Academy Showers ‘Rain Man’ With 8 Oscar Bids : Some Refreshing Signs Among Academy Award Nominations

Big studios are riding high again; independents are having a lean year after their bravura showing two years ago, and as a body, the membership of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is proving to be ever-so-slightly eclectic and occasionally even audacious. Those are the messages to be found buried among the pages of lists for the 61st annual awards nominations.

It’s interesting that the directors’ branch of the academy singled out Martin Scorsese for “The Last Temptation of Christ,” its one deviation from the Directors Guild slate of nominations. (The DGA’s choice was Robert Zemeckis for “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.”) It is the one maverick vision on the list.

That may not exactly make Clint Eastwood’s day, nor any of the fans of “Bird,” shut out except for one nomination for its sound. It may disappoint those die-hards who pulled for Francis Ford Coppola and “Tucker” against all odds, including the inability to see the movie again at pre-nomination time. The list of best director nominees still feels flimsy and unsubstantial without the presence of either “The Accidental Tourist” or “The Unbearable Lightness of Being.”

You can find little pockets of delight tucked away in many of the categories: the nomination, for example, of Edward James Olmos for his beautifully shaded and unsparing portrait of a charismatic mathematics teacher in “Stand and Deliver.” Young River Phoenix’s showing among the supporting actors. The fact that the voters did take six hours to see “Little Dorrit” and nominate both Alec Guinness’ towering performance in the supporting actor category and its director Christine Edzard’s keenly intelligent screenplay adaptation. Or the presence of Marcel Ophuls’ “Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie” among the documentary features--a sign that length poses no barrier to the members of that nominating committee, either.

Those who complain that the academy is creaky and reverential should take a look at the fresh faces in the supporting actress category: Joan Cusack, Geena Davis, Frances McDormand, Michelle Pfeiffer and Sigourney Weaver, the first nomination for each (actually, the first and second for Weaver, who was also nominated for best actress for “Gorillas in the Mist). You might have hoped for the equally fresh face of young Jodhi May from “A World Apart” or Diane Venora of “Bird” or Miriam Margolyes from “Little Dorrit” or Kathy Baker from “Clean and Sober,” but this is one of the categories with the largest list of serious also-rans.

On the matter of “Pelle the Conqueror’s” appearance on the foreign-language film slate, there is no surprise at all; it is exactly the sort of film that academy members dote on, the Life Is Hard and Then You Die genre. Far more bracing on that list is Pedro Almodovar’s sly “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown”; Istvan Szabo’s “Hanussen,” third of his trilogy, which began with “Mephisto” and arguably the best of the three, and Mira Nair’s pungent portrait of the street kids of India, “Salaam Bombay!”

A pair of really extraordinary scores seem to have been left by the wayside in the music nominations: Peter Gabriel’s fine and innovative work for “The Last Temptation of Christ” and Mark Isham’s preternaturally haunting score for “The Moderns.” On the brighter side, “Calling You” by Bob Telson was one of the original song nominations, and this year, that branch selected only three songs as even possible to nominate. How about that for cheerful news on Oscar Wednesday, academy fans.

But while we’re in a mourning mood, try Bob Hoskins’ triumph of the actor’s imagination on “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” or John Malkovich’s feral seductiveness in “Dangerous Liaisons,” almost universally underappreciated critically. Or Tom Hulce’s inventive and entirely uncloying characterization in “Dominick and Eugene.”

Nominated among some of the less flashy categories are a few lovely films: the subtle, beautifully played adaptation of “A Handful of Dust” (nominated for its exquisite costumes); “The Cry of Reason--Beyers Naude: An Afrikaner Speaks Out,” the moving account of a man whose thinking on apartheid changed 180 degrees (nominated among the documentary features), or the cheerfully cheeky “Buster” (nominated for best song.)

As always, there is a mystery film in the lineup. Last year it was “Street Smart,” seen by precious few until nomination time. This year, courtesy of the costume branch’s nomination, it’s “Sunset,” with Bruce Willis as Tom Mix and James Garner as Wyatt Earp.