has some explaining to do.