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Monday, Mar. 22, 1999

Oscar gains Italian accent as Benigni wins

`Life is Beautiful' star, Coburn, Dench claim awards

By BOB THOMAS
Associated Press

   LOS ANGELES - Roberto Benigni, who portrayed a father shielding his son from the horrors of the Holocaust in the tragi-comic "Life is Beautiful," became the first star of a foreign language film to win the Oscar for best actor Sunday night.
   The movie, which Benigni also wrote and directed, won additional Academy Awards for foreign film and dramatic score.
   "This is a terrible mistake because I used up all my English," he said, as he leapt to the stage for the second time.
   Judi Dench, who played the imperious but fair-minded Queen Elizabeth I in "Shakespeare in Love," and James Coburn, the alcoholic, abusive father in "Affliction," won best supporting Oscars.
   "Saving Private Ryan," Steven Spielberg's bloody depiction of World War II combat that figured to be "Shakespeare's" big competition for the major awards, took prizes for editing, sound and sound effects editing.
   About two-thirds of the way through the show, "Private Ryan," "Shakespeare" and "Life Is Beautiful" had three apiece. After last year's 11-Oscar blowout by "Titanic," the movie crowd seemed to welcome a real race this year.
   The most controversial moment of the show came and went quickly, as director Elia Kazan - reviled by some for naming names during the McCarthy era - stepped out to accept a lifetime achievement award. Many members of the audience applauded heartily, some stood, while others, like actors Nick Nolte and Ed Harris, sat silently.
   Besides Benigni, the only performer in a foreign language film to win an Oscar was Sophia Loren for "Two Women" in 1961.
   Fittingly, it was Loren who presented Benigni with his first award of the night. The perpetually ebullient Benigni clambered over the backs of seats and hopped onto the stage after Loren openly rooted for her fellow Italian and announced his foreign film victory.
   "I want to kiss everybody," said Benigni, who also was nominated in directing and screenplay categories, while the film was a best picture contender.
   Dench, who made an indelible impression despite her brief screen time in the romantic comedy, held up her gold statuette and said with a smile: "I feel for eight minutes on the screen I should only get a little bit of him.'
   It was the first Oscar for the 64-year-old British stage actress, who had been nominated last year for playing a different queen, Victoria, in "Mrs. Brown."
   Coburn, 70, had never been nominated.
   "I've been doing this work for like over half my life, and I finally got one right, I guess," said the veteran actor, whose dozens of films include "Our Man Flint" and "The Magnificent Seven."
   "Some of them you do for money, some of them you do for love. This is a love child," Coburn said.
   "Shakespeare in Love," which led all contenders with 13 nominations, also picked up an early Oscar for art direction and best musical or comedy score, while "Elizabeth" won for makeup.
   

Goldberg as host

   Host Whoopi Goldberg, who changed costumes repeatedly to mimic film characters, got the show off to a rousing start when she came out in full regalia as Elizabeth - who figured in two of this year's contenders - getting a rousing ovation, then a laugh when she announced with an accent that was more Bette Davis than British, "I am the African Queen."
   She joked about being the last master of ceremonies of the century and millennium, saying: "I am the last 20th century fox."
   And referring to this year's furor over the special Oscar for director Elia Kazan, Goldberg joked: "I thought the blacklist was Hattie McDaniel and me."
   

Real competition

   The lack of a runaway favorite helped make the 71st Academy Awards among the most anticipated in recent history. With two well received films as the leaders, the campaign for votes was conducted largely in Hollywood trade paper and newspaper ads.
   Miramax, which often stages big-money campaigns for its Oscar candidates and succeeded two years ago with a best-picture win for "The English Patient," laid out millions for "Shakespeare in Love" ads.
   DreamWorks was forced to counter with an estimated $4 million to promote its "Saving Private Ryan."
   The battle of the dueling studios prompted calls for restrictions on campaign expenses. But, as in the political arena, no one has proposed how to limit the expenditures.
   

Kazan controversy

   The Kazan controversy also contributed to the excitement over this year's awards. The dustup started after Karl Malden proposed an honorary award for the director of "A Streetcar Named Desire," "On the Waterfront," "East of Eden," "Gentleman's Agreement" and other classics. The board of governors agreed.
   Kazan had long been criticized because he named names of his former Communist Party comrades before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1952.
   After the academy announced the honor, he was attacked as a traitor by those whose defiance of the committee placed them on the industry's blacklist.
   The furor over the Kazan award overshadowed another honorary Oscar this year - the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award to longtime producer-director Norman Jewison, whose credits include "The Cincinnati Kid," "In the Heat of the Night," "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Moonstruck."
   The Canadian-born Jewison was hailed by the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as a "superior craftsman through four decades of moviemaking."
   Jewison's films have earned 45 Academy Award nominations and more than 10 Oscars, including a best picture award for the 1967 film "In the Heat of the Night."
   

Shift to Sunday

   After years of presenting the Oscars on Monday, the academy switched to Sunday. The reason was obviously financial.
   Sunday nights routinely deliver bigger audiences, with four hours of prime television time vs. three for other nights.
   Thus the academy could present a half-hour pre-show and sell more commercials. Also, the main ceremony was moved up by a half-hour, ensuring it would not go much past midnight in the East, when audiences have typically tuned out en masse.
   This year's awards returned to the small but classy Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of the Los Angeles Music Center after several years at the larger, but less glamorous Shrine Auditorium.
   The ceremony was one of the last in a borrowed hall. If all goes well, the academy will present the awards in its own theater in a brand-new complex on Hollywood Boulevard in 2001. It will mark Oscar's first appearance in the Hollywood district of the city since 1960.
   As usual, this year's Oscar presenter lineup was jam-packed with filmdom's biggest names, including Jack Nicholson, Anne Heche, Harrison Ford, Kim Basinger, Denzel Washington, Helen Hunt, Robin Williams and Annette Bening.
   

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  © 1999 Corpus Christi Caller Times, a Scripps Howard newspaper. All rights reserved.