Golden Globes 2012: The Artist Is Notable First

2.5K

Golden Globes 2012: Michel Hazanavicius’ silent comedy-drama The Artist achieves unique feat

Michel Hazanavicius and wife Bérénice Bejo accept the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for the comedy-drama The Artist – a Franco-Belgian coproduction, which, at the 2012 Golden Globes’ ceremony held at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills on Jan. 15, both competed and won in a category reserved for English-language releases.

How could that be?

Well, The Artist – distributed in North America by the awards season-savvy The Weinstein Company – is a(n almost totally) dialogue-less film. In fact, The Artist made Golden Globes history by becoming both the first silent movie and the first production from a non-English-speaking country(ies) to take home a statuette in either of the Best Motion Picture categories. (Woody Allen’s Spanish-set Vicky Cristina Barcelona, a 2008 Best Picture – Musical or Comedy Golden Globe winner, had some U.S. financing and mostly English-language dialogue.)

Something notable about The Artist’s victory: Michel Hazanavicius’ comedy-drama is the first silent film to win a Golden Globe in either of the Best Picture categories.

There’s more: although set in Hollywood, The Artist is also the first Best Picture Golden Globe winner to be entirely produced by companies from non-English-speaking countries, in this particular case France and Belgium. (Woody Allen’s Spanish-set Vicky Cristina Barcelona, a 2008 winner for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, not only featured mostly English-language dialogue but it also had some U.S. financing.)

Harvey Weinstein ever ready for his close-ups

During the Golden Globes ceremony, The Weinstein Company’s Harvey Weinstein got more close-ups than Meryl Streep, Angelina Jolie, George Clooney, Elton John, Madonna, Johnny Depp, and host Ricky Gervais combined, as TWC movies won a whole array of trophies:

• Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy: The Artist.
• Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy: Jean Dujardin, The Artist.
• Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama: Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady.
• Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy: Michelle Williams, My Week with Marilyn.
• Best Original Score: Ludovic Bource, The Artist.
• Best Original Song: Madonna’s “Masterpiece” from W.E.

Best Actor Golden Globe winner Jean Dujardin

French actor Jean Dujardin won the 2012 Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his performance as a fading silent film star in Michel Hazanavicius’ The Artist.

Dujardin’s French predecessor at the Golden Globes was Gérard Depardieu, who won in the same category back in early 1991 for Peter Weir’s romantic comedy Green Card. The Artist leading man, however, is the very first performer to receive a Golden Globe for a role in a(n almost totally) silent movie.

The Artist is an amalgamation of elements from George Cukor’s What Price Hollywood? (1932), in which Constance Bennett plays a rising star and Lowell Sherman a troubled producer, and the first two A Star Is Born movies; the first one (1937) directed by William A. Wellman, and starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March; the second one (1954) directed by Cukor, and starring Judy Garland and James Mason.

All three movies, in turn, were inspired – at least in part – by real-life stories of performers from the 1920s and 1930s such as Colleen Moore, John Gilbert, Ina Claire, Greta Garbo, John Bowers, James Murray, John Barrymore, and others.

Additionally, The Artist was also inspired by Stanley Donen’s Singin’ in the Rain (1952), starring Gene Kelly as a silent film star, Jean Hagen as his squeaky-voiced leading lady, and Debbie Reynolds as his melodious-voiced off-screen romantic interest.

Jean Dujardin has been featured in about two dozen films since 2001. Notable titles include Michel Hazanavicius’ OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2006), with Bérénice Bejo, and OSS 117: Lost in Rio (2007), both of which also pay homage to old movies.

The latter title, for instance, is partly an homage to Philippe de Broca’s That Man from Rio (1964) and Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (1959), featuring a climactic finale atop Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer statue reminiscent of the Mount Rushmore climax found in the Hitchcock thriller.

Claude Berri

In his acceptance speech, The Artist producer Thomas Langmann remembered his father, veteran filmmaker Claude Berri (The Two of Us, Jean de Florette), who died in January 2009. Back in 1966, Berri won an Academy Award for the live action short film Le Poulet, but was unable to attend the Oscar ceremony because he couldn’t afford to fly out to Los Angeles.

However heartfelt his speech, at one point Langmann had to stop talking because Uggie, The Artist’s star canine, was stealing the show onstage.

The Artist cast: Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, Uggie the Dog, John Goodman, Penelope Ann Miller, Missi Pyle, James Cromwell, and A Clockwork Orange star Malcolm McDowell in a cameo as a W.C. Fields type.

The Artist composer Ludovic Bource wins Golden Globe despite ugly Kim Novak spat

The Artist composer Ludovic Bource displays his Golden Globe backstage after winning in the Best Original Score – Motion Picture category. Unexpectedly, Bource became a news item in recent weeks because of an ad veteran actress Kim Novak – the star of Picnic, Jeanne Eagels, Pal Joey, and Strangers When We Meet – placed in a trade magazine.

“I want to report a rape,” Novak wrote. “I feel as if my body – or, at least my body of work – has been violated by the movie The Artist.”

She added that “this film could and should have been able to stand on its own without depending upon Bernard Herrmann’s score from Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo [in which Novak costarred with James Stewart] to provide it more drama.” She called the use of Herrmann’s score “cheating.”

Novak concluded with the following:

It is morally wrong for the artistry of our industry to use and abuse famous pieces of work to gain attention and applause for other than what they were intended. It is essential to safeguard our special bodies of work for posterity, with their original and individual identities intact and protected.

Here’s The Artist director Michel Hazanavicius’ response:

The Artist was made as a love letter to cinema, and grew out of my (and all of my cast and crew’s) admiration and respect for movies throughout history. It was inspired by the work of Hitchcock, Lang, Ford, Lubitsch, Murnau and Wilder. I love Bernard Herrmann and his music has been used in many different films and I’m very pleased to have it in mine. I respect Kim Novak greatly and I’m sorry to hear she disagrees.*

Ludovic Bource’s score had previously won the 2011 European Film Award in that category, and is the odds-on favorite for this year’s Academy Award. The Academy’s Music Branch has listed it as an (essentially) Original Score.

Besides Ludovic Bource’s victory, The Artist also won trophies for actor Jean Dujardin and for Best Picture – Musical or Comedy.

* Bits from Bernard Herrmann’s many movie scores have been used in productions as disparate as Tim Burton’s Batman (1989) and Gus Van Sant’s Psycho remake (1998), in both instances, adapted by Danny Elfman; the television series American Horror Story; and, from Vertigo, the prologue to Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” video.

Kim Novak quotes via The Hollywood Reporter. Michel Hazanavicius’ response also via THR.

The Descendants tops Drama category

Featuring George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Judy Greer, and veterans Beau Bridges (Gaily Gaily), Robert Forster (Reflections in a Golden Eye), and Michael Ontkean (Making Love), The Descendants also earned Clooney the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama.

Last year, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association surprisingly chose David Fincher’s The Social Network over Tom Hooper’s feel-good, box office friendlier The King’s Speech – the eventual Best Picture Academy Award winner.

Since 2000, every Golden Globe winner in this category went on to receive Best Picture Oscar nominations, with four topping the category: Ridley Scott’s Gladiator (2000), Ron Howard’s A Beautiful Mind (2001), Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), and Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire (2008).

Meryl Streep wins eighth Golden Globe

Two-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep (Kramer vs. Kramer, 1979; Sophie’s Choice, 1982) won the Golden Globe in the Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama category for her performance as British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in Phyllida Lloyd’s The Iron Lady. Lloyd had previously collaborated with Streep on the musical blockbuster Mamma Mia!.

Beginning at the 1979 ceremony, Meryl Streep has been nominated for no less than 26 Golden Globes, in both the motion picture and television categories. Below are her eight wins; notice the two-decade gap between her third and fourth Golden Globes.

• Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
• Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981)
• Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for Sophie’s Choice (1982)
• Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for Adaptation (2002)
• Best Actress in a Television Movie or Miniseries for Angels in America (2003)
• Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
• Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Julie & Julia (2009)
• Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for The Iron Lady (2011)

Below is the full list of her Golden Globe nominations:

• Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for It’s Complicated (2009)
  Winner: Meryl Streep for Julie & Julia
• Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Mamma Mia! (2008)
• Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama for Doubt (2008)
• Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
• Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama for The Hours (2002)
• Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama for Music of the Heart (1999)
• Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama for One True Thing (1998)
• Best Actress in a Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television for …First Do No Harm (1997)
• Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama for Marvin’s Room (1996)
• Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama for The Bridges of Madison County (1995)
• Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama for The River Wild (1994)
• Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Death Becomes Her (1992)
• Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Postcards from the Edge (1990)
• Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for She-Devil (1989)
• Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama for A Cry in the Dark / Evil Angels (1988)
• Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama for Out of Africa (1985)
• Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama for Silkwood (1983)
• Best Supporting Actress for The Deer Hunter (1978)

Double Golden Globe nominee, the Oscar nod that got away

To date, Meryl Streep has been a Golden Globe double nominee at three ceremonies:

• 2003 (The Hours, Adaptation)
• 2008 (Doubt, Mamma Mia!)
• 2009 (It’s Complicated, Julie & Julia)

In 2009 not only did she lose to herself, but both her nominations were for movies directed by women (Nora Ephron, Nancy Meyers).

Also, despite her 26 Golden Globe nominations – vs. a mere 16 Academy Awards nods – Streep somehow managed to be shortlisted for a Best Actress Oscar for a performance that failed to be recognized by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association: her destitute woman opposite Jack Nicholson’s disillusioned ex-family man in Hector Babenco’s box office disaster Ironweed (1987).

Angelina Jolie

Actress-turned-director Angelina Jolie presented the 2012 Best Director Golden Globe to Martin Scorsese for Hugo. Besides, Jolie’s drama In the Land of Blood and Honey was a Golden Globe nominee in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

Evan Rachel Wood

Evan Rachel Wood, nominated for a Golden Globe in the Best Supporting Actress in a Television Series, Miniseries, or Movie category for her performance as Veda Pierce in Todd Haynes’ Mildred Pierce. Wood had been previously shortlisted in the Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama category for Catherine Hardwicke’s Thirteen. Note: Ann Blyth played Veda in Michael Curtiz’s 1945 movie starring Joan Crawford.

Kate Winslet

Actress Kate Winslet is seen above posing backstage at the 2012 Golden Globe Awards after having won in the category of Best Actress in a Television Movie or Miniseries for her performance in Todd Haynes’ HBO drama Mildred Pierce. Winslet had already won a Primetime Emmy for her performance in Mildred Pierce, based on James M. Cain’s novel. Originally made as a big-screen feature in 1945, Mildred Pierce earned Joan Crawford a Best Actress Oscar.

George Clooney

George Clooney won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama for The Descendants. Clooney has been nominated for a total of 13 Golden Globes in various categories, in both the motion picture and television sections. His only prior win was as a Best Supporting Actor for Stephen Gaghan’s political thriller Syriana.

At this year’s ceremony, Clooney was also in the running in the Best Director and Best Screenplay categories for The Ides of March, a political drama in which he also starred opposite double nominee Ryan Gosling. (Gosling was in contention for The Ides of March and, in the Best Actor – Musical or Comedy category, for Glenn Ficarra and John Requa’s Crazy, Stupid, Love.)

Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban at the 2012 Golden Globes. Kidman, who has been nominated for eight Golden Globes, was a presenter. She has won three times: twice as Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (To Die For, Moulin Rouge!) and once as Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama (The Hours).

Asghar Farhadi & Peyman Moaadi

The 2012 Golden Globe winner for Best Foreign Language Film was A Separation (Iran), produced by Jodaeiye Nader az Simin and distributed by Sony Pictures Classics in the United States. Accepting the award were director Asghar Farhadi and one of the film’s stars, Peyman Moaadi. Nearly a year ago, A Separation won the Berlin Film Festival’s Golden Bear.

Sofia Vergara

Colombian-born actress Sofia Vergara was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Television Series, Miniseries, or Movie for the series Modern Family. Speaking exuberant Spanish – it made little difference whether or not one could understand her – while doing the greatest Lupe Velez imitation on record (or so says our editor), the Barranquilla native stole the Golden Globes show when Modern Family was voted the year’s Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy.

Glee costar Jane Lynch did present an award with Tina Fey, and the duo made a point of telling a penis joke – possibly in response to Ricky Gervais’ idiotic “beaver” jokes, referring to female genitalia, Foster’s sexual orientation, and her little-seen movie The Beaver, starring Mel Gibson.

Madonna

Singer, songwriter, actress, director, producer, screenwriter, provocatrice, and all-around showwoman Madonna won the Golden Globe in the Best Original Song in a Motion Picture category for “Masterpiece” from W.E., which she also directed. “Masterpiece” has music and lyrics by Madonna, Julie Frost, and Jimmy Harry.

Elton John’s less-than-thrilled reaction – upon hearing Madonna’s name as the Best Original Song winner – was one of the ceremony’s highlights. Less entertaining was Ricky Gervais’ joke referring to the openly gay (and outrageously flamboyant) singer as a pop music “queen.” The double entendre of sorts was that the pop music queen who was going to present the next award was not Elton John but Madonna.

Responding to Gervais’ lame joke implying that her sex life didn’t reflect her hit song “Like a Virgin,” while on stage Madonna took her own (well rehearsed?) revenge on the Golden Globes ceremony host by referring to him as a “girl”; one who theoretically could take care of her virginity. “If I am still just like a virgin, Ricky,” she began, “why don’t you come over here and do something about it?” She then added, “I haven’t kissed a girl in quite a few years. [pause] On TV.”

Golden Globes 2012 presenters

The extensive list of Golden Globes presenters at this year’s ceremony included:

• Two-time Oscar winners Jane Fonda (Klute, 1971; Coming Home, 1978) and Dustin Hoffman (Kramer vs. Kramer, 1979; Rain Man, 1988).
• Oscar winners Helen Mirren (The Queen, 2006), George Clooney (Syriana, 2005), Angelina Jolie (Girl, Interrupted, 1999), Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line, 2005), Colin Firth (The King’s Speech, 2010), Nicole Kidman (The Hours, 2002), and Sidney Poitier (Lilies of the Field, 1963).
• Oscar nominees Julianne Moore, Michelle Pfeiffer, Felicity Huffman, Jake Gyllenhaal, William H. Macy, Clive Owen, Brad Pitt, Harrison Ford, Melissa McCarthy, Robert Downey Jr., Queen Latifah, Johnny Depp, and Mark Wahlberg.
• Plus: Jessica Alba (also the official blogger of the Golden Globes ceremony), Channing Tatum, Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Gerard Butler, Ewan McGregor, Freida Pinto, Mila Kunis, Adam Levine, Paula Patton, Antonio Banderas, Pierce Brosnan, Kate Beckinsale, Salma Hayek, Debra Messing, Ashton Kutcher, Jane Lynch, Elle Macpherson, Emily Blunt, Katharine McPhee, Rob Lowe, Madonna, Jimmy Fallon, and Seth Rogen.

Golden Globes 2012: Winners & nominations

FILM

Best Motion Picture Drama
* The Descendants
The Help
Hugo
The Ides of March
Moneyball
War Horse

Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
* The Artist
50/50
Bridesmaids
Midnight in Paris
My Week with Marilyn

Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama
* George Clooney, The Descendants
Leonardo DiCaprio, J. Edgar
Michael Fassbender, Shame
Ryan Gosling, The Ides of March
Brad Pitt, Moneyball

Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama
* Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis, The Help
Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin

Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
* Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Brendan Gleeson, The Guard
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 50/50
Ryan Gosling, Crazy, Stupid, Love.
Owen Wilson, Midnight in Paris

Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
* Michelle Williams, My Week with Marilyn
Jodie Foster, Carnage
Charlize Theron, Young Adult
Kristen Wiig, Bridesmaids
Kate Winslet, Carnage

Best Supporting Actor
* Christopher Plummer, Beginners
Kenneth Branagh, My Week with Marilyn
Albert Brooks, Drive
Jonah Hill, Moneyball
Viggo Mortensen, A Dangerous Method

Best Supporting Actress
* Octavia Spencer, The Help
Bérénice Bejo, The Artist
Jessica Chastain, The Help
Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs
Shailene Woodley, The Descendants

Best Director
* Martin Scorsese, Hugo
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
George Clooney, The Ides of March
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Alexander Payne, The Descendants

Best Screenplay
* Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
George Clooney, Grant Heslov & Beau Willimon, The Ides of March
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon & Jim Rash, The Descendants
Steven Zaillian & Aaron Sorkin, Moneyball

Best Original Score
* Ludovic Bource, The Artist
Abel Korzeniowski, W.E.
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Howard Shore, Hugo
John Williams, War Horse

Best Original Song
* “Masterpiece” (music and lyrics by Madonna, Julie Frost & Jimmy Harry), W.E.
“Hello Hello” (music by Elton John, lyrics by Bernie Taupin), Gnomeo & Juliet
“The Keeper” (music & lyrics by Chris Cornell), Machine Gun Preacher
“Lay Your Head Down” (music by Brian Byrne, lyrics by Glenn Close), Albert Nobbs
“The Living Proof” (music by Thomas Newman, Mary J. Blige & Harvey Mason, Jr.,
lyrics by Blige, Mason & Damon Thomas), The Help

Best Animated Feature Film
* The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn
Arthur Christmas
Cars 2
Puss in Boots
Rango

Best Foreign Language Film
* A Separation / Jodai-e Nader az Simin (Iran)
The Flowers of War / Jin ling shi san chai (China)
In the Land of Blood and Honey (United States; in Bosnian/Serbian)
The Kid with a Bike / Le Gamin au vélo (Belgium | France)
The Skin I Live In / La piel que habito (Spain)

TELEVISION

Best Television Movie or Miniseries
Cinema Verite
* Downton Abbey
The Hour
Mildred Pierce
Too Big to Fail

Best Actress in a Television Movie or Miniseries
Romola Garai, The Hour
Diane Lane, Cinema Verite
Elizabeth McGovern, Downton Abbey
Emily Watson, Appropriate Adult
* Kate Winslet, Mildred Pierce

Best Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries
Hugh Bonneville, Downton Abbey
* Idris Elba, Luther
William Hurt, Too Big to Fail
Bill Nighy, Page Eight
Dominic West, The Hour

Best Television Series – Drama
American Horror Story
Boardwalk Empire
Boss
Game of Thrones
* Homeland

Best Actress in a Television Series – Drama
* Claire Danes, Homeland
Mireille Enos, The Killing
Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife
Madeleine Stowe, Revenge
Callie Thorne, Necessary Roughness

Best Actor in a Television Series – Drama
Steve Buscemi, Boardwalk Empire
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
* Kelsey Grammer, Boss
Jeremy Irons, The Borgias
Damian Lewis, Homeland

Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy
Episodes
Glee
* Modern Family
New Girl
Enlightened

Best Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy
* Laura Dern, Enlightened
Zooey Deschanel, New Girl
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Laura Linney, The Big C
Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation

Best Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
David Duchovny, Californication
Johnny Galecki, The Big Bang Theory
Thomas Jane, Hung
* Matt LeBlanc, Episodes

Best Supporting Actress in a Television Movie, Series or Miniseries
* Jessica Lange, American Horror Story
Kelly MacDonald, Boardwalk Empire
Maggie Smith, Downton Abbey
Sofia Vergara, Modern Family
Evan Rachel Wood, Mildred Pierce

Best Supporting Actor in a Television Movie, Series or Miniseries
* Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones
Paul Giamatti, Too Big to Fail
Guy Pearce, Mildred Pierce
Tim Robbins, Cinema Verite
Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family

---

“Golden Globes 2012” notes/references

Golden Globes website.