Posts
As you can see, I did get the biggie wrong, thinking that they would hand Best Film to Brit-flick An Education with Hurt Locker taking the Oscar (plus I didn't expect Bigelow and Hurt Locker to both win awards - Cameron's face was priceless though, so that did make up for my wrong prediction).
I'm not particularly saying that the BAFTAs are predictable (no more so than usual anyway) and I still enjoy watching the academy dispensing their masks, as various movie stars (at varying levels of washed-upness) struggle to read the teleprompter. What I'm not quite so fond of is the red carpet shows that they have now on BBCThree and E!, where George Lamb (half silver-streaked weasel, half Alan Partridge) or Duncan Whatshisname (out of off of Blue) hunt down many and varied bored-looking actors and directors and hound them with questions. A particular triumph was intellectual heavyweight Lamb asking a very fed-up looking Kristin Scott Thomas (who appeared to be wearing a bear) about Nowhere Boy co-star Aaron Johnson. Now, I didn't watch E!'s coverage but I'm told that Duncan's interview with the director of Nowhere Boy, Sam Taylor-Wood, was, to quote Richard Bacon, "Brent levels of awkward", though presumably not as awkward as the fact that she is engaged to the aforementioned star, 19 year old Johnson, a mere 23 years her junior and that the couple are expecting their first child. Now, as an amateur musician, I spend some time on a particular guitar forum where anything goes and people turn up with their problems- were a 19 year old (LennonLives or somesuch other username) to arrive and post "So, my girl (23 years older than me) is pregnant" the response would no doubt be somewhere along the lines of "you can go right ahead and file this under 'shit that fucked up my life', kthanks".
One of my correct predictions was that Twilight star (and winner of the Or So I Thought... Ben Affleck Award for Best Chin-Acting in a Leading Role) Kristen Stewart (or KStew as it's often hatefully put) would snatch the Orange Rising Star Award. How did I know this? Because it's the only award voted for by the 'idiot public' and as such is the award that, more often than not, finds its way into the hands of the wrong person. Honestly you have an Academy of experts in film, don't pander to the public like this, it's embarrassing. It is very much a 'damn popularity contest' hence the fidgety teen taking the famous mask this time around. Her acceptance speech (as also correctly predicted by me) was under a minute long (thankfully) and blog followers won't be disappointed to learn that it was much the same as her acting- all chin, sighs and teen awkwardness (see here for details). To be fair to her, she did credit her success to the horde of Twilight tweens who no doubt voted in their dozens and is clearly under no pretenses about the 'value' of the award.
Mickey Rourke returned to be absolutely tremendous again, this time presenting an award instead of receiving one and having to face the notorious autocue. He squinted into the camera "do you want this bareback or with a raincoat?" He asked. No-one got it (I suspect Vanessa Redgrave understood but was too classy to laugh...). "Their performances have encompassed grace, humility, slow it down... determination..." he continued, eliciting more laughs from the audience than Jonathan Ross managed in the entire evening. It is a truth universally acknowledged that actors are incredibly poor at reading from a teleprompter... except for Peter Capaldi, who was excellent at it.
Acceptance speech of the night was (despite a touching tear-filled one from Moon director Duncan Jones (David Bowie's son ((because you can't say one without the other apparently)) which proved popular) Colin Firth. He is excellent- intelligent, witty and humble (a particularly good interview on Kermode and Mayo's film reviews a few weeks ago showcases all this) - and his speech about how Tom Ford had made him "better groomed, more fragrant and more nominated than one has ever been before" was suitably charming. A wonderful soundbite, though A Single Man has received mixed reviews (many critics somewhat prejudiced by Ford's stylistic background), all are in agreement that Firth gives a superlative performance, though he admits he was close to turning down the part. "What Tom Ford doesn't know," he explained "is that I have the email in my outbox, telling him that I couldn't possibly do it and I was about to send when a man came to repair my fridge. Well, I clearly don't know what's best for me, so I'd like to thank the fridge guy and..." Needless to say the delivery was perfect and the audience charmed and amused. A worthy winner (as I predicted) though one would not be advised to bet against Jeff Bridges at the Oscars.
Best Supporting Actor, Christoph Waltz- he of Inglourious Basterds fame, where he gave a bravura performance in 4 languages as SS Colonel Hans Landa- had also prepared a humble acceptance speech, crediting Tarantino (who he appears to worship) with reigniting his passion for acting and supporting him. Going so far as to say he was the Best Supported Actor (see what he did there? supporting him, best supporting actor, best supported... oh, never mind...).
While we're on speeches an honourable mention has to go to BAFTA fellow Vanessa Redgrave who gave a tremendous acceptance, though we had all aged terribly by the time it had finished. Still, I think she's probably earned the right to give such a speech, dropping in superfluous French maxims and Shakespeare quotes, though it did not have the entertainment factor of Terry Gilliam last year. The award gave rise to one of Peter Serafinowicz's (who was running a BAFTA twittercommentary) many funnies of the evening - "Such a shame they have to assassinate her tonight." The best one of the night being "Eddie Murphy did a fantastic job as the cast of 'Precious'.
Best Foreign Language Film went to Critic's fall over special 'A Prophet'. Regular readers can guess that I was somewhat miffed by Let the Right One In missing out. The speech from the cast was entertaining though, featuring a rather... groovy translator which resulted in a chorus of 'I'll have what she's having' on the twittercommentary. Up (as I predicted) won Best Animated Film, Avatar (unsurprisingly) won best visual effects (to be fair, that's all it's got), Carey Mulligan (as I predicted) won Best Actress and Best Short Film still didn't go to The One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island (I know it was nominated 3 years ago but it should have won then and I am yet to see a better short film since).
Poor old Jonathan Ross had an exceptionally tough gig though. It was the most spectacular 'dying on arse' moment since Elvis Presley entered the water closet for the final time. Every joke flatlined horribly, I expect writers' heads will roll after this one. James Corden happened to be presenting one of the awards and made a joking claim to present next year's ceremony. God, if you're up there and you happen to be a member of the academy, please don't let that happen. Bring back Stephen Fry, I say. He presented the ceremony with wit and panache and was revered by many of those performers picking up the awards (something which I doubt could be said for Wossy). Can we campaign for this? Fry for BAFTAs?
Winter Olympics Update
The plucky British Women's Curling team, led by 19 year old Skip Eve Muirhead (last night sporting an excellent headband) lost out cruelly to the Danes (skippered by Chloe Madeley...) and their hopes of qualification are now very much in the lap of the gods. It wasn't without controversy however, as in the 10th end one of the Danes nudged a moving stone with her foot (seemingly inocuous, you might think, but Rhona was incensed about it immediately and absolute in her condemnation). Eve attempted a gutsy quadruple take-out with her last stone to pull an unlikely victory from the jaws of defeat, however one stone remained counting for the Danes... none other than the 'nudged' stone. Cue furious reaction from the British fans. That said, apparently both skips and the ref saw the incident and carried on play. Perhaps Eve's inexperience showing there- it's not the British way to accept cheating, you need to have a massive benny at the officials until they let you win.
David 'the Iceman' Murdoch and his clan fared better however, with a convincing 8-2 smashing of the Germans, taking their tourney record to 5-3. Having only watched video highlights, I can't really give you an in depth commentary but from what I could tell canny play from the Scots overcame aggressive and error-ridden tactics from the Germans. A slight worry was the departure of Euan Byers at the opening of the 8th end, illness or injury suspected, but nothing confirmed yet. Bring on the Norwegians tonight, I say! Davey Murdoch's Barmy Army!
No comments:
Post a Comment