TOO SMALL A NATION TO COMPETE WITH HOLLYWOOD GLOSS?

Last Saturday's Irish Times hit the nail on the head! Not about the general election but rather the fact that Ireland is too small to compete with Hollywood. Nothing Shoot the cabbage doesn't know already: we made good shorts and sh*t features; eighteen years of the Film Board has failed to produce a new world-class Irish feature director; our two best directors emerged in the '80s when the current IFB didn't exist; our novels are far better than our features. Interesting quote from the last IFB head in the article: "whatever sort of film we make we are, as far as the outside world are concerned, making art films". Which is true and might explain the failure of Irish gangster films in America (I went down, Perrier's bounty). The points of the article were: the Irish film system is geared to making shorts and Irish versions of Hollywood genre always fail. Another good quote: "Too many bad Irish films have, for instance, got inexplicable theatrical releases while perfectly decent pictures sat on the shelf". Don't know why that is but true. Maybe the lack of risktaking in Irish culture means "same as before please"? But will anyone listen? Of course not. Because Irish cinema is all about technical filmmaking and saying nothing. It's about creating jobs and team-working. That's why young filmmakers on their first feature usually make a telefilm. Glossy images, aimed at a wide audience, and directed by a committee. Nothing will change either!