Brad Pitt, Denbygate and Other Scenes From the Critics Circle
By MELENA RYZIK There was higher-than-normal security at the New York Film Critics Circle awards dinner, but it wasn’t for fear of a showdown between David Denby and Scott Rudin. (Not that anyone had forgotten about Denbygate – more on that later.)
Though the critics circle dinner has seen everyone from George Clooney to Meryl Streep – sometimes at the same time — Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie making the scene together made a palpable difference on Monday night. They briefly did the red carpet, Ms. Jolie in a leather skirt and white blouse, Mr. Pitt walking with a cane, and then coolly decamped to the bar. Mr. Pitt was being honored as best actor for his work in “The Tree of Life” and “Moneyball,” which also won for best script, but Ms. Jolie reported that he wasn’t nervous. “Not that he shows me,” she said, as he leaned on the bar nearby. “There are other things in the world that should make you nervous. When your children are healthy and – these kind of things, it’s lovely,” she continued. “You know, we’re all artists, and we’re all in this business, so it seems friendly.”
Mr. Pitt wound up giving one of the best speeches of the night – funny, personal and poignant – though he added that he was glad it wasn’t televised.
“This is a really big honor for me, considering I’m a guy who had never ridden in an airplane until I was 25,” he began. “That first trip was here in 1989 to New York. I had an audition for a soap opera. But I had to put myself up, and I stayed at a friend’s apartment. That apartment was in the Village on Christopher Street. My first impression of the city was: my god, there’s a lot of guys around here. But they’re so nice.”
The audience roared; Mr. Pitt, who seemed to speak without notes, grinned. He thanked the critics for their work, deftly poking fun at the difference in star wattage. “This is a real pleasure for me to see some of the faces behind the formidable names that instill such fear and reverence in the film industry,” he said, “although I thought you’d be taller.”
Mr. Pitt also didn’t shy away from the flap over David Denby’s embargo-breaking review of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” in The New Yorker, which drew a withering response from the movie’s producer, Mr. Rudin, at the time. “We are complex, we are mysteries to ourselves, we are difficult to each other, we live in continual flux and instability and conflict,” Mr. Pitt said. “Christians and Muslims, Democrats and Republicans, Denby and Rudin.”
It turned into the evening’s recurring joke. “By the way, let’s admit the real reason David Denby couldn’t be here,” said Albert Brooks, the critics’ best supporting actor. “He was picking up Scott Rudin’s dry cleaning.”
Other highlights:
– “My acceptance will be 30 pages longer and include references to Gilbert and Sullivan.” — Aaron Sorkin, following Steven Zaillian, his co-writer and fellow winner of the screenplay award.
– “’Moneyball,’ I think you all know by now, was not an easy movie to make. There are easy movies, there are hard movies, there’s 50 feet of crap, there’s ‘Heaven’s Gate,’ and then there’s us.” – Mr. Sorkin.
– “I never had a very good idea, actually, before this. I didn’t know that until now.” – J.C. Chandor, writer-director, accepting the best first film award for “Margin Call.”
Carlo Allegri/ReutersMeryl Streep at the New York Film Critics’ Circle awards.
– “I’m proud of our attempt to get at something human in someone that we all thought was very weird.” – Ms. Streep.
Stars Shine at the New York Film Critics' Circle Awards (Photos)
"The Help’s" Viola Davis and Jessica Chastain are among the ladies who graced the carpet dressed in simple, elegant looks.
And they say critics don’t matter! An organization populated largely by people whose clothes don’t quite fit them managed to bring out a crowd of nattily dressed A-list talent for the 77th New York Film Critics Circle Awards last night in New York. The fact that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie pulled up to Crimson—a fairly seedy event space on Manhattan’s lower Broadway—and made their way past a shouting throng of cameras and autograph-seekers to arrive just after the advertised start time, is a testament to the enduring power of the keyboard.
Meryl Streep, Jessica Chastain, Viola Davis, Albert Brooks, Robert De Niro, Kevin Spacey, and Francis Ford Coppola were also on hand to receive or present awards. (Pitt navigated the faux-wood-paneled room, with its gaudy red-velvet curtains, while leaning on a cane, no less. Apparently he had a damn good excuse to get out of the proceedings; he is suffering from an anterior cruciate ligament injury, which Twitter tells me is quite painful.)
Your blogger spent most of the night worrying about Brad and Angelina’s well-being. Would they actually tuck into the rubber chicken (and sea bass) on offer from the black-clad waiters with ties that matched the curtains? It seemed that they did, flanked at their table by agent Bryan Lourd and a guy with Lords of Flatbush hair who turned out to be one of the screenwriters of Moneyball and, with Aaron Sorkin, an award recipient. I was less concerned about Meryl Streep, who spent the interminable interval between the salad and the main course out of her seat, working the immediate area around her table. (She shared it with Harvey Weinstein, who for some reason had a follow spot trained on him throughout the night—perhaps because his films The Artist and The Iron Lady, and their stars, were acknowledged frequently throughout the proceedings.)
But the biggest emphasis was on the critics in the room, as evidenced by the standing ovation J. Hoberman received when he was introduced by M.C. John Anderson of Variety. Hoberman’s recent dismissal from the Village Voice (referenced throughout the evening as “the publication that will not be named”), where he served as critic for nearly 25 years, has been the talk of the film community over the past week. “I thought you’d be taller,” Brad Pitt told the group at large, in a charming speech that included a recollection of his first visit to the city. It was 1989 and he found himself on Christopher Street. "My first impression was: There are so many guys,” he remembered. “And they're so nice!"
Albert Brooks, who won an acting award for Drive, gave the funniest speech of all, disparaging people who say they don’t read reviews. “If you have a living relative, you know what the reviews are!” he said. Meryl Streep herself admitted that she looked at the group’s reviews. She noted that she’d checked the N.Y.F.C.C. Web site and found that she got only 30 percent of the vote for the best-actress award. “Margaret Thatcher was the longest serving prime minister in England’s history and she never got more than 30 percent of the vote!” Streep noted cheerily. (She won the award, naturally.)
Stylish Angelina goes hell for leather in sizzling skirt
10 JANUARY 2012 Having stolen the show the night before in a beautiful dusky pink Elie Saab jumpsuit, Angelina Jolie knew she had to pull out all the stops for her second red carpet appearance in as many days.And she certainly didn't disappoint, setting flashbulbs blazing once again as she stepped out in yet another super stylish ensemble at the Critics Circle Awards in New York.
The brunette beauty embodied chic as she sashayed down the red carpet in a silky ivory blouse and tight leather Ferragamo skirt that made the most of her slender frame.
She struck a smouldering pose with Versace-clad boyfriend Brad Pitt, again carrying a cane for support following a ligament tear.
Brad Pitt honoured at NYFCC Awards
Brad Pitt scooped best actor at the New York Film
Critics Circle Awards (NYFCC) on Monday for his performance in Moneyball
and Tree of Life.
Silent film, The Artist, won best picture and best director. The film's director Michel Hazanavicius said the award was "very special" as the film had initially faced difficulties getting financed.
Uggie the dog from the Artist even got a mention on the red carpet from the film's lead actor Jean Dujardin.
Jessica Chastain was recognised as best supporting actress for her performances in Tree of Life, The Help and Take Shelter.
And Albert Brooks said he was happy to be listed in the "classiest of groups " after he took best supporting actor for his role in Drive.
BBC Video at site
Robert De Niro struggled mightily to pronounce the name of “The Artist” director Michel Hazanavicius at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards Monday. The acting icon presented Hazanavicius with the best director award. But after trying to spit out the 12-letter name — with numerous valiant attempts of “Huzzah, Hazzah” and “Hazzona” — from the stage, he finally, exasperatingly exclaimed, “You’ve got to change your name. You’ve got to shorten it.” The French director was a good sport, saying he had only learned to spell his own name “two years ago.” (For the record, it’s pronounced AR-ZAN-A-VISHUS.) The experience didn’t cause De Niro to avoid other trickily named directors: He was also seen hugging Asghar Farhadi and introducing the Iranian helmer of “A Separation” to industry insiders. Brad Pitt, who won the best actor award for “Moneyball” and “The Tree of Life,” kept his arm around Angelina Jolie at his table for most of the night, prompting one jealous female film exec to say, “If a man kept his arm around me that much, I’d be in love with him, too.” Meryl Streep was presented with a best actress award for “The Iron Lady” by her “Doubt” co-star and upcoming Golden Globes competition, Viola Davis of “The Help.” But despite the presence of Pitt, Jolie, Streep and Albert Brooks, the night felt like more of a family dinner. Emcee John Anderson led the room in singing “Happy Birthday” to Sony Pictures Classics co-president Michael Barker.
Referring to "Mother," Brooks said, "I felt that acceptance speech was very funny, so I may recycle a line or two from it. If can people can make all these remakes...." He said he was watching a TV show about James Stewart that noted he had won the NYFCC honors for Best Actor (1959, for "Anatomy of a Murder"), "and I'm thinking, 'I got something from them! This is not the People's Choice! This is the real thing!" Needless to say, this brought the house down (though the meta-laugh is even funnier if you consider the Bolshie elitism of this group of committed democrats who look down on the unwashed flyover-state masses).
Brooks went on to talk about how much critics meant to him--we were the ones (just about the only ones, alas), who supported his movies like "Modern Romance" and "Defending Your Life". "I've heard the expression, 'critic-proof,'" he said. "I would be the opposite of critic-proof. I'm critic-prone." He said he'd get up at 5 in the morning to go down to the newsstand to get all the periodicals the day one of his movies opened and if the review was a rave, he'd buy up all the copies and send them to industry friends and colleagues. "If they were bad,you bought them all up and threw them away. I bought up 2000 Time magazines." Brooks said he often hears showbiz types say they never read the reviews but "You don't have to read the reviews. If you have a living relative, you're going to know what the reviews say." A case in point was his Meryl Streep movie "Defending Your Life," which was universally praised, even by Gene Shalit. "I got a positive pun! [lapsing into Shalit's gravely Groucho voice] 'This is the first movie where he doesn't have to defend his life!'" Nevertheless, his mother called him up to tsk-tsk, "That critic in LA Magazine doesn't get you at all." Said Brooks, "I got the New York Times! I got Gene Shalit!" But he had to drag out of his mother what the guy from LA Magazine ("it's free in the lobby of the apartment building" and its critic "a year later he became a food critic") had said.
Brooks struck a very funny and very true note when he said, "Every man needs some woman to tell a good thing to or it didn't happen. It doesn't matter if you're gay or straight. For many years there was no one in my life so I kept knocking on my mother's door." Now he has his wife Kimberly, though, and "as God is my witness she has never mentioned anything from LA Magazine."
Brooks is priceless. Give him an Oscar please.
Back home at the Waldorf
Silent film, The Artist, won best picture and best director. The film's director Michel Hazanavicius said the award was "very special" as the film had initially faced difficulties getting financed.
Uggie the dog from the Artist even got a mention on the red carpet from the film's lead actor Jean Dujardin.
Jessica Chastain was recognised as best supporting actress for her performances in Tree of Life, The Help and Take Shelter.
And Albert Brooks said he was happy to be listed in the "classiest of groups " after he took best supporting actor for his role in Drive.
BBC Video at site
And the winner is ... is ...
Last Updated: 12:19 AM, January 11, 2012
Robert De Niro struggled mightily to pronounce the name of “The Artist” director Michel Hazanavicius at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards Monday. The acting icon presented Hazanavicius with the best director award. But after trying to spit out the 12-letter name — with numerous valiant attempts of “Huzzah, Hazzah” and “Hazzona” — from the stage, he finally, exasperatingly exclaimed, “You’ve got to change your name. You’ve got to shorten it.” The French director was a good sport, saying he had only learned to spell his own name “two years ago.” (For the record, it’s pronounced AR-ZAN-A-VISHUS.) The experience didn’t cause De Niro to avoid other trickily named directors: He was also seen hugging Asghar Farhadi and introducing the Iranian helmer of “A Separation” to industry insiders. Brad Pitt, who won the best actor award for “Moneyball” and “The Tree of Life,” kept his arm around Angelina Jolie at his table for most of the night, prompting one jealous female film exec to say, “If a man kept his arm around me that much, I’d be in love with him, too.” Meryl Streep was presented with a best actress award for “The Iron Lady” by her “Doubt” co-star and upcoming Golden Globes competition, Viola Davis of “The Help.” But despite the presence of Pitt, Jolie, Streep and Albert Brooks, the night felt like more of a family dinner. Emcee John Anderson led the room in singing “Happy Birthday” to Sony Pictures Classics co-president Michael Barker.
Albert Brooks Rules the New York Film Critics' Circle Awards
11:37 AM, January 10, 2012 Kyle Smith
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were in the house. Meryl Streep was there. And yet the annual awards dinner of the New York Film Critics' Circle was stolen by one Albert Brooks last night at Crimson in Manhattan. Brooks said he had hoped Debbie Reynolds (a friend of his father and the woman who played the title role in "Mother," a Brooks film which won him the NYFCC's screenwriting honors in 1996). Reynolds, alas, couldn't make it. Peter Travers filled in, saying Reynolds had sent a note saying, "Your father was great ad so funny you received all of his talent and so much more." Travers, who added that "making a movie was like a war and after the war a critic comes in and shoots the wounded," yielded the stage to a very dapper-looking Brooks, who saluted Aaron Sorkin (who earlier in the evening had praised Brooks' screeenplays). "I feel so guilty for selling my Academy copy of 'The Social Network,'" Brooks said. Then, continuing the night's theme of mocking the David Denby-Scott Rudin feud (ably recounted by my senior colleague here ), he said, "The real reason David Denby isn't here is he was picking up Scott Rudin's dry cleaning."Referring to "Mother," Brooks said, "I felt that acceptance speech was very funny, so I may recycle a line or two from it. If can people can make all these remakes...." He said he was watching a TV show about James Stewart that noted he had won the NYFCC honors for Best Actor (1959, for "Anatomy of a Murder"), "and I'm thinking, 'I got something from them! This is not the People's Choice! This is the real thing!" Needless to say, this brought the house down (though the meta-laugh is even funnier if you consider the Bolshie elitism of this group of committed democrats who look down on the unwashed flyover-state masses).
Brooks went on to talk about how much critics meant to him--we were the ones (just about the only ones, alas), who supported his movies like "Modern Romance" and "Defending Your Life". "I've heard the expression, 'critic-proof,'" he said. "I would be the opposite of critic-proof. I'm critic-prone." He said he'd get up at 5 in the morning to go down to the newsstand to get all the periodicals the day one of his movies opened and if the review was a rave, he'd buy up all the copies and send them to industry friends and colleagues. "If they were bad,you bought them all up and threw them away. I bought up 2000 Time magazines." Brooks said he often hears showbiz types say they never read the reviews but "You don't have to read the reviews. If you have a living relative, you're going to know what the reviews say." A case in point was his Meryl Streep movie "Defending Your Life," which was universally praised, even by Gene Shalit. "I got a positive pun! [lapsing into Shalit's gravely Groucho voice] 'This is the first movie where he doesn't have to defend his life!'" Nevertheless, his mother called him up to tsk-tsk, "That critic in LA Magazine doesn't get you at all." Said Brooks, "I got the New York Times! I got Gene Shalit!" But he had to drag out of his mother what the guy from LA Magazine ("it's free in the lobby of the apartment building" and its critic "a year later he became a food critic") had said.
Brooks struck a very funny and very true note when he said, "Every man needs some woman to tell a good thing to or it didn't happen. It doesn't matter if you're gay or straight. For many years there was no one in my life so I kept knocking on my mother's door." Now he has his wife Kimberly, though, and "as God is my witness she has never mentioned anything from LA Magazine."
Brooks is priceless. Give him an Oscar please.
Can you get more gorgeous than Angelina Jolie tonight at the National Board of Review? #brangelina twitpic.com/85u1h9
Back home at the Waldorf
