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"No Country for Old Men" wins big at Oscars

BY JAN STUART | jan.stuart@newssday.com

12:01 AM EST, February 25, 2008

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It was a bright night for dark movies.

"No Country For Old Men," Ethan and Joel Coen's turbulent cat-and-mouse thriller, took the top prize at the 80th annual Academy Awards last night.

The Coen Brothers emerged triple winners for their brooding film version of the Cormac McCarthy novel, grabbing best director and best adapted screenplay statues in addition to best picture. Hosted by an on-again, off-again Jon Stewart, Oscar ceremony came together with only a breathless two weeks to prepare.

Picking up the directing prize with his brother, Joel Coen recalled that when his kid brother Ethan was 12, they got a super 8 camera and made a movie on shuttle diplomacy called "Henry Kissinger: Man on the Go."

"What we do now doesn't feel that different from what we were doing then," he quipped.

"No Country For Old Men" picked up a fourth Oscar with a best supporting actor laurel for Javier Bardem's indelible turn as a fiendish serial killer on the prowl for stolen drug money. Bardem, who hails from Spain's Canary Islands, thanked his mother -- who was in the audience -- in Spanish.

Oscar's dark mood also informed the other acting prizes, which were dominated by actors from across the Atlantic. London-born Daniel Day-Lewis won his second Oscar for his blistering characterization of an oil baron who spurns family, faith and friendship for wealth in "There Will Be Blood."

A poetic Lewis thanked the Academy for "whacking me with the handsomest bludgeon in town." The Paul Thomas Anderson drama also received a prize for Robert Elswit's wide-canvas cinematography.

Best actress recipient Marion Cotillard edged out the heavily-favored Julie Christie for her tragic tour-de-force impersonation of French music hall diva Edith Piaf in "La Vie En Rose." "Thank you life! Thank you love!" cried a speechless Cotillard, overflowing with disbelief. "It is true there is some angels in this city."

A native of Paris, Cottilard continued the evening's complete sweep of international-born performers in the acting category.

In one of the few open contests of the evening, the best supporting actress prize went to Tilda Swinton, for her intense portrayal of a Machiavellian corporate executive in "Michael Clayton." After comparing Oscar's head and posterior to those of her American agent, the hardworking British actress announced her statue was going to him.

In a brief respite from this year's downbeat themes, the best original screenplay award went to Diablo Cody's "Juno," a comedy about a pregnant teen who orchestrates an adoption for her baby. Cody's prize represented the sole award for the sleeper hit, which was the only Best Picture nominee this year to top $100 million at the box office.

Animation writer/director Brad Bird ("The Incredibles") won his second Oscar for his Pixar/Disney comedy "Ratatouille," about a Parisian rodent with a flair for haute cuisine

And it was a three-Oscar night for "The Bourne Ultimatum," the third in the smash hit trilogy of breakneck thrillers derived from the Robert Ludlam novels. It took prizes for film editing, sound editing and sound mixing.

In other technical and design divisions, Academy voters seemed determined to divide the spoils to as many contenders as possible. One prize each went to "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (Art Direction), "La Vie en Rose (Makeup), "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" and "The Golden Compass" (Visual Effects).

From Austria, "The Counterfeiters," took the best foreign language film prize. Stefan Ruzowitsky's fact-based concentration camp drama concerned a Nazi plot to flood the U.S. and British economy with false bills manufactured by camp prisoners.

Tom Hanks presented the best documentary prize to Alex Gibney for "Taxi to the Dark Side," an impassioned critique of America's treatment of terrorist suspects in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay prison camps. Gibney was a previous Oscar nominee for "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room."