OVP: Best Makeup (2001)
The Nominees Were...
Greg Cannom & Colleen Callaghan, A Beautiful Mind
Peter Owen & Richard Taylor, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Maurizio Silvi & Aldo Signoretti, Moulin Rouge!
My Thoughts: I am starting out our look at the OVP for 2001, as always, with the Best Makeup category, and we are far enough back now that we're in the era where we had just three nominees in this lineup. The movies were also, and this is pretty rare for Oscar, all three in the Best Picture field, one of only two times (1998 being the other) that this was solely Best Picture nominees. So why don't we start out with the film that would eventually win the top prize since we'll be discussing all three in-depth in the coming weeks?
A Beautiful Mind is an odd nominee here, and a good reminder of how much this category has changed through the years. Today, you're more likely to see superhero makeup or recreations of famous figures on the big screen, but in 2001, one of the best ways you could get a nomination was through prosthetics, specifically in aging famous movie stars. That's honestly the biggest thing here given that hairstyling was very much secondary to the conversation in 2001 compared to makeup. While there are classical recreations that look great on Jennifer Connelly & Russell Crowe (both beautiful in the early scenes of this movie), the old age makeup is what got this the citation, and it's the least successful-do you really believe that Connelly is actually approaching 80 at the awards ceremony?
The same cannot be said for The Fellowship of the Ring. The Peter Jackson films came out at inarguably the perfect time. Much earlier, and the visual effects would've suffered, much later & the sets would've been wall-to-wall CGI. Here, we get to have grand makeup that takes hours to recreate, and in particular with the orcs, we see something really special-genuinely unique character creations that feel like they've always been a part of the cinematic landscape (the looks of Owen & Taylor feel like they've always been what Tolkien was going for). Add in the hobbit, dwarf, & elf iconography, and you've got a movie that's pretty much perfect in terms of its makeup.
That said, so is Moulin Rouge! (this isn't the runaway contest it might've been otherwise). Here we are a bit more grounded by reality (save for Kylie Minogue's luscious green fairy), but it's fantastic. Baz Luhrmann bedecks everyone in a sort of a washed-up glamour, including film icons like Nicole Kidman, coming out beautifully against a bunch of can-can dancers with smeared makeup, and a series of faux & crafted mustaches on Jim Broadbent & Richard Roxburgh. Moulin Rouge! is one of those films where fans of it fall decidedly on one side of the fence or the other, but I'm going to out myself early-it's one of my favorite movies.
Other Precursor Contenders: BAFTA was already starting to use "Makeup and Hair" in 2001 (it'd take Oscar a decade to do it), and they gave the statue to Fellowship of the Ring against Gosford Park, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Moulin Rouge!, and Planet of the Apes, while the Saturn Awards gave their statue to Hannibal (that Ray Liotta brain-eating must have been what did it) against Planet of the Apes, Vanilla Sky, Harry Potter, The Fellowship of the Ring, and The Mummy Returns. Oscar's shortlist in 2001 included AI: Artificial Intelligence, Harry Potter, Hannibal, and Planet of the Apes, and while its reception otherwise would indicate that it was Harry Potter...I kind of wonder if it was Planet of the Apes. It was widely expected to get a nomination at the time (some thinking it would be the biggest threat to Lord of the Rings), and Rick Baker was a Diane Warren-style de facto nominee during this era. I'm guessing it was Helena Bonham Carter as a monkey in fourth.
Films I Would Have Nominated: I'm going to say Harry Potter a lot in the coming weeks for this, and I'm not going to say Planet of the Apes at all, so I'll just go with it now-this is some of Baker's better work from an era where he frequently made really awful movies look amazing. No one remembers this remake, but I'd have definitely cited it for this category.
Oscar’s Choice: Without Baker, this was a slam dunk for The Fellowship of the Ring.
My Choice: Yeah, I can't really argue with it either. The women of the red light in Moulin Rouge! would've made a worthy winner in most years, but I'm not going to deny Fellowship for creating such an iconic look for the big screen (A Beautiful Mind is way in the back).
And those are my thoughts-what are yours? Is everyone onboard with Oscar & myself for the Tolkien crew taking this? Are you glad that Oscar no longer values old age makeup the way it used to do (or do you wish we'd go back because then we'd be spared the de-aging CGI messiness)? And who else misses the now-retired Rick Baker? Share your thoughts below!
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