Coen Brothers Movie Wins 4 Oscars

- By DAVID GERMAIN

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They ground up Steve Buscemi in a wood-chipper. They made baby-snatchers out of Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter. They turned mythic Greek wanderer Odysseus into a Depression-era roots-music minstrel with George Clooney's face.

Two of the most imaginatively twisted minds in modern film, Joel and Ethan Coen, completed their journey from the fringes to Hollywood's mainstream on Sunday as their crime saga "No Country for Old Men" won a leading four Academy Awards, including best picture.

In a year when the quirky, offbeat and just plain weird storytelling of the Coens triumphed at the biggest ceremony in show business, the oddball brothers found a lot to like in their fellow nominees.

"It sounds like a cliche, but all the movies that were nominated were really interesting to me personally, and that isn't always the case," Joel Coen said. "All of them to me personally I thought were fantastically good movies."

The Coens' brooding, bloody tale of violence in a desolate corner of west Texas was the American standard-bearer for an Oscar show that otherwise had an international flair.

All four acting prizes went to Europeans: Frenchwoman Marion Cotillard, the best-actress winner for "La Vie En Rose"; Spaniard Javier Bardem, who took supporting actor for "No Country"; and Brits Daniel Day-Lewis and Tilda Swinton, he claiming his second best-actor honor for "There Will Be Blood," she winning supporting actress for "Michael Clayton."

Talking to reporters backstage, Swinton still was in disbelief, saying she initially thought "I heard someone else's name and suddenly, slowly heard my own" when she was announced as the winner for her role as a ruthless attorney.

"I'm still recovering from that moment, and I have absolutely no idea what happened after that," Swinton said. "So, you know, you can tell me my dress fell off and I'd believe you, so don't be cruel."

Day-Lewis, a previous best-actor winner for "My Left Foot," was gratified that a line he utters in "There Will Be Blood" -- "I drink your milkshake," a reference to draining oil that's not yours -- has found a life in the broader vernacular.

"I think it's fantastic," Day-Lewis said. "If people absorb something that you've done -- for whatever your reasons are, it's not relevant -- but if that gets absorbed into the culture in such a way that people make something else, somebody can make something else out of it, that's delightful to me."

By winning three Oscars -- best picture as producers on the film, director and adapted screenplay -- the Coens matched a feat achieved by only an elite list of filmmakers who also received three awards for a single film, including Francis Ford Coppola ("The Godfather Part II"), James Cameron ("Titanic") and Billy Wilder ("The Apartment").