Cut the faff. What’s wrong with just watching fascinating people talk?
SPACEY UNMASKED
Channel 4, Monday, 9pm
SALMAN RUSHDIE: THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
BBC Two, Tuesday, 9pm
BUSH KIDS
RTÉ2, Monday, 12pm
Some say that documentaries such as Spacey Unmasked, which expose men for their sexual wrongdoings, are unfair if the subjects in question have not been found guilty of a crime.
I understand the argument, but there are many things which people do that fall short of being criminal which nonetheless deserve to be exposed, and those who were on the receiving end of sleazy and unsavoury behaviour from the actor Kevin Spacey have every right to tell their stories.
Spacey Unmasked featured nine men who were not involved in the various criminal proceedings against the House of Cards star (of which he was cleared in every case), but who all told strikingly similar tales of becoming the targets of Spacey’s creepy advances between 1976 and 2013.
None of the allegations were close to being on the Harvey Weinstein scale; but it didn’t paint a pretty picture. A portrait emerged of a troubled, secretive gay man, closeted for most of his life, who donned a series of masks to hide his true self, until the facade came crashing down.
Whether what emerged fully justified the two years of investigation which preceded the documentary is harder to answer. The producer of Spacey Unmasked hopes it will be “a #MeToo moment for men” and the experiences of the individuals whose stories were told here had clearly been distressing to them. All asked themselves the same question as women in that position: “What power do I have?”
There are still far too many narcissistic predators at large in workplaces, and in life. Nothing will convince me that exposing them isn’t the right thing to do.
The film, however, did feel stretched at times and throughout there was an awkward feeling that it had been padded out with too many cinematic tricks – sinister camera shots, emotive music – that only served to distract.
Why not simply put the camera on these men, let them open up and leave it to viewers to decide? Ironically, that’s what Dan Wootton did when he interviewed Spacey on his new online show, Outspoken.
Wootton was ridiculously obsequious towards his guest, but Spacey was remarkably candid in admitting that he had engaged in many sordid sexual encounters of which he wasn’t proud, while insisting he’d never done anything illegal, and adding that “we have proper channels for this type of stuff and one of these channels is certainly not Channel 4”.
I still contend that it can be, but it needs to be done scrupulously.
Without the budget to add all the bells and whistles that professional filmmakers have at their disposal, Wootton’s interview with Spacey just consisted of two people talking for nearly two hours, and that, whatever one thinks of the man himself, actually made for a much more compelling programme.
I had high hopes that Salman Rushdie: Through a Glass Darkly would provide an antidote to the over-produced documentaries now dominating the airwaves.
The author’s latest book, Knife, details what happened after he was nearly killed by a Muslim would-be assassin in upstate New York in August 2022. It’s fruitful territory for a deep dive into matters both personal and political.
Instead, when Rushdie recalled a nightmare he had a few days before about being killed in an Roman amphitheatre, the screen cut to clips of the film Gladiator.
When he compared the ventilator in his throat in hospital to an armadillo, up popped a video of... you guessed it... an armadillo.
It was relentless. As a viewer, I just wanted to see Rushdie’s face. It’s such an expressive face, suffused with warmth and humour. He’s also someone who uses words so carefully and so playfully that it’s always a delight to watch and listen to him.
There was no need for these endless, insultingly literal visual interruptions and diversions.
I wondered if former BBC creative director Alan Yentob, who produced and directed this film as well as conducting the interview with Rushdie, was trying to find a way to visually represent what the author describes as his own “free associative” mind as it leaps from one thought to another, sparking connections and memories of other books, films.
But I went back to watch last month’s profile by Yentob of the English pop group Pet Shop Boys, and, despite having a different director, it was exactly the same.
When they talked of growing up loving disco music, there were people dancing in a disco. When they recalled the “great food” while once flying Air India to
New York, it was accompanied by shots of an Indian air stewardess serving food on a plane.
It’s just the way documentaries seem to be made these days – a sad consequence of a culture in which average attention spans have progressively shrunk.
A surprise highlight of the week came in the form of Bush Kids , in which bushcraft expert Tom Bán, Ireland’s answer to Bear Grylls, took youngsters Paddy and Shay, their “favourite cousin” Meabh, and her aunt/their mum Gráinne to Inishbiggle in Achill Sound to learn how to survive in the wild.
Presumably this is preparation for the future when young people won’t be able to afford a home and will need to know how to put up tents and forage for food.
I say “surprise highlight” because this is actually the third series, but I’ve never seen it before. Probably because it’s on at noon. Who watches TV at lunchtime?
It’s a terrific wee show anyway, and should definitely be on RTÉ One in the early evenings where it would find a bigger audience. It’s much better than the usual auld rot they have on at that time.