Getting Royally Drunk

WHEN YOU'VE won seven BAFTAs, presumably you want to celebrate with a drink fit for a king. And that's what the gong-happy makers of The King's Speech were able to do at the BAFTAs After Party last night, as 'international mixologist' Dimi Lezinska created a range of Grey Goose Vodka cocktails inspired by the five features shortlisted for Best Film.

So how do you make a Speechless, which is the drink created in honour of The King's Speech? First, you'll need the following ingredients: 35ml Grey Goose Vodka, 15ml Bombay Sapphire Gin, 15ml Noilly Prat Ambré, a dash of orange bitters and the zest of a lemon. Put all the ingredients in a mixing glass with ice, then - imagining you're Tom Cruise in Cocktail - stir well and strain into a small cocktail glass. Squeeze lemon zest on top and garnish with a macerated cherry on a cocktail stick.

Next week, I'll be explaining how to rustle up a sandwich inspired by The Human Centipede.

FILM DIARY: What I've been watching in 2011 (BAFTAs Special)

Skeletons (Nick Whitfield, 2010) Nick Whitfield was nominated in the Outstanding Debut By A British Writer, Director Or Producer category for this highly original film. He lost out to Chris Morris's Four Lions, but hopefully the BAFTA recognition will make more people check this out. Two psychic exorcists traverse the English countryside, literally removing skeletons from people's closets. Part Ghostbusters written by Samuel Beckett, part surreal drama, Skeletons does lose its way somewhat before the end, but its genre-hopping strangeness makes Whitfield a director to watch. (7/10)

Exit Through The Gift Shop (Uncredited, 2010) Nominated in the same category as Skeletons, Exit Through The Gift Shop is effectively F For Fake with spray cans. Like Orson Welles' mischievous 1973 mockumentary about art forgery, the viewer isn't always sure what's real and what's fabricated in this often very funny story of a Banksy acolyte turned conceptual street artist - or perhaps it's actually all true. In the end, it doesn't matter. As hoaxer Clifford Irving says in F For Fake: 'The important distinction to make when you’re talking about the genuine quality of a painting is not so much whether it's a real painting or a fake; it's whether it’s a good fake or a bad fake.' Exit Through The Gift Shop is very good indeed. (8/10)

The Secret In Their Eyes (Juan José Campanella, 2009) This Argentine crime procedural won the Best Foreign Language Oscar at last year's Academy Awards, but was beaten at this year's BAFTAs by The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (I Am Love is a really special piece of work that should have eclipsed both of them). With Argentina being such a hotbed of cinematic creativity in the last decade, I confess to being slightly surprised by the universal acclaim for Campanella's film. Yes, it's a clever, twisty mystery that explores love, loss and regret, while one breathtaking scene in a football stadium has to be seen to be believed. However, I still feel there's less to it than meets the eye. (7/10)

COLIN HOULSON

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