Arts&Entertainment
‘Beauty’ entrances Academy Awards
By Sarah Baker
Senior editor
Sometimes, there’s so much beauty that we
just can’t take it
“Beauty” abounded at last night’s 72nd
Annual Academy Awards, where the dark, funny,
crazy and absolutely true “American Beauty”
won Best Picture, among a slew of other top
awards.
“Beauty” producers Bruce Cohen and Dan
Jinks won for the script originally given to them
by Dreamworks Chairman and directing guru
Steven Spielberg. It is the duo’s first award.
“Beauty’s” director Sam Mendes took kudos
for his directorial debut and sent out kudos to his
amazing cast of actors.
The Best Actor of the night was Kevin
Spacey, whose portrayal of Lester in “Beauty”
captured the picture of weirdness in the face of
normalcy. In die way of all Spacey performances,
the weirdo became someone the audience could
identify with.
“This is the highlight of my day,” Spacey said,
before dedicating his award to acting legend Jack
Source: the Associated Press
best American Beauty
picture The Cider House Rules
^ The Green Mile
The Insider
The Sixth Sense
best All About My Mother • Spain
foreign film Caravan- Nepal
East-West- France
Solmon and Gaenor - United Kingdom
Under the Sun - Sweden
best Russell Crowe • The Insider
actor Richard Farnsworth - The Straight Story
Sean Penn - Sweet and Lowdown
Kevin Spacey - American Beauty
Denzel Washington - The Hurricane
best Annette Bening - American Beauty
actress Janet McTeer - Tumbleweeds
Julianne Moore - The End of the Affair
Meryl Streep - Music of the Heart
Hilary Swank • Boys Don’t Cry
best Michael Caine - The Cider House Rules
supporting Tom Cruise - Magnolia
actor Michael Clark Duncan - The Green Mile
Jude Law - The Talented Mr. Ripley
Haley Joel Osment - The Sixth Sense
best Toni Collette - The Sixth Sense
supporting Angelina Jolie - Girl Interrupted
actress Catherine Keener - Being John Malkovich
Samantha Morton - Sweet and Lowdown
Chloe Sevigny - Boys Don’t Cry
best Sam Mendes - American Beauty
director Spike Jonze - Being John Malkovich
***■ Lasse Hallstrom - The Cider House Rules
Michael Mann - The Insider
M. Night Shyamalan - The Sixth Sense
Melanie Falk/DN
Lemmon.
“American Beauty” also walked away with
awards for Best Original Screenplay, written by
Alan Ball, and Best Cinematography, filmed by
Conrad L. Hall.
Oscar’s show - billed as the first without the
musical dance bits - fooled everyone by starting
out with none other than a little dance and a lot of
song.
But it was a good, good song.
The beloved Billy Crystal, back for his sev
enth stint as Oscar’s host, sang and danced to
his heart’s content and to the delight of
everyone in the audience.
“There’ll be no dance tonight, and
yet the show will still run too long,”
he crooned. “Make this endless show
end tonight!”
First-time Oscar producers Richard
Zanuck and Lili Fini Zanuck proved
Crystal’s tune right, as they failed in tighten
ing it from the usual sleepy four and a half
hours.
But the show was full of the historical glam
our we all expect and, in essence, is what the cer
emony is really all about.
i ne snow maae stars oi me peo
ple we all wanted to see most -
the actors themselves.
Hilary Swank took
home the statue for Best
Actress in “Boys Don’t
Cry,” wherein she
played Brandon Teena, a
rural Nebraska girl who
lived her life as a boy.
Swank beat heavy
weights Julianne
Moore, nominat
ed for “The
End of the
Affair” and
Annette
Bening,
nominated
f o r
“American
Beauty.”
Best
Supporting
Actress
went to a
tearful
Angelina
Jolie for
her bril
liant work
playing a psychotic young woman in “Girl,
Interrupted.” Jolie’s acceptance speech was short
but heart-wrenchingly sweet as she shared a
moment of joy with her brother, fellow actor
James Haven.
Michael Caine took home Best Supporting
Actor for his work in “The Cider House Rules,”
beating both the
Neal Obermeyer/DN
Hollywood favorite - Tom Cruise in “Magnolia”
(the one all the girls were hoping for) - and the
picture of young Hollywood - 11-year-old Haley
Joel Osment who, as we all know by now, “sees
dead people.”
Best Foreign Film went to Spain’s “All About
My Mother,” directed by the brilliant Pedro
Almodovar. The award was presented by best
sensual foreign duo - Antonio Banderas and
Penelope Cruz.
Phil Collins won Best Song for
“You’ll Be in My Heart,” from Disney’s
animated jungle flick “Tarzan.”
Best Score went to John
Corigliano for “The Red Violin,”
a touching and oddly engaging
film with a classical sound
track.
Best Documentary
Film went to “One Day in
September,” Kevin
MacDonald and Arthur
Cohn’s chronicle of the terror
ism of the 1972 Olympic Games
in Munich. The film beat the
widely known “Buena Vista Social
Club” and “Speaking in Strings,” both
nominated in the category.
“The Matrix”
walked, or rather, float
ed, away with four
Oscars, cleaning up in the
categories of Film Editing,
Please see OSCARS on 11
Bemis Center shows deviate from artistic norms
By Shelley Mika
Staff writer
The rather obvious goal of the
Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts is
to provide a place for current works to
be shown. But two new shows, “The
Beautiful Waitress” by Jo Harvey
Allen, and “Alternate Tracking” by
Warren Rosser, not only bring recent
works to Omaha, they also challenge
the viewer by taking atypical approach
es to art.
The easy way to describe “The
Beautiful Waitress” is to say it is a col
lection of pictures of waitresses who
work in truck stops.
But Allen pushes traditional limits
both in her presentation of the show, as
well as in its origins.
“It’s not just photos,” said Kelly
GoodaH, spokeswoman for the Bemis
Center, 724 S. 12* St. “The whole
show together is more like an installa
tion than a show of photos. There’s
sounds going on like you’d hear in a
diner, a video component and quotes
next to each photo. Those things togeth
/Varren Roser - "Alternate Tracking" and
lo Harvey Allen - "The Beautiful Waitress:
3hotographs by Jo Harvey Allen"
WHERE: The Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts,
724 S. 12th Street, Omaha
WHEN: Continues through May 28
COST: free
THE SKINNY: Dual shows present different takes on
contemporary art.
er make up the whole of the piece.”
Allen’s photos tell a story, but with
the help of clinking plates and ringing
cash registers, Allen places the viewer
in the scene.
Chip Stanley, Bemis sales director,
said Allen’s photos originally served as
research for. a performance art project
she worked on in the 1970’s called
“Counter Angel,” which is played on
vkfeoet the exhibit s - ;V'
“The photos she’s taken are to be
considered as an artist’s research for the
writing and acting of the play,” Stanley
said
In the ‘70s, Allen worked for two
years in truck stops across the
Southwest as background for “Counter
Angel,” which explores the lives of
waitresses. The piece was then per
formed in truck stops, art galleries,
museums and theaters.
Allen, who has appeared in numer
ous theater, film, television and radio
programs, combines her talent as an
actress and her sociological observa
tions into performaneeart ^
>. “*The Beautiful Waittess’ is about t
humanity and the lives 6f these wait
resses,” Stanley said “The exhibit was
Please see BEMIS on 11
Courtesy Photo
Warren Rosser’s
“Return...To
Sender” is part of
a show at the
Bemis Center for
Contemporary
arts in Omaha.
The show runs
through mid-May.