Fred Zinneman

If anyone should know the ingredients for an Oscar-winning movie, Fred Zinnemann is that man. The veteran director, one of film history's most distinguished names, brought 20-odd pictures to the screen in a career spanning 40 years. Marlon Brando's debut film was Zinnemann's "The Men" (1950). Montgomery Clift won an Oscar in Zinnemann's "The Search" (1948), his first major film role. Meryl Streep's screen debut was in Zinnemann's "Julia" (1977).

If anyone should know the ingredients for an Oscar-winning movie, Fred Zinnemann is that man. The veteran director, one of film history's most distinguished names, brought 20-odd pictures to the screen in a career spanning 40 years. Marlon Brando's debut film was Zinnemann's "The Men" (1950). Montgomery Clift won an Oscar in Zinnemann's "The Search" (1948), his first major film role. Meryl Streep's screen debut was in Zinnemann's "Julia" (1977).

Seventeen prominent actors and film makers have sent a letter to Richard Kahn, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, complaining that this year's Oscar show "was an embarrassment to both the academy and the entire motion picture industry." Those signing the letter were: Julie Andrews, David Brown, Stanley Donen, Blake Edwards, John Foreman, William Friedkin, Larry Gelbart, Sidney Lumet, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Paul Newman, Alan J. Pakula, Gregory Peck, Martin Ritt, Mark Rydell, Peter Stone, Billy Wilder and Fred Zinneman.

Writing to critics is a mug's game. As Mencken (I think), said, "Never argue with people who buy ink by the barrel." Nevertheless: Terry Atkinson is obviously entitled to, indeed paid for, his opinion of our film "A Man for All Seasons." His conclusions still seem to me shallowly reasoned, the faded bouquets tossed notwithstanding. A play of the quality of Robert Bolt's extraordinary work (I don't know of one as well written in the generation since) is, of course, going to be redone.

Reportedly, when the 1966 film "A Man for All Seasons" was being cast, Charlton Heston wanted the role of Sir Thomas More, the English Lord Chancellor who objected to Henry VIII's plan to split with the Roman Catholic Church--and lost his head for it. Heston merely lost the role (Paul Scofield got it) but there may have been nothing "mere" about the missed chance--Heston has practically made a crusade of "Man," performing the original Robert Bolt play at the Ahmanson in 1979 and in London.

Georges Delerue, a classically trained composer who became a master of the film soundtrack, winning dozens of awards--including an Oscar--for his ability to capture mood and character through music, is dead. Delerue, who scored such films as "Platoon," "Day of the Jackal" and more recently, "Dien Bien Phu," was 67 when he died Friday at St. Josephs Medical Center in Burbank. A spokesman said he died of the complications of a stroke he suffered Wednesday.

When the 70th Academy Award nominations made news earlier this month, the front-page headline in The Times read " 'Titanic' Ties Record for Oscar Nominations." The story reported that James Cameron's waterlogged epic, by now a worldwide tsunami at the box office, received 14 nods to match the high-water mark set by "All About Eve" in 1950.

Never before have so many women directors been successful within France and exportable to America. This has been the year of Coline Serreau's "Three Men and a Cradle," Agnes Varda's "Vagabond," Caroline Huppert's "Sincerely, Charlotte" and Nadine Trintignant's "Next Summer," to name a few. And "Rouge Baiser" (Red Kiss), at the Los Feliz, marks the auspicious directing debut of veteran producer Vera Belmont.

Returning to Pepperdine University, where he impressed strongly in his debut last year, Philip Quint, the Russian-born American violinist trained in Moscow and at the Juilliard School in New York City, appears on the Stotsenberg recital series at the Malibu campus. Quint, assisted by pianist Dmitriy Cogan, will play music by Leclair, John Corigliano, Bloch, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Ravel. * Philip Quint, Raitt Recital Hall at Pepperdine University, 24255 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu. 2 p.m. $20.

In the days before this year's Academy Awards telecast, producer Allan Carr predicted his show would be "10% for the town and 90% for the world." The world responded that night, giving the show its highest TV ratings in five years. Hollywood has been responding ever since, with markedly less enthusiasm. The fallout from the March 29 telecast has prompted the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to take a hard look at its annual awards ceremony. At a closed meeting last week, the academy's 36-member board of governors formed a committee to examine this year's telecast and make recommendations about future shows.

Never before have so many women directors been successful within France and exportable to America. This has been the year of Coline Serreau's "Three Men and a Cradle," Agnes Varda's "Vagabond," Caroline Huppert's "Sincerely, Charlotte" and Nadine Trintignant's "Next Summer," to name a few. And "Rouge Baiser" (Red Kiss), at the Los Feliz, marks the auspicious directing debut of veteran producer Vera Belmont.