People got really mad at Marcia! They were mad that she dissed an international treasure who had lost her husband just a few months before that Oscar ceremony. The Vulture interviewer used the process of elimination to get Marcia to basically admit that she was talking about Judi Dench, who had been nominated for Chocolat that year. She also indicated that one of the nominees in the Best Supporting Actress category was “displeased” with her win. It was a really fun, enjoyable interview and Marcia served up some wonderful 20-year-old gossip about Ed Harris, Kate Hudson, Frances McDormand and more. Harden dished on what the awards season was like back then, what went into preparing for the night of the Oscars, how it felt to win, and all of the stuff that happened after the win. West Coast fans disgruntled by the choice could channel-flip right to "The Sopranos," where last week, when confronted with a psycho lieutenant saying "Strength and honor," Tony Soprano responded, "Scotch and Soda.Marcia Gay Harden gave a wonderful interview to Vulture a few weeks ago to mark the 20th anniversary of her surprise Oscar win for Pollock. If "Crouching Tiger" fit the tone of the evening, it may be because its other-worldliness fit with "2001," and it could be seen as a bridge-builder, as Tan Dun put it, between East and West, and high and low culture and as a style-setter.īut "Gladiator" emerged the victor. Yet the atmosphere was alarmingly sedate.
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What was amazing is how, viewed back to back, most of the nominees were unremittingly bellicose not just "Gladiator," and "Crouching Tiger" and the Drug War movie "Traffic," but even "Erin Brockovich," which was described (predictably) as a David and Goliath tale. And the montage of clips from Cardiff-shot films like "African Queen" and "Black Narcissus" and De Laurentiis-produced films like "La Strada" and "Nights of Cabiria" and Lehman-written films like "North By Northwest" and "The Sweet Smell of Success" dwarfed the segments we saw from the current nominees.Ĭardiff's phrase that he viewed cinematogaphy as "the transference of emotion" via light gave the evening that rarety: an actual aesthetic illumination. The only standing ovations went to cinematographer Jack Cardiff and writer-producer Ernest Lehman for their honorary Oscars and producer-mogul Dino De Laurentiis for his Thalberg Award. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas."īoth lightly paced and dignified, most of the evening lacked emotion.
(Best adapted screenplay went to Stephen Gaghan for "Traffic.")Įven a few crafts-people who worked for other films found their talent could not be denied, such as Jon Johnson for the Sound Editing on "U-571" and Rick Baker and Gail Ryan for makeup on "Dr. Benicio Del Toro of "Traffic" beat Joaquin Phoenix of "Gladiator" for best supporting actor, and when it came time for the writing and directing awards, "Traffic" won for best director Steven Soderbergh, over "Gladiator's" Ridley Scott, and Cameron Crowe won best original screenplay for "Almost Famous" over "Gladiator's" David Franzoni, John Logan and William Nicholson.
All evening, the Academy divided awards among "Traffic" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Gladiator." Host Steve Martin turned Crowe's surliness into a running joke.
But for "Gladiator" and its newly crowned best actor star, Russell Crowe, the theme of the evening was more like that line from Friedrich Nietzsche and "Conan the Barbarian": "That which does not kill me makes me stronger." "Strength and Honor," one of the producers of "Gladiator" exclaimed as the Roman epic took home the best picture Academy Award on a night when it also won four other Oscars.