South Florida Sun Sentinel from Fort Lauderdale, Florida • Page 57

1 Sun-Sentinel, Thursday, February 14, 1991 Section RAY RECCHI Lifestyle Columnist 'Waives' takes I 12 nominations in Oscar I I I 1 III I I II II Ml sX By CANDICE RUSSELL Film Writer Which of these Best Picture nominees from 1990 does not belong: Dances With Wolves, Awakenings, Ghost, The Godfather Part III or GoodFellast Ghost is the correct answer. It's a surprise, if not a shock, that the second-biggest box-office film of the year (with a gross of $214 million, bettered only by Home Alone) is in the prestige category of the Academy Awards. Movies that are most popular with audiences usually are brushed off by members of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences. The one trend to be discerned is the respect paid to com mercial and critical hits. Some Best Picture nominees are hits with reviewers and the public Wolves, Awakenings and The Godfather Part III.

Apart from a handful of jolts, the Oscar nominations, announced Wednesday, went pretty much as expected. Dandes With Wolves deservedly picked up 12, including Best Picture, Kevin Costner for Best Actor and Best Director, Graham Greene for Best Supporting Actor and Mary McDonnell for Best Supporting Actress. No picture in 25 years has received more nominations, fill 5 Tuxedo courtesy of Southern Formals. Staff photo lllustratlonSUSAN Q. STOCKER A sigh is just a sigh, but a kiss, science has ascertained, is a mental thing.

though Wolves tied 12 nominations for Reds in 1981 and was bettered by 13 nominations for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 1966. Look for Wolves to gobble up the victories on Monday, March 25, when the 63rd annual Academy Awards ceremony is televised by ABC. Tied for seven nominations each are The Godfather Part III and Dick Tracy. But Dick Tracy doesn't show up in any big categories, proving once again that big-screen treatments of comic-strip and animated characters Batman and Roger Rabbit aren't highly regarded by Academy voters. Dick Tracy did win nominations for cinematography, costume design and makeup.

GoodFellas, the most beloved film by critics associations around the country, was the fourth most-nominated movie of 1990. It won six, with the curious omission of Ray Liotta as Best Actor. More interesting than the traditionalist nominees are the newcomers, in part because it shows the Academy's openness to talent heretofore ig By JOHN HUGHES Staff Writer hink about sucking on a 30-foot hose, while it sucks back, and what there is to siphon you wouldn't Valentine's isn't only day for love Guess what I got my wife for Valentine's Day? Give up? OK, I'll tell you. I got her the same thing I usually get. Nothing.

Zero. Zilch. Nada. As far as I'm concerned, Valentine's Day doesn't exist. For one thing, it's my birthday and I don't believe I should be expected to buy gifts or cards for anyone else on my birthday.

Tina doesn't give me anything on her birthday. What's more, a childhood filled with heart-shaped birthday cakes, cutesy "Valentine Birthday" cards and the middle name "Valentino" gave me a lifelong grudge against Valentine's Day. Even if it was not my birthday, I would resent the idea of Valentine's Day. I hate to be manipulated. And what is Valentine's Day if not a manipulative, manufactured holiday on which "lovers" are expected to buy one another cards and gifts and expensive dinners in overcrowded, overpriced restaurants? Worse, it seems to me that designating one day on which lovers are supposed to show their affection for one another defeats the purpose.

If you buy a gift and one of those sappy cards, you're doing nothing more than what is expected of you. Respect the unexpected If you don't go along with the program, you're likely to end up sleeping on the couch. It's like saying "I love you" with a gun to your head. Where's the romance in that? Simple common sense will tell you that many less ostentatious signs of affection offered on a regular basis should be more highly regarded. I refer to support, respect and consideration.

But even more obvious gestures of affection are more romantic if offered when they are not expected. The impact of such gifts was driven home to me in my early teens when I walked in the house one day to find an elegant flower arrangement that had been delivered to my mother. The card said, "Just because and was signed with an for Sal, my father. Although haJ no doubt that my parents loved one anbthsr, I had never seen such blatant evidenci lhat an actual romance existed between them. Neither of my parents was given to hand-holding or other public displays of affection, other than the almost-perfunctory goodnight kiss when Dad left for work and the less perfunctory welcome-home kiss when he would return from a few weeks on the road.

They just did things for each other, supported each other and defended each other for more than 40 years. For them to have walked around holding hands and saying "I love you" would have been redundant. A rose at any other time Even as a teen, I thought those flowers and that message were a nice touch, particularly because it wasn't Mom's birthday, Valentine's Day or other special occasion. "Just because had so much more impact than "Because it's Valentine's Day" that to this day I prefer to make those romantic gestures at no particular time and for no particular reason. Just because.

Every once in a while, I'll pick up some flowers on my way home. Last week, I brought home two dozen roses, "just because." Sure, I got them for only 6 bucks from a street vendor outside the courthouse. But it's the thought that counts, right? If I had waited until Valentine's Day to give her those flowers, I would have been doing only what was expected of me, merely saying "I love you" on cue. What's more, I would have been allowing myself to be manipulated by the greeting card, florist, candy, jewelry and restaurant industries that obviously are behind this whole Valentine's Day conspiracy. Such a day may have some value for people who are not quite sure of each other, but I have no use for it.

I prefer to tell my wife what she already knows in my own way and in my own time. And that time could be almost any day except (Bah! Humbug!) Valentine's Day. Best Picture: Awakenings, Dances With Wolves Ghost; The Godfather Part III, GoodFellas. Best Actor: Kevin Costner, Dances With Wolves; Robert De Niro, Awakenings; Gerard De-1 pardieu, Cyrano de Bergerac; Richard Harris, The Field, Jer-; emy Irons, Reversal of Fortune. Best Actress: Kathy Bates, Misery, Anjelica Huston, The Grifters; Julia Roberts, Pret- ty Woman; Meryl Streep, Post- cards From the Edge, Joanne Woodward, Mr.

Mrs. Bridge. want surfacing anyway. But you like it. A lot.

Kissing. One of Western Culture's glorious mysteries. And as time goes by, you should remember this: The correct lyrics of America's favorite song about the act are: a kiss is still a kiss." Despite constant misquoting, a kiss is never just a kiss. Never. If a kiss is that first step on the stairway to heaven, it is also a physiological phenomenon, broken down thusly: Neurons sebum Barry White records and breath mints hyperventilation.

The common denominator in this equation is lips. "Lips are the inside of the mouth that has been rolled outward," says Vaughn M. Bryant, professor of anthropology at Texas who has studied A list of all the major categories is on Page 7E. Their eyes meet He takes her into his arms. Its so romantic.

But why kiss? Because therms more to kissing than meets the lips. nored or simply new to moviemaking. This select group includes Kathy Bates, nominated as Best Actress for an absolute harridan in Misery; Gerard Depardieu, a longshot for Best Actor, in the foreign-language film Cyrano de Bergerac; Costner in the same category for Wolves; and McDonnell and Greene as supporting actors, also for Wolves. Greene's fine portrayal of a Sioux Indian is up against two other fresh faces to the Oscar process the media-hyped Andy Garcia as a transformed Mafia honcho in The Godfather Part III and Bruce Davison as the heartfelt friend and lover of a dying AIDS victim in Longtime Companion. The latter is a thoughtful and nomination.

The Best Supporting Actress category also introduces women previously ignored by the Academy Lorraine Bracco, the do-what's-necessary wife in GoodFellas, and Annette Bening, the ambitious and sexy con woman in The Grifters. The most exciting nomination as Best Director is Costner for Wolves. It marks his first time behind the camera. He may duplicate the success of another actor who decided to that Aerosmith guy, Carly Simon. Whoa, Sandra Bernhard.

The inside of her mouth rolled outward must have enough sensitivity to cover the 70 percent of this world for whom kissing is not part of the culture. Bryant who is quick to point out that he does other things besides serve as a somewhat reluctant Kiss Answer Man didn't get tenure studying the says that 1 SEE KISS 7E kissing for 20 years. "They contain all these neurons and nerve endings that make the lips more sensitive than any part of the body oth-' er than the genitalia." Kissing is a mental thing. In fact, the portion of the brain that receives messages from the lips is bigger than the part that handles impulses for the entire torso. Just as a sidebar to this science lesson, consider for a moment how much sensitivity all this adds up to for some people.

Mick Jagger, 13 SEE OSCARS 7E MOVIE REVIEW Monsters lurk in 'Lambs' guise INSIDE ARTSENTERTAINMENT The comings and goings at NBC could spell trouble for the network's hottest shows. 3E FAMILIES Parents buy trouble when they give children all they toys they want. 14E trist, Clarice must find a serial killer. Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), secure in a hospital dungeon, is himself a serial killer with his own set of rules about contact.

Their talks are invested with suspicion and the imminent possibility of danger. This is a monster who eats his victims. Demme's unpretentious direction draws a line between the realms of men and women. Quick to perceive the Inferior esteem in which she is held, by virtue of gender or inexperience, Clarice asserts herself. In more ways than one, the film champions women who better men at the same games.

When a killer called Buffalo Bill captures the daughter of a Tennessee senator, Clarice tries to negotiate for SEE 'SILENCE 6E By CANDICE RUSSELL Film Writer Leave it to director Jonathan Demme to turn The Silence of the Lambs Into a bone-chiller of superior intensity. His adaptation of the novel by Thomas Harris works on the suspense of deeds committed by two madmen and the certainty that each will kill again. Jodie Foster, a young FBI rookie named Clarice Starling, is so good that it's hard to imagine any of her peers in the part. There's no guff to her serious character, who has built her life around the goal of federal service. But no a-mount of schooling In the ways of the criminal mind can prepare her for her first case With the help of a brilliant psychia Movie Times 6E Advice 2B Comics 15-16E Best Bet 4E Horoscope 16E Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins star in The Silence of the Lambs; Television 4B "10 4r.