The Oscar-winning Songs Countdown: 2011

The only silent film to win an Oscar for Best Picture was a war movie called Wings (1927). It won the very first Best Picture Oscar. 83 years later, it would lose that distinction; another silent Best Picture winner would join it.

Not only was The Artist silent, it was also black and white. It was also French. The director, Michel Hazanavicius, was known for making commercial French adventures and comedies, and his artistic cred was not really that high. The film's stars, Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo (the director's wife), were little known outside of France.

The film, however, had two trump cards: its subject matter, and the man behind the production company that bought the rights to American and Australian distribution of the film during the Cannes Film Festival, where Jean Dujardin was awarded the Best Actor award.

The film's subject was showbusiness in general, old Hollywood in particular. This is a subject that the Oscars have always felt attracted to; like seeing themselves in a mirror and basking in the glory of their own image, the Hollywood crowd enjoys rewarding such movies: from Broadway Melody to Birdman, from All About Eve to All About My Mother, from The Bad And The Beautiful to Day For Night, from 8½ to Mephisto and from Sunset Boulevard to Hugo, these films received their share of Oscar love.

The other trump card was called Harvey Weinstein. Harvey, the founder of Miramax and then of The Weinstein Company, who has helped make Tarantino a star and an Oscar winner and has also taken so many movies as far as the Oscar nominations and often all the way to the Oscars themselves: movies like The Crying Game, Pulp Fiction, Il Postino, The English Patient, Good Will Hunting, Shakespeare in Love, The Reader, Inglourious Basterds, The Fighter, as well as the winner from the year before, The King's Speech. The man knows how to run an Oscar campaign.

His work was made easier, because most reviews were stellar. Los Angeles Times wrote "It combines delightful humor and charm with what movies at their best have always conveyed: the honest power of pure emotion. It is a movie love story and a love note to the movies, all at the same time."

Since the movie was a silent, the quality of the soundtrack was very important. French composer Ludovic Bource did a great job.

We mentioned Hugo a couple of paragraphs ago. Hugo was the new film by Martin Scorsese, a 3D historical adventure drama. The film is a love letter to the history of cinema, and especially to one of the earliest celebrated filmmakers, Georges Méliès. Most of the reviews were great, like NPRs "There is much to observe, for Hugo (the film) is a marvel of spectacle, a sensory feast steeped in cinematic lore that proves pure joy is attainable in three dimensions.", but there were also dissenters, like Philadelphia Inquirer: "What about the kids and families who have no connection to Méliès, little familiarity with Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton? Will Hugo keep them in their seats? I'm not sure."

The latter was right: the film, with an estimated budget of $150m, only grossed $73.8m in the US. As many other later day Scorsese films, it was admired rather than loved. Part of the admiration went to Howard Shore's score:

Another world class director had new work in 2011, not one movie, but two! Steven Spielberg gave us his first animated film, The Adventures of Tintin, which was fun, decently reviewed, but wasn't as big a box-office hit as expected. The score by Oscar perennial and Steven Spielberg's favorite composer, John Williams, was favorably reviewed:

The other Spielberg film was a family movie disguised as a war epic, called War Horse. The Hollywood Reporter gave Spielberg restrained praise: "Whatever its missteps, this is a film that kids, middle-aged adults and grandparents can all see - together or separately - and get something out of in their own ways. There are precious few films that fit this description today and hats off to Spielberg for making one."

The film was a moderate hit, and John Williams, once again, was in charge of the score:

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was an excellent adaptation of the seminal Le Carré spy novel, with an excellent British cast led by Gary Oldman and good music by Almodovar's favorite film composer, Alberto Iglesias.

Two more respected directors had new movies that year. Terrence Malick's comeback with The Tree of Life and Woody Allen's return with Midnight in Paris were both championed by the critics, as well as by the cinephiles. They were both art-house hits.

Three respected directors of a younger generation also made a splash in 2011. David Fincher, fresh off the success of Social Network, presented the American adaptation of the worldwide Swedish phenomenon, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Daniel Craig was the star, and there were many well-known actors in supporting roles, but it was relative newcomer, Social Network alumnus Rooney Mara, who made the biggest impression.

Alexander Payne, 7 years after Sideways, gave us The Descendants, a film that took place on the beautiful island of Hawaii (shout-out to our good friend, Recordman) and had impressively cast George Clooney in the leading role. Newcomer Shailene Woodley also received praise in the role of his daughter.

Rolling Stone was enthusiastic: "Payne's low-key approach only deepens the film's intimate power. Want a movie you can really connect with? The Descendants is damn near perfect."

6 years after Capote, Bennett Miller gave us Moneyball, based on Billy Beane's career in baseball. Chicago Sun-Times said: "A smart, intense and moving film that isn't so much about sports as about the war between intuition and statistics. I walked in knowing what the movie was about, but unprepared for its intelligence and depth."

Stephen Daldry's follow-up to the Reader, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, a 9/11 story involving a 9-year-old, wasn't at all well-reviewed: Movieline was definitely not friendly: "The only bright spot in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is Max von Sydow, as a mysterious, and mysteriously mute."

2011 was also a year of biopics: Meryl Streep and her makeup were the best things about The Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher's biography. Michelle Williams was great as Marilyn Monroe in My Week with Marilyn. She was ably supported by Kenneth Branagh as Sir Laurence Olivier and Julia Ormond as Vivien Leigh. A young Eddie Redmayne was an assistant director who was intrigued by MM.

The third biopic involved a lesser known, but equally intriguing individual: Albert Nobbs, portrayed by Glenn Close, was a woman in late 19th-century Ireland, posing as a man so she could work as a butler in Dublin's most elegant hotel. Janet McTeer portrays Hubert Page, a woman in a similar condition who helped Albert find their way in life.

Interestingly, the box office smashes of the year were two women-centered movies. The Help was a film detailing the African American maids' point of view on the white families for which they worked, and the hardships they went through on a daily basis. The film itself received mediocre reviews, but the cast was lauded. Emma Stone, Bryce Dallas Howard, and especially Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, and Jessica Chastain received smashing reviews.

The other hit was a raunchy comedy. Bridesmaids was funny, well directed, very well written and starred a plethora of good comediennes, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne and a very impressive Melissa McCarthy.

What about the eligible songs?

From Albert Nobbs, here's Sinead O'Connor singing Lay Your Head Down:

From Gnomeo and Juliet, Elton John sings Love Builds a Garden:

Also from Gnomeo and Juliet, Elton John & Lady Gaga sing Hello Hello:

From Machine Gun Preacher, Chris Cornell sings The Keeper:

From The Help, Mary J. Blige sings The Living Proof:

From Hugo, ZAZ sings Coeur Volant:

From Take Shelter, Ben Nichols sings Shelter:

Finally, from We Bought a Zoo, the great Jónsi sings Gathering Stories:

The Nominations

There were only two songs nominated for Best Song. I repeat: only two songs. Did the Academy think that all the eligible songs were worse than many of their past choices? (Hint: they weren't.) Or did they think that all the eligible songs were worse than the two they chose? (Hint: they weren't.) Anyway... One of the nominees, which was the eventual winner, was Man Or Muppet, from The Muppets, music & lyrics by Bret McKenzie:

A nice enough song, but only in the context of the movie. For someone who's unaware of the Muppets, does this song make any sense?

The other song was Real in Rio from the animated feature Rio. Music: Carlinhos Brown & Sérgio Mendes • Lyrics: Siedah Garrett:

John Williams had two Original Score nominations, for both Spielberg films, Shore was nominated for Hugo, as well as Iglesias for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, but the winner was Bource for The Artist.

The Artist was the big winner of the night: Weistein's Oscar experience, as well as the subject matter and shiny, happy presentation, helped the movie win four more Oscars except for Score. Those were Best Costume, Best Director, Best Actor and most importantly, Best Picture. It had 10 nominations in all, including Bejo for Supporting Actress, who lost to Octavia Spencer for The Help. Also nominated for The Help was Jessica Chastain, McCarthy was nominated for Bridesmaids, and McTeer was nominated for Albert Nobbs.

In the Best Actor race, Dujardin defeated Clooney for The Descendants, Gary Oldman for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Brad Pitt for Moneyball, and Demián Bichir for A Better Life.

The Descendants was also nominated for Best Picture, Director, and Editing. It won for Best Adapted Screenplay. Moneyball, on the other hand, won nothing, although it had six nominations overall, including Best Picture.

The Help, except for Spencer and Chastain in Supporting Actress, was also nominated for Best Picture and Best Actress. Viola Davis fought tooth and nail with Meryl Streep for Best Actress, but the Iron Lady eventually won. It also won the only other Oscar it was nominated for, Best Makeup. The other Best Actress nominees were Close for Albert Nobbs, Williams for My Week with Marilyn, and Mara for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, with a total of five nominations, won for Best Editing.

The Best Supporting Actor race was one dominated by senior citizens. Canadian Christopher Plummer became the oldest winner of a competitive Oscar, at 82, surpassing the achievement of Jessica Tandy. His role was of a man who came out as gay at an advanced age. The film was Beginners. The other nominees were an only slightly younger Max von Sydow for Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, the movie that only had one other nomination; but it was for Best Picture. Branagh for My Week with Marilyn, Nick Nolte for Warrior, and the only youngster of the group, Jonah Hill for Moneyball, were the other nominees.

Hugo had the most nominations overall, eleven, including Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, and Editing. It won five: Cinematography, Art Direction, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing and Visual F/X.

Midnight in Paris gave Woody Allen yet another Best Original Screenplay win. It was nominated for four Oscars overall, including Best Picture and Director.

Two more movies were nominated for Best Picture, winning nothing. They were War Horse (six nominations overall) and The Tree Of Life (three nominations overall). Best Foreign Movie went to A Separation from Iran, Best Animated Feature to Rango, and Best Documentary Feature to Undefeated.

I'll leave you with another Oscar-eligible song. It appears in the Oscar-nominated Documentary Feature Hell And Back Again and is called Hell And Back, music and lyrics by J. Ralph, performed by Willie Nelson with J. Ralph.