Ireland on Screen: I want to scream

Beginning last night with Jim Sheridan’s The Boxer, RTE began its latest attempt to support Irish film with an Ireland on Screen season. It will run for two weeks and will have a number of premieres during that time. As a concept this is a very good idea, showcasing Irish film for people who would not be overly familiar with recent output. But the devil is in the details and as soon as you read through the listings several problems emerge.

The first thing that comes to mind is that there is no real structure to the season. It was only announced the day before it was scheduled to begin which means no real time for advertising the season. This is important as some advertisement is probably necessary for people who have no specific interest in Irish film as a whole. As far as I am aware (and I missed The Boxer last night so I could be wrong) there is no real attempt to put the season in context. Would it have cost too much to maybe have someone introduce each film or even just the season? An Irish film academic or film fan, maybe a director or actor, hell even Dave Fanning. It would be refreshing to have someone to say where each film stands in the overall canon of Irish film. Alas this does not appear to be the case.

Another issue is that there is no standard times or days that each film is being shown. The season lasts only two weeks for some reason, the films are scheduled on various days and truly bizarre times. The Boxer kicks off the season at 11.30pm! This is madness if you want to draw viewers in. A quick scan of the schedule could only lead you to believe that it was decided by a World Cup style draw. Films, days and times put into a giant hat and picked out randomly. This is not good. All of this would be forgivable (indeed since Moviedrome there has been a reluctance to introduce film at all on TV which is a real shame) if it wasn’t for the biggest problem of all.

The main issue is simply the choice of films on offer. Looking through the list is groan inducing. There is always going to be some films that will be on any season for familiarity reasons. This is to help get people to watch who otherwise may not bother. This season is full of those kinds of films. This is not a criticism of the quality of any of the choices, more that there is a dull and safe feeling to their inclusion. Films like Michael Collins, The Boxer and In the Name of the Father are too familiar to offer something different. To be fair there are a couple of films I do genuinely want to see, namely His and Hers and The Runway. But where is the sense of risk? Where is the low budget and unfamiliar films of the last few years? Where are films such as Snap, As if I am Not There, Between the Canals, Garage, Hunger, Guiltrip, Accelerator, The Other Side of Sleep, Kisses, Pyjama Girls? There is an argument that at least RTE are making an attempt to help out the Irish film industry here, indeed they also invest financially in Irish film to be fair. But one can’t help feel that there is a real missed opportunity to showcase a diverse selection here. And that is the real pity.

Here is the list of films being shown

My top 10 Irish films of all time

The danger in compiling a list like this is that there is a possibility of leaving out a film that is glaringly obvious. The only way to be fair is to not call the list the 10 best Irish films ever made. There is something reductive about articles that definitive. Film preferences are a deeply personal thing, completely subjective and there really is no right answer to the best ever. This list below comprises of my favourite Irish films. But I must stress that it is my top 10 films that I have seen. There may well be a film just around the corner that will explode into my favourites list and bump one of these out. In fact I am sure of that. There are still a lot of Irish films I have still to see or re-visit in some instances.

The main reason for doing this is to stir up some feeling about our national cinema. If you forcefully disagree with my choices, let me know. I want the whys and wherefores. I even want the ‘you don’t know what you are talking about’ comment if someone can give me alternative titles and a reason for their inclusion. All film fans in Ireland have a huge part to play in how we view our own films and how much exposure they get. The more we see now the more we will see in the future. It is about economics and bums on seats. The more we debate our cinema and how much it means to us (or not and why not) the more predisposed we will be towards Irish films in general. This may be overly optimistic but why not be optimistic for a change. Anyway here are my favourites. They are from 10 to 1 but the order is somewhat arbitrary as it changes with my mood.

10. The Wind that Shakes the Barley
Ken Loach’s Palme D’Or winning film about the struggle for Irish independence is a film more about tone and emotion than it is about visual representations of violence. This isn’t sensational and it isn’t a thriller. It is a fraught and angry film that dares to make every bullet count. There are moral ramifications for the murders that take place here. Every death counts. Cillian Murphy’s character asks at one point ‘whether this Ireland of ours will be worth it?’. This gets to the heart of a very philosophical film. How much violence, if any, can be justified for a particular cause? It is an important question in an important film.

9.  What Richard Did

 Lenny Abrahamson makes his first appearance on this list with his latest film. Anchored by a career making performance by Jack Reynor as the titular Richard, Abrahamson explores in the most naturalistic way that difficult transition into adulthood for young teens in Dublin. With a terrific script by Malcolm Campbell and beautiful camerawork, this is a world expertly drawn without missing a beat. The pivotal moment is captured in a disturbingly beautiful way and its aftermath is dealt with sensitively and with great filmic skill. Abrahamson is surely about to make it big on the world stage. Let us hope he continues to focus on Ireland as well as there is not a filmmaker that comes close to capturing as it is warts and all.

8. The Crying Game

Neil Jordan’s Oscar winning film is one that can be mulled over for quite a bit of time. It starts off as one film and by the end becomes quite another. It is a tribute to Jordan’s really strong screenplay that it all gels together so well. It is a story about a kidnapped British soldier, which becomes a love story, which turns everything on its head. There is a big reveal in the middle which sums up the film for some people but the film is so much more than that. Jordan can be a frustratingly indifferent filmmaker but when he is on form he is a brilliant one. Between this and The Butcher Boy Jordan has secured his place as one of Ireland's great filmmakers.

7. Silence

Acclaimed documentarian Pat Collins’ Silence is a film that came from nowhere with practically no advertising and blew me away. Silence is the story of Eoghan, a sound recordist living in Berlin who accepts a job back home in Ireland to document the countryside away from manmade sounds. This a feature film with a beguiling documentary feel, full of haunting and beautiful images of landscapes. For all the beautiful images on show this is really about the feeling inside, an urge to reconnect with a land and a life left behind. As Eoghan moves further and further away from civilisation he moves closer to where he hails from. This is his journey home. And what a stunning and moving journey it is. Silence is not just one of the best Irish films in 2012 but one of the best films of 2012 period.

6. Adam and Paul

Lenny Abrahamson’s film is quite frankly an unexpected joy. It is a film that came out of nowhere to confound an audience ready to jump on another clichéd story about drug addicts. But Adam and Paul is so much more. There is humour in the darkest of places. There is even an element of hope that bursts through on occasion. But what is most impressive is how humanistic the film is. This is a very timely reminder that the drug addicts on our street who we look at in disgust and mistrust are people and victims. We should care more. It is a beautiful and heartfelt film, that most wonderful of things: a melancholic joy.

5. My Left Foot

Jim Sheridan’s beautiful biopic of Dublin writer Christy Brown is a joy to behold. With Oscar winning performances by Daniel Day Lewis and Brenda Fricker, Sheridan tells in turn a warm and caustic tale.  It is a compassionate film, celebrating a unique story without sentimentality but with plenty of warmth. A critical and commercial success, My Left Foot arguably brought the Irish film industry into the international arena for the first time. This is a deeply humane film which Sheridan has yet to better.

4. The Butcher Boy

Neil Jordan’s dark and profane adaptation of Pat Mc Cabe’s novel is a wonderful achievement. Told by unreliable and troubled teenager Francie Brady, this film is an explosion of anger, grief, isolation and pop culture. It is also a social critique of small town Ireland in the 1950s. There are some wonderful performances from actors such as Jordan regular Stephen Rea and a wonderful Fiona Shaw as Francie’s nemesis Mrs Nugent. Add Sinead O’ Connor as a spiky Virgin Mary and it pretty much sums up the tone of this film. 

3. The Dead
John Huston's final film is a mesmerising adpatation of James Joyce's story from his Dubliners collection. Starring Donal Mc Cann and Angelica Huston the film is set at a dinner at a beautiful Dublin home in 1904. It is a tale of death and its inevitability. Shot with a wonderful intimacy by Huston although never intrusive, the film is elegant and very moving. There is humour to be had (the wonderful Donal Donnelly as the n'er do well Freddie Malins) but it is the singing of a particular song that stirs up some old emotions that leads the film to its extraordinary ending. There is terrific acting by the entire cast with particular mention to the truly missed Donal Mc Cann as Gabriel. This is a film that demands to be seen as fitting tribute to a great filmmaker.

2. Hunger

This film is a tour de force of acting and directing from the start. Michael Fassbinder plays Bobby Sands on hunger strike in the 1980s. Director Steve Mc Queen uses this as a springboard to make a film about the appalling dehumanising of the human spirit in prison. There is an audacious unbroken 15 minute scene in the film that is mesmerising and Mc Queen does not shy away from showing the horrors of prison life. Fassbinder is spellbinding as Sands with great support from Liam Cunningham as the priest. Harsh, brutal and moving Hunger is a towering achievement in Irish film.

1. Garage

There are some films on the list that on the surface tackle more important issues and weightier themes. But for me, there are none that come near to achieving the devastating emotional impact of Garage. It is a deceptively simply story of a simple man, Josie (Pat Short, astonishing), who looks after a garage in a small town in Ireland and his friendship with a local boy who comes to work with him. But Josie is lonely, heartbreakingly so, and his efforts at making connections are fraught with tension and pity. To say more of the plot would ruin the effect of the film. Suffice to say Mark O’ Halloran and Lenny Abrahamson have fashioned a film of beautiful intensity, by turns funny and sad. It is a magnificent achievement and one that will stay with you for a long time afterwards.

There are some films that are just outside the top 10 that could get in on another day. The honourable mentions are: Pyjama Girls, I Went Down, Once, In The Name of the Father, The Commitments, The General, In Bruges.

10 Reasons to be optimistic about Irish Film in 2012

As 2011 turns into 2012 we can reflect on a good year for Irish cinema. Films such as The Guard, Sensation, Parked and One Hundred Mornings were either commercial or critical successes, sometimes both. With finances being tougher than ever in Ireland we could be forgiven for thinking that film could be one of the first casualties of this. Amazingly this may not be the case. Here is a list of reasons why 2012 may well prove to be one of the best years for Irish film both at home and abroad.

1. The Economic Downturn

Yes that’s right, this is a plus. Why? Well, we were never going to be a blockbuster kind of nation. The scale is just too big. With the literary tradition that this country has our cinema should always be about the personal connections. The relationship between people and themes is what we are. Our cinema lost sight of this in the 1990s during The Celtic bleedin’ Tiger and the one massive Hollywood Irish blockbuster we had in Michael Collins. It was decent but compromised, done much better by RTE in The Treaty. At those dizzy heights, with films like Braveheart and Saving Private Ryan being filmed here, we dared to dream. But it could never last and that could only be a good thing for our filmmakers. We have already had a film, Conor Horgan’s One Hundred Mornings which has indirectly dealt with the societal financial meltdown that left us with austerity. There will be more and for that we should be thankful.

2. Michael Fassbender

Few who saw Michael Fassbender in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds would have guessed that this German born actor was Irish. Fassbender’s mother is Irish and he grew up in Kerry. With an upper class English accent and fluent German he seemed very far away from the stereotypical Irish actor. Indeed not many would have thought it was the same man that played Bobby Sands in Steve Mc Queens astonishing Hunger such was the transformation. But Irish he is, and with talk of an Oscar nomination for Shame (Steve Mc Queen’s follow up) growing, we have a seriously good actor on our hands here. Hollywood has also taken notice with Fassbender taking the lead role in the new X-Men film earlier this year. The future is bright for Fassbender with a proposed third collaboration with Mc Queen on the way.

3. The Factory

This city has been crying out for a large creative space for filmmakers to work out ideas for scripts, try out actors, test footage etc. and it may well have finally found it with The Factory. A large warehouse on Barrow Street represents what the future of Irish film may well be. An initiative between filmmakers Kirsten Sheridan and John Carney to find a space for creative output, it now encompasses a collaborative space for all filmmakers to try and create smaller budget films with a distinct Irish feel. There are various studios, editing and screening rooms so that films can be taken from the start of the process to post production. There are two films in post production at the moment, John Carney’s Irish ghost story The Rafters and Kirsten Sheridan’s thriller Dollhouse which will screen at the Berlin Film Festival. These are exciting times for The Factory group.

4. Charlie Casanova

Terry Mc Mahon’s new film is one which may well divide audiences. A great reception at the Galway Film Fleadh last year where Mc Mahon took away the first feature prize does not mean that this film won’t garner controversy along the way. The trailer looks, quite frankly, astounding: terrifying, funny and beautifully shot with what may be a career making performance from Emmett Scanlon in the lead role. This film may not be for everyone which is what may set it apart. A film that divides audiences is no bad thing. Great films like Fight Club and The Tree of Life all have their detractors. Films that explore the darkness of the human soul are always to be welcomed especially in a country where to have that exploration this close up is a rarity indeed.

5. A new generation of filmmakers

For years Neil Jordan and Jim Sheridan have carried the hopes of a nation when it comes to Irish films competing on the world stage. As they (seemingly) become a little less important to Irish cinema (though they still may have another great film in them) a new generation of filmmakers have been a long time coming. But there seems to be a new energy in Ireland. As well as the directors mentioned above there are directors such as Conor Horgan, brothers Martin and John Michael Mc Donagh, Tom Hall and Juanita Wilson who are coming to the fore. The subject matters of their films are now exploring Irish themes in a far more direct way. Fast disappearing are the naval gazing films of the ‘troubles’. Juanita Wilson’s As If I Am Not There will represent Ireland in the best foreign film category at this year’s Oscars after previously being nominated for her short The Door. There is also Mark O’Connor (Between the Canals) and Carmel Winters (Snap). If the promise of these filmmakers is realised in the next few years we could see some of the best Irish films ever made.

6. Documentaries

These last few years have been an interesting time for Irish documentaries. In the last two years we have had documentaries coming to the fore: Ken Wardrop’s His & Hers, Maya Derrington’s Pyjama Girls, Sé Merry Doyle’s Dreaming the Quiet Man and Risteard Ó Domhnaill’s The Pipe which have all being critically acclaimed. Crucially most have been shown on the big screen with His & Hers being the most successful film ever at the Lighthouse cinema. Add to this the recent big screen outing for Frank Berry’s Ballymun Lullaby and it is obvious that this is an area in Irish film that we may well see a lot more from.

7. The Return Part I (The Lighthouse Cinema)

There is nothing definitive as of yet but there seems to be two bids in to run the Lighthouse cinema site. We can only hope that this comes to a successful end as the Lighthouse cinema is one of the shining lights in Irish and independent cinema in Ireland. It has been sorely missed on the north side of the city and would be a welcome addition again to the Smithfield area. It would be great to have it again alongside the other great independent cinema in Dublin, the IFI. Fingers crossed in 2012.

8. At Swim, Two Birds

This film may not see the light of day until 2013 but it warrants inclusion on the basis of the ambition and scale on show. To be directed by Brendan Gleeson, it is to have a who’s who of Irish talent on screen. Gabriel Byrne, Cillian Murphy, Michael Fassbender and Colin Farrell have all signed on. With a cast like this, hopes are indeed high. For Gleeson this is a long time passion project and one that has taken years to put the finances into place. The novel by Flann O’Brien is considered a classic and with funding secured, this film has the potential to be a modern classic.

9. The Return Part II (Lenny Abrahamson)

One of Ireland’s most talented directors will make his return in 2012 with his new film What Richard Did. A modern day story about a young sports star whose life is changed after an act of violence, this film promises to be one of the highlights of 2012. It is hard not to expect too much from Abrahamson when two of his previous features, Adam and Paul and Garage, are considered to be great Irish films (I will be hoping to review all three in a director’s spotlight when What Richard Did reaches the cinema this year). Suffice to say this is one to mark down in your diary.

10. Decrease to Capital Funding to the Irish Film Board

Ok, this is not exactly good news for anyone who has an interest in Irish film. Initially the author thought that funding to the IFB had risen by 4 per cent to €2.54m over the 2011 figure. This has now been kindly clarified by the IFB: the 4 per cent rise is in admin funding only. Capital funding has been reduced by over €3 million from the 2011 figure. This is perhaps expected in worsening economic times. This is not great news of course for filmmakers looking for funding for their respective projects. But with the success of The Guard in 2011 and two Irish films being accepted into Sundance this year (Grabbers and Shadow Dancer) the IFB is working hard at maintaining high standards for the coming year. Time will tell how much this reduction will effect the Irish film industry, but working harder to achieve more with less has become the standard in Ireland these last few years.

Unfortunately this means that the list ends on a slightly down note. But my optimism for Irish film in 2012 is undiminished. For me, beginning the year with two Irish films in a major festival is a great beginning to a very interesting year for Irish film. I would like to hear other people’s thoughts on this as I believe it is important to debate the good and the bad in this area. Of course, like anything to do with film, luck will be needed to help makes these various projects a success. For all the optimism for 2012 there is also the chance that the ones listed above will not be quite as good or successful as we hope they would be. But I am equally sure there will be something that I have not mentioned here which could come out and be a success. Let me know what you think that will be below.