The director's first film was Pi, which really knocked me out. No sophomore jinx here, though Dream isn't a sleeper for best picture, either. Ellen Burstyn gives one of the great performances as a Jewish mother hooked on diet pills. Requiem for a Dream is very, very personal. I knew Jackson Pollock was important but never really appreciated how great his art was until I saw the pieces in person at the Museum of Modern Art.
Art needs that.
What Pollock , the film, comes closer to doing than any film I've seen is taking us into the artistic process, though mania may be a better word. Ed Harris was as obsessed with Pollock the artist as Pollock the artist was with his art. He spent ten years and a lot of his own money getting this film made. But Harris and Marcia Gay Harden certainly deserve their nominations. B Shadow Of The Vampire Oscar nominee Willem Dafoe in Shadow of the Vampire .