Saturday
Mar062021
Lunchtime Poll: English Patient, Last Emperor, or Gigi?
Saturday, March 6, 2021 at 1:04PM 9 DAYS TIL OSCAR NOMINATIONS! Three films in Oscar history have won exactly 9 Oscars. They are the musical Gigi (1958), the epic biopic The Last Emperor (1987), and the sweeping romantic drama The English Patient (1996).
| GIGI | LAST EMPEROR | ENGLISH PATIENT |
 |
 |
 |
| Picture | Picture | Picture |
| Director | Director | Director |
| Supp. Actress | ||
| Screenplay | Screenplay | |
| Production Design | Production Design | Production Design |
| Costume Design | Costume Design | Costume Design |
| Cinematography | Cinematography | Cinematography |
| Editing | Editing | Editing |
| Score | Score | Score |
| Sound | Sound | |
| Original Song | ||
| lost: nothing (clean sweep) | lost: nothing (clean sweep) | lost: Actor, Actress, Screenplay |
Lunchtime Poll: They can only keep 9 Oscars between them. Which wins will you allow each film to keep?
Sound off in the comments!
Reader Comments (42)
I haven't seen all of the nominees in all of these years yet, but as of now I'd give Gigi two Oscars (Score & Costume), The Last Emperor three Oscars (Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume), and The English Patient all nine (it's one of my favorite movies). If I had to cut five I'd probably give South Pacific Score, Fargo gets Cinematography & Editing, & Empire of the Sun takes Art Direction & Cinematography, so Gigi/Last Emperor get one each & English Patient takes seven.
English Patient gets picture, director, supporting actress, and score. Last Emperor gets everything else. GIgi I guess can have song, be default. It’s so boring though, ugh.
I love English Patient, but it wasn’t my favorite of that year (I was rooting for Secrets & Lies). But EP was closer to deserving best picture than Last Emperor was. LE was also wonderful, but it was up against Moonstruck, so…
Kristin Scott Thomas deserves an Oscar!
The English Patient may be bloated and at times pretentious, but she is a genuine treasure.
This is a brutal one. Okay. Easy picks first
1. Take away best picture from THE LAST EMPEROR. Give it to HOPE AND GLORY (TLE @ 8 now)
2. Take away best adapted screenplay from The Last Emperor. Give it to THE DEAD (TLE @ 7)
3. Take away best score for a musical picture for GIGI. Give it to South Pacific (Gigi @ 8)
4. Take away best picture from Gigi. Give it to CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF (Gigi @ 7)
5. Take away best art direction from Gigi. Give it to VERTIGO (Gigi @ 6)
6. Take away best film editing from Gigi. Give it to I WANT TO LIVE! (Gigi @ 5)
7. Take away best adapted screenplay from GIGI. Give it to THE HORSE'S MOUTH (Gigi @ 4). Take away best costume design from THE ENGLISH PATIENT. Give it to ANGELS & INSECTS (TEP @8)
The above were the easiest picks. But it still brought me barely half way. 10 more choices to go. And here's where the enthusiasm gap is very small or it's a choice I'm more indifffent/ingnorant about.
8. Take away best art direction from The English Patient. Give it to HAMLET (TEP @7)
9. Take away best sound from The English Patient. Give it to THE ROCK (TEP @ 6)
10 Take away best supporting actress from The English Patient. Give it to Barbara Hershey or Joan Allen (Giving Sorvino's oscar to Joan Allen and this one to Barbara Hershey is my actual choice) (TEP @ 5)
11. Take away best cinematography from Gigi. Give it to THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA (Gigi @3)
12. Take away best sound from The Last Emperor. Give it to EMPIRE OF THE SUN (TLE @6)
Currently at 14 total wins. Now we're getting to oscars that I'm genuinely sad to be taking away
13. Taking away best cinematography from The Last Emperor. Give it to Matewan (TLE @ 5)
14. Taking away best costume design from The Last Emperor. Give it to The Untouchables (TLE @ 4)
15. Taking away best film editing from TLE. Give it to Broadcast News (TLE @ 3)
16. Taking away best song from Gigi. Give it to A Certain Smile (Gigi @2)
17. Taking away best score from The Last Emperor. Give it to The Untouchables (TLE @2)
So, they keep
Gigi: Best director (Minelli's a legend and it's a weak category) and best costume design (also not a strong category)
TLE: Best director (Bertolucci's a legend) and art direction.
TEP: Best picture, director, cinematography, original score and film editing.
Just realized my numbering is off in the list above. Final totals and removals still accurate, though.
Last Emperor:
Production Design, Cinematography, Costumes
The English Patient:
Picture, Director, Supp. Actress, Screenplay, Editing, Score
Honestly, The Last Emperor can keep all of its awards - but Joan Chen should've gotten at least a supporting actress nom on top of it all. Watched Emperor last Easter and it held up really well - a gorgeous, sweeping film. The score is esp amazing.
Gigi, please give back your Best Picture Oscar, really hated that film, one of my bottom 5 BP Oscar winners (and I've seen every single one of them). Actually, give back *all* of your oscars, Gigi! I don't care to who or what (tho it was a weak year, TBH)!
English Patient: have no prob w/ it except I love Fargo best and want that to have BP. So English Patient, please keep everything else but surrender best pic to Fargo and all will be well, thx, appreciate it.
Gigi:
Song
(Picture Separate Tables
Director The Defiant Ones
Screenplay Separate Tables
Production Design Vertigo
Costume Design Bell, Book and Candle
Cinematography South Pacific
Editing The Defiant Ones
Score Damn Yankees!)
The Last Emperor:
Picture
Director
Production Design
Costume Design
(Screenplay The Dead
Cinematography Empire of the Sun
Editing Fatal Attraction
Score The Untouchables
Sound RoboCop)
The English Patient:
Cinematography
Editing
Score
Sound
(Picture Secrets & Lies
Director Secrets & Lies
Supporting Actress Secrets & Lies
Production Design The Birdcage
Costume Design The Portrait of a Lady)
I haven't seen The English Patient (one of the few Best Picture winners I haven't seen) but I love Gigi and The Last Emperor.
Choosing nine wins between them?
Gigi: Best Picture, Directing, Adapted Screenplay, Costume Design
The Last Emperor: Best Directing, Adapted Screenplay, Art Direction, Sound, Costume Design
The toughest decision there is Best Picture 1987. I seesaw betwee The Last Emperor and Moonstruck. Jeremy Thomas deserved his Oscar for The Last Emperor - what a producing feat! But Moonstruck isn't second best. I think Bertolucci for Directing and Norman Jewison still gets an Oscar for Monstruck as one of its producers.
Gigi was probably most deserving of its Oscars in costume design and production design. I don't really like the movie, though; it's creepy. Leslie Caron's ample charm is not enough to save it.
The Last Emperor has even better costumes and production design than Gigi. The English Patient is also strong in those two categories. Both movies are miles better overall than Gigi. I never wonder why either won best picture, but I can't fathom why Gigi swept the way it did.
The English Patient:
Picture, Director, Supporting Actress, Cinematography, Editing, Score, Sound
The Last Emperor:
Art Direction, Costume Design
This is so much fun!
GIGI
Director
Cinematography
Production Design
Costume Design
THE LAST EMPEROR
Director
Production Design
Costume Design
Original Score
THE ENGLISH PATIENT
Original Score
Here's how I'd redistribute their other Oscars:
1958
Picture, CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF
Adapted Screenplay, THE HORSE'S MOUTH
Editing, THE DEFIANT ONES
Score, DAMN YANKEES!
Song, SOME CAME RUNNING
1987
Picture, MOONSTRUCK
Adapted Screenplay, THE DEAD
Editing, BROADCAST NEWS
Cinematography, EMPIRE OF THE SUN
Sound, ROBOCOP
1996
Picture, FARGO
Director, SECRETS & LIES
Supporting Actress, THE CRUCIBLE
Editing, FARGO
Cinematography, FARGO
Production Design, ROMEO + JULIET
Costume Design, ANGELS & INSECTS
Sound, TWISTER
The Last Emperor:
Director
Screenplay
Production Design
Costume Design
Sound
The English Patient:
Director
Cinematography
Editing
Score
The English Patient
Picture
Director
Supporting Actress
Editing
Score
Sound
The Last Emperor:
Cinematography
Art Direction
Gigi
Costume Design
I keep Fiennes, you keep the rest.
Fun! I'm going to second Richard.
The English Patient gets Picture, Director, Supporting Actress, and Score, and everything else goes to The Last Emperor.
Anthony Minghella was such a deep talent...gone way too soon, and we should have had more films from him.
Juliette Binoche's (at the time surprising) win is still one of my all-time favorites. Such a sublime piece of acting in such a masterful movie.
Fun game! I adore The English Patient, so...
Gigi
- Wins: Art Direction, Song, Costumes
- Best Picture, Cinematography, Editing go to Auntie Mame
- Best Director goes to Richard Brooks for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; the film also takes Screenplay
- Score goes to South Pacific
The Last Emperor
- No wins
- Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Editing go to Fatal Attraction
- Score, Sound, Art Direction and Cinematography go to Empire of the Sun
- Costume Design goes to Maurice
The English Patient
- Wins: Picture, Director, Actor, Screenplay, Cinematography, Score
- Actress stays with McDormand
- S Actress goes to Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Binoche wins later)
- Sound goes to Independence Day
- Costumes go to Portrait of a Lady
- Art Direction goes to Romeo + Juliet
- Editing goes to Fargo
Easy. Keep the 9 of "The Last Emperor" and give the other 18 to other nominees.
1. My first thought was that it seemed especially cruel to take away Oscars from Asian winners of The Last Emperor, but as it turns out, the only Asian winners were in the Score category: Cong Su (China) and Ryuichi Sakamoto (Japan) shared the award with David Byrne (UK). If you're wondering, Empire of the Sun had no Asian nominees.
2. I know this 9 theme has to do with the number of days until Oscar nominations are announced, but couldn't you have taken Oscars away from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King two days ago? Now that was an unworthy (11/11) sweep.
Gigi-by default only, considering the 4 other features nominated for Best Picture of 1958-I really want to take away its BP status. I find this musical, Silk Stockings, My Fair Lady and The Band Wagon (except for fantastic The Girl Hunt Ballet sequence) almost a chore to sit through.
The English Patient-Love that film to no end and glad that it received so many honors.
I thought the task here was to choose the favorite among the three: Gigi - or as I dump It, Pretty Woman of Belle Epoque -, The Last (and long) Emperor and The English (Im)Pacient.
The only Oscar I would take would be Juliette Binoche's Best Supporting Actress (English Patient) and give it to Lauren Bacall(The Mirror Has Two Faces). I love Binoche, but I'd give her the statuette at another time.
Gigi: Costumes, art direction and song. (Best picture goes to Cat on a hot tin roof)
The last emperor: picture, director, cinematography, editing, score, costumes and art direction
The English patient: Supporting actress and score (Best picture goes to Fargo)
Gigi: Director, Song, Scoring
The Last Emperor: Director, Costume Design, Cinematography, Film Editing
The English Patient: Editing, Art Direction
I'm going with The Last Emperor because it's from Bernardo Bertolucci. A true artist.
@Brevity
Return of the King is better than Titanic which is better than Ben-Hur... in my opinion.
Still, RotK is, overall, a clean sweep to reward the whole triptic as any of the 3 films could have deservingly taken Best Picture (I think The Two Towers is actually the best of the 3)... so it's like taking out an Oscar for a 3 films challenge. Difficult. Overall, I think it is really difficult to remove any of the 11 wins... maybe Song? But my love for Annie Lennox prevents me from doing that sacrilege.
Last Emperor gets to keep its six craft Oscars.
English Patient gets to keep Picture, Director, and Supporting Actress.
Gigi gets to keep *nothing*!
I love The Last Emperor so I it can keep all Oscars it won. It aged well and is epic and entertaining.
The only time I wish there was suporting actor fraud would had been in 1984. Then Amadeus could have 9 Oscars and be in this list.
Gigi was a terrible movie.
UNKNOWN... I totally agree with you on Gigi. It is the only movie I walked out in the middle.
And I love musicals.
Arkaan -- i LOVE that you took this so seriously. Thank you.
Have to say, I'm a bit surprised how enthusiastic many here are about The English Patient. Not that I disagree -- I think it's one of the two or three best picture winners of recent decades. But SO many Oscar sites trash it. Congratulations on the good taste, folks.
Have the British invaded this article ? I think it's a given that "The Last Emperor" gets Picture and Director. TEP can keep Supporting Actress for Binoche.
Gigi just score and customs
English Patient gets supporting actress, sound and cinematography
The Last Emperor gets Picture, director, screenplay, production design
Gigi keeps Costume, Song, and Score
Picture- Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Director- Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Screenplay- Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Cinematography- Auntie Mame
Art Direction- Vertigo
Editing- I Want to Live
Last Emperor keeps Director, Cinematography, Art Direction, and Costume
Picture- Moonstruck
Screenplay- Fatal Attraction
Sound- Robocop
Score- The Untouchables
The English Patient keeps Score and Cinematography
Picture- Fargo
Director- Fargo
Supporting Actress- Portrait of a Lady
Art Direction- The Birdcage
Costume- Portrait of a Lady
Editing- Fargo
Sound- Independence Day
Somewhat surprised as I like English Patient the best out of these three. But Gigi and Last Emperor didn't have a much competition in their years.
The Last Emperor: Picture, Director, Production Design, Costume Design, Cinematography
The English Patient: Actress, Supporting Actress, Score, Sound
I’m happy that The English Patient grabbed a Best Supporting Actress award, but I’d prefer to switch it to Kristin Scott Thomas. Glad that Juliette Binoche has the recognition, but the entire movie is filled with her character. (Almost like saying with a straight face that Daniel K. isn’t the Lead in Judas and the Black Messiah). Guess at the time KST was a ‘bigger’ name, so better to secure a win in Supporting...
“The Last Emperor” is the only true masterpiece between these three movies. Although, I love “The English Patient”, and I think “Gigi” is pretty good too. Having said that,
I would let LE have all its awards. PLUS Best Actor for John Lone and Supporting Actress for Joan Chen!! Travesty that they weren’t at least nominated.
Barbara Hershey takes away TEP supporting actress and i'm happy with just that.
Love this article, but there is no way that I'm taking anything away from "The English Patient". I dislike "Gigi" and respect "The Last Emperor" but it's not a favourite.
Btw. after travelling in Jordan and Egypt I think the desert scenes are even more amazing in TEP.
@Nathaniel
Yeah, it was hard. I'm genuinely fond of The Last Emperor and its craft wins are incredibly deserving. Meanwhile, 1958 is just a terrible nomination slate - even films I genuinely like (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) don't really deserve to be pushed past the finish line
I would add Best Actor for Ralph Fiennes to "The English Patient" wins. Oscar has not been kind to Ralph Fiennes. So many Oscar worthy performances, and throw in a nod for younger brother Joseph for a nomination.
What a fun prompt. None of the three are among my favorite Best Picture winners, but they each have their strengths (Last Emperor being my favorite and Gigi being my least by far).
Best Production Design (Last Emperor)
Best Cinematography (Last Emperor)
Best Costume Design (Last Emperor)
Best Cinematography (The English Patient)
Best Production Design (Gigi)
Best Supporting Actress (The English Patient)
Best Director (Last Emperor)
Best Score (Last Emperor)
Best Film Editing (The English Patient)