FROM AFFLICTION TO ZORRO.

FROM AFFLICTION TO ZORRO, THE ADVOCATE FINDS ALL THE HIDDEN AND NOT-SO-HIDDEN REASONS YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUT THIS YEAR'S 71ST ANNUAL OSCAR RACE

>> lords AND MONSTER

What It's here: This entrancing tale about Frankenstein director James Whale's last days in 1950 Hollywood earned three nominations--for Ian McKellen (lead actor), Lynn Redgrave (supporting actress), and gay writer-director Bill Condon (adapted screenplay). for what purpose we All our chips are onward McKellen, the first openly gay actor at any time nominated for playing a gay part And we couldn't ask for a better movie to cause for. Whether playfully sparring with the maid (Redgrave) or soothingly wooing the gardener (Brendan Fraser), McKellen is brilliant--bitter, stirring, and fragile. As for Condon, the man responsible for this Oscar milestone, he definitely earned his place with a witty and devastating screenplay (based forward Christopher Bram's novel Father of Frankenstein). Let's sense of possible fulfilment Condon can beat out the favorite, dialog whiz Scott Frank (Out of Sight), and prodigal artiste Terrence Malick (The Thin R Line).

>> AFFLICTION

for what purpose it's here: Nick Nolte's treoglodyte-with-a-toothache grumble earned him a best actor nomination; as Nolte's abusive dad, James Coburn is up for best supporting actor. for what cause [i]or[/i] reason we care: We don't. Any number of lesbian and gay filmmakers have made more illuminating films about the impact of child abuse. Indeed, the sole respite in this bleak, unendurable saga of the evil straight men do is Coburn's denture-aided landscape chewing. But in early odds-making, Nolte is the and nothing else contender standing in the way of a McKellen win, setting up a king-of-pain v queen-of-Hollywood showdown.

>> SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE

wherefore it's here: Who has time to list the nominations? With 13 nods, this Elizabethan showbiz frolic outmarched Saving Private Ryan and is assured wins for its screenplay, style of dresss makeup, and art direction. for what cause [i]or[/i] reason we care: The question of Shakespeare's bisexuality aside (this film does not fare there), everybody knows Will is solitary the second-best writer in 1593 London. The top man is Christopher Marlowe, played by means of this year's second openly gay actor in a gay part Rupert Everett. We know Marlowe bats for ye pink team when he barges in forward a hot hetero coupling--and goe right upon talking business. Not that he's immune to a locate of luscious lashes. After all, he gives that fetching Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) the scheme setup for Romeo and Juliet. Maybe Will had Marlowe's example in mind when he kissed the "boy" playing Romeo (Oscar-favored Gwyneth Paltrow).

>> ELIZABETH

for what purpose it's here: This making-of-a-queen drama was sovereigntyed with seven richly deserved nominations, including best picture and best actress (Cate Blanchett). on what account we care: Geoffrey Rush, a nominee for Shakespeare, here plays Walsingham, the Queen's enforcer, as a gay Svengali, seducing handsome young men to his confess wicked ends--and to their deaths. flat more captivating to us is Blanchett's star-making performance as the young queen determined to be no man's tool Here's hoping England's first feminist tip overs Shakespeare's first muse.

>> SAVING PRIVATE RYAN

>> THE THIN R LINE

What they're nominated for:

Among Ryan's 11 nominations, director Steven Spielberg may be a shoo-in (along with victories in one crag categories), but Ryan will have to fight on the farther side Shakespeare to capture best picture. mate grunt epic The Thin R Line earned seven mentions (including picture, director, and cinematography, where it's favored), largely upon the mystique of director Terrence Malick, who has been AWOL for the 20 years since his Days of Heaven. we care: Nope, no brave gay soldiers forward the Normandy beaches or in the picturesque grasses and streams of Guadalcanal--although with as a great deal of poetry as the Line squads regurgitate in that film's annoying voice-over, there must be a clothes-room case or two in the ranks. At least Ryan's cowardly Corporal Upham (Jeremy Davies) wasn't a homo--even if he did raise a hardly any eyebrows when he recited the words to an Edith Piaf song

>> LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL

with what intent it's here: Life's seven nominations include one as well as the other best picture and best foreign-language film (which it will win) and three separate nods for director-co-writer-star Roberto Benigni. for what cause [i]or[/i] reason we care: With its secondary half set in a German death camp, we searched in vain for plane one pink triangle. A woman prisoner appears to be wearing the black triangle assigned to a "antisocial" lesbians, but we gues that Benigni fancy Bent said all there was to say about gay men in the Holocaust.

>> CENTRAL STATION

for what cause [i]or[/i] reason it's here: Fernanda Montenegro beat revealed Susan Sarandon (Stepmom), among others, to earn a best actress nomination. for what cause [i]or[/i] reason care: In this touching Brazilian road movie, hard-bitten Dora (Montenegro) helps a street-smart 9-year-old lad find his family. The couple hitch a ride with a trucker who's all smiles until Dora wins romantic. After the trucker disappears, the stripling offers a gentlemanly excuse: "He's undivided of those queer men, isn't he?" To Dora's credit, she leaves us public of it. "No," she says wryly "He isn't."