Departed
So, the tremendous Ian Richardson died, aged 72, on Friday. The live Bafta coverage that went out for most of this evening on BBC1 included its traditional montage of those in the industry who have passed away (or gone to the realm of their ancestors, as Forest Whitaker so poetically had it about his recently departed grandmother), but no sign of Ian Richardson. They can whip up a montage of the evening's best frocks while the awards are going out, but they couldn't add some footage of Richardson, or at least a still with a caption, in two days? It was left to Helen Mirren to tearfully pay tribute, but this was a pretty shabby own goal by the programme-makers. Even if he'd died this afternoon, they could have quickly edited him in. It must have been a simple, but unforgiveable, oversight.
Otherwise, not a bad show. Most of the right awards went to the right people, except for Alan Arkin, who just didn't deserve best supporting actor, and Eva Green for rising star, who is not in the same class as Cillian Murphy, for instance. I was lucky enough to meet and interview the editor Anne Coates, recipient of the Fellowship tonight - she came into Back Row and actually talked us through the editing of certain bits of Lawrence Of Arabia, including the bit where the setting desert sun dissolves into the lit match. What a nice woman.
And nothing for The Departed, which is totally fair. It'll make up for it at the Oscars.
posted by Andrew Collins @ 11:43 PM
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8 Comments:
Andrew,
before anyone gets on your case it's...
(whispers) the other way around - a lit match cutting to the rising sun.
The clever thing for me to do would be to go back in and correct my mistake, but instead I will leave it in the spirit of truth. (The truth being, I got it the wrong way round.) Thank you, Good Dog.
Anne Coates? Wasn't that the pseudonym Morrissey used for the backing vocals on "Bigmouth Strikes Again"?
You're right about Alan Arkin, though I'm kind of glad it meant that "Little Miss Sunshine" got something.
Have a good day.
Px
'Good Dog' is an excellent pseudonym. Better than mine.
Doh!
You weren't meant to post that. Anyway...
Regarding the Ian Richardson omission, the chap I work with once had to put together an obit reel. And it's no small feat timing the images to the music, especially when there is timed rostrum work.
That said, they could have easily included him in place of the Gosford Park clip. Especially since a better clip from the film - which summed up Altman's attitude to the Hollywood system throughout his career - is Stephen Fry's inspector saying "Well, this is why we have rules and regulations isn't it?" when the copper moves the body. (Or not).
What was with the interviewer "doorstepping" Helen Mirren as soon as she came off stage? Asking her how she felt was a pretty daft question given she had just paid tribute to Mr Richardson and sounded like she was about to lose it.
Before tuning in to BBC last night to watch the ceremony, I called up the BBC website to remind myself of the various nominees. Because it was nine o'clock and the award ceremony was over, some helpful soul had already posted the winners of each category. Ace! Yeah, thanks for that.
As for Eva Green, I hope the hair style was because she's playing the witch Serafina Pekkala in The Golden Compass. Otherwise... yikes!
Anne Coates' speech was brilliant. What a marvellous career. What a class act.
Seeing Lawrence of Arabia reminded me of buying the video years back (now replaced on shiny disc obviously). Goodness knows what had happened at the plant running off the tapes but the whole attack on Akaba sequence was missing - obviously one reel - and it cut from the men travelling through the desert to Lawrence on his camel at the sea.
When I took the tape back, the chap at HMV asked if I wanted to replace it with another copy. Only if it had the attack on Akaba. He stared blankly. I picked something else. Bizarre.
One last comment about the BAFTAs...
Obviously you've got to have balls of steel to stand on stage and host the awards. I'd probably wet myself and then run away. That said, within a couple of minutes of the start, I was muttering "Pay Stephen Fry whatever he wants." The silence after virtually every punchline was deafening.
Jonathan Ross does a great job of the Comedy Awards, but he seemed out of sorts doing the Baftas. With a global audience, and many Americans and other visitors in the audience, it was mad to make jokes about himself (the Spiceworld quip, for instance), and I felt quite sorry for him when the tumbleweeds rolled past. David Puttnam's insistence on a round of applause for Ross's good work was a case of protesting too much. That was a sweet gesture, but it was for Jonathan's benefit. The Oscars is a much better bet, as they generally use seasoned comedians (this year, Ellen Degeneres), who are not fazed by a big auditorium, or the majesty and importance of the event.
I feel that the obvious Ross comparison must be with David Letterman's terrible handling of the Oscars all those years ago ("Uma! Oprah!" etc. etc.). Both are adept at hosting a chat show but were waaaaay out of depth at a major awards show. Honestly, even the brilliant Jon Stewart struggled last year so maybe it's a specific chat show issue? I guess we'll know for sure when Ellen gives it a go in a couple of weeks (her chat show airs on NBC and was bought by one of those Channel 5 offshoots).
Agreed, Andrew, and the comment about the awards being held 'in the centre of London's mugging district' won't do a lot for British tourism. Ross really must
use gag-writers more experienced with the American market.
I thought Ricky Gervais' presentation of the animated movie award was completely crass. The usual 'I'm a genius and you're not' preamble, and continued wittering, really took the spotlight away from where it should have been, the director of Happy Feet, who probably wasn't too happy to have been Mr G's stooge.
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