After a long and dramatic writers’ strike, last night was a red-carpet experience for the eccentric Hollywood community in search of their fifteen minutes of fame. As usual, there was lots of fingernail biting, sweat and last minutes prayers. It was the night of the golden statuette better known as The Oscar.
No beating around the bush, I’ll go directly to the point. The winners of the extravagant Hollywood Gala last night were the following:
- Best Picture: No Country for Old Men
- Achievement in Directing: Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men
- Best Original Screenplay: Juno
- Best Adapted Screenplay: No Country for Old Men
- Best Actress: Marion Cottilard for La Vie En Rose
- Achievement in Cinematography: There Will Be Blood
- Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood
- Best Film Editing: The Bourne Ultimatum
- Achievement in Sound Editing: The Bourne Ultimatum
- Best Foreign-Language Film: The Counterfeiters
- Best Original Song: Falling Slowly for Once
- Achievement in Sound Mixing: The Bourne Ultimatum
- Best Original Score: Atonement
- Best Art Direction: Sweeney Todd for The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
- Best Documentary Feature: Taxi to the Dark Side
- Best Documentary Short: Freeheld
- Best Supporting Actress: Tilda Swinton for Michael Clayton
- Best Animated Picture: Ratatouille
- Achievement in Makeup: La Via En Rose
- Achievement in Costume Design: Elizabeth: The Golden Age
- Best Animated Short Film: Peter & The Wolf
- Best Live-Action Short Film: Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)
- Best Visual Effects: The Golden Compass
- Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem for No Country for Old Men
COMMENTS:
- Hollywood’s biggest stars took a backseat at the Oscars as four Europeans and the maverick Coen brothers grabbed the top honors with films that won critical acclaim but only modest box-office success.
- The violent drama “No Country for Old Men” won four academy awards, more than any other film including, including best movie, director, supporting actor and adapted screenplay for brothers Joel and Ethan Coen.
- Javier Bardem for playing a killer of few words, won the first Oscar for a Spanish performer in the 80-year history of the world’s premier cinema awards.
- The victories also marked the first time since 1964 that the top four acting awards went to artists from outside the United States, where the Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Science is located.
My favorite choice was “There Will be Blood”, which tells the story of a robber baron’s quest for power in Southern California’s oil boom of the late-19th and early-20th centuries. Perhaps, because it reflected my inclination towards the petroleum industry, since I worked for Texaco for many years.
Last night’s best picture, “No Country For Old Men”, is the masterful adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel that uses a botched drug deal as a metaphor for the fateful consequences to a society that forgets the value of a human life.
“No Country for Old Men” draws heavily on McCarthy’s themes of chance and fate; it tells the story of a drug deal gone sour and the ensuing cat-and-mouse drama as three men crisscross each other’s paths in the desert landscape of 1980 West Texas.
That’s it guys; plenty more can be found in today’s newspapers, magazines, television, radio, Internet……you name it. I hope your favorite picture and movie stars won. 🙂
Lingua Franca 