Quoted Archive for February, 2008
Joke's on us
“The gods too are fond of a joke.”
– Aristotle
Bob Uecker Day
I didn’t get a lot of awards as a player. But they did have a Bob Uecker Day Off for me once in Philly.
– Bob Uecker
It’s A Wonderful Oscar …
Every time an Oscar is given out, an agent gets his wings.
– Kathy Bates
There Will Be Blood
“My favorite movie of the year was the one about the heartless con man who’s obsessed with finding oil. Its called No End In Sight.”
– Bill Maher
The Oscar After-Glow …
“That was fantastic. I loved it. That was funny and smart. Isn’t it great when it’s all over?”
– Helen Mirren to Jon Stewart
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“Getting a text from Bono is the biggest thing that can happen to an Irishman.”
– Glen Hansard on congratulations from Bono
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“I’m totally overwhelmed with joy and then sparkles and fireworks and everything which goes like bam, bam, bam!”
– Marion Cotillard
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“I’m feeling tremendously relieved that I don’t have to go home and explain to all my friends and family about why it didn’t happen. Great joy, actually. It’s a lovely marker.”
– Daniel Day-Lewis, not going home empty-handed
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”I’m an absolute dummy with a computer…so I can’t speak to what’s happening today so much. But I do miss the community that we had then. People seemed to work together more in those days. They are more separate these days…. I think you have the tools now that you can do anything. Unfortunately, very often you do everything. Discipline in art is also very important. The things you don’t say are sometimes as important as what you do say. And if you do too much, you destroy the point you are trying to make.”
– Robert Boyle
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”He’s elderly and unhappy, probably not well.”
– Ethan Coen when asked about Roderick Jaynes
BEST MOTION PICTURE OF THE YEAR
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Scott Rudin:
This is an unbelievable honor and a complete surprise. So many people have a part of this, chief among them Cormac McCarthy, who wrote a wonderful book that it was an honor to make into a movie. The three men sitting down front, Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, without them there would be no movie.
These two gentlemen [to Joel and Ethan Coen], I can’t think of anybody I would rather be standing here with than the two of you. Thank you so much for this.
Everybody at Vantage and Miramax who financed the movie together. The entire team at Miramax who did a brilliant, brilliant job selling it. Thank you to all of them.
I want to thank Mark Roybal, It’s a pleasure to work with him every day.
I want to thank my friend, Sydney Pollack, who taught me that with the responsibility — with the opportunity to make movies comes the responsibility of making them good. This for him.
– Scott Rudin, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen on accepting the Oscar for “No Country for Old Men”
ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING
Ethan Coen:
I don’t have a lot to add to what I said earlier. Thank you.
Joel Coen:
Ethan and I have been making stories with movie cameras since we were kids. In the late ’60s when Ethan was 11 or 12, he got a suit and a briefcase and we went to the Minneapolis International Airport with a Super 8 camera and made a movie about shuttle diplomacy called “Henry Kissinger, Man on the Go.” And honestly, what we do now doesn’t feel that much different from what we were doing then. There are too many people to thank for this. We’re really thrilled to have received it, and we’re very thankful to all of you out there for letting us continue to play in our corner of the sandbox, so thank you very much.
– Joel and Ethan Coen on accepting the Oscar for “No Country for Old Men”
PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
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And that’s the closest I’ll ever come to getting a knighthood, so thank you.
My deepest thanks to the members of the Academy for whacking me with the handsomest bludgeon in town. I’m looking at this gorgeous thing you’ve given me and I’m thinking back to the first devilish whisper of an idea that came to him and everything since and it seems to me that this sprang like a golden sapling out of the mad, beautiful head of Paul Thomas Anderson.
I wish my son and my partner HW Plainview were up here with me, the mighty Dillon Freasier. So many people to thank. One amongst them would be Mrs. Plainview down there, the enchantingly optimistic, open-minded and beautiful Rebecca Miller.
I hope that all those to whom I owe and to whom I feel the deepest gratitude will forgive me if I say just simply, “Thank you, Paul.”
I’ve been thinking a lot about fathers and sons in the course of this, and I’d like to accept this in the memory of my grandfather, Michael Balcon, my father, Cecil Day-Lewis, and my three fine boys, Gabriel, Ronan and Cashel. Thank you very much indeed. Thank you.
– Daniel Day-Lewis on receiving the Oscar for “There Will Be Blood”
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
What is happening? This is for the writers, and I want to thank all the writers. I especially want to thank my fellow nominees because I worship you guys and I’m learning from you every day, so thank you very much. I want to thank the Academy, I want to thank Fox Searchlight, Mr. Mudd, Mandate, Dan Dubiecki. I want to thank our incredible cast including the superhuman Ellen Page. I want to thank Jason Reitman, who I consider a member of my family, and I’m in awe of his talent as a filmmaker. I want to thank Sarah Self. I want to thank Mason Novick who knew I could do this before I did. And most of all, I want to thank my family for loving me exactly the way I am.
– Diablo Cody on receiving the Oscar for “Juno”
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
Cynthia Wade:
Thank you. It was Lieutenant Laurel Hester’s dying wish that her fight for, against discrimination would make a difference for all the same sex couples across the country that face discrimination every day. Discrimination that I don’t face as a married woman. Sheila Nevins and HBO for making this film have a broadcast and a home on Cinemax later this year. To my husband Matthew Syrett, who took care of our children and held down a full-time job so that we could make this film. And to our incredible team in New York, thank you so much.
Vanessa Roth:
And to all our supporters and families who believe that even a 38-minute movie could change minds and lives and our children who remind us about what’s really important. And to Stacie, who’s here tonight, who’s really auto mechanic by day but hero in life who always did what was right. And she’s here tonight. So thank you so much.
Cynthia Wade:
Thank you.
– Vanessa Roth and Cynthia Wade on accepting the Oscar for “Freeheld”
ACHIEVMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY
John Toll won this a number of years ago said that the production designer on his movie, that 50% of it belonged to him. Well, 80% belongs to Jack Fisk and his production crew. And David Crank and Dylan Tichenor. But it really, we all know it really, really belongs to Paul. That this is his imagination and his energy and his extraordinary vision. It sort of enabled us to create the world of “There Will Be Blood.” Thank you, Paul. We’re really all standing on the shoulders, we know this, of Daniel Day-Lewis, who isn’t here right now, but thank you all so much. Thank you. And Helen. Thank you so much.
– Robert Elswit on receiving the Oscar for “There Will Be Blood”
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Alex Gibney:
Wow. Thank you very much, Academy. Here’s to all doc filmmakers. And, truth is, I think my dear wife Anne was kind of hoping I’d make a romantic comedy, but honestly, after Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, extraordinary rendition that simply wasn’t possible. This is dedicated to two people who are no longer with us, Dilawar, the young Afghan taxi driver, and my father, a Navy interrogator who urged me to make this film because of his fury about what was being done to the rule of law. Let’s hope we can turn this country around, move away from the dark side and back to the light. Thank you very much.
– Alex Gibney and Eva Orner on receiving the Oscar for “Taxi to the Dark Side”
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR
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Thank you very much. There have been some great Austrian filmmakers working here, thinking of Billy Wilder, Fred Zinnemann, Otto Preminger, most of them had to leave my country because of the Nazis, so it sort of makes sense that the first Austrian movie to win an Oscar is about the Nazis’ crimes. Making this movie, I had a most brilliant cast, a wonderful crew, the best of all families to support me at home, so actually, it was easy for me. Thank you very much.
– Stefan Ruzowitzky on receiving the Oscar for “The Counterfeiters”
ACHIEVEMENT IN FILM EDITING
Forty-eight years ago, my father was privileged enough to receive an Oscar, and I’m deeply, deeply honored that you put me in his company tonight. To the brilliant Paul Greengrass, to Frank Marshall, thank you, thank you, thank you. To everybody in post-production, led by my good friend and colleague, Mark Fitzgerald, each and every one of you share in this award with me. To Universal Pictures, to the Academy, my deepest, deepest thanks. To the amazing Matt Damon, thank you. And to my family, especially Anne, Anno, Ava and Fiona. My kids, I love you. Thank you so, so much.
– Christopher Rouse on receiving his Oscar for “The Bourne Ultimatum”
PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
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“Oh — thank you so much. Olivier, what you did to me, Maestro Olivier Dahan, you rocked my life. You truly rocked my life. Thank you so much to Picturehouse for your passion, members of the Academy, thank you so, so much. And — wow. Well, I’m speechless now. I — I — well, I — thank you life, thank you love, and it is true, there is some angels in this city. Thank you so, so much.”
– Marion Cotillard on receiving her Oscar for “La Vie en Rose”
