By Sarah Connolly
Whilst scrolling through a mundane news-feed for Cumberbatch–New BFF! Shunned co-star! Time Top 100!–I came across a small article.
The title seemed dull at best–“Benedict Cumberbatch to attend Krakow’s Off Plus Camera Festival”–but I was intrigued.
The first two questions I had were easy to answer: What is the Krakow Off Plus Camera Festival? (A small film festival.) Where is Krakow? (Poland.)
But my third question–Why was Cumberbatch not only invited to attend, but why will he attend?–was less easy to answer.
The article didn’t say anything beyond that he would attend with a few other less well-known actors (read the full article here), but I decided to investigate further.
Upon Googling Krakow’s Off Plus Camera Festival (the English website, not the Polish–Krakow, as I discovered, is in Poland), I saw that they had “Benedict Cumberbatch–Our Special Guest!” written on the site accompanied by the photo below.
Upon clicking on this glorious image of Cumberbatch, I came across new Cumberbatch information that intrigued me. I placed parts of the first two paragraphs below.
“…Benedict Cumberbatch will present himself to the Polish audience not only as a great actor, but also as a creator of independent cinema. With a group of friends he founded a collective producing company, SunnyMarch. To Krakow he comes with a film in which he performs, and which he has produced at the same time, namely, “Little Favour” (the screening is on 10th May in Kijów.Centrum)…
Although after his studies at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art he used to perform in the classical dramatic repertoire including plays by Shakespeare and Ibsen, he has always been fascinated with film. He devoted his MA thesis to his favourite director, Stanley Kubrick. During OFF PLUS CAMERA festival he will definitely attend an exhibition devoted to Kubrick, which will be on display from 4th May at the National Museum.”
Here is the blurb in its entirety.
First come the questions. Why isn’t this getting more press? I would think for an actor to debut their own production company, it would be a big deal–consider Joseph Gordon Levitt’s HitRecord company, which was talked about in many interviews and launched its own cable show.
(Joseph Gordon-Levitt, widely acclaimed and popular actor who started HitRecord.org. Best known for 3rd Rock From the Sun, 500 Days of Summer, Looper, The Dark Knight Rises, and Inception.)
I didn’t even know about this new film, Little Favour, which actually came out last October!
How could this have been missed?!
And what else has his company done? (According to IMDB, this short film is all they’ve done so far.)
But, most importantly, where is the media firestorm for this film? Although the film’s run time is only 22 minutes long, even a cameo by a famous actor in a small film (for example Tom Hiddleston in Joanna Hogg’s Exhibition) would thought to have warranted more press.
And–here’s the clincher–the film actually sounds (and looks–see the trailer) REALLY interesting. Here’s the synopsis:
“Its been 7 years since he left Her Majesty’s service and 10 years since the American Counter part [sic] who became his friend, saved his life on a joint mission in Iraq. He’s migrated his skill set into a lucrative business while managing to keep his secret battle with PTSD under wraps. One day, while finally deciding to try his hand at a functional relationship, his old friend JAMES cashes in his chip and asks a LITTLE FAVOUR. How could he refuse when he owes the man his life?”
This sounds like a fantastic film! Far more original than yet another take on Spiderman! I actually really want to go see this! (It’s available for purchase on Itunes.)
So where is the media?
Apparently they are all interested in BFFs and girlfriends and dolls and coloring books.
But I persist: Why do these stories sell and not ones about Cumberbatch’s MA thesis on Stanley Kubrick (which I actually think would be really interesting to read, if only to gawk at his marvelous vocabulary)?
(Stanley Kubrick, film director. He’s most known for these 8 films: Eyes Wide Shut, Full Metal Jacket, The Shining, A Clockwork Orange, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Lolita, and Spartacus.)
At least with the thesis, we’d have Cumberbatch’s opinion on something rather than gossipy speculation and over-analysis of something he/others may/may not have said about something vaguely to do/or not at all to do with him. See my previous posts for a discussion of these.
And, conversely, why am I so interested in this? Why do I find this far more fascinating than who his BFF is? (For the record, I don’t think Tom Hiddleston wouldn’t be a bad BFF to have–the internet has gone bananas about how he’s the nicest man on earth, even going so far as to dub him a Disney prince!)
I find this interesting for two reasons.
1. Because it talks about Benedict Cumberbatch as a student and as an artist. Yes, he is an actor and a producer, but he also owns his own production company. And the article also mentions he had to write an MA thesis, so he understands the college student experience. (He’s just like us!) In all seriousness, while it might seem obvious that he’s gone to college, many actors don’t attend college or drop out.)
2. It shows that Cumberbatch is not so high and mighty as to only attend a few events a year like Angelina Jolie and George Clooney. Even though he’s one of the biggest stars in the world right now, he is going to a tiny Polish film festival because it’s something that he cares about. I doubt most in-demand actors would accept an invitation like this one.
It’s this little article–not the other huge media articles–that makes me think that perhaps this is what makes Cumberbatch so different from other actors. Perhaps this is what Colin Firth was alluding to in his Time 100 excerpt.
Perhaps this is what makes Cumberbatch so–dare I say it?–special and worthy of our attention.