Riders to the sea

For anyone who thinks music in Irish cinema stretches to The commitments and Once here's an opera! Made back in the 1980s by respected Louis Lentin it's based on the famous play. This isn't a static filmmaking of a live opera, it got made in a studio using pans, dissolves, and cuts. Short-TV feature which is difficult to follow as all dialogue gets sung. A woman laments the deaths of her children by the sea. Starts off with the writer working in a cottage. Impressive stuff and shows how dumbed down RTE has become since then.

Title: Riders to the sea
Genre: Opera
New/old: Old
Cinema/DVD: DVD

Last September

One of the best 'lost movies' funded by our Film Board. This is another IRA film set in Cork in the 1920s but here it focuses on a family living in a Big House. A young woman gets involved with both a British army officer and a rebel leading to tragedy. A splendid cast, stunning cinematography, interesting dialogue, and excellent direction this is one of the best Irish movies ever. What's impressive is that the characters take precedence over any action (which gets given brief treatment). It's an absolute disgrace that this movie has been forgotten. It never gets mentioned in books on Irish cinema either. The only bad thing I have to say is that it's similar to an older picture called The dawning.

Title: The last September
Genre: IRA
New/old: Old
Cinema/DVD: DVD (region 1)

Night to remember

The best Titanic movie! This one has a few early scenes set in Ireland and also follows a group of Irish emigrants who are stuck in 3rd class. They aren't allowed up on deck so try to escape. There's a dance scene where they sing about moving to Philadelphia and leaving Tipperary. The rest of the movie is impressive though the ship hits the iceberg after twenty minutes! It gets annoying seeing the cast wait their turn for the camera to reach them to speak a line. You can see too many influences here on the Cameron version.

Title: A night to remember
Genre: Disaster
New/old: Old
Cinema/DVD: DVD

In fear

Strange that the average Citadel received so much hype yet this superior horror movie crawls into our cinemas unnoticed? A pair of tourists drive off the beaten path, get lost, pick up a local man, and scary things happen. Good atmosphere, well-made, and has its moments. Best scene was when she opens the cat boot for the last time. It gets annoying when the guy's name gets said too many times though. Slow-moving and easily predictable it's still an impressive effort using only three actors. This is the kind of movie that won't be on the IFTA's nominations list next year but is better than most of the recent Irish-themed features.

Title: In fear
Genre: Horror
New/old: New
Cinema/DVD: Cinema

O'Briens

One of the better non-IFB digital features. Using the standard Hollywood blueprint of the family gathering a group of grown-up siblings arrive back in Galway to dad Tommy O'Neill's special news. One guy has a secret, another gets involved with two women, while the sister doesn't want another baby. Full of pretty but mismatched faces and dislikeable characters the movie impresses because it gets you to eventually like these people. The expected piano and indie bands on the soundtrack but this time it works! Not too many Irish movies show a Gaelic football match? Also good was the party in the local bar. However, some terrible camerawork where the backlight button gets permanently switched off? I wouldn't push that Kellie Blaise out of bed! Not heard much about this movie from the media but it's out on DVD.

Title: The O'Briens
Genre: Light drama
New/old: New
Cinema/DVD: DVD

Philomena

The best Irish-themed movie this year! It's about a woman who attempts to track down her lost son. What really stands out is the script: it's a mismatched buddy movie, an exposé of 1950's Ireland, problems with the Catholic faith, a condemnation of President Reagan's AIDs policy, a mystery story, and a road movie. So it works on many levels. Some of the dead ends get tedious but there are some great scenes including the one where Coogan finds the missing son online and the many home-movie clips of him. However, there are too many stops and starts in the plot and the arguments over publishing the story get tedious.

Title: Philomena
Genre: Dark drama
New/old: New
Cinema/DVD: Cinema

CATALYST IS BACK!

Finally, the Catalyst scheme is back! This time it's for €350K and no doubt there will be the usual 'equal opportunities' conditions where at least one selected filmmaker will be female. Still, the previous titles got lots of publicity and it's good that three more films will now get made. However, the first three were TERRIBLE but it's a start. The main condition is that all filmmakers must have made a short film first but I hope they don't do what happened last time and just expand their short film?

11 IRISH MOVIES TO SEE BEFORE YOU DIE!

Not 1001 or 101 just 11!

Irish destiny (1926)
Silent movie that stands out because it's the only one available!

Man of Aran (1934)
Famous neo-realist film that inspired later classics.

No resting place (1951)
If this was Italian it would be claimed one of the greatest from their post-war cinema. The most obscure title here and a very impressive movie.

Quiet man (1952)
The biggest Irish-themed cult movie.

Quackser Fortune has a cousin in the Bronx (1970)
Another cult classic but lesser known.

Outcasts (1982)
Not the punk band but a completely unique movie that should have been the reference point for modern Irish cinema instead of lousy TV movies set in the 1950s!

Eat the peach (1986)
The one that should have really kick-started the current Irish film scene. Commercial yet uniquely Irish. Not many titles since then have both these qualities?

Korea (1995)
The only masterpiece in Irish cinema from the 1990s.

Pavee lackeen (2005)
A film so good that no-one bothered making anything else like it.

Summer of the flying saucer (2008)
This isn't a list of the best titles. The Plan 9 from outer space of Irish cinema!

Snap (2010)
The greatest Irish movie made this decade.

JOHNNY GOGAN SH-T DIRECTOR!

Finally seen two features from this director and can safely now include him alongside other 'talents' from previous posts. The guy has been involved in the Irish film scene since the late 1980s but has only managed 4 features (of which two I have not and probably will never see!). They all seems to have several things in common: badly-designed posters, unoriginal stories, terrible lighting, crap acting, no DVD release, and worst of all nobody seems to be bothered! Compared to the criticism the director of Charlie Casanova has received it's strange that Gogan can continue making sh-te without anyone caring?

Belfast story

Watchable IRA movie about a pair of men killing retired provisionals with detective Meaney trying to solve who is behind it all. It's one killing after another while Meaney gets watched by his own men. I'll say this - not a bad movie despite the woeful reviews. Sure, it's more straight-to-DVD material (ala Patriots) than another Hunger but has its moments. Ruined by bad dialogue direction where everyone stands in a room talking to each other with zero background action. Good script and keeps you guessing but everything about this movie looks cheap, from the ill-fitting clothes to the set design. Silly stuff though like executing three former IRA members on a hill in full view from a road! Later an assassin walks through a police cordon without any bother! The movie though is well-paced and keeps you interested in the story so is worth a look.

Title: Belfast story
Genre: IRA thriller
New/old: New
Cinema/DVD: Cinema

Black ice

Johnny Gogan continues his practice of remaking bad Irish movies with this, an updating of Accelerator. The usual fast cars, techno music, plain faces, bad acting, bad lighting, and nothing original. One good scene involved a pub do for one of the characters leaving for Australia, at least that bit was relevant. The rest is a dated movie filmed in a fog with nothing of interest apart from the Donegal setting. If I was a teenage boy-racer and wanted to watch a movie like this I would pay to see similar but superior Hollywood stuff like Fast and furious. Shame on our Film Board for wasting taxpayers' money funding this crap. Will no doubt be exclusively available on the Volta website next year!

Title: Black ice
Genre: Road race
New/old: New
Cinema/DVD: Cinema