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| Mugabe and the White African | Film review This gripping documentary, shot covertly in Zimbawe, follows the travails of the farmer Mike Campbell, his wife, daughter and son-in-law who had the temerity to bring an action against President Robert Mugabe in the Southern African Development Community's international court in Namibia, claiming he had no legal right to confiscate land legitimately acquired from the Zimbabwe government. They won the action, lost the farm and nearly lost their lives enduring a Hitlerian nightmare. The most chilling encounter is that between Campbell and the relative of a government minister who turns up in one of his luxury cars to take over the farm.DocumentaryZimbabwePhilip Frenchguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Arts funding cuts proposed by Conservatives Shadow culture secretary says Tory government would introduce administrative cost limits and encourage US-style philanthropyFierce cuts for cultural quangos and plans for a "US-style culture of philanthropy" will be central to a future Tory government's arts policy, the shadow culture secretary, said today.Jeremy Hunt promised a "golden age" for the arts in his most detailed statement yet on the party's policy.He said the Conservatives would introduce a target for the main arts grants distributors, including the Film Council and the Arts Council England (ACE), to reduce administrative costs to a maximum of 5% of the money received from government – meaning stringent cutbacks."We think administrative costs are far too high," said Hunt, singling out the Heritage Lottery Fund and the ACE – which spend 13% and 11% of grant money respectively on their own administration – as culprits. The latter needed to be "leaner, though not meaner".Speaking without notes to an audience of arts leaders at the State of the Arts conference in London, Hunt said a key Tory policy would be to encourage cultural organisations to build up their endowments. In return for any organisation's commitment to doing this, the Conservatives would offer five-year (instead of the current three-year) funding agreements.In addition, he said a Tory government would work to build a US-style culture of philanthropy, by encouraging tax breaks on lifetime giving. "It would be good for society," he said, "if giving were a cultural norm."Hunt said that although the shadow chancellor, George Osborne, was committed, "I don't know what the Treasury civil servants are going to say when they get their teeth into it".The national lottery would be returned to its original good causes, he said, meaning that the arts could profit by at least £50m a year.But he could not guarantee that exchequer funding would continue at present levels. "We face cuts whoever wins the next election," he said, "but we are committed to a mixed-economy funding model for the arts and I do believe in state funding."I can promise the arts won't be singled out, because we believe in their importance to both our economy and society."Hunt said that reducing Britain's deficit was "as important to the arts as anything else, because if the economic motor for the country is broken it will affect the arts".The most important thing the arts could do was maintain the excellence of their work, "whether a new play by Lucy Prebble [the award-winning writer of Enron] or a new film by Mike Leigh".To that end, Hunt promised to get rid of audience development targets in the arts, but, he added, "If we step back and reduce targets I hope you will still continue to broaden engagement in the arts. There are too many children who do not have exposure to the arts. A new way to improve engagement is not by targets but by technology – such as the Royal Opera House's experiment in broadcasting operas to 80 digital cinemas."He said it would be "an incredible honour" to work with arts bodies if the Conservatives won the election and he was appointed culture secretary.Echoing the phraseology of Tony Blair's sole arts speech in 1997, Hunt added: "I want people to say that on my watch, the arts didn't just weather an incredible storm but laid the foundations for a new golden age."The Tory challenged the "lazy assumption that when it comes to the arts, the Conservatives are usually bad and the Labour party is usually good"."I wouldn't say that everything that happened under the last Conservative government was good," but he defended his party's record on developing the lottery.He also gave what he called "a paean of praise" to Labour's Chris Smith, saying that the free national museum entry secured under the then culture secretary "is here to stay under a Conservative government".Hunt, however, attacked Labour "raids" on arts lottery funds, and claimed that "if you combine funding from the lottery and the exchequer, it is less now than it was in 1997". He also lambasted the fast turnover of culture secretaries under Labour – four since 2007.The State of the Arts Conference is organised by the Royal Society of Arts and the ACE.Arts fundingArts policyNational LotteryConservativesCharlotte Higginsguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Avatar triumphant at Golden Globes on a disappointing night for the Brits • James Cameron's epic takes best director and best drama• The Hangover named best comedy• Meryl Streep's acting win makes historyIt's already swept all before it at the box office, but last night James Cameron's 3D tale of life on another planet established its popularity with the critics, too, winning the Golden Globe awards for best drama and best director at the 67th annual ceremony, voted for by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.Cameron expressed surprise when picking up his best director award. "Frankly, I thought Kathryn was gonna get this," he said, referring to his ex-wife, Kathryn Bigelow, hotly tipped for her work behind the camera on Iraq bomb-disposal drama The Hurt Locker. "But make no mistake," he continued, "I'm very grateful."Avatar's best drama win was at the expense of fellow nominees Inglourious Basterds, Precious, Up in the Air and The Hurt Locker – all of whom lost out in other categories to James Cameron's epic. Though The Hurt Locker has to some extent dominated the awards season so far, it went home empty handed from the ceremony, broadcast live on US television from the Beverly Hilton.Gallery: Golden Globes 2010 - the winnersBlog: Avatar's win tarnishes the GlobesGolden Globes 2010: full list of winnersUp in the Air, too, had been expected to perform better; it led the pack when nominations were announced with six nods, including for best actor for George Clooney. But in the end it won just one honour: best screenplay for Sheldon Turner and director Jason Reitman, for their work transferring Walter Kirn's novel to the big screen. Precious and Inglourious Basterds also ended the evening with one award apiece. Crowned supporting actress for her work as a violent mother in Precious, Mo'Nique made an emotional speech in which she dedicated her win to victims of abuse. "I celebrate this award with every person that's ever been touched. It's now time to tell, and it's OK," she said.Christoph Waltz's best supporting actor win for his role as a sadistic Nazi in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds was one of the evening's more predictable victories, despite Waltz having been a virtual unknown until May last year, when the film premiered at Cannes. "Quentin made a big bang of a movie, and I wouldn't have dared to dream that my little world, my globe, would be part of that constellation. And now you've made it golden," he told the crowd.The evening's biggest shock was summer hit The Hangover's anointment as best musical/comedy, beating out 500 Days of Summer, It's Complicated, Julie & Julia and Nine. The film, which features three men trying to piece back together a drunken night in Las Vegas, has been criticised by many for misogynistic undertones. Blog: How much will Avatar's win be worth?Blog: Gervais splits the criticsGallery: Golden Globe arrivalsMeryl Streep and Sandra Bullock, both nominated for two acting awards, each went home with a trophy, though not necessarily in the fashion expected. Bullock won the prize for best dramatic actress for The Blind Side (her work on The Proposal had picked her up a nomination for best comedy actress), while Streep made history with her seventh career Globe win, winning best actress in a musical or comedy for Julie & Julia (she was also nominated in the same category for It's Complicated).Another popular winner was Jeff Bridges, treated to a standing ovation as he picked up his award for best actor in a drama for his turn as a washed-up country musician in Crazy Heart. "You're really screwing up my underappreciated status here," he said as he picked up his gong. The film also took original song honors for T Bone Burnett and Ryan Bingham's The Weary Kind.Robert Downey Jr made no secret of his surprise to be named best comedy actor for his oft-topless reinterpretation of Sherlock Holmes in Guy Ritchie's film of the same name. "First of all, I'd like to thank [his wife and the film's producer] Susan Downey for telling me that Matt Damon is going win."These victories, however, represented a blow to British hopes, as Emily Blunt, Carey Mulligan, Helen Mirren and the much-fancied Colin Firth went home empty-handed.Best foreign language film honours went to Michael Haneke's parable of fascism The White Ribbon, winner of last year's Palme d'Or at Cannes. The special Cecil B DeMille award was presented to Martin Scorsese by Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio. "If the times were different, I'd be surprised if Cecil B DeMille wouldn't have been honored with a Martin Scorsese award," De Niro said, introducing a montage of clips of Scorsese's work that included the upcoming Shutter Island.The Golden Globes are traditionally rather a patchy forecaster of Oscar success, although last year's big winner, Slumdog Millionaire, bucked the trend to also win big on Oscars night. The Academy Awards take place this year on 7 March; voting for Academy members closes later this week.In the TV awards Dexter star Michael C Hall picked up the best actor in a drama prize; while John Lithgow won the best supporting actor award for the same show. However, Dexter lost out to Mad Men for the best drama series award. The comedy or musical prize was won by Glee, which had been nominated for more awards than any other show.Golden GlobesJames CameronFilm industryKathryn BigelowTelevisionMartin ScorseseRicky GervaisMichael HanekeRobert De NiroLeonardo DiCaprioRobert Downey JrGuy RitchieGeorge ClooneyCannes film festivalMeryl StreepSandra BullockHelen MirrenColin FirthMatt DamonGleeMad MenJeff BridgesCatherine Shoardguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
As Yasujiro Ozu reaches Late Autumn he's become master of slow cinema Most film-makers expand their technique as they get older but Yasujiro Ozu stripped his awayLast week we lost Eric Rohmer, the chattiest and least stylistically demonstrative (allegedly) of the French new wavers, and a conversation ensued all week about whether or not watching his films really was, as Gene Hackman's character Harry Moseby said in Night Moves, "kinda like watching paint dry".We could have much the same conversation about Yasujiro Ozu, I suppose, if we wanted to stay stupid for another whole week, but let's not. Let's leave behind a vocabulary in which words like slow, contemplative, austere and mild are used pejoratively, and welcome the chance to enter Ozu's radiantly calm universe. It's a quiet back room in the House Of Cinema, where life unfolds at a measured pace, parcelled out in simple, static shots of talkative families at mealtimes and other social rituals, where the same stories are told over and over again (he remade several of his early silent classics with sound and in colour). Major events – deaths, marriages – are often pushed offscreen or elided completely in Ozu's films, where crumbs of drama and emotional upset feel like banquets once they are served. When Setsuko Hara – his signature siren – utters the words "Isn't life disappointing?" towards the end of Tokyo Story, the impact is dizzying.Ozu seems to be in the air right now. This week's Late Autumn (a reworking of Late Spring, which he made a decade earlier) is the second Ozu rerelease of the month, after Tokyo Story, both part of the BFI's retrospective. Meanwhile, Hirokazu Kore-eda's current release, Still Walking, is one of few films to successfully emulate the master. Ozu is even clumsily namechecked in the new Michael Cera comedy, Youth In Revolt, itself the antithesis of an Ozu movie.Ozu's career ran in reverse, somehow. Other film-makers start simple then arm themselves with all the techniques and stylistic influences they can acquire. In the 20th century, film-makers encountered sound, colour, location filming and widescreen camerawork and widened out their movies accordingly. Ozu instead pared back, resisting sound until 1935, eight years into his career, and deploring CinemaScope when it arrived in 1953. Early on, his camera moved more, and dissolves, screen-wipes and other transitional gimmicks were more prevalent. But experience made him foreswear everything that was not Ozu. Every outside influence was jettisoned in search of a purity of expression that, in the end, left no obstacle, nothing, between the viewer and the characters, their words and their faces. Nothingness was big with Ozu: nothing, or little, of his own drunken bachelor life surfaces in his movies. But his world feels that much fuller thanks to the clarity with which he depicts it. We just have to learn how to watch him.Yasujiro OzuEric RohmerJohn Pattersonguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Travolta flies jetload of relief supplies to Haiti PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- John Travolta has flown a jetliner carrying relief supplies into the Haitian capital, along with doctors and ministers from the Church of Scientology.... hosted.ap.org |