But there’s strong competition from Jenny Beavan and John Bright for Sense and Sensibility Shuna Harwood for
Posted in General on 21. Jul, 2010
But there’s strong competition from Jenny Beavan and John Bright for Sense and Sensibility, Shuna Harwood for the modish fascism of Richard III, and James Acheson for the flagrantly over-dressed Restoration.Best Dramatic Music is James Horner for Apollo 13 or Braveheart, John Williams for Nixon, Patrick Doyle for Sense and Sensibility, and Luis Bacalov for Il Postino. Horner is clearly pre-eminent, and the music for Braveheart – often as torrential as waterfalls – is more interesting than the pomp and mystery score for Apollo 13. So Braveheart collects another statuette.Sound was exquisite, subterranean (sub-oceanic, even) and visceral in Apollo 13, Batman Forever, Crimson Tide and Waterworld. The winner, I’d guess, will be Apollo 13 or Tide for their sounds of power and explosion.The Editing Oscar pits Apollo 13, Babe, Braveheart, Crimson Tide and Seven, ignoring the year’s tour de force in editing (Thelma Schoonmaker on Casino, nearly bringing life to that inert structure).
It’s good to see A Little Princess getting some attention, but John Toll’s work on Braveheart is so sophisticated and varied, so sensual and romantic, it wins. I’d also give Costume Design to Charles Knode for Braveheart – for that film is infused with a sense of the way costume affected behaviour. Photography is contended for by Stephen Goldblatt for Batman Forever, John Toll for Braveheart, Emmanuel Lubezki for A Little Princess, Lu Yue for Shanghai Triad and Michael Coulter for Sense and Sensibility. The winner, for me, is Joan Allen, who has the best part in Nixon because Pat is the one person we know too little and want to imagine better.Nixon was also loaded with fine supporting actors – James Woods as Haldemann, Paul Sorvino (Mira’s father) as Kissinger, and Ed Harris as Howard Hunt.
But Harris is nominated for his Mission Control in Apollo 13, an exuberant piece of stiff-upper-lip-ism, gently kidded by Harris’s wise and haunted eyes. He has done so much good work for so long that he deserves to win, and I reckon he’ll beat James Cromwell in Babe, Brad Pitt, who is awful in 12 Monkeys, Tim Roth in Rob Roy (less frightening and plausible than Patrick McGoohan in Braveheart), and Kevin Spacey in The Usual Suspects.Let’s look next at some of the “technical” Oscars, before closing on the biggies. Mira Sorvino is widely tipped, and supporting actresses do well in Woody Allen films Quinlan’s waiting wife in Apollo 13 is a cliche. Sean Penn is the serious opposition: he is very good as the killer, and he has a great following in young Hollywood. But Vegas has to win something and Cage is a deserving recipient. Don’t be surprised, though, if he’s never as good again.For some movie buffs, the Supporting Actor and Actress Oscars are the most interesting So often, that’s where the best work is done.
For Supporting Actress this year, we have Kate Winslet in Sense and Sensibility, Mare Winningham in Georgia, Mira Sorvino in Mighty Aphrodite, Kathleen Quinlan in Apollo 13 and Joan Allen as Pat in Nixon Winslet has both a real chance here and a great future. Winningham seems to have been nominated as a rebuke to the chronic mannerism of Jennifer Jason Leigh, who plays the lead role of her sister in Georgia – and who was ignored. Troisi is regarded fondly, wistfully, but at too great a distance. Dreyfuss’s film is a set piece of high-minded sentiment, and he does the one thing every actor wants to do – he looks like his real younger self in many scenes But a win here would be a shock. They have difficulty being assertive and are very self-effacing.