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A triumph for Britain and a very big night for Film4
Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent23.02.09
Britain's got talent. And the Oscars acknowledged it.
Topped by Danny Boyle and Kate Winslet, we have proved yet again we have the on-screen talent and the off-screen know-how to trump the world.
We can do it with costume dramas such as The Duchess (backed by the BBC) and in documentaries like Man On Wire, which may star a Frenchman in New York but was produced out of Kentish Town by production company Wall to Wall.
Even The Dark Knight was filmed here.
Success in Hollywood, the global home of movie-making, with a diverse slate of ambitious films is great for Britain's reputation. It is good for audiences too.
It used to be said British cinema-goers preferred American movies. But they don't when there are films like Slumdog Millionaire around which has already taken £21 million at the UK box office.
America has manifestly fallen for Slumdog too. It is heartening that Benjamin Button scarcely registered even though a gorgeous actor (Brad Pitt) becoming unattractive for their art is normally a sure-fire winner in the States.
Instead, the Academy voted for a modest-budget movie filmed partly in Hindi.
It is a credit to Danny Boyle. He is a brave and passionate director whose capacity to excite audiences was honed at the Royal Court theatre before finding form in movies from Trainspotting to 28 Days Later.
That theatre connection is important. Kate Winslet's director, Stephen Daldry, is another former Court man, proof, if further proof were needed, of how British movie success has been built on British cultural subsidy.
Which leads us to Film4. It has become harder to defend Channel 4's distinctive role in Britain's cultural life in recent years. But with a budget of just £10 million a year, its film-making arm has backed not just Slumdog but Happy-Go-Lucky, In Bruges and Hunger. On last night's showing, Film4 warrants every penny. As does the Court.
