BAFTAs: Ten Things I Love About You

Tim Bradbeer discusses the ten things we all  learnt at the 2013 BAFTA awards

Image Credit: Metro

1. Olivia Colman is the new Queen of TV. End of. She managed to leap from relative obscurity with her tour de force performance in Broadchurch and thoroughly deserved her double win. Both speeches were heartfelt, emotional and endearing. You could almost hear a sigh as the entire nation mutually fell in love with her.

2. Claire Balding confirmed her status as a national treasure, accepting a special award for her work for the 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics. Her speech was the best of the night, dedicating it to the entire team and ending with a just held together sob and a beautiful, “we won a Bafta…”

3. Michael Palin officially IS the nicest guy in Britain… who knew?

4. Made in Chelsea is now BAFTA worthy. As Graham Norton pointed out, “they were insufferable before, but what’ll they be like now!”

5. The BBC is amazing, but apparently the Olympics weren’t so well thought of. Whilst Game of Thrones and the Paralympics were deserved winners, I do find it a little odd that the BBC’s coverage of last summer’s sports-fest failed to win anything. The gold medals may have outshone the coverage itself but it was no small achievement what the BBC achieved.

6. Old people can have fun too. In her speech for Last Tango in Halifax‘s Best Drama win, Anne Reid made a brilliant swipe at the BBC for previous occasions of ageism, but praised them for Tango’s octogenarian love story.

Image Credit: BBC

7. It was very refreshing to see a large gay presence at the winner’s podium at a time of debate about gay marriage and homophobia. TV greats including Claire Balding, Graham Norton, and even Sean Bean’s nomination for his performance as a transsexual played a big part of the evening. As Caitlin Moran tweeted after, “BAFTAS were wonderfully gay weren’t they?”

8. Ben Whishaw may be a fabulous actor, but boy is he a bad public speaker. Who would’ve guessed that Richard II himself would squeal, flap his hands and generally sound like Gok Wan on acid when accepting an award? Stick to acting, Ben.

9. Sheridan Smith came a close second to Olivia for most adorable winner of the night. Swearing when accepting an award is always great, and her announcement to the audience of celebrities and TV bigwigs that “you shouldn’t cry, you’ll look like a knob” was hilarious, and, wonderfully, would never happen in similar ceremonies across the pond.

10. Last but not least, the funniest moment of the night goes to Romola Garai, who when presenting the award for best comedy, gave a brief but detailed description of her post-natal surgery, including the gasp-inducing “after the birth of my son, I had the misfortune of having 23 stitches in my vagina”. Take that Daily Mail, and goodnight.

Tim Bradbeer

What were your personal highlights of The BAFTAs? Tell us on Facebook, Twitter or by commenting below.

 

Awards Season Review: Argo

If Argo wins Best Film on Sunday night at the Oscars it will be the first film since 1989 to win the award but not to be recognised for Best Director, reflecting further the strangeness of this year for the Academy, with it being one of the most open races for Best Film in decades.

Image Credit: BBC

Upon accepting the Bafta award for Best Director Ben Affleck (The Town) described Argo as his ‘Second Act’; his third stint behind the camera is proving to be a hugely successful one, with Argo favourite to win Best Film at the Oscars in a few days.

 

Affleck both directs and stars as the main character, the daring CIA agent Tony Mendez. The film follows the imaginative agent as he constructs the bogus sci-fi film ‘Argo’, to be filmed on location in Iran in order to extract six American diplomats hiding in the Canadian embassy in revolutionary Tehran. Adapted from a true story, Chris Terrio’s head spinning script entertainingly mixes the glam of Hollywood with the unstable Middle East, and showbusiness with government bureaucracy.

 

Billed as a comedy, the film’s selling point is CIA agent Jack O’Donnell (Bryan Cranston) sarcastically describing it as “the best bad idea” they had. However, the gripping suspense and paranoia is also its founding appeal. As the film flits between three settings of crowded and volatile Tehran, the claustrophobic offices of the CIA and sunny L.A, you are left biting your nails as Mendez and the six diplomats attempt to literally scramble out of Iran. Performances by the always captivating Alan Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine) and Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad), who is really growing into serious roles, added real class to the cast of the film.

 

Through Affleck’s directing, Argo refreshingly combines a big issue with beautiful cinematography. Each location has its own cinematic feel in order to assist the audience through the fast narrative. For example, all the footage in Tehran is on handheld cameras, reminiscent of news footage or a documentary.

 

Where Argo falters however, is the failure to create any great measure of audience empathy for the diplomats in Tehran. Despite being hooked into the suspense of the six diplomats hiding in the embassy, there is no real feel of personal attachment to them, despite the inclusion of the home footage monologues for each character. The spectacle and the entertainment of the film aren’t in any doubt but there isn’t real substance to the horrific situation of the six individuals, nor that of Iran itself.

 

At the core, although it brings the shocking realities of Iran to the attention of Hollywood (both in the film and today) it fails to get its hands dirty. You feel there could be more done with this goldmine of a story by getting under the skin of the audience about an event that still scars the country. The film is also strictly from an American perspective, the Iranian people are portrayed as merely religious and violent, whilst the role of the CIA is glorified and the impact of the Canadian Embassy is downplayed.

 

Film critic Peter Bradshaw perfectly described it as ‘semi quirk’. It is as if Affleck grapples with what kind of film he wants Argo to be, which is endearing, but ultimately harming. This is reflected through the last ten minutes, where Affleck’s work of laying down the foundations of a ‘quirky’ film is lost through a Spielberg-esque cheesy hugs and tears montage of celebrations, which is fitting for the American patriot theme of these awards. However, the film’s ending, with the US flag waving outside a picture book American house, is just a little too much American nationalism to be swallowed comfortably.

 

Argo is a safe option for the Academy, appealing, entertaining and fun, but it will show a reluctance to again reward a certain Quentin Tarintino for Django Unchained and a foreign speaking production in the French film Amour.

 

My Rating: 3 Stars.

 

Flora Cresswell

Awards Season: Les Misérables – Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables has inspired generations. Its theatrical adaptation has spent decades touring the West-End and its recent cinematic release has swept through this year’s awards season. With three Golden Globes, nine BAFTA nominations, and eight Academy Award nominations to name but a few, Freya Godfrey takes a look at the book that sparked such a torrent of creative adaptations. With so much material to work with, Freya focuses on the character of Valjean; Hugo’s moral figure, the crux of 365 chapters, and the man that inspired Hugh Jackman’s stunning performance on the silver screen…

Sharing its name with one of the longest-running plays in history and now an Oscar-nominated film, Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, in its original novel form, is often overlooked. Granted, its 365 chapters may put some people off, but for me, it is one of the greatest novels ever written.

Victor Hugo’s novel, in the briefest of summaries, follows the life of John Valjean, an ex-convict, as he struggles to create a life for himself despite his criminal background and the relentless efforts of police inspector Javert to recapture him. However, Hugo does not ‘follow’ Valjean in the conventional literary way. Instead, the novelist introduces a number of sub-narratives, only part way through which we realise that an apparently new character is in fact Jean Valjean. (Indeed, Valjean takes on five different aliases during the novel.) As well as this interweaving of narratives, Hugo entwines his story within a selection of essays. These essays take up almost one quarter of the book and have little connection with the story, instead serving to demonstrate either a moral point or Hugo’s extensive knowledge. However, I would argue that the most pertinent assessment that Hugo makes is not within his essays but through the story of John Valjean: a critique of the nineteenth century French justice system.

John Valjean was sentenced to five years in prison for stealing bread for his starving sister and her children: a menial and, dare I say it, well-meaning crime. Condemned to a further fourteen years imprisonment for repeated escape attempts, we meet Valjean recently released from prison for the first time in nineteen years. Unable to find work due to the yellow papers that identify him as a former offender, Valjean seeks refuge in the home of Bishop Myriel of Digne. Despite the kindness the bishop shows him, the influence of Valjean’s time as a convict is demonstrated in his attempt to steal the bishop’s silverware. Caught by the police and brought before the bishop, Valjean is surprised to hear the bishop telling the police that the silverware had been a gift and even admonishing Valjean for ‘forgetting’ to take his silver candlesticks. Overwhelmed by the compassion shown towards him, this scene acts as a catalyst for John Valjean who vows to live his life righteously from this point.

John Valjean may be an ex-criminal, but he is also the ultimate hero. He is courageous, loyal and strong. He saves the lives of three men, through each demonstrating his unusual strength and perseverance, and even possesses a James Bond-style weapon: a file concealed within a coin with which he escapes capture. However, police inspector Javert sees Valjean in the eyes of the law: a criminal who must be returned for prison. It is only when Valjean has the opportunity to kill Javert and chooses, instead, to set him free that the police inspector realises his internal dilemma: should he continue to pursue a man who has done nothing but good since his release from prison, or should he let him go free and ignore the justice system that is so decisively ingrained in his character?

The wandering epic that is Les Misérables introduces many unforgettable scenes, such as the tragic downfall of Fantine, the beautiful love story between Eponine and Marius and the fierce sense of nationalism expounded at the barricades of the French Revolution. Filled with passion and power, this novel certainly makes an impression on the reader and forces them to ponder their own moral position. As Hugo himself writes, ‘so long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, there should be a need for books such as this.’, a statement with which I wholeheartedly agree.

To see what the Exeposé Screen team made of Les Miserables: http://xmedia.ex.ac.uk/wp/wordpress/?p=5693
By Freya Godfrey

Ed. by Georgina Holland – Exeposé Online Books Editor