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 Director Martin Scorsese accepts the Oscar for best director for his work on "The Departed" as directors from left, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg look on. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill) |
HOLLYWOOD -- One of the classic moments at Sunday's Oscars was seeing the self-styled "three amigos" of American cinema gather on stage to present the best director prize -- to their old pal Martin Scorsese.
And he was delighted.
The three are legendary directors Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas. "That was an extraordinary moment when the three of them came out and gave me a look," Scorsese said later. "We go back. Steven and I go back to 1968-69. Francis, 1970. George, 1970. I just went up to San Francisco to see Francis and his new film, which is quite wonderful, at George's new theatre.
"So they have influenced me. Francis has been like a big brother in my life. Spielberg and Lucas and I have -- particularly in that first 10 or 12 years in the 1970s and early '80s -- worked together, really worked together, and helped each other with each other's films. It's almost like a private little film school.
"And to see the three of them walk out and give me a look before they opened the envelope, I was very surprised, very surprised."
The three amigos had not been announced as presenters. It was kept a secret. And the Academy -- whose members are not supposed to know whose names are actually inside those envelopes until they are opened -- took a risk trotting the three out for the best director award. If someone other than their friend Scorsese had won, it would have been awkward.
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As it was, Scorsese got a chance to quip when accepting the trophy: "Could you double-check the envelope, please?"
Even before that, the three amigos themselves clowned around about the fact that Spielberg and Coppola have both won as best director and Lucas has not.
OLE, MORE AMIGOS: Off-stage, three Mexican filmmakers whose films figured into this year's Oscars were also being called "the three Amigos." They are Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Babel), Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth) and Alfonso Cuaron (whose Children Of Men is the only one of the three not to win at least one Oscar last night).
Being compared to the three Americans, Spielberg, Coppola and Lucas, is weird, del Toro quipped. He said he thought the Mexicans were closer to another trio of Americanos: "I was thinking more like Larry, Curly and Moe," he said, with an impish grin, while invoking The Three Stooges.
As for best director winner Scorsese, Cuaron said of their hero: "We need six of us for one Scorsese." That, of course, is not true. Each of the Mexicans is a sublime talent. But it demonstrates shows the enormous upwelling of love, respect and support from all quarters that propelled Scorsese to his first Oscar.
BLOODBATH: Producer Graham King claims he and director Scorsese never seriously thought about the Oscars or any other awards -- except as a joke -- during the filming of The Departed in Boston.
"We never mentioned this picture for the awards," King said backstage after it won as best picture and scooped three other Oscars. "We never thought about it."
The Departed is a genre movie, a cops-and-criminals thriller despite the prestige all-star cast of Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon and Oscar nominee Mark Wahlberg.
"There was a scene where Jack was coming out of the bar and has blood all over his hands and he tells Billy (Leonardo DiCaprio) to go home," King recalled.
"And I turned around to somebody on set and said: 'Can you imagine me showing this to the Golden Globes? They are going to lynch me!' We didn't think about the awards on this."
Scorsese said backstage that he did not allow Warner Bros. to launch a campaign to get him personal honours, including going for an Oscar nomination as best director. He did, however, approve the campaign for the picture itself and others involved, including the cast.
"Not for me -- for the film," he said of the awards campaign which cost millions. "I was really trying to concentrate on the filmmaking and ultimately, if it wasn't meant (to be) in the cards, that's life."
WHEN LOSERS WIN: Scorsese is a fan of the controversial honourary Oscar, which often is given to actors or directors with an outstanding body of work -- men or women who have never won a competitive Oscar. Alfred Hitchcock is on the list. So is Charlie Chaplin as a director (although he did win for music once, bizarrely 20 years after he made the film he won it for). Chaplin ended up with two honourary Oscars, one in 1929, the second in a triumphant 1972 return to Hollywood, which had exiled him for his leftist views.
Peter O'Toole, meanwhile, thought about turning down his 2003 honourary Oscar because he still wanted to win one outright. But he relented that year -- and the eight-time nominated actor lost again this year for Venus to Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland).
"I do admire the career achievement," Scorsese said backstage after finally getting his first personal Oscar as best director. He had lost the directing prize five times before, including for his 1980 masterpiece Raging Bull, and also lost in a screenwriting category twice. "I saw Howard Hawks get a career achievement award (in 1975). So it's a very special award. But it is a different feeling having been chosen."
PRESERVING THE PAST: Scorsese used his backstage pass to support his campaign for film preservation, an on-going battle joined by other Hollywood heavyweights such as his pals Spielberg, Lucas and Coppola.
"It's very important," Scorsese said of saving past films from deterioration or even total obliteration. "Digital also fades. We have to very, very careful."
If the only option is a digital transfer because of a lack of fund to work in film, then preservationists should do that, he said. "You may have to do that, you see, just to hold them out for the new technology. But it's so important to try and restore these films on celluloid."
The much-maligned Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which is ridiculed for the studio-backed hype spectacle of the Golden Globes, actually uses some its profits from the event for a good cause. Each year, Scorsese said, the HFPA gives his film foundation money to restore a classic film.
"This year, they gave us money for The Red Shoes (1948), Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's film, to restore the actual three-strip negative. That's going to be very important. You have to go back to the original."
On a personal note, Scorsese once introduced his long-time film editor Thelma Schoonmaker -- who won an Oscar for editing The Departed last night -- to Powell, the legendary English filmmaker. They married in 1984 and stayed together until his death of cancer in February of 1990.
HIDDEN GEMS: Scorsese gives his directorial idol Howard Hawks a few sly homage-like nods in The Departed. "That's for fun, though," he said. "That's for reference. For those who know, (they) know. That's it." So he won't go into detail for neophytes. Hawks' credits including His Girl Friday, The Big Sleep, To Have And Have Not, Rio Bravo and his final film in 1970, Rio Lobo.
In a more general way, in tone, The Departed also pays tribute to the spirit of William Wellman's 1931 gangster movie, The Public Enemy, starring James Cagney. Scorsese said he will never forget watching it in a re-release when he was a 10-year-old movie freak growing up in New York.
"I mean, the brutal honesty of that film, the street honesty of it, always stayed with me. That's a mark I always aimed towards. And this film has that kind of attitude."
QUEENLY RESPECT: From one Queen to another, best actress winner Helen Mirren thinks highly of Queen Elizabeth II, whom she played in Stephen Frears, The Queen. It is a personalized drama about what happens in Britain after the election of the Tony Blair government and the death of Princess Diana.
"I think it's wonderful that I live in a country that allows us to make a film like this. And there are many countries in the world that one would not be allowed to make this film (in). And I think it's generous of the Royal Family and Her Majesty the Queen to sit back and not interfere. And I think it's very gracious and very noble of her. And I do believe she is a noble person in the best possible sense of the word, which has nothing to do with class but is all to do with spirit."
On stage, Mirren accepted her Oscar with this sincere tribute to the Queen: "You know, for 50 years and more, Elizabeth Windsor has maintained her dignity, her sense of duty, and her hairstyle. She's had her feet planted firmly on the ground, her hat on her head, her handbag on her arm, and she's weathered many, many storms. And I salute her courage and her consistency. And I thank her because, if it wasn't for her, I most certainly would not be here. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Queen!"
VIVE LA QUEBEC: Scorsese is a big fan of shooting films in Quebec. "We are trying to find a way to get back to Montreal," he said backstage. "We shot some of The Aviator there and we would like to get back up there. The shooting facilities are fantastic."
GETTING PAST THE PENGUINS: Oscar-winning Australian George Miller (Happy Feet) loves animation. But his next film will still be with real people, not digital animals, although he plans to use animation for special effects in his future films.
"I am going back to live action actors for a while," he said while clutching his Academy Award for best animated feature. "But I'm hooked on animation and it's going to be in whatever movies I get to make. I'm so lucky to be working in film at the time when it's available." Miller catapulted to fame making the Mad Max trilogy in the 1980s with Mel Gibson.
CAREER ARC: Forest Whitaker, best actor winner for The Last King of Scotland, started his film career rather modestly. The Texan first appeared on the big screen in two pictures in 1982: Tag: The Assassination Game and Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
"This is a great night," he said backstage at the Oscars. "This is amazing. I mean, it's like a magical, magical moment. You can never like ... you know ... really ... I don't think I ever really imagined (it) completely until it actually happened.
"When I was really young, I was so idealistic. I really wasn't even sure if I should continue acting. I would, like, try and figure out if I could be good enough to do it. I was like 10 or 12 years into my career before I felt like maybe I could do it. It was such a different time than now."
On stage, Whitaker thrilled the audience in the Kodak Theatre with a moving speech about the importance of acting and communicating.
"When I first started acting, it was because of my desire to connect to everyone. To that thing inside each of us, that light that I believe exists in all of us. Because acting, for me, is about believing in that connection and it's a connection so strong, it's a connection so deep, that we feel it. And, through our combined belief, we can create a new reality."
LOT OF LOVE: Alan Arkin, an upset winner of the best supporting actor category for his eccentric turn as a profane, drug-addicted granddaddy in Little Miss Sunshine, said he has nothing but warm and fuzzy feelings for his pint-sized co-star Abigail Breslin.
"Working with Abigail was a sheer delight," the 72-year-old Arkin said backstage about the 10-year-old Breslin, who had been nominated as best supporting actress for their acerbic comedy. Breslin never became one of the awful Hollywood child divas on set, even when the shooting conditions became difficult.
"She is a lovely, delightful, charming child," Arkin said. "It was like working with a woman of 40 years experience. We were locked in the van for hours and it was 95 degrees out, no air conditioning. And she was just one of the group. She demanded no special attention. She busied herself with her music and writing things and was talking to us. I'm crazy about her!"
Arkin fell a year short of tying some sort of obscure Oscar record: 38 years between nominations that paid off with a win. Arkin was last nominated for The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1968), which means there were 38 years between nominations. The late Helen Hayes won as best actress for The Sin of Malelon Claudet (1931) and then, in her only other Oscar nomination, won as best supporting actress for Airport (1970). That is a 39-year gap.
"Sure," Arkin offered when informed of the near-record. "In God's truth, I don't spend a lot of time thinking about it. I do my work. My main concern is being in projects where I can be excited about something."
Arkin said he wasn't even sure when he was last nominated. "I don't remember. I'm 72. I don't remember anything any more and I'm proud of it."
He also joked that he is getting awards now because he is 72. "I think it's because of my age. Everyone thinks I'm going to keel over in a year or two: 'Give him a little bonus!' "
MIFFED MURPHY: Eddie Murphy reportedly left the Oscar ceremony early after missing out on the best supporting actor prize that was supposed to be his for Dreamgirls. Maybe now he is really in regret over being in Norbit, the crap-tacular bomb released during his Oscar publicity campaign.
TAKE THAT, RUMOUR MONGERS: Jennifer Hudson, who won the best supporting actress Oscar for Dreamgirls, was asked what she thought about rumours that she feuded on set with her co-stars, including the femme lead, superstar Beyonce Knowles.
"Well, it's not true!" she said calmly backstage, trying not to let the question ruin her high. "So it's not much to think about. How about that?"
Hudson showed class in thanking performer Jennifer Holliday, who played the same role Hudson won for in the original Dreamgirls show on Broadway.
"Her and the other Dreams -- the original Dreamgirls -- they paved the way for us to be here today to make the film," Hudson said. "Had they not done that unbelievable job, there would not have been the Dreamgirls (movie) made. So how can you not thank them for that?"
Hudson, who arrived in film out of American Idol, said she now feels under pressure to continue to get better now that she is an Oscar winner.
"God, it definitely adds pressure, I know that much. I cannot express in words how much this award means to me but all I an do is show it in my work to come and continue to make the Academy proud. Not because I got nominated (and won) tonight, but just because I have to constantly represent them in the best way possible."
She wants to continue to act and sing. "I don't want to ever have to choose between the two and I want to be able to continue to do them both and just do them justice."
Hudson is about to record an album. She begins in March and expects to release it in the fall.
After the acting and music talk, an idiot reporter backstage asked Hudson to comment on Britney Spears' 99th nervous breakdown, or whatever it is that is
happening in the skanky skinhead's noggin these days. But Hudson wisely did not take the bait.
"All I can do is pray for her," the religious Hudson said. "That's the best I can do. I don't know what's going on and it ain't my business."