|
What a shambles.
For those of you who missed it, the American Film Institute offered
up an object lesson on Saturday night in how not to stage an awards
show. From the opening montage of this year's films to the perfunctory
rolling of credits in the middle of Bob Shay's acceptance speech
for Best Film winner Lord of the Rings, the whole sorry episode
was more like a poorly orchestrated high school graduation.
And then there
were the no-shows. If televised awards shows are about anything,
they are about big stars picking up prizes and making slobbery thank-you
speeches. The AFI had 19 awards to hand out but only 7 winners actually
showed up. Initially we got the standard, 'so-and-so can't be here
tonight, so the AFI accepts this award on his/her behalf' spiel,
but apparently the situation became so embarrassing that they stopped
doing even that, instead switching to a long shot of the stage,
cuing the swelling music and going directly to commercial.
The nineteen
categories were obviously chosen for maximum public appeal, but
the inclusion of gongs for television by an organization whose remit
is excusively directed towards American film only added to
the confusion. The Golden Globes have been doing it for years, of
course, but even there the effect is to dilute the impact of the
show. The AFI tried to limit this by severely curtailing the number
of awards for the small box, dishing out prizes only for producers
and actors. Editing, production design, writing, etc. are apparently
only crafts needed for film — TV simply makes itself.
Of course the
problems were more extensive than the mere absence of winners, or
the awards themeselves. Staging awards shows is almost an art in
itself, one of which the organizers of Saturday night's bash seemed
blissfully unaware. It's hardly surprising that CBS honcho Les Moonves
looked so glum, slumped at his front row table. He must have been
seeing his ratings plummet as each new element was introduced.
Or not introduced.
Which was a large part of the problem.
The "AFI
Almanack," a brief reprise in clips for each month of 2001,
punctuated the show. But there was no set-up, so the first month
went by with a mixture of deaths, anniversary dates for various
shows and movies, and clips of flicks released in January 2001,
and left you thinking, "Huh?" The poorly assembled montages
gave little real context to the months in question and failed to
ignite any excitement for the world of film in general — as
compared to (say) the riveting Chuck Workman montages that are shown
at the Academy Awards. Then there was the lengthy self-serving recap
of past AFI Lifetime Achievement Award shows, which had nothing
to do with the matter at hand. The end result was that a show that
could easily have been wrapped up inside an hour dragged on for
three.
CBS and the
AFI promoted the show as "the first major awards show of the
year," but in order for that statement to mean anything, the
awards themselves must have some relevance — which they couldn't
possibly have in their first year. Perhaps things will improve in
coming years, but if the AFI Awards are to become important to Hollywood,
the AFI must first decide what exactly it is rewarding. And perhaps
next year we will actually get to see the award. It may well be
a beautiful object, but no-one was actually handed one (even the
few winners who showed up).
In the final
analysis, early awards shows only matter if they prove themselves
to be accurate bellwethers of the Academy Awards, which is how the
idiosyncratic Golden Globes leapt to prominence. Only time will
tell if the AFI's judges will prove to be keen-eyed prognosticators,
or if these awards simply turn out to be one gong-fest too many.
Oh, yes...here's
the complete list of winners:
Movies
Best
Film: The
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Director: Robert Altman (Gosford Park)
Screenwriter: Christopher Nolan (Memento)
Male Actor: Denzel Washington (Training Day)
Female Actor: Sissy Spacek (In
The Bedroom)
Male Featured Actor: Gene Hackman (The
Royal Tenenbaums)
Female Featured Actor: Jennifer Connolly (A
Beautiful Mind)
Cinematographer: Roger Deakins (The Man Who Wasn't There)
Editor: Bill Bilcock (Moulin
Rouge)
Production Designer: Grant Major (The Lord of the Rings: The
Fellowship of the Ring)
Digital Artist: Jim Rygiel (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship
of the Ring)
Composer: Craig Armstrong (Moulin Rouge)
Television
Drama Series: The Sopranos
Comedy Series: Curb Your Enthusiasm
TV Movie or Mini-Series: Band of Brothers
Male Actor, TV Series: James Gandolfini (The Sopranos)
Female Actor, TV Series: Edie Falco (The Sopranos)
Male Actor, TV Movie or Mini-Series: Jeffrey Wright (Boycott)
Female Actor, TV Movie or Mini-Series: Judy Davis (Life with
Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows)
|
