How the ‘Emperor’ Took Hollywood

The people who run the Coca-Cola Co. and its entertainment sector must be crying in their secret formula this morning.

One of those lost causes brought to Columbia by the studio’s former chairman David Puttnam just swept the 60th Academy Awards and now they will have to spend even more money on the thing.

“The Last Emperor” figured to dominate the awards. It was the one movie in the running that had the right ingredients--it is big, epic, culturally rich and it makes people who like it seem smart.

It is also made by Bernardo Bertolucci, one of the grand masters of film, and he had not won before.

But with all that, “The Last Emperor” did not figure to win every award for which it was nominated.

During the Oscar campaign season, there was talk of a “Chariots of Fire”-style upset for “Moonstruck.” In that scenario, “The Last Emperor” would have won the “cosmetics” awards--cinematography, costume design, art direction--then “Moonstruck” would pick off the best picture Oscar.

In the end, the academy voters were in a much more conventional mood and they voted a “Last Emperor” slate, again attempting to send out the message that it is the world’s cultural godfather.

During the show, Bertolucci called Los Angeles “The Big Nipple.” When asked later what he meant, he said that nine Academy Awards was in a Freudian sense, nurturing of one’s career.

During the press interviews Bertolucci also seemed bemused by the insistent questions about Puttnam.

It had been noticed that during all the speeches made by those who won or shared one of “The Last Emperor’s” nine Oscars, Puttnam’s name was not mentioned once.

Bertolucci said the award was not partially Puttnam’s, because Puttnam was not one of the producers. Later, he credited Puttnam with having the courage to take a chance on it.

Puttnam made the deal that brought the $26 million “The Last Emperor” to Columbia Pictures for American distribution distribution. It was a decision that has been criticized by the Coke people who eventually drove him out.

Neither “The Last Emperor” nor “Hope and Glory,” another Columbia film up for several nominations, got major marketing support in Puttnam’s absence and Coke officials recently announced they were writing down losses from both movies.

Was there a Puttnam factor to this year’s awards voting?

Probably not. If academy voters had wanted to send a message about Puttnam, they could have sent a stronger positive signal by voting for “Hope and Glory,” which is more closely associated with him. If they had wanted to send out a negative signal, they would have ignored both films.

Inside the cavernous Shrine Auditorium, where traffic-delayed stars were still arriving 40 minutes into the show, most of the awards seemed just right to the audience.

The Oscars for all four actors were greeted with deafening ovations, particularly those for the long-ignored Sean Connery, and for Cher, who became the first person to accept an Oscar while wearing a G-string.

Despite the length of the show (its 3 hour, 33-minute running time is 8 minutes shy of the record), it seemed one of the quickest.

There were fewer bloated production numbers and few wasted moments breaking and setting up sets on the compact Shrine stage.

The writers’ strike caused a few presenters the agony of reading presumably management-written jokes that would have been bad “Gong Show” material.

Chevy Chase tried to lift the audience during commercials with some randy ad-libs, going so far at one point as to mime a trip to the urinal.

One billion viewers around the world can think about the nine Oscars won by “The Last Emperor” and regard the Academy Awards as a dignified affair. Those in the audience knew better.