If there are two things that the 2012 BAFTA awards proved it is that Harvey Weinstein and Stephen Fry have what it takes. The mass of wins by “The Artist” at BAFTA proved that even British film award voters are as subject to the marketing ploys of Harvey Weinstein. How else to explain how a film that is the very epitome of the kind of copyright infringement and pirating of intellectual property that Hollywood is spending so many billions to fight can win the top prize at BAFTA?
“The Artist” contains not one single frame of originality or innovative cinematic artistry so, quite clearly, the long arm of Harvey Weinstein’s marketing influence reached across the Atlantic Ocean to work its magic. “The Artist” as the Best Film of the year? Maybe in 1925…maybe…but in 2012? Hardly.
So the collecting of the motherlode of awards by “The Artist” at the British Academy Awards is quite surely less a signal that British voters possess insight into original and innovative filmmaking than that they are just as subject to the intrusive marketing campaign tactics of the Weinsteins as those in Hollywood. In other words: the 2012 BAFTA awards will soon be forgotten and put down to history as yet another example of how advertising trumps quality.
So let’s get to Mr. Stephen Fry, shall we? In a nutshell: if the Oscars were to hire someone to host their telecast with half the wit of Stephen Fry, he would have twice the wit of Billy Crystal and ten times the energy of James Franco. If there is one sign that the BAFTA producers are ahead of the curve while the Oscar producers are still living in the 1990s, it is the choice first of Eddie Murphy and then Billy Crystal to host the Academy Awards. Put Murphy and Crystal together for four hours and they still won’t produce a third of the laughs that Stephen Fry would give.
The unfortunate reality here is that those involved with the Academy Awards will watch the 2012 BAFTA awards and learn only that “The Artist” is worthy of their top prize. The great lesson that will go unrealized is that Stephen Fry or Steve Coogan or the guys from the League of Gentlemen have what it takes to inject a bit of liveliness and relevance to the once great but now dying Oscar telecast.
Meanwhile, Oscar votes, here’s another lesson to take away: “The Artist” is not worthy of your Best Picture.
For more from Timothy Sexton, check out:
Why it would be a Cinematic Tragedy for “The Artist” to Win Best Picture
Four Oscar Categories “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” Should Have Been Nominated In
Just How Much Edgier are the BAFTAs than the Oscars?