JDIFF 2013: Midweek at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival

Premieres abound at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival, with Wednesday 20th February seeing Gabriel Byrne present the festival career achievement award, the Volta, to acclaimed Greek/French director Costa-Gavras after the screening of Capital, as well as the world premiere of Johnny Gogan’s Black Ice, starring Killian Scott and Jane McGrath and the premiere of Alan Brennan’s Earthbound.

The festival has so far brought a wealth of filmmaking talent to the capital. Highlights of Tuesday’s packed schedule including Catherine Owens’ Colin Dunne: Sculpting Space, with Adam Clayton in attendance to support his friend, and a concert of composer Oscar winner Dario Marianelli’s film scores in the National Concert Hall, which received a standing ovation and an uproarious round applause.

Still to come, Danny DeVito will be in Dublin for the Jameson Cult Film Club screening of LA Confidential on Thursday, as well as attending the screening of The War of the Roses on Friday, where he will be presented with a festival Volta. Also on Friday, Antonia Campbell Hughes will attend the screening of Kelly + Victor. On Saturady Joss Whedon will delight Irish fans attending the screening of Much Ado About Nothing, whilst Mary Harron and Sarah Bolger will attend the highly anticipated screening of Moth Diaries, and on the closing Sunday, Sundance winning The Summit will light up the screen, and the thoughtful and provocative Blood Rising will draw the festival to a close.

A cracking good melodrama set in a contemporary world of high finance and low cunning, Costa-Gavras’ Capital nimbly plays on our worst memories of the 2008 economic meltdown with a persuasively detailed tale of boardroom politics, international banking, remorseless backstabbing and billion-dollar wheeling-and-dealing. Capital follows the sudden rise of Marc Tourneuil (Gad Elmaleh), a hard-driven up-and-comer who becomes CEO of France’s (fictional) Phenix Bank. Board members figure the appointment is just a temporary measure, but the new CEO has every intention of holding on to his job. Tourneuil’s most helpful ally in his bid to maintain his position turns out to be Dittmar Rigule (Gabriel Byrne), the glad-handing but hot-tempered head of a US hedge fund. Rigule views Tourneuil as a useful pawn in his long-range plan to take complete control of the venerable French bank. Tourneuil, of course, has a different role in mind.  Working from a cleverly twisty script, Costa-Gavras refuses to make things easy for the viewer, avoiding the cliché of a flawed protagonist in search of redemption.

Joe Leydon, Variety

Like most people, Joe Norman (Spall) just wants the ordinary things in life: a well-paying job he doesn’t hate, an affordable place to call home, and a nice girl to settle down with. But an ordinary life is hard to come by when you’re the sole surviving son of Zalaxon, a world embroiled in endless rebellion against the invading alien dictator Xalador. Charged by his dying father to remain hidden and continue their species, Joe searches continuously for a “compatible” human mate.  So when he meets Maria (Murray), Joe believes his quest might finally be nearing its end. However, the course of true love never did run smoothly, particularly when intergalactic bounty hunters are involved. After Joe reveals his extraterrestrial origins to her, Maria believes it to be nothing more than an unhealthy obsession with old Battlestar Galactica reruns, until she too starts seeing the signs of an interstellar conspiracy at play.  The film was the winner of the Best First Irish Feature award at the 2012 Galway Film Fleadh and was selected for the Best of Festival Selection at the Seattle International Film Festival 2012. It was shot on location in Dublin and also stars Carrie Crowley and Ned Dennehy.

A story of youthful misadventure set against the backdrop of a lawless border terrain during the last gasps of the Irish boom – Black Ice charts the story of Alice as she is seduced into the rhythmic rumbling world of local boy racers. Alice is beckoned from her middle-class existence by the growling engine of Jimmy’s slick, black, Skyline. Racing, dicing, drifting together on the winding back roads, Alice and Jimmy dream of rally cars and make great plans to escape the cloying town. Alice is swept away, beyond the danger of the boy racer scene, and into the underworld of the borderland, where Jimmy doesn’t believe in playing it straight. He likes the taste of money and he likes to take short-cuts. Despite her brother Tom’s warnings, Jimmy’s criminal behavior only makes Alice want him more, while the greed that has taken hold of the community is about to claim its price in young lives. Two years later an estranged Alice returns home to deal with the aftermath of the high-speed boy racer collision that has taken the life of Tom and his girlfriend. In her search for Jimmy, Alice relives her own complicity in events and the descent into deceit and corruption that led to this personal and community catastrophe.

Jameson Dublin International Film Festival would like to thank its funders and sponsors: Jameson, The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon, Bord Scannán na hÉireann / the Irish Film Board, Cineworld, Renault, The Merrion Hotel, The Irish Times, RTÉ, Windmill Lane, Wells Cargo, Entertainment.ie, Film Base and The Church.

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