OVP: Best Director (2002)
The Nominees Were...
Pedro Almodovar, Talk to Her
Stephen Daldry, The Hours
Rob Marshall, Chicago
Roman Polanski, The Pianist
Martin Scorsese, Gangs of New York
My Thoughts: My goal is for us to finish up 2002 this weekend (that will depend on how tired I am tomorrow after doing some winter recreation that is a bit outside of my wheelhouse so I'm hoping it doesn't knock me out), but for sure we're going to do Best Director today, because, well, you're reading it today. The Best Director field of 2002 is fascinating partially because of who is not there. In 2002, it was stunning that Peter Jackson, who had nearly won the Oscar the year before and was cited for Best Picture, was missing from the Best Director lineup, as he was assumed to be safe (and this nomination was a down payment on a win the following year that did materialize). Instead, two directors, both with incredible filmographies (though wildly different public personas) got the nominations instead.
The first of those was Pedro Almodovar, who got his only (to date) nomination here for Best Director. Almodovar's Talk to Her is a marvelously taut mystery, and similar to Original Screenplay, this is a worthy nomination & a great way for Oscar to have gotten creative. I love the way that he frames this movie as a sort of expanding Rubik's Cube, where you don't entirely know where you'll go next and where the ground is ever-shifting. Almodovar is also one of the truest "auteurs" working in movies today, giving his own flare to pretty much every inch of his movies, and this is no exception.
Roman Polanski, despite the fact that he won the Oscar for The Pianist, wasn't really expected to even get nominated headed into the ceremony. Polanski's criminal history (which is well-documented online, and too long of a story to get into fully here) was something that many expected would keep him off of the Best Director list, which he hadn't been on since 1980's Tess. I try really hard to keep an artist's personal biography out of these write-ups (it's hard not to, but I want to ultimately decide the wins here based on the work at hand), and it has to be noted that Polanski's direction here is superb. He keeps the story & film tightly focused on Brody's character, giving us an unflinching look at the Holocaust from someone who actually lived through it (Polanski, whose family were Polish Jews, lived in the Warsaw Ghetto as a child during World War II). It's a mesmerizing one-man act that's really a two-man one, as this level of performance is only possible with a director helping Brody along every step.
Stephen Daldry's The Hours nomination was also somewhat in question in 2002, though not to the same degree. Films with female leads sometimes get missed in the top categories, and obviously this is the story of three women, but I'm so glad he made it. Daldry's work here is splendid, the way that he intersperses these women's lives, and I love the quickness of his direction...we never spend more than a scene or two with characters, and frequently leave people behind (think how Toni Collette makes this amazing impression, and then we are deprived of her for the rest of the film). There's something so assured in his storytelling.
Our last two names weren't remotely in question in 2002-everyone knew they'd get nominated. Rob Marshall was making his big-screen debut after years in theater & television (primarily focusing on musicals). I'm going to own something here-I think the direction is the weakest element in Chicago. The film just sort of sits there, and there's not enough flow from scene-to-scene, not enough connection to the musical numbers that are knocking it out of the park, and suddenly we return back to Roxie's world. Marshall was criticized for this approach in later movies that didn't really call for it (this is not unusual for staged versions of Chicago), but I think here it doesn't work either-it's just flat, and it's the one thing holding Chicago back for me.
The final nomination is also one that I don't love, and it's from one of my favorite directors of all-time. This was when we had officially entered the "Marty wants an Oscar" stage of Scorsese's career, where he was worried about becoming Kubrick & Hitchcock & Lumet, men who couldn't get competitive Oscars. Gangs of New York, though, doesn't have the tightness that his other films do, and the sub-romances in the movie don't work at all. This is a long, bloated epic that has the benefit of an incredible performance at its center, but in Scorsese's long filmography, this is the only celebrated title that I totally check out from, and I'm personally glad this isn't where he won his statue.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes went with Scorsese, and they did so over a six-wide field (atypical for the HFPA) as they had him beating Daldry, Marshall, Peter Jackson (The Two Towers), Spike Jonze (Adaptation), & Alexander Payne (About Schmidt). The BAFTA Awards gave their statue to Polanski, and they had the same lineup as Oscar with Almodovar getting skipped for Jackson. DGA had the same lineup as BAFTA (no Pedro, Jackson's there), but they went with Marshall for their winner. And the sixth place is so clearly Peter Jackson, I won't entertain discussions about it being someone else.
Directors I Would Have Nominated: I already have the My Ballot ready, so I won't telegraph too much here other than I consider Jackson's miss to be a proper snub, and I will be correcting it on my end. For the rest, tune in on Sunday!
Oscar's Choice: Heading into Oscar night, it was considered a truly tight race between Scorsese & Marshall, both of which felt like compromise wins (Marshall was brand new, Scorsese was winning for a film that no one agreed was one of his best), which is likely how Roman Polanski pulled off an upset and a standing ovation that featured Scorsese, Diane Lane, Meryl Streep, and (shudder) Harvey Weinstein that would be unthinkable today.
Oscar's Choice: Heading into Oscar night, it was considered a truly tight race between Scorsese & Marshall, both of which felt like compromise wins (Marshall was brand new, Scorsese was winning for a film that no one agreed was one of his best), which is likely how Roman Polanski pulled off an upset and a standing ovation that featured Scorsese, Diane Lane, Meryl Streep, and (shudder) Harvey Weinstein that would be unthinkable today.
My Choice: Daldry, and not because I'm uncomfortable voting for Polanski (though truth-be-told, I would've struggled to vote for him if the Academy hadn't given me an out with a better directorial achievement). Behind those two I'd go Pedro, followed by Marshall & then Scorsese.
Those were my thoughts-how about yours? Are you more with the Academy honoring the controversial Polanski, or do you want to join me on less tempestuous ground surrounding Daldry? Am I alone in thinking that Scorsese's nomination here is the one big miss in an otherwise grand Oscar history? And where the hell is Peter Jackson?!? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Also in 2002: Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Original Screenplay, Foreign Language Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously in 2002
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