Halle Berry |
NATIONAL
BOARD OF REVIEW
Call It Talent
On the Green
Story
and Photos by Polly Van Raalte
 HE
Who’s Who of the film world descended on world famous Tavern on
the Green in Central Park as they honored their own at the 2001
National Board of Review Awards. Master of ceremonies was the Pickle
Man himself, Peter Riegert (Crossing Delancey).
Between presentations, he tried out some jokes. Better he should
stick to the script, or pickles.
A
newly bearded Stanley Donen presented Baz Luhrmann
with the Best Film award for Moulin Rouge.
Arthur Cohn |
It
was great to see the stars of Monster’s Ball, Billy Bob
Thornton and Halle Barry. What a powerful film!
Billy
Bob received his award from F. Murray Abraham who had his son
Mick with him.
Ever
handsome Hugh Jackman gave Halle her award. You could see it was
mutual admiration.
Jim
Broadbent of Moulin
Rouge and Iris got the Best Supporting Actor award from Richard
Eyre. A gorgeous Cate Blanchett of The Man Who Cried,
Shipping News and The Lord of the Rings received Best
Supporting Actress award from costar John Turturro.
Marisa
Tomei, seen In
the Bedroom, gave the award to her Best Director Todd Field.
Steven Spielberg and wife
Kate Capshaw |
A
very special NBR moment was when talented musician Itzhak Perlman
presented John Williams with a Career Achievement award for
film music composition. We all stood and gave Perlman a heartfelt
ovation. “I’m not getting an award,” he said, and we all
smiled. He should.
A
very bald Daniel Day Lewis presented the William K. Everson
Award for Film History to Martin Scorsese for his Il Mio
Viaggio in Italia.
Awards
for breakthrough performers were given by Kevin Kline to Hayden
Christensen for Life As a House and by David Lynch
to Naomi Watts for Mulholland Drive.
Jon Voight |
An
extremely entertaining video presentation of his work accompanied Steven
Spielberg as he received the Billy Wilder Award for excellence
in directing from the versatile actress Meryl Streep. She
thanked him for letting her be the blue fairy voice in his latest
film AI.
Special
mention must be made of producer Arthur Cohn who received the
National Board of Review Humanitarian Award. He told us to “never
forget our roots, have wisdom of life, and be faithful to yourselves
in dignity.”
We
were so touched as Al Pacino handed the NBR Career
Achievement Award to the incredible actor Jon Voight.
Ben Kingsley |
Pacino,
who mentioned how much he loved Voight, remarked about the enormous
amount of time Jon spends getting into a role.
What a night!
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