Week in the life of Martin Cluxton

One of the best Irish movies from the 1970s. A 16-year old criminal returns to Dublin after a few years with the Christian Brothers. Lots of good street footage, jazz music (from Louis Stewart), a bad job interview, isolation, lousy parents, high-angled zoom shots, boredom, and chatty neighbours. Film depicts the tedium that inner city teenagers endure in the decade before heroin and video games! Far better than the crap our Film Board funds these days. There's even a dole office scene which features too often in contemporary Irish movies. Great seeing so many women wearing tight tops and short skirts! Similar to what Ken Loach was doing back then with weaker acting. It's a disgrace that this impressive movie gets continually ignored by books on Irish cinema.

Title: A week in the life of Martin Cluxton
Genre: Social realism
New/old: Old
Cinema/DVD: Online

LOVE & RAGE DVD!

One of dozens of lost Irish movies from the 1990s is now available on DVD. Found a new one for only €1.50 in the bargain chain Dealz. They have loads of copies for sale in their Santry store.

WENT TO SEE CITADEL!

And the only shocking thing was that it's not an Irish movie. Despite all the hype and buzz this horror film is set in Scotland. Some scary moments but unoriginal and silly. Been reading about this movie for the last two years but there's nothing Irish in it!

MORE JOHN FORD IRELAND!

Flag posters all over Dublin for the John Ford Ireland symposium. They are using the famous shot from The searchers. But here's something only Shoot the cabbage knows: that shot was used a decade earlier in a Western called Canyon Passage. The very same shot of a man framed through a door/window at the end of the movie. Shoot the cabbage - the best blog on Irish-themed cinema and still only 11 followers!