Oxygen
File:OxygenPoster.jpg Oxygen poster
Directed by	Richard Shepard
Produced by	Richard Shepard, Jonathan Stern, Mike Curb, Carole Curb Nemoy
Written by	Richard Shepard
Starring	Maura Tierney, Adrien Brody, Terry Kinney, Dylan Baker
Music by	Rolfe Kent
Distributed by	A-Pix Entertainment Inc.
Release date(s)	November 12, 1999
Running time	92 min.
Country	United States
Language	English

Oxygen is 1999 film, directed and written by Richard Shepard. The film follows a troubled and (unbeknownst to her husband) masochistic cop, Madeline Foster (played by Maura Tierney) as she pursues a kidnapper who calls himself Harry Houdini (Adrien Brody). The film bears a resemblance to the 1958 film Macabre.

Plot[link]

"Harry Houdini" (Adrien Brody) has kidnapped and buried alive a rich businessman's wife. He demands $1 million in cash from the woman's husband in return for the release of the location of her burial site before she runs out of oxygen. He also states that if police involvement is initiated, he will ensure she is never found alive. As expected, however, police involvement is initiated and Detective Madeline Foster (Maura Tierney) is assigned with the task of finding the buried woman as soon as possible, together with catching Houdini.

It is quickly realized though that Houdini, in fact, wanted the police to get involved so he could commit a second kidnapping - that of Foster. When Houdini is finally caught as the result of a car chase involving him and Detective Foster, he embroils her into his terrifying psychological world as she attempts to get him to reveal the location of his buried victim. When Foster's initial interrogation of Houdini proves unsuccessful, the FBI are assigned to take over the case, although they do not have any more luck. In a plot twist, it is revealed that Houdini has already committed a murder, that of his accomplice. He now has nothing to lose and the police realize the death of the buried woman would not be as significant as first thought.

However, Houdini offers them a final lifeline - if he is allowed to talk to Detective Foster, alone, he will allow his victim to be recovered alive. The police, now just puppets in Houdini's plan, give into his request and Foster is again embroiled in a psychological adventure of self-discovery with Houdini at the helm. Troubled, Foster begins to reveal her darker side to Houdini and he sees a kindred spirit in her. Just when she thinks she is getting through to him, Houdini persuades her that they are more alike than she ever imagined.

Soon after, it is revealed that Houdini was in fact a painter in the police department, and outlined the entire building in a very detailed map. Just as Foster is revealing the truth, Houdini takes her to the place where he buried the first woman. Foster escapes her hold, and releases the woman and takes Houdini's gun, then pushes him inside the coffin. His fate ends with him taunting Foster, so she shoots him rather than burying him.

The end of the movie is a short scene with Foster and her husband in a bar.

The film was shot on location in New York City.

External links[link]

• Oxygen at the Internet Movie Database

Adrien Brody
Brody at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival premiere of Detachment
Born	(1973-04-14) April 14, 1973 (age 39) Woodhaven, Queens, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1988–present

Adrien Brody (born April 14, 1973) is an American actor and film producer. He received widespread recognition and acclaim after starring in Roman Polanski's The Pianist (2002), for which he became the youngest actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor at age 29. Brody is also the only American actor to receive the French César Award.

Early life[link]

Brody was born in Woodhaven, Queens, New York, the son of Sylvia Plachy, a photojournalist, and Elliot Brody, a retired history professor and painter.^[1] Brody's father is of Polish Jewish descent; Brody's mother – who was raised Catholic – was born in Budapest, Hungary, the daughter of a Catholic Hungarian aristocrat father and a Czech Jewish mother.^[2][3][4] Brody was raised "without a strong connection to" Judaism or Catholicism.^[5] As a child, he performed magic shows at children's birthday parties as "The Amazing Adrien".^[6] He attended the I.S. 145 Joseph Pulitzer middle school and New York's Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts (famous as the inspiration for television's Fame). His parents enrolled him in acting classes to distance him from the dangerous children with whom he associated^{[citation needed]}. He attended summer camp at Long Lake Camp for the Arts in the Adirondacks in upstate New York.^[7] Brody attended the State University of New York at Stony Brook before transferring to Queens College for a semester.

Career[link]

Taking acting classes as a youth, by age thirteen, he appeared in an Off-Broadway play and a PBS television film.^[8] Brody hovered on the brink of stardom, receiving an Independent Spirit Award nomination for his role in the 1998 film Restaurant and later praise for his roles in Spike Lee's Summer of Sam and Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line. He received widespread recognition when he was cast as the lead in Roman Polanski's The Pianist (2002). To prepare for the role, Brody withdrew for months, gave up his apartment and his car, was left by his then-girlfriend,^[8] learned how to play Chopin on the piano, and lost 29 lbs (13 kg). The role won him an Academy Award for Best Actor, making him, at 29, the youngest actor ever to win the award, and to date the only winner under the age of 30. He also won a César Award for his performance.

Brody appeared on Saturday Night Live on May 10, 2003, his first TV work, but he was banned from the show after giving an improvised introduction while wearing faux dreadlocks for Jamaican reggae musical guest Sean Paul (the show's producer, Lorne Michaels, is notorious for hating unscripted performances). However, the unscripted intro remains in reruns of the episode. Other TV appearances include NBF's The Today Show and on MTV's Punk'd after being tricked by Ashton Kutcher.

Brody at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival

After The Pianist Brody appeared in four very different films. In Dummy (released in 2003 but originally shot in 2000, just prior to his work in The Pianist) he portrayed Steven Schoichet, a socially awkward aspiring ventriloquist in pursuit of a love interest (his employment counsellor). He learned ventriloquism and puppetry for the role (under the tutelage of actor/ventriloquist Alan Semok) convincingly enough to perform all of the voice stunts and puppet manipulation live on set in real time, with no subsequent post dubbing. He played Noah Percy, a mentally disabled young man, in the film The Village, by M. Night Shyamalan, shell-shocked war veteran Jack Starks in The Jacket, writer Jack Driscoll in the 2005 King Kong remake, and father-to-be Peter Whitman in The Darjeeling Limited by Wes Anderson. King Kong was both critical and box office success; it grossed $550 million worldwide and is Brody's most successful film to date in monetary terms. Additionally, Brody played a detective in Hollywoodland. He has also appeared in Diet Coke and Schweppes commercials as well as Tori Amos' music video for "A Sorta Fairytale".

On January 5, 2006, Brody confirmed speculation that he indeed was interested and very willing to play the role of The Joker in 2008's The Dark Knight. However, Christopher Nolan and Warner Bros. decided instead to cast Heath Ledger in the role.^[9] He was also in talks with Paramount to play Spock in J. J. Abrams Star Trek XI, but it ultimately went to Zachary Quinto.^[10][11] Brody starred with Mark Ruffalo as gentlemen con men in Rian Johnson's The Brothers Bloom, released in May 2009.^[12] Also in 2009 was the box office release of Splice, a science fiction film written and directed by Vincenzo Natali. Originally a Sundance film, Splice was adopted by Dark Castle Entertainment and distributed by Warner Bros. Most recently, he played the star role of Royce in Predators (a sequel to the original Predator), directed by Nimród Antal and produced by Robert Rodriguez.^[13]

In 2011, Brody starred in a Stella Artois beer ad called "Crying Jean," that premiered right after half-time of the Super Bowl XLV as part of Stella's "She Is a Thing of Beauty” campaign.

On January 16, 2012, Adrien made his runway debut as a model for Prada Men Fall/Winter 2012 show.^[14] Also in January, he was named ambassador for the Gillette Fusion ProGuide Styler which the company is scheduled to market the following month.^[15]

Personal life[link]

In 1992, Brody was seriously hurt in a motorcycle accident in which he flew over a car and crashed head-first into a crosswalk.^[16] He spent months recuperating. He has broken his nose three times doing stunts; the most recent was during the filming of Summer of Sam.^[17]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Adrien Brody

• Adrien Brody at the Internet Movie Database
• Adrien Brody at AllRovi

Awards for Adrien Brody v t e Academy Award for Best Actor (2001–present) Denzel Washington (2001) Adrien Brody (2002) Sean Penn (2003) Jamie Foxx (2004) Philip Seymour Hoffman (2005) Forest Whitaker (2006) Daniel Day-Lewis (2007) Sean Penn (2008) Jeff Bridges (2009) Colin Firth (2010) Jean Dujardin (2011) Complete list (1928–1940) (1941–1960) (1961–1980) (1981–2000) (2001–2020) v t e César Award for Best Actor 1976 Philippe Noiret · 1977 Michel Galabru · 1978 Jean Rochefort · 1979 Michel Serrault · 1980 Claude Brasseur · 1981 Gérard Depardieu · 1982 Michel Serrault · 1983 Philippe Léotard · 1984 Coluche · 1985 Alain Delon · 1986 Christophe Lambert · 1987 Daniel Auteuil · 1988 Richard Bohringer · 1989 Jean-Paul Belmondo · 1990 Philippe Noiret · 1991 Gérard Depardieu · 1992 Jacques Dutronc · 1993 Claude Rich · 1994 Pierre Arditi · 1995 Gérard Lanvin · 1996 Michel Serrault · 1997 Philippe Torreton · 1998 André Dussollier · 1999 Jacques Villeret · 2000 Daniel Auteuil · 2001 Sergi López · 2002 Michel Bouquet · 2003 Adrien Brody · 2004 Omar Sharif · 2005 Mathieu Amalric · 2006 Michel Bouquet · 2007 François Cluzet · 2008 Mathieu Amalric · 2009 Vincent Cassel · 2010 Tahar Rahim · 2011 Éric Elmosnino · 2012 Omar Sy