How happy will Hockney's exhibition make you?

Winter Timber, 2009. Oil on 15 canvases, 274 x 609.6 cm. Private Collection. © David Hockney. Photo: Jonathan Wilkinson.

As seen at www.visitbritainshop.com

Around six years ago, I sat in the art studio at Woodhouse College staring at this white medley of lines hover above a swimming pool. It was in a David Hockney book, alongside the tremendously applauded Splash series, this one being The Bigger Splash. The art tutor glorified the way Hockney captured California sun, the dry heat, the cool freshness you get from a splash in the pool. This is a blissful moment thousands flock to five star beach hotels for.

Hockney's latest exhibition is being prized the same way, except this time the western coast of America is traded for the green landscapes of Yorkshire Dales - quite fitting actually in a time when less can afford grand getaways but the north of England is an option to be drawn.

I visited on the Royal Academy's late night Friday so expectedly it was a full show; what was not expected however was the noise. So much of it. Everyone talking and laughing, giving their opinions, reminiscing about their times in a country field - smiling.

Let me tell you it is colour through and through - acid brights, autumnal hues, pastel washes. It's Yorkshire put through a dream machine, so the vivid image of how you remember a happy place – bright and perfect – but when you return to the scene you realise your mind has just hyperbolised a much loved place. Hockney is churning out a love of nature in all its glories – autumn, winter, spring, summer. So why not let art be a channel for hedonism? It works to me.

A Tsar's gift reinvented

The story goes, Peter Carl became a jeweller to the great Russian Imperial Court. He produced exquisite objects including a legendary easter egg for Romanov Tsar Nicholas II to gift to his wife, Empress Alexandra. His worldwide reputation attracted royalty, tycoons and artists, but suddenly, the Russian Revolution bought a violent end to the royal dynasty and his craftsmanship. 

Brand Peter Carl Fabergé has come a long way. This week over 200 super-sized ‘Fabergé’ eggs have been secreted across central London as part of a Big Egg Hunt for charities Elephant Family (who brought us the 260 brightly painted elephants in Summer 2010) and Action for Children.

This is one big Easter themed design fair. Notable artists, architects and household fashion names such as Diane Von Furstenberg, Zandra Rhodes, Tommy Hilfiger and illustrator Martin Handford (of Where’s Wally?) have decorated the two and a half foot fiberglass sculptures in their own thematic, iconic, or wacky way.

Here are some eggs I excitedly came across on my way to the National Portrait Gallery.  Perhaps the mystique of the Faberge Egg is removed in this public art hunt, but its charisma has been hatched once more. 


Each piece is marked with a descriptive plaque and after a six week run, the collection will be auctioned. 

"The Obsidian Egg" by Maria Grachvogel,
fashion designer

"Egg Hog" by Victoria Scott,
illustrator 

In need of a hero?

Many movies are based on exceptional stories. We revel in them because in that 129 minute (with a quick Google apparently this is the average film length for this decade) slot you're promised a moment of courage, dignity, humanity and we leave feeling empowered. "Yeah, I could so quit my day job, fight for a loan, work late hours and create something that gives empowerment to the group I'm a world apart from."

But when the Observer published 'Britain's 50 new radicals' I realised these are stuff of movies. An ex Bangladesh NGO worker who created a bank scheme for Hackney bound Tweens and taught them about finance in the midst of a colossal economic downturn (maybe Vera Farmiga could play the part); A fighter for the homeless using football and a Homeless World Cup to energise them and change their lives (Liam Neeson could work); a 15-year-old who catapulted London's urban music scene through a viral YouTube account – it's called SBTV, his name is Jamal Edwards, and yes he's already featured in a Google Chrome advert.

When an acclaimed actor has covered the challenging role or worked on a series of chick-flicks – sealing the deal in the public eye – a time will come when a Hollywood producer approaches them for this kind of all inspiring, american dream role. Notably they are set in America's deprived urban districts or racist southern states, but these are happening on home turf. Movie-like stories are taking place every day and perhaps in these tough times we could be a generation of most inspirational stories yet.

Check out more stories at the NESTA website, in partnership with the Observer.

Four films with stars as 'life changing' heroes:

Photograph credit: Film covers from IMDB.com 

BAFTA Awards 2012 goodies

At the Orange BAFTAs - The Final Word I received some exclusive merchandise and thought it would be cool to share.

Hotel Chocolat Tiddly BAFTA heads
(Someone somewhere will remember that George Clooney had one in a red carpet interview)

BAFTA Awards 2012 Programme

Selected words from Prince William's (HRH The Duke of Cambridge) letter as President of the Academy:
"Every nominee – regardless of winning – is an inspiration to those who want to improve their craft...Martin Scorsese is a man whose influence on film is unquestionable; his vision and commitment to challenging the conventions of the art form are just two reasons why his Fellowship is so thoroughly deserved."

Selected words from BAFTA chairman Tim Corrie's welcome message:

"Let us also celebrate everyone in the industry whose hard work and creativity has given us so many moments of pure, cinematic joy. Tonight, BAFTA rewards the greatest of these achievements, in order to enthuse new audiences over the art form and to galvanise the next generation of filmmaking talent."

Behind the cover

The Academy asked artist Eda Akaltun to interpret this year's five Best Film nominees and produce a collectable set of brochure covers to give to all attendees on the night. So she took her trademark collage and printmaking technique and applied it to four very differently stylised films. The cut and paste, marbled and detailed compositions are duller than usually seen from her, with grey tones and very brief glimpses of colour, but this is what gives the covers a distinctly cinematic feel (as also seen on last year's covers by Adam Simpson). Her method involved picking her favourite scene or looking at what visuals were available to her to capture each movie.

I'm not sure if each cover does their film justice; there is not much happening in The Help and The Descendants covers, and neither represent their story-lines well (despite the latter being a visual interpretation of Clooney's infamous opening lines, "My friends think that just because we live in Hawaii, we live in paradise...Do they think we're immune to life?") But I guess she too shone a greater light on the The Artist, Drive and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, quite representative of the BAFTA nominations. Here are her four other cover designs:

Thank you to BAFTA and The Times for the above mentioned merchandise.
Photograph credits: Sejal Kapadia
BAFTA brochure cover visuals from BAFTA.org

My BAFTA experience

While stars paraded into the Royal Opera House on 12 February for the 65th British Academy Film Awards, a second audience gathered in a back auditorium in their grace. Movie lovers.

They entered via the Piazza entrance of the general ticket hall and their red carpet was switched for orange. Nonetheless they too drank champagne from BAFTA branded glasses and swiftly moved into a theatre hall. Okay, so this is probably where the similarities end.

I won tickets to Orange BAFTAs - The Final Word, an incredible opportunity to share a 'checked-in' location with George Clooney and Meryl Streep. The buzz of being next door, across the hall, a sprint away is phenomenal. I was tempted to show up in a black T-shirt and jeans and sneak through as part of BAFTA production. But alas, you will soon learn, I play by the rules.

So we walked into the Linbury theatre – a wing of tiered seating and metal beams – to find a sharper version of this:

The event hosted by Alex Zane with a panel of industry experts – The Times arts correspondent Ben Hoyle, stylist Grace Woodward (known for dressing X-Factor contestants and ex-judge of Ireland and Britain's Next Top Model), and actor and comedian Humphrey Ker (a bit of television and St Trinians 2) – was a kind of live audience forum where we watched parts of the ceremony from screen and voiced our thoughts. (In all honestly I would've seen more from my sofa.)


TAKEAWAYS
Here are the hottest takeaway points from the night.

The Artist.
The overall consensus didn't play out any different from a Rotten Tomatometer.  The panel agreed it is the original underdog movie that really does blow you away because it of it's uniqueness and irresistible charm. Grace Woodward gave her fashion insight, referring to the 1920s styles we will be seeing over the next two fashion seasons and Gucci's art deco inspired Spring 2012 collection. The Artist taps into a wider cultural mood, which is why it is works so well. Kudos to Michel Hazanavicius for foreseeing the zeitgeist of our times.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
The film was widely respected for capturing 1970s grime, from George Smiley's glasses to the brown tinted wallpaper. Ben Hoyle explained that the glasses were apparently key to Oldman nailing the character, but otherwise the audience felt the film was a tad bit dull.

Drive.
The film was also a recurring hot topic. Apparently it is a product of European director Nicolas Winding Refn's love of the 80s, Miami Vice period of Hollywood. Ironically, he can't drive but because Ryan Grosling can, they would drive around the mountains playing 80s music and deciding what they should put in the next scene. From its opening sequence, it's an incredibly cool film that makes it luring. But Grace Woodward felt Carey Mulligan was a weird casting. That's it. Sorry, no real explanation why. (A bit like Kelly Osbourne commenting on fashion on e!)

The Iron Lady.
One audience member went off on one about how Margaret Thatcher was great for the country (you should have seen Alex Zane's face. Like 'is this guy serious?'), until another told him to pipe it with: "We're here for films". Goodwood agreed the film brushed over a lot of the politics and Humphrey Ker called Thatcher a panto-villain, so in that respect it was almost like taking on the wicked witch of the west and showing her good side as in Wicked. Fun.

Shailene Vs Clooney.
There was some debate on who stole the show in The Descendants. The audience felt it was good of George Clooney to take a step back for his 'two daughters', Shailene Woodley and Amara Miller to shine, whilst others felt that was not possible. Ben Hoyle could never lose sight of the fact that it was George Clooney in the film, and for him, if the film starred a less famous actor it wouldn't have had such a large bandwagon behind it. Overall, we thought Shailene came out on top.

Senna.
This is a largely respected documentary film. Even Formula 1 haters will cry.

2011: Great roles but not great movies.
2011 was definitely a year of dream roles (notably Margaret Thatcher and Marilyn Monroe), but sadly those movies didn't translate.

Adam Deacon.

The surprise Rising Star Award winner was the only real star to join us. Here are some inspirational words from him recorded on my dictaphone:
"If I'm being honest with you, a lot of Anuvahood was favours. You know even down to the music. I knew I wanted tracks by Tinie Tempah, Boy Better Know, Wiley. All these tunes, it costs money and we didn't have it. So it was a case of a lot of favours. The thing is – and I will put this out there while I'm up here – we've had to do things a little different. We didn't have the mainstream backing. So it was a case of getting people like yourselves to go out there and put it on a street level. That's the same thing we did with the BAFTA. I read some media comment about 'actors weird promotion tactics'. Whatever it was, what it comes down to is I've always done things a little different. I wasn't scared to say the BAFTAs is a huge thing so go out a spread the word. So I have to thank you guys, the fans...I'll say it all the time: there is possibilities. You can come from a council estate. You can come with no money or whatever that may be. I think if you've got talent, you're nurturing that talent and you're learning that craft. Well actually all it really is, is a case of getting seen and I think there will always be someone who will spot that, I do. Tinie Tempah, N Dubz, all these people, they put in solid ten years of work like myself to get to this place. So it is possible just with hard work."

Claudia Winklemann.
The presenter of BBC's Film 2012 is less annoying in person. I've spent an unbearable amount of time with her in the wee hours of Oscars morning, when she hosted the interval commentary segments on Sky Movies as the ceremony called for a break. By 3am, when the small awards have subsided and the main awards seem too far away, her quirky jokes and lame questions are quite close to breaking your Oscars mission. But she was actually quite charming for the brief 5 minutes we saw her. She was funny describing The Muppets movie as "basically The Artist with Kermit". Perhaps because she had a seat in the main auditorium (her husband Kris Thykier produced Madonna's W.E, Kick-Ass, Harry Brown and Stardust), we for once lusted for her spot. 

The complete show can be viewed here.

This was my view as I left the ROH. Beyond those barriers and security men lay the red carpet, and behind us a long stretch of coaches and black cars with drivers awaited all the way to Strand.

All photograph credits: Sejal Kapadia
Email image from BAFTA competitions