Directors Guild Nominates Three Who Made War-Era Films

Three films that explore the brutality and heroism of World War II--”Saving Private Ryan,” “The Thin Red Line” and “Life Is Beautiful”--were nominated Monday for outstanding directorial achievement by the Directors Guild of America.

Also nominated were “Shakespeare in Love,” a crowd-pleasing romantic comedy about a beautiful woman who frees the Bard from writer’s block, and “The Truman Show,” a dark comedy about the media’s ominous power over the common man.

The winner will be announced at the 51st annual DGA awards dinner on March 6.

Like all nominations, there were stories within stories.

Terrence Malick, who all but disappeared from Hollywood for two decades, reemerged late last year with “The Thin Red Line.” A lengthy, dreamlike personal statement on war set in the South Pacific, Malick’s film stars an ensemble cast including Sean Penn, Woody Harrelson, Nick Nolte, John Cusack and John Travolta.

From his home in Texas, Malick on Monday released a statement saying he was “surprised and grateful” for the nomination and congratulated the other nominees for their “fine achievement.” The reclusive Malick rarely gives interviews and has yet to speak extensively about the film to the press.

Roberto Benigni, who directed “Life Is Beautiful,” is largely unknown in America, but in his home country of Italy, he is a giant film star known for his comedies.

“This is wonderful news, I can’t believe it,” Benigni said Monday. “When they told me, I jumped everywhere. This is a big honor. I am overflowing with joy. Literally, this is an enormous gift. When they told me I couldn’t believe it.”

Asked how American audiences are responding to the comedy-drama about a man who tries to save his young son from the horrors of the Holocaust, Benigni replied:

“They are stopping me on the streets and this is extraordinary because it has never happened before. It is almost like Italy. When they encounter me, they hug me. Somebody is almost crying and they are really telling me with a lot of passion [how much they loved the movie]. This is really a wonderful gift.”

John Madden, who directed “Shakespeare in Love,” seems to have found his niche in period pieces. Last year, he directed “Mrs. Brown,” a critically acclaimed drama about Queen Victoria.

“I am sort of reeling, dazzled,” Madden said Monday after learning of his nomination. “It’s wonderful. Such amazing company to be in.”

Madden said that when he was directing the film “we knew it was something special. I knew it was a special script the moment I read it. You don’t expect to find such scripts in your life about such things. To have an opportunity to make a film like that is an incredible thing.”

Best known for his more dramatic and often tragic love stories like “Ethan Frome,” he felt liberated getting the opportunity to make a free-spirited romantic comedy.

“This is the most astonishing, liberating film to direct because it was not simply literal,” Madden said. “It was unbelievably hard to do because there were always three different levels it was working at. There were also six different stories I had to trace through any one scene because it is an ensemble piece.”

Peter Weir, who directed “The Truman Show,” has often explored themes of goodness and evil, as he did in “Witness” and “Dead Poets Society.”

In “The Truman Show,” however, he dissected his own craft by turning the camera on the mass media that increasingly shapes our world.

And, finally, Steven Spielberg, who directed “Saving Private Ryan,” continues to travel varied paths of serious subject matter and commercial entertainment.

While he thrilled audiences with the dinosaurs-run-amok film, “Jurassic Park,” he also has directed movies with weighty themes like “Schindler’s List” and “Amistad.”

Reacting to Monday’s nomination, Spielberg said in a statement: “When people who do your job recognize the job you’ve done, there is no better feeling for me and my team.” This was Spielberg’s ninth DGA nomination, the most of any director.

On Sunday night, Spielberg received two Golden Globe Awards as “Saving Private Ryan” won for best motion picture drama and Spielberg picked up the award for best director. “Shakespeare in Love” won the Golden Globe for best picture comedy or musical.

The DGA nominations are important not only because they are given out by the directors’ peers, but because only four times since 1949 has the winner of the DGA award not gone on to win the best director at the Academy Awards.

The DGA nominations omitted Steven Soderbergh, who was named best director by the National Society of Film Critics for “Out of Sight,” and Shekhar Kapur, who was named best director by the National Board of Review.

Also omitted were directors of smaller films such as Paul Schrader for “Affliction” and John Boorman for “The General,” as well as two well-known actor-directors, Warren Beatty for “Bulworth” and Robert Redford for “The Horse Whisperer.”