Dominic Minghella

Made In Downing Street’s Rhetoric

Dominic Minghella — Thu, 17 May 2012 09:16:59 +0000

Today, David Cameron is going to make the argument that austerity (or cuts or, as he recently tried to call it, “efficiency”) is an essential prerequisite to growth. This is because the Coalition thinks it is “winning the argument on deficit reduction, but losing the argument on growth”. (These are Nick Robinson’s words, but they sound to me like they’ve come straight out of Downing Street.) The phrasing is of course disingenuous, because it seeks to separate the responsibility for the flatlining economy from the policy – and rhetoric – on the deficit. They are bound up. They cannot be separated.

Labour will argue that no matter how hard the Coalition seeks to shirk responsibility, this recession has been Made In Downing Street, and the public knows it is true.

But is it also true that you can reduce the deficit at the same time as enjoying growth? Of course it is. They must go hand in hand. But here’s what cannot happen: you can’t expect cuts or austerity or efficiency to PRODUCE growth. You must have a strategy for growth which goes beyond “straining every sinew.” (There are debates to be had about shrinking the state in order to “allow” the private sector to flourish. They’re rubbish arguments at the best of times, and in times of recession they are positively dangerous. The results of austerity at home and in Europe are there for all to see.)

And you can’t bang on, as the Coalition has done for reasons of political expediency about the “mess” left by the last government, about how it’s the worst it’s ever been, about the need for drastic cuts across the board, without people eventually hearing you. They will hear you and they will be expecting redundancies and they will be expecting their benefits to be cut and they will be expecting their wages to fall back and they will be expecting their savings to shrink and they will be bracing themselves against the dire storm ahead. It will be a wet winter, a snowy Christmas, the wrong leaves on the line… messing up not just this quarter or that, but messing up the picture for years. Nobody in their right mind will spend, and no business its right mind will invest. You do not need to be an economist to understand this story. In fact I sometimes wonder if it helps not to be an economist.

But the politics, if not the economics, are easy to see. The Coalition’s very existence depends on its self-proclaimed formation “in the national interest”, in a time of crisis, to fix the economic mess. It simply has to talk about how dirty our house is, in case we start to wonder how much we need the cleaner. Whereas, in the past, chancellors and prime ministers have benefitted from talking the economy up, this government has wrapped its identity around economic despair. It has committed itself to talking the economy down. That’s why it is “losing the argument on growth”. It cannot make an argument for growth at all. It is a problem entirely of its own, cynical making.

There’s a strange idea going round at the moment – eg on Newsnight last night – to the effect that there has been no austerity yet (and, by implication, the Coalition needs to be more brutal). It’s true that the planned cuts have only kicked in by, perhaps, 10%. But that misses the point. Everybody knows deep cuts are in the system, and it is that knowledge, that expectation – constantly justified by rhetoric of dire portent – which has already produced the reaction to austerity. That reaction is stagnation and fear, and it has been entirely produced by the merchants of doom in Downing Street.

Jack Davenport on Anthony Minghella

Dominic Minghella — Sun, 13 May 2012 11:24:43 +0000

13th May, 2012

These memories of Anthony were written by Jack Davenport for a proposed book on Anthony’s work by Meghnar Mudaliar. Many thanks to Jack and Meghnar for permission to share them here.

The night I arrived in Rome to start work on Ripley, I met Anthony in an almost comically perfect family restaurant in Trastevere. He was so happy and excited to be setting out on what was clearly a labour of love in the most complete sense. The film would show his adoration of Italy, the home of his ancestors; it would be a meditation on how social exclusion can corrupt a sense of self.

My not-so-hidden terror at working with a man whose previous film had garnered nine Academy Awards evaporated almost instantly in his embrace. Literally. Ant was one of the most effusively tactile people I have ever met. He used touch the way other people use words. It is a measure of the gentleness of the man that his continual pummelling and kneading never felt like an invasion, but simply an extension of his not inconsiderable powers of communication.

My nervousness at working with Ant stemmed from the fact that he was the first true artist I had ever been directed by. I remember how alarming it was receiving notes from him on set. Often, the open-endedness of the emotional world one is trying to create, means that discussing variations in performance can be a relatively free-form discussion, almost a gentle negotiation. With Ant however, his note giving was positively laser-like in it’s precision. Much of this was of course to do with the fact he had written the script. It was a case of knowing the topography of his story so well that he knew exactly what he was after, at all times. Which is not to say he was bullying or domineering, he just directed with a clear-eyed exactness that was rare indeed.

Somebody told me early on in our rehearsal period for the film that my character, Peter Smith-Kingsley (who in the novel appears in only one scene), had become in Ant’s writing an amalgam of qualities that he most admired in people. I found this information frankly terrifying, but Ant put it to me slightly differently. He said that Peter was the only character in the story who was comfortable in their own skin, and it was this quality that attracted Tom Ripley. A big part of that attraction was also bound up in Peter’s profession as a musician. Music saturates the film, and is used by many characters to say things they cannot express themselves. Ant’s insistence that I learn to conduct the Stabat Mater piece and play the piano, was the greatest excavation tool he gave me for the character. He would give me beautiful selections of music to help me get inside Peter’s head. I’m sure Ant would have endorsed the Walter Pater quote about all art aspiring to the condition of music. Indeed, that idea seems to be one of the major themes of the film.

I remember a story Anthony told me about a gift he had been given one the first day of shooting by his editor, the great Walter Murch. Walter had presented Anthony with a lacquered box filled with tiny hand-tied scrolls, one for each day of principal photography. Each one contained an aphorism that Walter had chosen and written out. Anthony said he would open one at random first thing, and then ponder it while he stood in the shower. He told me how strange it was that whatever the scroll said, there would be a moment during the day’s filming where it’s sentiment would prove to be weirdly pertinent. I always thought you must be able to inspire friendship and loyalty of a higher order to receive a gift like that. I still get a kick out of thinking how much fun Walter would have got making those scrolls, and how much pleasure Anthony received every morning as he rolled ‘Professor Murch’s Thought for the Day’, around his head.

The last time I saw Ant, we bumped into each other on a bridge in Austin, Texas. I was shooting a movie, and he was in town to support his son Max at a film festival. He was so proud, and so easy in the role of not-being-the-centre-of-attention. It was an honour to know Anthony Minghella- he was a man of huge achievement who wore his success as lightly as anyone could. I miss him terribly.

- Jack Davenport, September 2008

Reading University

Dominic Minghella — Sat, 12 May 2012 15:14:26 +0000

10.5.12

To Reading University, where – with pride, sorrow, pride – we attended the opening of the new (Anthony) Minghella Building for Film, TV and Theatre.

David Puttnam did the opening honours. Anthony would have been delighted, embarrassed, delighted.

A few of my favourite things

Dominic Minghella — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 13:02:45 +0000

21.4.2012

I’m emotional, suggestible, and – if not exactly superstitious – a romantic believer in signs and auguries.

So, today, as possibly the last ever professional game of football takes place at Fratton Park in Portsmouth, I celebrate this remarkable coincidence.

Growing up in Ryde, Isle of Wight, there was only one football club I could support: Portsmouth. My father lived in Portsmouth in the 1930s as a boy, and remembers the huge crowds, the FA Cup pride, and still follows Pompey to this day, at 90 years of age. My brother Anthony inherited this affection for the club, as, inevitably, did I.

We used to take “the football boat” from Ryde, and when Anthony’s fortunes improved, he would buy us ‘posh’ tickets in the middle of the South Stand. (Anybody who has been to Fortress Fratton will know that the word ‘posh’ can only be applied in the loosest sense, but that is very much part of its charm.) When Anthony died, my sister and I toyed with the idea of keeping his season ticket going, leaving his seat symbolically empty. Pompey is part of our story: our history, and, hopefully, our future. We’ll see.

In recent times, I have taken to spending a part of my year in Umbria, Italy, just north of Rome. There is no family connection there, just a love of the place. I have found an increasing sense of belonging in a wonderful hilltop town on our doorstep called Lugnano in Teverina. When I recently went to report a burglary to the police there, the carabiniere made me describe everything to him in painstaking detail, enjoying my comic struggle with Italian, before revealing that he knew everything already: word gets round in a town that small. You either love that kind of thing or you hate it, and I love it. It’s a totally brilliant community.

Finally, I adore red wine. I know next to nothing about white. But a wine dealer friend, the excellent Sebastian Peake, forced a case of a particular white on me a few years back. It’s a vermentino and it is a revelation, a small shipment from heaven. I associate it with a physical release of tension – that tightness in the pit of the stomach that tough days can induce dissolves with the first glug of this particular cool, minerally (but smooth) wine. Actually ‘dissolves’ isn’t the word. The tension snaps away before the wine even hits the back of the throat, in what can only be a pavlovian response to its aroma.

These are small things, I know, but the heart is somehow enriched by them. The community of club, of shared memory, or of a few hundred people in a hilltop in Italy who know your business. The way a flavour can become a friend. In the end these small things come to define us. Our habits and our homes. The places where we will be missed. The tables at which we no longer sit. The choice of wine no longer exercised.

I don’t know. I like small things. If, as Hume suggested we are just bundles of memories, then perhaps the small things, those tiny snippets of moments we can smell, are the most important elements of selfhood. The briny post-nasal hit of Portsmouth Harbour, up the ramp to the platforms and herding onto the Fratton train. The warm embrace of community. The bliss of wine unwinding. Elusive things. Intangibles. Spaces where we once were. Whiffs of us.

I mentioned a startling coincidence, and here it is. I won’t make too much of it. I won’t indulge my romantic side. But it feels appropriate today, when the future of Portsmouth Football Club hangs in the balance, and tens of thousands of hearts on the south coast may forever be broken, to share it with you: a common thread between some of my favourite things. It’s as if the gods meant it all to be. Play up Pompey.

The logo of Portsmouth Football Club.

The coat of arms of Lugnano in Teverina.

The wine label.

Doc Martin to be remade in Russia

Dominic Minghella — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 12:41:08 +0000

21st March, 2012

This news is on the wires today – makes me inordinately proud of the show.

The irascible doctor has made friends for me all over the world, so he will always have a special place in my heart.

I do think the Doc would approve of a Russian analogue – he’d understand the very Tolstoyian idea of civilisation as a web of lies constructed to distract people from the reality of sickness and mortality.

I don’t know what the Russian take on the show will be, but here’s my casting suggestion, half-way between Clunes and Putin.

Doc Martin to be remade in Russia

20 March, 2012 | By Michael Rosser

ITV1 drama Doc Martin is set to be adapted for audiences in Russia – part of a raft of new deals by distributor DRG.

The format of the popular drama has been optioned by Russia’s Albany Productions, an affiliate of Sony Pictures Entertainment.

It will not be the first time the UK drama, starring Martin Clunes, has been remade.

Major broadcasters including Spain’s Antena3, Germany’s ZDF and Greece’s Mega TV have each put their own spin on the show, in which a curmudgeonly big city surgeon moves to a small village and takes up residence as the local doctor.

Most recently, DRG has secured a third season format deal in France with Ego Productions for TF1 and has picked up the rights to the sixth series from the UK.

The British version, made by Buffalo Pictures in association with Homerun Productions, has been sold into more than 200 territories.

DRG has also signed several new finished programme deals with:

TV One (New Zealand)
Kanal Fem (Sweden)
TV2 (Denmark)
Vision TV (Canada)
TV Norge (Norway)

It is also syndicated via APT to 46 PBS markets in the US – including 19 of the top 20 markets.

Remembering Anthony

Dominic Minghella — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 08:30:29 +0000

18 March, 2012

My amazing brother died on 18 March, 2008.

Here is the text of an article I wrote for The Telegraph shortly after Anthony’s death. Four years later, I’m still holding my breath.

By Dominic Minghella

12:01AM GMT 23 Mar 2008

Throughout my life, at any time, day or night, the phone might ring, and there’d be perhaps a transatlantic pause, then the exquisite warmth of his voice. “Dom, it’s Ant.” And in that instant, all wrongs would be righted, all problems made soluble, all wisdom accessible.

Obituary: Anthony Minghella

He had a way like that, a way of starting a call that was specific to the relationship. He developed a shorthand with everyone he knew – and that was a staggering number of people – a separate, intimate language for each person.

He fell into it in the opening seconds of a conversation, so that you might not have heard from him in months, but immediately you were there, with him, picking up where you left off, more connected in an instant than most relationships achieve in a lifetime.

To be in his family, immediate or extended, was to exist in a state of constant readiness – for him to call or appear at any moment and to switch a light on in your life. It was a beautiful, vulnerable, blessed place to be. You gave him your heart, actually, and he carried it safely for you, brought it back enriched.

It sounds religious, doesn’t it? Maybe it was. Sometimes people come up to me with beatific smiles – and I don’t just mean since he died – and touch me, because they themselves have been touched by him. They sat next to him on a plane, or heard him talk in 1980-something, or saw Truly, Madly, Deeply and felt it was uniquely about them. And they think somehow in touching me, they’ll feel an echo of him, a splinter from the true cross.

I think it was always this way. I don’t think it is a rewriting of history to say that he was always special. Before he revealed himself as an artist, we adored him. Maybe we put it down, my siblings and I, to his being the eldest son in a Catholic, Italian family. He got the star treatment in the family, we thought, because of cultural tradition, rather than merit.

If, for example, he was leaving for university, or better still coming back, our lives would be arranged around those arrivals and departures. Our collective breath was always, somehow, held in his absence. I imagine it drove my sisters mad.

But I think we all knew pretty quickly that this was more than some cultural hangover. He found his niche at Hull University, and began to write plays that were extraordinary in their insight and observation. He wasn’t just the first-born male. He was gifted.

And so it has been ever since – a life spent mesmerising all comers. He used to talk about film directing as hoovering up images. But he hoovered up people, too. Not cynically, but with infectious excitement. He could not pass a migrant office cleaner without discovering that she was also a Brazilian doctor, noted in her home country.

He found the gem inside everyone, and then could not contain his glee. Everywhere he went he acquired family, more folk like us who held their breath in his absence. Sometimes, on a movie, that meant hundreds of people in one sweep, crew members and players all, declaring their undying devotion.

Reflecting on it now, I am beginning to see that his charisma even outshone his talent; and his talent was breathtaking. His specialness predated his artistry, and it’s his personality that everyone is so painfully missing now.

The work remains, and of course we would have loved more of it. But what we’re really missing is him. As we come together to try to fathom this grotesque shock, what’s clear is that everyone felt entitled to a bigger piece of him than they managed to grasp.

For those of us who were waiting for his energy to dissipate, for his career to quieten down, for his attention to revert to us, the understanding that this is never going to happen is too much to bear. I for one would trade his legacy, his works of sheer bloody genius, for one more second with him.

But not to acknowledge his work would be to deny an essential part of him. Not just because the work was so brilliant and so personal, but because he was so devoted to it. He said he couldn’t bear to let a day go by without creating something, and he didn’t.

He was indefatigable. He worked like a dog all day, and when the hurly-burly was done, then he’d write. He was the most gregarious man I’ve ever met – but then also the most able to sustain himself alone, at night, writing. He claimed he was never happier than when he was by himself, working.

I used to feel that his devotion to work was also a function of our upbringing as, essentially, immigrants with something to prove. But I’m wondering now whether that, too, was a simplistic interpretation of what was going on. I remember asking him why he didn’t slow down after The English Patient, enjoy his success. He shook his head: “This is my time.” The truth is that his whole life was “his time”, and his journey was self-fuelling. The more he lived, the more he had to say, the more driven he was to find new ways to articulate himself.

At his daughter’s wedding, a month ago, we watched the young ones dance, their futures all promise ahead of them, and I said we were old now and it was time to withdraw, time for the next generation to step up and call the shots. I didn’t mean it, but he wouldn’t let it pass even as a joke. “No,” he said, “I feel so full of energy. I’ve got so much more to do.”

Those words would seem poignant if you really believed he was gone. But for those of us who loved him, for those of us who are used to holding our breath in his absence, it feels as if there is always the possibility that the phone will ring, and there’ll be that pause, and then the blessed relief as he says (in my case), “Dom, it’s Ant.”

The Moody’s Blues

Dominic Minghella — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 12:39:22 +0000

14th February, 2012

The credit ratings agency, Moody’s, has given the UK a negative school report. I try to quote from the source, so here’s what they say:

Moody’s changes the outlook on the United Kingdom’s Aaa rating to negative

Moody’s Investors Service has today changed the outlook on the United Kingdom’s Aaa government bond rating to negative from stable.

The key drivers of today’s action on the United Kingdom are:

1.) The increased uncertainty regarding the pace of fiscal consolidation in the UK due to materially weaker growth prospects over the next few years, with risks skewed to the downside. Any further abrupt economic or fiscal deterioration would put into question the government’s ability to place the debt burden on a downward trajectory by fiscal year 2015-16.

2.) Although the UK is outside the euro area, the high risk of further shocks (economic, financial, or political) within the currency union are exerting negative pressure on the UK’s Aaa rating given the country’s trade and financial links with the euro area. Overall, Moody’s believes that the considerable uncertainty over the prospects for institutional reform in the euro area and the region’s weak macroeconomic outlook will continue to weigh on already fragile market confidence across Europe.

How do we respond to this?

You can ask who the hell are these credit-rating agencies anyway? That’s Alastair Campbell’s question (here). And it’s worth asking.

You can claim that it supports your argument on austerity. It doesn’t matter which side you’re on. Labour claim it shows the plan’s not working. Ed Balls says the brave thing now would be to admit that a change of course is necessary.

And arguing for a change of course is no more than the Tories did the last time this happened, in 2009, when Standard and Poor’s issued a similar warning. “It’s now clear that Britain’s economic reputation is on the line at the next general election, another reason for bringing the date forward and having that election now,” said the then Shadow Chancellor, George Osborne (21 May, 2009).

But George Osborne now argues the contrary – that the Moody’s news is an argument not to change course. It is a “reality-check” that Britain “must not waver” in dealing with its debts.

To which the question must be asked: what would count as sufficient reason for a change of course? If the austerity measures bite hard, they will reduce spending power, lower employment, reduce tax take and (no matter how hard we try) increase welfare spend. Borrowing will therefore get worse.

If the response is then to tighten further, when will it ever stop? It is a genuine question.

To put it another way: how bad would an economic spiral have to be before a change of course were justified? As bad as Greece’s? The answer to their nose dive seems to be: more of the same. Ouch.

To put it another way: is there ever an economic question to which fiscal tightening is not the answer? If the answer is no, then let’s not waste time with questions or economic metrics. Who cares about evidence?

"Did you send me that Valentine's card?" "Maybe, maybe not."

To be fair to the Chancellor, Moody’s are keen on fiscal tightening too. But here is what they say:

WHAT COULD MOVE THE RATING DOWN

The UK’s Aaa rating could potentially be downgraded if Moody’s were to conclude that debt metrics are unlikely to stabilise within the next 3-4 years, with the deficit, the overall debt burden and/or debt-financing costs continuing on a rising trend. This could happen in one of three scenarios, all of which would imply lower economic and/or government financial strength:
(1) a combination of significantly slower economic growth over a multi-year time horizon — perhaps due to persistent private-sector deleveraging and very weak growth in Europe — and reduced political commitment to fiscal consolidation, including discretionary fiscal loosening or a failure to respond to a deteriorating fiscal outlook;
(2) a sharp rise in debt-refinancing costs, possibly associated with an inflation shock or a deterioration in market confidence over a sustained period; or
(3) renewed problems in the banking sector that force a resumption of official support programmes and spill over into the real economy, indirectly causing lower growth and larger budget deficits.

Look at point 1. Yes, Moody’s doesn’t like the idea of ‘discretionary’ fiscal loosening – for which read, ‘government losing its nerve’. But before that, they fear ‘significantly slower economic growth… due to persistent private-sector deleveraging”. For which read, ‘the private sector cutting and running.’

If you’ve ever read my blog, you’ll know which alarm bell bothers me most. It’s the private sector running, in response to fiscal tightenings achieved and promised, and to the talking-down of expectations. Who would invest in this climate?

But that is not my point today. My point is this. On their own, the Moody’s Blues tell us nothing at all.

You can ask who the ratings agencies are to go around putting the wind up markets and governments, lecturing us in a brand of English that resorts to phrases like ‘multi-year time horizons’.

You can debate whether bad reports justify holding the course, or switching it.

But you still have to decide how to get out of the doldrums. You have to decide whether fiscal tightening in the short run can work, or whether it is just so much dangerous leeching.

You still have to decide whether government gets out of the way, or whether government leads the way.

And the winners are

Dominic Minghella — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 20:35:58 +0000

12th February, 2012

We like to have a bet on the BAFTA winners in our house. Although two of us are BAFTA voters, we are privy to no inside-info. The winner of the predictions game is usually our son Dante, who is good at the BAFTAs, but brilliant at the Oscars.

Meanwhile, let’s see if we’re right on this year’s BAFTAs. Obviously these are predictions, not votes for who ought to win – that’s a whole ‘nother ball game.

Best Film
• The Artist
• The Descendants
• Drive
• The Help
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Dominic: The Artist
Sarah: The Artist
Dante: The Artist

Outstanding British Film:
• My Week With Marilyn
• Senna
• Shame
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
• We Need To Talk About Kevin

Dominic:Kevin
Sarah: Shame
Dante: Tinker Tailor

Outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer:
• Attack The Block – Joe Cornish (director/writer)
• Black Pond – Will Sharpe (director/writer), Tom Kingsley (director), Sarah Brocklehurst (producer)
• Coriolanus - Ralph Fiennes (director)
• Submarine - Richard Ayoade (director/writer)
• Tyrannosaur – Paddy Considine (director), Diarmid Scrimshaw (producer)

Dominic: Tyrannosaur
Sarah: Tyrannosaur
Dante: Tyrannosaur

Foreign language film:
• Incendies
• Pina
• Potiche
• A Separation
• The Skin I Live In

Dominic: Skin
Sarah: Pina
Dante: Skin

Director:
• The Artist - Michel Hazanavicius
• Drive - Nicolas Winding Refn
• Hugo - Martin Scorsese
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – Tomas Alfredson
• We Need To Talk About Kevin – Lynne Ramsay

Dominic: Kevin
Sarah: Drive
Dante: Hugo

Leading actor:
• Brad Pitt – Moneyball
• Gary Oldman – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
• George Clooney – The Descendants
• Jean Dujardin - The Artist
• Michael Fassbender - Shame

Dominic: Jean Dujardin
Sarah: George Clooney
Dante: Gary Oldman

Leading actress:
• Berenice Bejo – The Artist
• Meryl Streep - The Iron Lady
• Michelle Williams - My Week With Marilyn
• Tilda Swinton - We Need To Talk About Kevin
• Viola Davis - The Help

Dominic: Meryl, Meryl, Meryl, must be Meryl…
Sarah: Meryl
Dante: Meryl

Supporting actor:
• Christopher Plummer – Beginners
• Jim Broadbent - The Iron Lady
• Jonah Hill – Moneyball
• Kenneth Branagh – My Week With Marilyn
• Philip Seymour Hoffman – The Ides Of March

Dominic: Hoffman
Sarah: Branagh
Dante: Branagh

Supporting actress:
• Carey Mulligan – Drive
• Jessica Chastain - The Help
• Judi Dench - My Week With Marilyn
• Melissa McCarthy – Bridesmaids
• Octavia Spencer - The Help

Dominic: Melissa McCarthy
Sarah: Carey Mulligan
Dante: Carey Mulligan

Documentary:
• George Harrison: Living In The Material World
• Project Nim
• Senna

Dominic: Senna
Sarah: Senna
Dante: Senna

Animated film:
• The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn
• Arthur Christmas
• Rango

Dominic: Tintin
Sarah: Rango
Dante: Tintin

Original screenplay:
• The Artist - Michel Hazanavicius
• Bridesmaids - Annie Mumolo, Kristen Wiig
• The Guard - John Michael McDonagh
• The Iron Lady – Abi Morgan
• Midnight In Paris – Woody Allen

Dominic: Paris
Sarah: Paris
Dante: Paris

Adapted screenplay:
• The Descendants – Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash
• The Help – Tate Taylor
• The Ides Of March – George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Beau Willimon
• Moneyball – Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - Bridget O’Connor, Peter Straughan

Dominic: Ides
Sarah: Ides
Dante: Ides

Original music:
• The Artist
• The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
• Hugo
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
• War Horse

Dominic: Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Sarah: Hugo
Dante: The Artist

Cinematography:
• The Artist
• The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
• Hugo
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
• War Horse

Dominic: The Artist
Sarah: The Artist
Dante: Hugo

Editing:
• The Artist
• Drive
• Hugo
• Senna
• Tinker Tailor Solider Spy

Dominic: Drive
Sarah: Drive
Dante: Drive

Production design:
• The Artist
• Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2
• Hugo
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
• War Horse

Dominic: Hugo
Sarah: Hugo
Dante: Hugo

Costume design:
• The Artist
• Hugo
• Jane Eyre
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Dominic: Tinker Tailor
Sarah: The Artist
Dante: The Artist

Make up & hair:
• The Artist
• Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2
• Hugo
• The Iron Lady
• My Week With Marilyn

Dominic: Iron Lady
Sarah: Iron Lady
Dante: Iron Lady

Sound:
• The Artist
• Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2
• Hugo
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
• War Horse

Dominic: Hugo
Sarah: War Horse
Dante: War Horse

Special visual effects:
• The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn
• Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2
• Hugo
• Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes
• War Horse

Dominic: Harry Potter
Sarah: Harry Potter
Dante: Tintin

The Orange Wednesdays Rising Star Award (voted by the public)
• Adam Deacon
• Chris Hemsworth
• Chris O’Dowd
• Eddie Redmayne
• Tom Hiddleston

Dominic: Chris O’Dowd
Sarah: Eddie Redmayne
Dante: Chris O’Dowd

Still on my Feet – Edana Minghella’s debut album

Dominic Minghella — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:46:25 +0000

We asked, and she delivered.

Edana Minghella, just one of my amazing sisters, has finally given in to our demands for a recorded album.

Here’s the press release:

Edana Minghella – ‘Still on my Feet’

Friday 11 November sees the release of the stunning debut album, ‘Still on my Feet’ by Brighton-based jazz singer, Edana Minghella. Featuring stellar contributions from the likes of Guy Barker and Liane Carroll, this classy collection of standard, and not so standard, tunes, marks Edana out as a ‘new’ jazz voice demanding to be heard.

The effortlessly tasteful backing of regular quartet, Mick Smith (piano), Ken Black (drums), Sarah Bolter (saxophones) and Pete Maxfield (double bass) only serves to reinforce the deep vein of cool that underpins each of the nine tracks on offer here.

“I hope people will pick up on the beauty of these tunes,” says Edana. “How jazz can have a wonderful simplicity, that talented musicians can deliver a ‘less is more’ feel to the music, even when there are strong emotions. And I do want people to be moved by the music.”

No danger there. With a close-up and deeply personal rendition of ‘You Don’t Know What Love Is’, which explodes into an emotionally shredding Barker trumpet solo at its finale, and a raw, yet stunningly controlled, interpretation of Joni Mitchell’s ‘Case of You’, it is clear that here is a singer, and woman, who has been forced to face some of life’s more painful, and bewildering, episodes head on.

“I chose those songs because they were in Ant’s films, says the singer,” (Edana’s elder brother is the Oscar-winning director, Anthony Minghella, who died tragically back in 2008). “They both have huge emotional resonance for me – and I think you hear it in my voice.”

And yet, being Edana, there’s room for effervescence and fun here too. ‘Fifty Ways To leave Your Lover’ teases its way on a stalking double bass before breaking into an outright 70s’ funk stomp that Stevie Wonder would be proud of, while ‘How Deep Is The Ocean’ simply bursts with the pure celebration of love itself.

Production credits on the album go to award-winning vocalist Liane Carroll. “Working with Liane was amazing,” enthuses Edana. “She is the most brilliant jazz vocalist so to have her involved was a real honour.”

The results of this collaboration speak for themselves on ‘Still on my Feet’.

Edana Minghella marks the album’s release with a string of live dates at: Quay Arts Centre, Newport IOW Friday 11 Nov, Bournemouth Swing Unlimited 30 Nov, Brighton The Brunswick 15 Dec and Colour House Theatre, Merton Abbey Mills 17 Dec.

For more information call Andy Strickland on 07803 212 095 or go to: www.edanaminghellajazz.com

Brading Down or Fortnum’s?

Dominic Minghella — Tue, 03 May 2011 09:21:20 +0000

Where would you rather treat your tongue, Brading Down, Isle of Wight – or Fortnum’s, Piccadilly?

Either way, one lick and it’s love!

Glad to see the Guardian agrees.