“Shakespeare” takes best picture, Spielberg directing Oscar

Sunday, March 21, 1999 | 10:49 a.m.

Roberto Benigni, as an Italian Jew shielding his son from the horrors of the Holocaust in "Life is Beautiful," pulled off a stunning first - winning as best actor in a foreign film. The tragi-comic film, which Benigni also wrote and directed, won additional Oscars 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.

Paltrow, never before nominated, was honored for her role as the object of a young Bard's affections.

"I don't feel very deserving of this in your presence," she said, sobbing, as she named her fellow nominees.

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.

"Shakespeare in Love," which led all contenders with 13 nominations, also picked up Oscars for original screenplay, art direction, costume design and musical or comedy score.

"Elizabeth," another best picture nominee, won just one award, for makeup, while the fifth contender, "The Thin Red Line," Terrence Malick's comeback movie about WWII in the Pacific, was shut out.

"Saving Private Ryan" also took prizes for cinematography, editing, sound and sound effects editing.

"Am I allowed to say I really wanted this?" Spielberg joked as he accepted his second directing Oscar. His first was for "Schindler's List" in 1993.

Spielberg earnestly expressed gratitude to all families who lost sons in World War II, and addressing his father, a veteran, said: "Dad, this is for you."

The split between best picture and director marked the first time since 1989 the prizes went to different movies. That year, "Driving Miss Daisy" won as best picture, while Oliver Stone was named best director for "Born on the Fourth of July."

The unflinchingly realistic "Private Ryan" had looked as if it might become a runaway favorite early in the evening when it picked up the editing and cinematography, which are often precursors of best picture.

But "Shakespeare in Love," with its clever dialogue and showbusiness anachronisms, obviously entranced the Academy's voters. It was what Hollywood has seen little of in recent years: a literate, believable romance that had a lot of fun - not to mention beautiful and handsome stars.

In the longest Oscars awards show ever (four hours, two minutes), the most controversial moment 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 Miss Loren who presented him 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.

Another Holocaust film, "The Last Days," won the documentary award.

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.

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 Kazan, Goldberg joked: "I thought the blacklist was Hattie McDaniel and me."

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.

The Kazan controversy 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."

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.

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