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!

Vox humana

Recent feature film from veteran Bob Quinn. It's great seeing an Irish director in their 70s still making stuff! This is a digital effort about a loser who gets involved with a choir. The guy has some talent as a drummer so it's interesting to see how he's the outsider compared with the bland choir members. Picture blatantly copies the opening scene from Once where the guy robs money, runs into a building and out the other door. The rest of the movie has lots of street scenes, choral music (which I didn't like), annoying Galway people, and family tensions. It's poorly made, badly acted, but has some charm and is moving in parts. One of the better non-Film Board features.

Title: Vox humana
Genre: Music drama
New/old: Old
Cinema/DVD: DVD

Hard way

Lost thriller from the 1970s about a hit man who returns to Ireland to settle down only to get offered one last job. He refuses and the baddies go after him. Similar to Cry of the innocent: Shelbourne Hotel; Hollywood stars; bad direction; slow moving; shootout in the hills; airports; and zoom shots. Even Toner's pub makes an appearance! Writer Edna O'Brien appears but she can't act. The best thing about this movie is the way the characters are placed in empty streets, buildings, and countryside.

Title: The hard way
Genre: Thriller
New/old: Old
Cinema/DVD: DVD

YESTERDAY'S SINDO

Had a big article on an €80,000,000 movie called Boru getting made here by the director of Strength and honour. Then they had another article on a new Dracula movie getting made up North instead of here. So now you don't even have to read two newspapers to get opposite good/bad news on our Film industry! Even better, the Sunday business post indirectly blames James Nesbitt for enticing the big productions to Northern Ireland. He owns a company that provides toilets (honey wagons), catering, and transport for the big productions over the border.

WHERE TO EMIGRATE?

Our cinema has produced a lot of stuff over the years about the Irish emigrating. But where to?

Australia
Craic
Under Capricorn

England
Felicia's journey
I could read the sky
Kings

Canada
Luck of Ginger Coffey

New Zealand
River queen

Poland
Molly's way

South Africa
Anner House

Sweden
Disappearance of Finbar

USA
2x4
Beyond the Pale
Far and away
In America

STATE OF PLAY 2013?

With our luvvies over in Cannes at the Irish pavilion air-kissing each other it's time Shoot the Cabbage did a check on the current state of our cinema! Let's see, where are we these days?

Home productions
Lots and lots of stuff getting made but it's not very good. Even better, several recent Film Board titles never got released!

Outside productions
These seem to favour Northern Ireland now. Less work for the techies and union heads. Most of those people now work on the big TV productions here.

Distribution
Most Irish movies don't get a full release here. The ones who do are gone after a few weeks. Blame the multiplexes for showing the same Hollywood rubbish as each other! Will future Irish cinema only be available to watch on Vimeo/Volta?

DVDs
With XtraVision closing shops everywhere the only places now to buy Irish movies are the small shops in Dublin: Celtic Note/Tower Records/Golden Discs. Remember this: back in the 1990s lots of Irish movies were forgotten overnight when VHS went. Will the same happen again once DVDs go?

Talent
We don't have any! Maybe in animation and the shorts but certainly no new talent in direction. Only two names: Lenny Abrahamson and Ivan Kavanagh. The former overexposed and the latter underexposed! As for the rest: very mixed, maybe Rebecca Daly and Gerard Barrett are the future ones to watch?

Box office
Forget it. Irish movies do not make money. Unless it's a fluke like Once which did well abroad but not here or Man about dog which did well here but not abroad. The next hit should be the follow-up to The guard. Even the Brits don't like our films (though the Mrs Brown's boys movie could change that?)

Non-Film Board stuff
The 'Wild cards' as the Galway Film Fleadh call these! Mostly interesting but nothing special. It's good that this stuff gets made but most titles are difficult to see. Also, they're mostly bland and uninteresting. Surely the point of making a cheap feature is to do something different to what our Film Board funds?

Genre
Thankfully very few IRA movies or miserable dramas set in the 1950s anymore. Science-fiction seems to be getting popular and youth films are too. What's really missing is stuff like: social realism, road movies, black comedies, satire, psychodramas, noir, and dialogue-driven movies set in one location. These genres require real talent so no wonder we make so many horror films!

WHAT HAPPENED TO REEL IRELAND?

The organisation that screens Irish films around the world? Their website is gone so either they changed the name or got scrapped? More of a Film Board promoter than a 'reel' pusher of our cinema! Who's now going to bring the latest Irish masterpieces such as Stitches and Hardy Bucks to backwater countries like Russia to show them examples of great cinema?

Where the sea used to be

Recent but little-known feature about two mismatched brothers on Xmas Eve in Dublin. It's like a bland, middle-class Adam and Paul with a few funny moments but mostly dull. Linear story where they return to Howth and meet the neighbours in pubs before heading home. The usual plinky piano soundtrack music, badly-shot night scenes, uneven acting, and a cast that don't really gel. The lead guy is a chemist who worries about his marriage while everyone else try to make him look dull. Best scene: the pub with the two customers slagging everyone. Has the look and feel of a cheap short film but still a promising debut feature.

Title: Where the sea used to be
Genre: Road
New/old: Old
Cinema/DVD: Online