Of cabbages and kings through a glass darkly

BAFTA awards (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) or the Orange British Academy Film Awards were on Sunday night. The Royal Opera House no less, trying to show some cred to that Oscar ceremony. Quite a few strained celeb faces in the audience, though, but that may have just been professional scrutiny, the cold weather, or transport problems of a different kind; public transport being something most would like to forget I think. And to be fair at least most of them have experienced what that is like when they were starting out unlike the people I meet at some parties! This is what makes The Queen quite interesting: its exploration of British aloofness, egalitarianism and guilt. Now, I can actually claim (is that a tautology? anyway...) to have worked as an actor for The Queen director Stephen Frears. And I was reminded of the Managing Director's example I quoted in my last blog about Anglo-American enthusiasm and oomph. To quote myself:
I found a kindred spirit in one UK Managing Director yesterday who said if you have two rooms with couple of identical basic DIY resources and put the Americans in one and the Brits in the other, the former will make something regardless, and the latter will keep discussing the problems that may arise.
Watching Frear's acceptance speech for Best Film, or rather shambolic non-speech, I can imagine Frears slipping unnoticed out the DIY prison door he discovered unlocked and returning 10 minutes later with some biscuits, extra odds and ends and a map not dissimilar to that in Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits. Meanwhile, the Americans would be diligently toiling away. Now on the surface, The Queen seems like the archetypal very well made BBC film (and Frears did cut his teeth at the Beeb), of course with a captivating performance by Helen Mirren. While Frears is unlikely to ever go down Gilliam's worm holes, he does; however, seem to be up to something in the undergrowth. As if he understands what it is, if not exactly to hide, then to want to be left alone - a quality often mistaken for aloofness.

I paid a visit to that island of blooming bouquets, trinkets and cards left for the deceased Princess Diana. The silent eeriness was an island of the dead. Diana had become a Christ-like figure or Yus Assaf for many. Each bouquet a cross and offering forming a collective outpouring of silent confession. As Australian poet Les Murray once wrote in his poem Noonday Axeman "Men must have legends else they will die of strangeness". Opportunistic pragmatism ruled the week for Prime Minister Blair at Westminster, unerring Royal protocol from the other side, and fascinating e.g. the Royal Standard above Buckingham Palace only flies to denote the Queen being in residence and nothing more. Yet the moment in the Scottish highlands when alone the Queen admires the stag destined to be her husband's prize kill, becomes a beautiful and unsentimental metaphor for the problematic pragmatism, protocol and compassion of much more than just the Diana affair. To many the answer to such problems will always be an easy one. Frears and scriptwriter Peter Morgan convince you that strangeness is much more the powerful and much more the painful than legend.

Andrea Arnold certainly knows that and received the special Carl Foreman newcomer award for writing/directing Red Road even though it was a little dispiriting upon her championing Glasgow to get only a lone cheer from the amphitheatre. Brit films such as London to Brighton and This is England are by absolutely no means bad, it's just that a film like Red Road where voyeurism and silent confessional collide is so different to anything else by never posing any easy answers.

With one of The Last King of Scotland's producers Andrea Calderwood accepting the film's Outstanding British Film of the Year, I was reminded of a panel discussion she was on last year with Kevin Loader and others. It was titled 'You think you want to be a Producer' or something to that effect, and very un-American-like. I know we're famous Brit producers, they were saying, but often we can barely afford to buy a round in the pub! With Kevin loader (Venus, The History Boys) adding, “you die of encouragement in America”. Let's hope they see some of the film's profits from distributor Fox Searchlight (20th Century Fox's more 'indie'arm)before they become octogenarians in the local pub of Venus. Fox Searchlight is also behind Little Miss Sunshine winner of Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor for Alan Arkin (Little Abigail Breslin's risqué choreographer). Searchlight also backed The History Boys, and Notes on a Scandal. An amazing Judi Dench who creates a horrible character you can empathise with, but the Philip Glass music makes it all a bit OTT, though. You certainly can't accuse Fox Searchlight of pandering to the masses.