The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz
The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz |
| Screen queen, golf kings get royal honours Posted: 30 Dec 2011 07:35 PM PST  Actress Helena Bonham Carter poses as she arrives at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Los Angeles Britannia Awards in Beverly Hills, California November 30, 2011. — Reuters pic The actress is among close to 1,000 people from all walks of life whose achievements are recognized in the annual New Year's Honours List. Northern Irish golfers Rory McIlroy and Darren Clarke, who won the US and British opens this year, are also on the list, capping an outstanding year for UK golf. Most of the people honoured with knighthoods or a variety of slightly lesser traditional titles such as Commander, Officer or Member of the Order of the British Empire (CBE, OBE and MBE), are unknown to the public. Among them is former teenage drug dealer and gang member Chris Preddie, now 24, who renounced crime after his brother was shot dead and now campaigns against knife and gun crime among black youths in London. Preddie is related to two brothers who murdered a 10-year-old boy in 2000, a crime that shocked Britain. The victim's father told British media he objected to Preddie being honoured with an OBE. TV producer Peter Bazalgette, credited with popularising the "Big Brother" reality show format across the globe, will receive a knighthood — becoming Sir Peter — which may please legions of Big Brother fans but dismay critics who say the show is vulgar. PALACE POMP Novelist Penelope Lively, a past winner of the prestigious Booker Prize for her 1987 novel Moon Tiger, is also on the list. She becomes a "Dame", the female equivalent of a knighthood. A rung down from a Dame with her CBE award, Bonham Carter received one of her two Oscar nominations for portraying Queen Elizabeth's mother in Oscar-winning film The King's Speech. She will experience true royal pomp when she receives her award at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace next year, but she is no stranger to nobility, coming from an aristocratic family. Her great-grandfather, the Earl of Oxford and Asquith, served as prime minister under Elizabeth's grandfather, King George V. Also honoured at a high point in a long career is golfer Clarke, who won the last British Open at the age of 42, on his 20th attempt. He will receive an OBE, one step down from CBE. It was a particularly emotional win for Clarke, who has gone through hard times since losing his wife to cancer in 2006. He was the oldest winner of the Open since 1967 and the first home champion in 12 years. McIlroy will have an MBE to show for his efforts during a rollercoaster year that saw him throw away victory at the US Masters in April only to bounce back by clinching his first major at the US Open in June. At 22, McIlroy was the youngest winner of the championship since 1923. Queen Elizabeth, whose sporting interests lie more in the world of horse-racing than of golf, does not draw up the Honours' List herself. Government officials seek out worthy recipients, who can also be nominated by members of the public. — Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
| ‘A Separation’ builds Iranian Oscar hopes Posted: 30 Dec 2011 03:50 PM PST  Iranian director Asghar Farhadi of the film 'Jodaeiye Nadar Az Simin' ('Nadar and Simin, A Separation') poses with the Golden Bear award for Best Film, during a news conference after the awards ceremony at the 61st Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin February February 19, 2011. — Reuters pic Released in the United States on Friday after a year of award wins, Iranian director Asghar Farhadi's morally complex look at two contemporary Tehran families could earn Iran's first foreign language Oscar nomination since 1998. "A Separation" began 2011 as the first Iranian movie ever to win the prestigious Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in February. It went on to win best foreign language film awards from the US National Board of Review and New York Film Critics Circle, and a Golden Globe nomination. Farhadi told Reuters that recognition in the West had been gratifying and that he hoped the Oscar buzz will inspire filmmakers in other parts of the world. "Under difficult conditions you can make films," he said. "If filmmakers from my country can make it to the Oscars, this can be an important message for other filmmakers." If "A Separation" makes it to the foreign language Oscar short-list of five on January 26, it will be the first Iranian film to be nominated since "Children of Heaven" in 1998. The film scored a rare 100 per cent positive score on US aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes this week, putting it among the best movies — in any language — of 2011. Just three months ago, Hollywood organizations representing writers, directors, actors and the group that awards the Oscars, issued a sharply-worded statement lending their support to jailed Iranian filmmakers. Those included the house arrest of director Jafar Panahi and the imprisonment of actress Marzieh Vafamehr. Farhadi has managed to mostly avoid clashing with Iran's conservative censors with his specialty of character-driven dramas — the type of movies that put family politics over state politics. "On the one hand, when you've been born and raised there, you know inside yourself, without having to consciously think, you can go after this subject, can't go after the other," Farhadi told Reuters. ESCAPING CENSORSHIP GAZE He said filmmakers in Iran address prohibited subjects the way they always have — in the form of subtext. Despite his protests to the contrary, some critics say that is exactly what Farhadi does with "A Separation", a domestic drama about a couple, Nader (Peyman Maadi) and Simin (Leila Hatami), going through a divorce. Living with his father, an Alzheimer's patient, Nader hires Razieh (Sareh Bayat) to look after the old man. In an altercation, Nader accuses Razieh of neglect and physically expels her from his home. She later suffers a miscarriage and, before a court, holds Nader responsible. Many critics see the movie as a comment on class differences. Some see it as a critique of Iran's byzantine justice system. And others see it as a clash between modernity and tradition. Farhadi prides himself on presenting audiences with questions instead of answers. In doing so, he said, "A Separation" offers few targets for censors to aim at. "I don't think that this form of character development actually has an effect on the gaze of the censorship," Farhadi said. But by gaining recognition on an international level, circumstances could easily change. Last year, while accepting an award for his previous film "About Elly", Farhadi expressed empathy for fellow filmmaker Panahi. That led to a two-week halt in production on "A Separation". The reproach failed to chasten Farhadi. A few months later in Berlin he openly wished exiled actress, Golshifteh Farahani ("About Elly") could return to her homeland. "I feel it's my duty to speak out," he said. "We're all part of a community." Farhadi could be more vociferous on behalf of his colleagues but that would require self-exile. It's an option he has little interest in pursuing. "For Iranian filmmakers, the conditions that exist notwithstanding, it's better to make their films in Iran," he said. "Because we know that culture, it's best to, as long as possible, work there." While Farhadi believes the limitations he has grown used to can inspire greater creativity, eventually they have the opposite effect. Nevertheless, he criticises fellow Iranians who emphasise state censorship in order to promote their movies abroad, saying they are as morally culpable as the government officials who censor them. — Reuters pic Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
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