Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 31, 1992 TAG: 9203310400
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Long
"My God. I can't believe it!" said Hopkins, who received a standing ovation from the crowd at the 64th Annual Academy Awards show. "I am greatly honored and tremendously moved."
Hopkins, who played Dr. Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter, became the third British performer in a row to win as best actor, following Jeremy Irons for "Reversal of Fortune" and Daniel Day-Lewis for "My Left Foot."
Despite a history of strong portrayals starting with his 1968 debut in "The Lion in Winter," the Welsh-born actor had never previously been nominated for an Academy Award.
Foster, who joins the ranks of repeat Oscar winners, said, "I'd like to dedicate this to all the women before me who didn't have the chances I had." She was named best actress of 1988 for her performance as a rape victim in "The Accused."
"Silence" also brought Oscars to director Jonathan Demme and to Ted Tally for best adapted screenplay.
The film becomes only the third movie to sweep the five major awards. "It Happened One Night" did it in 1934 as did "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" in 1975.
Jack Palance, the crusty trail boss in "City Slickers," and Mercedes Ruehl, the warm-hearted video store owner in "The Fisher King," won for best supporting performances.
"Terminator 2: Judgment Day," the 1991 box-office champion, outperformed its more prestigious rivals in technical categories. It won four Oscars: makeup, sound effects editing, sound and visual effects.
"Bugsy," Warren Beatty's gangster epic that had the most nominations with 10, picked up awards for art direction and costume design. Another best picture nominee, "JFK," Oliver Stone's assassination polemic, won for film editing and cinematography.
Callie Khouri won the original screenplay award for the female buddy film, "Thelma & Louise."
"I really want to thank my mother, who taught me everything about love and loyalty that a gal could ever need to know," Khouri said.
Ruehl, a first-time nominee, recounted her early days as a struggling actress, and added, "At this moment, all of those sort of doleful memories . . . suddenly transformed themselves into nothing more than the sort of charming and amusing anecdotes from my memoirs."
Palance, a sentimental favorite who was nominated four decades ago for playing villains in "Sudden Fear" and "Shane," demonstrated his fitness by performing several push-ups on stage.
The 72-year-old character actor recalled a director telling him in 1949 that he would win an Oscar, "and 42 years later, he was right."
Composer Alan Menken won the award for best original score for his music for "Beauty and the Beast," and he and his late partner, lyricist Howard Ashman, won a second Oscar for the movie's title song.
Menken paid tribute to Ashman, who recently died of complications from AIDS at age 40.
"Howard, I wish you could have seen the finished product. . . . You would have been proud,"he said.
Menken, like many celebrities who appeared during the show, wore a red ribbon on his lapel, symbolizing support for AIDS awareness and research.
Best foreign film was "Mediterraneo," an Italian comedy set during World War II.
"Silence," was an unusual big winner because of its grim subject matter and the fact that it was released early in 1991. But it came on strong in the awards season, winning the bellwether Directors Guild award for Demme, as well as the Writers Guild Award for Tally.
The two other losing best picture nominees were "Beauty and the Beast" - the first animated feature named in that category, and Barbra Streisand's "The Prince of Tides."
Billy Crystal, host for the evening, got things off to a lively start by entering in the same mask that Hopkins' character wore in the film to restrain his cannibalistic tendencies.
"I'm having some of the academy over to dinner," Crystal told the actor. "Care to join me?"
Outside the Los Angeles Music Center, dozens of whistling and chanting demonstrators protested what they consider negative gay stereotyping by Hollywood. More than 100 police in riot gear and on horseback kept them from interfering with the arriving celebrities. At least 11 people were arrested.
The activists objected to portrayals in three Oscar-nominated films: a gay serial killer in "The Silence of the Lambs"; a homosexual accused of conspiracy in the assassination of President Kennedy in "JFK"; and the removal from the movie version of "Fried Green Tomatoes" of a lesbian relationship that was in the original novel.
Three of Monday night's winners were announced in advance:
Satyajit Ray, director of such Indian classics as "Pather Panchali" and "The World of Apu," was voted the Lifetime Achievement Oscar. He was too ill to attend the program and accepted on videotape.
George Lucas, whose "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" blockbusters won no Oscars as best picture, was honored with the Irving G. Thalberg award for consistently high standards of film production.
Lucas got an outer-space salute from the seven astronauts aboard space shuttle Atlantis, who praised him as "an explorer in his own right."
"The imagination and ingenuity that have turned dreams into the reality of space flight are no different than those which turn ideas and inspiration into motion pictures," shuttle commander Charles Bolden Jr. said in the pre-recorded videotape.
The board of governors also voted the Gordon E. Sawyer award for technical achievement to special effects guru Ray Harryhausen, creator of a whole bestiary for films such as "Clash of the Titans," "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad," "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" and "Jason and the Argonauts,"
Also on the program was a special tribute to comedy filmmaker Hal Roach, who turned 100 in January.
This year, the ceremonies moved back to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of the Music Center after using the less elegant Shrine Auditorium for two of the three previous years.
Because the Pavilion seats 3,197, compared with the Shrine's 6,300, the academy faced a severe problem in accommodating its 5,000 members as well as participants and media.
"We feel that a lottery system will provide a fairer method of determining who gets tickets than the `earliest postmark' system we've used in the past," academy President Karl Malden informed members. Still, there was much grumbling by disappointed members.
The 64th Academy Awards\ And the Oscar Goes to . . .
Picture\ `The Silence of the Lambs'\ Actor\ Anthony Hopkins\ `The Silence of the Lambs'\ \ Actress\ Jodie Foster\ `The Silence of the Lambs'\ Supporting actor\ \ Jack Palance\ `City Slickers'\ \ Supporting actress\ Mercedes Ruehl\ `The Fisher King'\ \ Director\ Jonathan Demme\ `The Silence of the Lambs'\ \ Foreign film\ `Mediterraneo' (Italy)\ Gabriele Salvatores, director
by CNB