Danny Boyle and other Court alumni at the BAFTAs
Danny Boyle’s new film Slumdog Millionaire swept the board at the BAFTAs last night, claiming seven awards. Boyle remembered his roots, quoting playwright Howard Barker — whose Victory he directed at the Royal Court — to the effect that, whatever happens in life, there’s only where you come from to back to.
He also name-checked Max Stafford-Clark for giving him his break as a director in Sloane Square, much to the approval no doubt of Court alumni Stephen Daldry and David Hare in The Reader party which took home best actress gong for Kate Winslet.
Martin McDonagh won best original screenplay for his brilliant In Bruges (almost my favourite film of last year alongside Lars and the Real Girl) while Hare was overlooked in the screen adaptation category for The Reader. Even Sir David must have seen the funny side of his clip in that short-list being one in which no single word was spoken.
At least I hope he did. I admire almost beyond measure the work, intelligence and ferocity of David Hare — Gethsemane was easily the best play of last year — but he can’t ‘alf sound like a prat sometimes.
In a Q and A in the Evening Standard magazine last Friday, in answer to why did he live in Hampstead, he replied “because it’s delicious watching American bankers go broke.”
Ha-ha. So that would include the American bankers in Hampstead — I know some of them — who fund his plays, all fourteen of them so far, at the National Theatre, would it?
And in answer to what was the last album he bought, he says: “Friends bought me Carla Bruni’s album. Unspeakable.” Apart from not answering the question, he goes out of his way to stick the boot into poor harmless Carla whose songs may not exactly be in the same class as Georges Brassens and Serge Gainsborough, but which are at least melodic, well crafted and felt.
Surely Hare cannot be piqued because he is only married to the second most famous contemporary French woman, Nicole Farhi?
What would he think, I wonder, if he opened a newspaper to find Carla describing her most recent outing to the London theatre: “Une piece par David Hare. Degoutante!”
Meanwhile, back at the BAFTAs, Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart put in a shameless plug for their upcoming revival of Waiting for Godot and Jonathan Pryce made an elegant speech in praise of Terry Gilliam, this year’s academy fellowship nominee.
So it was a very good night for the theatre. Except, of course, in the crass and painfully ignorant remarks of Jonathan Ross, who said the one good thing about the awards being held in the Royal Opera House was that they kept opera off the stage a bit longer.
Why such a cretin is allowed on the BBC at all is one of life’s great mysteries. His offensive remarks about Andrew Sachs’s niece with the equally revolting Russell Brand was the least of his recent crimes. His whole demeanour is a crime against good taste, seriousness and the sum of human knowledge. And he’s not even funny. Stephen Fry was bad enough, but at least he’s not too pleased with himself.
February 9th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
Entertaining piece as always, however it’s scarcely an exaggeration to say that the only three people in the world who think who think Gethsamane is a good play are you, Billington and Hare.
February 17th, 2009 at 6:42 pm
Only just seen Gethsemane; now you’ve seen far more plays in 2008 than I have - of that I am certain - so it’s amazing to hear it’s your choice for Best Play. I found it very enjoyable but also obvious, glib and trite. You once wrote about a production of Antony and Cleo in The Other Place at Stratford with Gambon and Mirren as ‘RSC extravagance’ because so few people could see it. I felt the same about Hare in the Cottesloe - the production budget must have been huge with all the projections and in one scene a staircase let down which is never used except for Fallon to tie his shoelaces. Purleeze! Only at the RNT.