The documentary “Senna” has been awarded BAFTA awards for Best Documentary and Best Editing at the annual British Academy of Film and Television Arts shindig at the Royal Opera House in London.
“Senna” beat Martin Scorsese’s George Harrison documentary.
Stephen Fry, who hosted the event, said “Even if you know nothing about F1 racing and are not even vaguely interested in motor sport you will find Senna one of the greatest documentaries you’ve ever watched.”
Evidence, if we needed it, that the movie business can provide great publicity for the sport.
Joe, greetings from Anacortes, WA, USA. Already own a copy of the blue-ray disc, and watched it five times already. Wonderfully done.
‘Evidence, if we needed it, that the movie business can provide great publicity for the sport.’
…If FOM/Bernie/CVC weren’t out to make all of the money from it for themselves.
To be fair to Bernie, he gave them free run of his archive. Which, going by how they’ve described it, is seriously under exploited…
No he didn’t. He let them look at the achieve but he put heavy penny for anything they used.
He most certainly did not. They paid a lot of money. The original cut was three or four hours and even with footage from the Senna family they had to go back to Bernie with more money to ask for more footage. I think there’s about 70mins of FOM footage if I remember correctly
I’ll second that. A friend of mine, who dislikes F1 to the point where she thinks it’s pointless cars going around in circles told me she had gone to see it and really enjoyed it. I know loads of other people who aren’t F1 fans who have made the point of telling me how much they liked it.
I do hope that “Rush” can continue this trend – the early signs are promising. I also can’t wait to hear more about your project, Joe…
And yet it wasn’t even long-listed for an Oscar. How did that happen?
Because the Oscars are primarily American and F1 is primarily a Eurocentric sport.
Well, apart from the huge TV numbers in Asia and Latin America
This is entirely a shot in the dark, but I wonder if elements of the academy might be a little snooty about a documentary with no original footage?
Getting angry at the Oscars for shortlisting the wrong films is something I stopped doing a long time ago. Titanic – 11 Oscars?!?
Great to see BAFTA acknowledging a film that is about so much more than sport…
I agree with rubbergoat.
My daughter, who is allergic to all forms of motorsport to the extent of reading an entire novel whilst sitting feet from the edge of the track on her one visit to Snetterton, watched it on a plane and actually loved it.
When I asked what had brought on this transformation she replied “Because it wasn’t about motorsport, it was about the man”.
And therein, to an extent, lies the slight problem with it. obviously that is the reason for its vast success, and I did think it was fantastically entertaining.
it did, however, take hagiography to new levels. In fact I’d say it was a film tailor-made for the Americans. except it was, with some editorial ‘leaning’ aside, all real.
it is incredible how the addition of dramatic music and slow-motion shots can make a racing driver look like a demi-god. I think Senna’s story, all sides of it, was enough of a story itself without the over-dramatisation
Finally got to watch the thing while battling a recent dose of man-flu. It’s a nice piece, although the brush strokes are a bit broad. ‘Our Nige’ only appears twice – spinning on each occasion – and bewilderingly Piquet appears to be some sort of fairy godmother.
Would have loved to have seen some Berger-influenced mischief in it, but thoroughly enjoyed seeing Nigel Roebuck make haste after Prost in the aftermath of Suzuka 1990. Still got the resulting Autosport somewhere… you can see it all take shape.
For me, though, the DVD extras with the stories of the kids who have benefitted from the Foundation are worth the asking price themselves. If the movie helps keep momentum going for them, then so much the better.
The 1991 vintage Eddie Jordan in the drivers briefing is also worth a giggle.
I looked out for you Joe but couldn’t see you – has anyone been more successful?
Senna the movie is a captivating and mesmerising piece of work.
After watching it i felt i knew nothing more, having followed Formula One religiously for the past twenty seven years.
And then after a few hours the realisation dawned, ultimately the film is about love.
Impressive documentary. It has not been screened in Chile (so far), so have watched the DVD projected on a wall with a beamer (data). I was/am amazed by the sound. Especially at the moment of Senna’s fatal crash, a dry deep short snap of sound and then silence. Goose bumps.
Like the extra DVD with all the interviews too, especially the one with Prost.
I don’t have BlueRay but my daughter got me the double DVD for Christmas and I’ve watched it twice. Now she’s borrowed it and I’m waiting for it back again. It was different the second time I watched and no doubt it will be different the next. There were aspects of the era that were missed entirely, but the part that hunts me is the onboard footage of Monaco when he was truly “in the zone” or in a tunnel as he put it, not consciously driving, just on full auto reflex. I remember at the time watching on tv thinking that he fell asleep or lost concentration, when in fact as the documentary shows, it was the very opposite.
I could watch two hours of that onboard footage sat two feet away from the telly, magic stuff.
It is a shame that a documentary that glorifies a driver that deliberately rammed another driver off the track at high speed gets such praise from non-F1 fans and new F1 fans. They will never take the time to learn the full story and thus assume the Senna film is gospel, when reality was rather different.
But I know that I am in the minority with that view, but so it goes.
Tom,
I think you need to put things into the proper historical perspective. Senna did to Prost what Prost had done to him the year before. He was not something he was proud of doing, but he felt it balanced the books. It was also because Jean Marie Balestre was doing everything he could to help Prost, notably changing the pole position at Suzuka. That was the real scandal.
Also there is another small detail many ignore. Senna didn’t go to the start with the intention of hitting Prost no matter what. He went there saying that “the specific position on the track is mine and i will go for it, if Prost gets ahead and tries to close the door i won’t back down even if we collide, he has to back down” and that’s what he did. It might seem like a technicality but it shows that he was only after justice and not just to take out Prost and win the championship. If Prost didn’t try to close the door but then later in the race managed to get in-frond of him ether by pits or passing him then Senna wouldn’t have hit him even if hitting him meant winning the championship.
He just wanted his first corner justice because as he saw it Balestre was once again screwing him over like the year before.
It’s not the same as when Prost did it or Schumacher did it. He didn’t just turn on the other guy because he wanted to win even if it is unfair. He simply didn’t back down because he felt he was making things fair after receiving unfairness.
Some may chose to ignore the difference but the difference is there and is quite significant in showing the character of a man.
I agree
When that part of the movie was played out in the cinema I saw it in, the whole audience applauded. It was a powerful moment indeed.
Spot on Solo.
Whilst I was a Senna fan at the time, I would have liked to have seen some more balance in the film. Perhaps give Prost a chance to give his side of the story. I find it interesting that he has been largely absent from the media the whole time this documentary has been aired.
He was involved in the filming.
There’s a little more to Senna than a single incident. It’s funny you say this, I decided to download the 1988 through 1994 seasons and watch them recently do I could understand more context and that moment does not define him
I definitely don’t want to do that, so definitely don’t say where you got them from…ahem…
I was left thoroughly underwhelmed by the documentary. Senna was not an angel-with-wheels. He was a man who had faults of over-aggression just like many other F1 drivers. This film was indeed about love: the love of a director for his idol.
I found the TT: Closer to the Edge documentary much more interesting and exciting.