TEN THINGS IRISH CINEMA CAN LEARN FROM THE FRENCH NEW WAVE!

Been reading several books lately on French cinema and a few points stood out. So here are ten ideas that could benefit Irish movies:

Film buffs making movies
How many Irish directors are true film buffs? Owning a Tarantino boxset does not make you one! Films made by true films fans are usually more interesting than those made by theatre/TV directors for hire.

Cheaply made
Not only cheaply made but not trying to make their films looks expensive. Hand-held cameras, small crew, and real locations. Sadly this model wouldn't work in Ireland where it's all about creating jobs.

New adaptations
Instead of blandly filming some novel the New Wave filmmakers put their own touches to these stories. They moved away from just putting pictures to books and used these to inspire their own way of telling stories.

Director as auteur
How many Irish filmmakers are considered auteurs? Two: Lenny Abrahamson and Ivan Kavanagh. How many are just jobbing hacks? Sadly I don't have time to type all of their names!

Referencing other Irish films and filmmakers
There's a difference between referencing other Irish films and using the exact same actors because there is a closed shop. There's also a difference between referencing other Irish films and ripping off these titles. The New Wave films had in jokes and cameos from actors/directors. Irish cinema has none of this.

Silent homage
The closing iris, the continuity titles, and the sped-up scenes. A bit of playfulness instead of the dull routine. Where's that in our stuff?

Life
Characters that are living and we are inside their world where anything can happen. What do we get? Some former Fair City actor playing the same role he did in his last movie.

Beautiful women
Where are the classy, sexy women in Irish cinema? The ones that can attract an audience by appearing on the poster? How can Amy Huberman appear in so many Irish films when we've got Georgia Salpa?

Collaboration
The New Wave directors helped each other out. They wrote and produced each other's early stuff. They didn't crawl to some French film board to get 'permission' to make films.

Cinema de papa
How many Irish filmmakes criticise the 'official' version of Irish cinema? Very few! That's why rubbish like Stella days still get made here. Theatrical artificiality, literary scripts, and divorce from reality! Made by skilled craftsmen and women! The kind of film that should have been made back in 1990 and never again. This is the kind of rubbish that recently got an IFTA nomination for Best Film. Does anyone care? Of course not. Then people wonder why we're not a force in world cinema!