From the very names of the winners called out, to the high-octane antics of Best Actor Roberto Benigni, the tears of Best Actress Gwyneth Paltrow and the mixed reception for Lifetime Achievement Award winner, 89-year-old director Elia Kazan, the 71st Academy Awards, unlike in recent years, were eventful, to say the least.
It was, simply, a night full of surprises. Certainly, few had predicted on the way into the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in downtown Los Angeles that the awards would be split so evenly between the two main contenders, with Shakespeare In Love winning seven Oscars and Saving Private Ryan going home with five. The even-handedness of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was further reflected in the decision to give Steven Spielberg his second Best Director statuette for Ryan, while Shakespeare took Best Film.
Unusually, the field in almost every category was considered wide open going into Sunday night. But who could have guessed that Italy's 46-year-old funnyman Roberto Benigni would steal the show for his concentration camp black comedy Life Is Beautiful ? Inspired by Charlie Chaplin both on and off the screen, Benigni went into the night with the most nominations ever for a foreign language film (seven) and ended up with three Oscars. He now adds Best Actor, Foreign Language Film and Dramatic Score Oscars to his Grand Jury prize at last year's Cannes Film Festival and, more importantly for the widespread success of the film, the Jerusalem Film Festival's top award.
Accompanied by his wife and co-star in the film, Nicoletta Braschi, an overcome Benigni waxed frequently incomprehensible, jumped over chairs, exhorted everybody in the audience to have sex, and eventually ran out of English. Backstage, he carried on entertaining: 'To explain, you are asking me too much,' he said. 'The emotion! The exuberance! The ocean of joy! How can I restrain? I let my body do what he wants!' Pope John Paul II has mentioned Life Is Beautiful as being one of the films he watches in the Vatican screening room. 'I don't know if I have time to meet with the Pope now!' deadpanned Benigni backstage.
The prolific Gwyneth Paltrow, who at 26 has already appeared in nearly 20 films, won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance, and flawless English accent, in the hit comedy Shakespeare In Love.
'I love Britain and I love to work there,' she said backstage, clad in a pink Ralph Lauren gown. 'Hollywood film-making sometimes feels like a machine. In Britain it's a little bit quirkier, and everything doesn't always go right. I hope they'll have me back.' She was just beginning to recover from the excitement of an emotional speech where she thanked her mother (Blythe Danner), father (Bruce Paltrow, who has just directed her in Duets ), her grandfather Buster and even her former-boyfriend Ben Affleck.