Writer-director Wes Anderson is arguably one of the foremost cinematic stylists working in American film today; his rigorous and distinctive aesthetic approach makes his films instantly recognisable. Look past the framing, colours and impeccable soundtrack, however, and you’ll find Anderson the artist is a desperate optimist with a heartfelt empathy for his oft-troubled protagonists. To celebrate the release of his new film Moonrise Kingdom on 25th May, that premiered to acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival just a few days ago, the IFI presents the complete set of Anderson features throughout June.

Bottle Rocket (June 2nd) started life as a 13-minute short (also showing) that sufficiently impressed for Columbia studio to bankroll the full-length version, Anderson’s debut feature. This sunny shaggy-dog story served as a handy calling card for Anderson, whose trademark style was already remarkably well developed. With his follow-up, Rushmore (3rd June), he really hit his stride, establishing himself as a major talent with this seminal school comedy of ill manners. Precocious blue-collar teen Max Fischer, as incarnated by Jason Schwartzman in his screen debut, is one of the great screen rebels and Rushmore is by turns unpredictable, droll, whip-smart and achingly tender.

The Royal Tenenbaums (16th June), Anderson’s dramatic comedy about a dysfunctional family of troubled geniuses is one of the key American films of the new millennium. A gleefully larger-than-life Gene Hackman excels as the disruptive paterfamilias with a formidable ensemble all struggling with the unresolved parental issues that blight so many of Anderson’s protagonists. A visual love-letter to New York City, and perhaps Anderson’s greatest work to date, the film begs to be seen on the big screen once more.

Anderson’s penchant for stylisation goes into overdrive with The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (June 22nd), an elaborate fantasia on the high seas. Bill Murray, a key figure in Anderson’s oeuvre, uses his patented brand of ennui as the eponymous oceanographer Zissou on an eccentric but magnificently realised mission to eliminate the ‘jaguar shark’. On something of a world tour, The Darjeeling Limited ((June 23rd) brings the trademark Anderson aesthetic and unresolved familial issues to India with an unlikely trio of estranged siblings, Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman and Adrien Brody, on a what’s meant to be a journey of self-discovery. However, all is not quite as it seems…

Fantastic Mr. Fox (June 24th), the season’s final film, is a faithful yet freewheeling adaptation of the Roald Dahl source material that fits perfectly with Anderson’s world. Our foxy hero (winningly voice by George Clooney) is torn between his past as a chicken poaching ne’er-do-well and his current life as an urbane family man. In the end, with Anderson, it’s always all about growing up.

Watching Wes Anderson Season Schedule

Bottle Rocket June 2nd 14.30
Rushmore June 3rd 14.30
The Royal Tenenbaums June 16th 16.10
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou June 22nd 18.30
The Darjeeling Limited (with short film Hotel Chevalier) June 23rd 16.30
Fantastic Mr. Fox June 24th 14.00
Tickets will be available from 28th May at the IFI Box Office on 01 679 3477 or www.ifi.ie

Illustration: Adeline Pericart

There are nights when you look through your DVD collection and none of your favourite films float your boat  – what you need is some serious Trash -  the black sheep of your collection; something so bad that makes you feel good. Warning: to appreciate these films booze is recommended. And so over the next couple of weeks the Film Ireland collection of filmaholics shed their dignity, hide their shame and open their bins to reveal their trashiest films in the latest installment of…

We Love…

Trash

Eurotrip

(Jeff Schaffer)

‘… general resemblance to a cheddar factory … ’

Gemma Creagh

Filled with fantastic stereotypes, all kinds of nudity, a rakeload of slapstick and enough rude jokes to make Tara Reid scarlet, Eurotrip is a trashy, road-trip comedy by the makers of, erm, Road Trip.

The tale begins in the familiar setting of a high school graduation, where a lovelorn Scott gets dumped by his long term sweetheart; who, as it turns out, had been openly cheating on him with local rocker (Matt Damon) – to the point where Matt’s band even have song about it. The catchy tune ‘Scottie Doesn’t Know’ crops up just enough so by the time the credits roll around it’ll be firmly wedged in your subconscious. After this very public humiliation, an online romantic proposition means Scott cuts all ties with his long-term Berlin pen-pal, only to find out ‘Mieke’ was not a nerdy German guy as he had thought, but a stunningly attractive girl. Scott decides to blow off his summer plans and go on a quest to find her with the help of his obnoxious BFF, Cooper.

After arriving in London, the boys get dragged by crazed Man United thugs to Paris, where they join forces with their school friends and fraternal twins, Jenny and Jamie. In true National Lampoon-style, everything that can go wrong inevitably does, and the newly-formed gang do the twisty-map-line-thingy, trekking through a host of tourist hotspots such as Amsterdam, Rome and Bratislava in search of Mieke.

After watching Eurotrip, Percival lost all faith in humanity

The main cast is more-or-less celeb free with the biggest name being Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s little sister, Michelle Trachtenberg – however there are a whole host of fantastic B/C-listers: Vinny Jones plays a football Hooligan, Xena W.P. a dominatrix and even the lovely Joanna Lumley features as a mental Dutch hostel clerk.

As you can imagine the overall plot is about as contrived as they come, since 2004 it’s already very dated, plus the main characters are all flat and undeveloped… but the absolute cringiest part of this tack-fest is the fact that on one of the map sequences there is BRITISH FLAG over THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND. This is as disrespectfully idiotic as playing Sacha Baron Cohan’s version of the anthem when a Kazakhstan athlete won gold.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newsvideo/weirdnewsvideo/9163577/Borat-spoof-Kazakhstan-anthem-played-by-mistake.html

*shakes fist at producers*

Despite this Epic Fail and the general resemblance to a cheddar factory, Eurotrip is hilarious enough not only to warrant forgiveness, but also to allow for several viewings to bask in all the terrible/brilliant jokes:

‘I saw a gay porno once. I didn’t know until halfway in. The girls never came. The girls never came!’

The Oireachtas Communication Awards are an annual event to celebrate excellence in Irish language TV, Radio, Journalism and Web media.

One coveted prize is awarded to a series or program chosen from all TV genre, Drama, Documentary, Current Affairs, Light Entertainment, Reality, etc. This year the award was won by ROSG for their ground-breaking series Scéal na Gaeilge.

Interviewed at the award ceremony, Producer Ciarán Ó Cofaigh said;

‘It’s a great honour for us to win this award as it is the highest accolade given for Irish Language media.  I believe we have shown that a documentary series can be presented in a fun, visual and informative style, whatever the subject matter.  In this case it was a subject very close to my heart, the history of the Irish language.’

Scéal na Gaeilge is a 2-part documentary series which traces the journey of the Irish language from earliest times to the present day.

Through a mixture of animation, green screen and location filming, this series reveals the history of the Irish language by shining a humourous light on the historical and mythological stories that are associated with it.

Fun, fresh and frisky, Scéal na Gaeilge is presented and written by Alan Titley, directed by Diarmuid Goggins and produced by Ciarán Ó Cofaigh for ROSG.

Tugann an phríomhdhuais teilifíse seo aitheantas do chlár nó shraith teilifíse a bhfuil ardchaighdeán bainte amach aige i measc na seánraí éagsúil teilifíse, drámaíocht, faisnéis, cúrsaí reatha agus eile.

Siad ROSG an comhlacht léiriúcháin a bhí i mbun léiriú ar an tsraith cheannródaíoch seo.

Ag labhairt faoin ngradam ag an searmanas bronnta, dúirt léiritheoir na sraithe, Ciarán Ó Cofaigh;

‘Is mór an onóir dúinn an gradam seo a bhaint amach.

Thaispeáin muid, i mo thuairim, gur féidir clár físiúil, spraíúil agus spéisiúil a dhéanamh ar ábhar ar bith.  Sa gcás seo roghnaithe muid  an t-ábhar is tábhachtaí dhom féin go pearsanta, sin scéal na Gaeilge.’

Dhá chlár faisnéise is ea Scéal na Gaeilge a leanann aistear na teanga ó thús ama go dtí an lá atá inniu ann.

Tríd meascán míreanna beochan, cúlraí scáthlán glas agus taifeadadh ag láithreacha stairiúla, nochtann an tsraith seo stair na Gaeilge le radharc spraíúil ar na scéalta stairiúla agus miotasacha a bhaineann léi.

Físiúil, úr agus bríomhar, tá Scéal na Gaeilge curtha i láthair agus scríofa ag Alan Titley, stiúrtha ag Diarmuid Goggins agus léirithe ag Ciarán Ó Cofaigh do ROSG.

Illustration: Adeline Pericart

‘Gearrscannáin’ is a short film scheme to produce Irish language short films that will appeal to a general audience.  The scheme aims to encourage fresh, new directorial voices willing to take risks, challenge audiences and introduce them to interesting themes which will move them. Whilst aiming to engage a diverse viewership, the films should also be able to be rated for an under 15 audience. Applications must be original stories written in the Irish language.   Short films already submitted to the IFB in English will not be eligible.  This scheme will be primarily distributed on-line.

The deadline for Gearrscannáin is 13^th July, 2012. 

Parameters of the scheme
Number of films:         Up to 2 per year

Duration:                       Approx. 8 minutes

Budget amount:          Maximum €10,000 per film

Format                          Originated on any high quality digital format with delivery on HD, if shot on HD, and digi beta.

Language:                    Irish language

Who can apply:

This scheme is open to filmmakers who can demonstrate an ability to direct drama but may not have made a short film before other than in college.  If applicants use their college show reel they must have held a relevant role in their college short film, i.e. if they are applying as director they must have directed the short film on the show reel they submit.

The scheme is not open to full-time students.

visit http://www.irishfilmboard.ie for further details

Coinciding with the Dalai Lama’s summer 2012 European visit, the documentary film Dalai Lama Renaissance (narrated by Harrison Ford) and its American Director Khashyar Darvich will travel to Ireland for a one-week screening and Director Q&A tour from 29^th June – 6^th July 2012 (see venues and times below).

Can an award-winning film that presents the Dalai Lama’s transformational wisdom in action truly change those who watch it? How can the Dalai Lama’s message of compassion lead to a quantum leap from the head to the heart? After 12 film festival awards, thousands of screenings worldwide, and hundreds of inspiring filmmaker Q&A’s, audiences in Ireland will experience the answers for themselves.

Featuring the Dalai Lama, and narrated by actor Harrison Ford, the film tells the story of 40 Western innovative thinkers who travel to the Himalayan mountains of India to meet with the Dalai Lama to discuss many of the world’s problems. What happened was powerful and unexpected, and was captured by a five-camera, 18-person crew.

The film features two of the starring quantum physicists from the hit theatrical documentary What the Bleep Do We Know, Fred Alan Wolf and Amit Goswami. Also appearing in Dalai Lama Renaissance are Michael Beckwith (who appears in The Secret), radio host and author Thom Hartmann, revolutionary social scientist Jean Houston, Vandana Shiva (social activist, The Corporation), the Catholic monk Brother Wayne Teasdale, and other prominent thinkers.

The trailer for the film can be viewed at: www.DalaiLamaFilm.com, or on the film’s Facebook page: www.Facebook.com/DalaiLamaFilm

Each screening and Q&A event will benefit one of four Irish registered charities.

Irish Tour Dates and Venues

Friday 29^th June:                   Carnegie Arts Centre, Kenmare, @ TBA

Sunday 1^st July:                    Triskel Arts Centre, Cork, @ 4.00pm

Monday 2^nd July:                  Old Ground Hotel, Ennis, @ 8.00pm

Tuesday 3^rd July:                  The Dock, Carrick-on-Shannon, @ 7.30pm

Wednesday 4^th July:                        The Model, Sligo, @ 8.15pm

Thursday 5^th July:                  The MAC, Belfast, @ 8.00pm

Friday 6^th July:                       Wynn’s Hotel, Dublin 2, @ 7.30pm

Rick Crawford  moved to Los Angeles in 2005 and started on the big screen with independent films. His first leading role in a named movie is a feature length thriller entitled Rage. His latest film, No Saints for Sinners, is set for a DVD release.

Carmen Bryce chats to the Northern Irish actor who both co-wrote the story No Saints for Sinners and stars as Mickey O’Hara, a committed IRA member whose days of freedom fighting are long gone, leaving him peddling drugs and disenchanted with ‘the cause.’

Rick, you co-wrote the script for No Saints for Sinners. How much of it is drawn from real-life experiences growing up in Belfast during the ’70/80s or even more recently as an adult?

I was a child in the ’70s and ’80s, but the ’90s were a fun time. There was definitely a few lines taken from those days. Growing up around Belfast was fun. It was off the rails and that’s the type of fun it was. Too much fun at times. We have to grow up sooner than later.

How much involvement did you have with the script? Were you on hand to help with the accuracy of the dialogue or did you have a bigger part in plot development?

I came up with the original story and it went to Chris Benzoni for a first revision, then Nathan Frankowski our director had his take, 20 or 30 revisions later, we had our film, all along revising the lines between us.

Is this a writing debut for you?

Indeed yes, I never had any desire to write but since this, I’ve written two of my own screenplays with Irish themes, which I’ve been told by significant US producers have promising potential in production value. Kind of surprised me to be honest. Raising the cash now is key, which isn’t easy but isn’t impossible.

Did you find it easier to bring a character to life when you helped create him in the first place?

I created Mickey from a character sheet I like to use but yes I threw in plenty of his lines that I knew would suit him.

The film looks at the gritty reality of life in the IRA. Being from Belfast, did you feel responsible for relaying this accurately to an American audience?

Without any affiliation or anything even close, I did meet a few here and there. You can’t stereotype such people. They’re human beings first. Being close to Belfast though, that’s always a big help.

In the Name of the Father, The Devil’s Own, Hunger, Fifty Dead Men Walking, Shadow Dancer… the list goes on. Do you think Americans are obsessed with Northern Ireland’s violent past or in some ways still, its murky present?

A wee bit maybe. The US audience go more for our history than our violence. Sometimes it’s hard to do one without the other.

The film is fairly violent. Is the message that violence is destructive, whether it be delivered by the IRA or LA drug lords? Or is it simply that violence sells as much as sex in the movie world these days?

We just wanted to be realistic. Nathan, Paul, Scott, Chris and I had detailed discussions on this before principle, during principle and even in post. The movie was toned considerably in violence. The nature of the storyline was difficult to tell with authenticity without giving a measure of violence. And yes Chris the cowriter for draft one insisted, like sex scenes, violence sells if done within context. We didn’t have a sex scene in the final cut. In various revisions we did but the final word of course was always director’s
choice.

What is the main message you want your audience to take away from the film?

Running from consequences leads to consequences. Simple story.

Mickey gives Jason Bourne a run for his money in parts of the film. Did you have any training for this or did it come naturally?

You’re very kind. We had a stunt man coordinate the fight scenes with us before we shot them. Although when Marty showed up, we made the scenes a bit closer to home.

Mickey is a conflicted character, essentially a thug with a big heart who wants to escape his violence existence that is still very much embedded in him. Was this contradiction difficult to portray?

I set out of make Mickey a real lad. Fears, worries, anxieties. A real human, not bullet proof. Wanted people to feel him. Being true to that and being true to the script was key.

Jim Sturgess, who played an IRA member in Fifty Dead Men Walking, said his experience with genuine IRA members as research for the part was also conflicted. They were decent family men who were also violent murderers. Was it your wish to convey this very conflict in Mickey?

To play Mickey without the humanity would have been an insult to the audience. Soldiers, police, politics are all human first. I saw Mickey as a broken soldier with his conflicts in his own conscience. His violence was always provoked, that’s no justification for it but Nathan and I discussed this during the revisions. We kept the story away from senseless violent acts. That was Marty’s job with Mercer, which he did so well.

We can count the number of Irish actors in Hollywood on one hand (Fassbender being one of the most relevant at the moment). How ruthless is the industry for an Irish actor living in LA?

I watched Fassbender in Hunger around the summer of 2009, I said he’s going to the top and I wasn’t wrong. Like anything else, you get out what you put in but unlike most jobs it’s not always a fair industry. Some of the greatest actors I’ve met are working a 60-hour week for buttons. I was reluctant to move to LA at first but glad I did. I’ve a better life here than I would have back home. I miss my family but visit twice a year or I’d get home sick. Living here is better for me personally for various reasons. It might not suit everyone but suits me grand. I moved here as an electrical engineer and that was a headache I’ll not quickly forget. Working as a full-time actor is a luxury that comes and goes. Starting a production company out here was a good move. I’ve been working hard on that, especially these past few months.

Getting two features in production is now my primary focus. The last couple of years have been dedicated to developing some ideas to script, now it’s time to develop script to dollar. We have been speaking with various investors, both US and UK, it’s a process, not easy but not impossible.

Do you think the Irish film industry is struggling to survive?

I was home last year, writing. I got a role or two while I was there, one being a film for TG4. I was honored to play in a stage production of The Crucible to open the new Lyric Theatre in Belfast. For each project I saw the same actors fighting over the same roles. Game of Thrones is a project I’d love to work on next season, but with so many actors out of work it’s a casting director’s nightmare.

Do Irish actors have to move to the States to stand a fighting chance in the industry?

Not necessarily, Marty Maguire lives back in Belfast now and works as a full-time actor. That wasn’t his story while he lived in LA for 20 odd years. It depends much on the individual.

What NI/Irish actors are you inspired by?

Marty Maguire is an actor that inspires me, working with him directly was a treat. I’ve been a fan since I saw him in an LA production of A Night in November. Liam Neeson and Marty Maguire are both actors I admire tremendously. Of course Liam Neeson has transcended any average standard of success, I’ve never ceased to be inspired by any role or any film he takes, since he showed up in Dirty Harry in the late ’80s. The lads in the south haven’t done too bad for themselves either! Farrell, Fassbender, Cillian Murphy, Gabriel Byrne, Brendan Gleeson and his two boys. I’d love to get a chance to work in Brendan Gleeson’s adaptation of At-Swim-Two-Birds. It looks like a great flick, and I first heard about it in San Diego, from a distant cousin of  Teri Hayden, Brendan’s agent, that was a strange coincidence as I knew the cousin a while before I learned that.

What actor/director made you want to become an actor in the first place?

Impossible to pin point. As an avid film viewer since no age. Star Wars, Superman, Jaws, every movie the video shop could rent. Watching films with my father were the memories that started it.

What is the most essential quality an actor must have to survive?

Humility.

Your roles in Rage, Hollow and No Saints for Sinners are fairly dark and violent. Do you feel most comfortable in this role?

Not necessarily. That’s three films that possibly I brought a darker quality to – which I did enjoy but I couldn’t say I’d enjoy playing a challenged car mechanic any less. My coach says I’ve got romantic comedy down. So I wrote a romantic comedy, and currently raising money for it.

From where do you draw such raw emotions?

A misspent youth; it was worth it.

No Saints for Sinners is released on DVD on 28th May courtesy of Trinity Filmed Entertainment.

Secure Your Tickets For The Inaugural Year of JOHN FORD IRELAND - The New Landmark Event in the Irish Filmmaking Calendar.

Industry Events Include – FORD FILM HUB, Screenings, Public Interviews with International Filmmakers, Panel Discussions, Masterclasses, and More!

Engage, Learn, and be Inspired by the Legendary John Ford, one of the most influential filmmakers of all time.

Book Your Tickets Now To Avoid Disappointment.

• The Iron Horse - Opening Night Gala at the National Concert Hall with RTE Concert Orchestra and Composter/Conductor Christopher Caliendo.
• The John Ford Lecture with Joseph McBride author of ‘Searching for John Ford’ (‘a treasure’ Martin Scorsese), and authorised biographies of Orson Welles and Steven Spielberg.
• Ford Film Hub with Writer/Director Panel Discussions with Guests including: Jim Sheridan, John Boorman, Brian Kirk, Thaddeus O’Sullivan, Colin Bateman, Pat McCabe and more.
• An Audience with … Director Peter Bogdanovich (The Last Picture Show, Directed by John Ford)
• In Conversation With … Stephen Frears (Hi-Lo Country, The Van, Dirty Pretty Things, The Queen)
• Music for the Screen with composers Kyle Eastwood and Christopher Caliendo and more
• Dublin Premiere Screening of Se Merry Doyle’s John Ford: Dreaming The Quiet Man
• Irish Premiere of Hell on Wheels starring Colm Meaney
• Various Panels over three days with Leading Ford Academics discussing: Ford and Ethnicity/Migration, Ford and the Western, Ford and Ireland, Ford and the Abbey Theatre, Ford and Silent Cinema. Speakers include Charles Barr, Gaylyn Studlar, Waylon White Deer, and Luke Gibbons.
• The 60th Anniversary Screening of The Quiet Man plus pre screening panel Remembering The Quiet Man in the IFI.
• Unforgiven - 20th Anniversary Screening
• Upstream - Irish Premiere of recently rediscovered and restored long lost Ford Film
• Kyle Eastwood and Band - jazz performance by screen composer and musician Kyle Eastwood and his band.
• Outdoor Screening of The Searchers in Meeting House Square
• Screenings of Ford’s classics including Fort Apache and The Informer and others.

TICKETS FOR THESE EVENTS ARE LIMITED SO PLEASE BOOK EARLY to AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW PROGRAMME AND BOOK TICKETS

The Ballyfermot College Animation Showcase 2012 is on Wednesday 23rd May at 7pm in the IFI, Temple Bar.

The showcase will include a mixture of third and fourth year short animations from the BA (Hons) Animation course.

The showcase will be officially opened by Andrew Kavanagh of Kavaleer Productions.

Event Details:

Who: Eat My Shorts
What: Short Film Festival
Where: The Twisted Pepper, Middle Abbey Street
When: Saturday June 9th, kicking off at 11.30am running ‘til late
How much: Completely free

RTÉ Television announced today that OMG! Jedward’s Dream Factory is open for business. Jedward will return to our screens with a new series at Christmas with the dynamic duo eager to make as many dreams as possible come true.

John and Edward are calling on anyone aged between 8 and 16 years old who has a dream to get in touch. Last year, Jedward’s Dream Factory made it possible for Luka Murphy to lead Manchester United onto the pitch at Old Trafford. Conor Leigh was given the chance to run a chocolate factory for a day and many other dreamers had their dreams realized by the twins over ten exciting episodes.

So do you have a dream to train with your favourite sports star or would you like to travel to a far-flung destination? Maybe you would like to show a talent off to the world or you would like to go behind the scenes of your favourite television show? Whether it’s getting a walk-on part in a soap, jamming with a band, being your dad’s boss for a day, fronting a radio show or editing your favourite magazine you can let the guys know and they will do their best to make your dream a reality…nothing is impossible!

Jedward said: ‘It’s so cool! We made loads of our fans’ dreams come true last year and we want to do it again! It’s really easy, just send in your dreams to Jedward’s Dream Factory and you could star in our show.’
If you have a dream you’d like Jedward to go to work on and you’re aged between 8 and 16 the in 100 words or less, tell them what your dream is by email to:

omg@tyrone-productions.ie

Or by post to:

OMG! Jedward’s Dream Factory
Tyrone Productions
133 Capel Street, Dublin 1

Remember to include your daytime contact details and your age.

Visit www.rte.ie/trte/jedwardsdreamfactory for further details

Open to applications from residents of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Illustration: Adeline Pericart

There are nights when you look through your DVD collection and none of your favourite films float your boat  – what you need is some serious Trash -  the black sheep of your collection; something so bad that makes you feel good. Warning: to appreciate these films booze is recommended. And so over the next couple of weeks the Film Ireland collection of filmaholics shed their dignity, hide their shame and open their bins to reveal their trashiest films in the latest installment of…

We Love…

Trash

Reeker

(Dave Payne)

‘… what I love to hate about this movie is the simple fact that they are being haunted by what I like to call ‘the smelly ghost fog’ … ’

Ciara Lianne O’Brien

I’m somewhat ashamed to admit that I am quite a lover of trashy TV, if it involves people falling over, having outlandish weddings, or being ill-equipped to raise their impending child; I’m guaranteed to love it and tune in week after week. When we move to film, something has changed in the general consensus and somehow the worst of the worst trashy movies we can imagine are the ones we will happily queue up for special screenings of. Whilst we would rarely admit to what we actually watched on television last night, there is a certain pride that comes with our trashy movie loves. The beautiful thing about it is that our fondness for trashy film transcends genre and almost everyone has a new one to add to your ‘must-watch’ list. One of my own personal favourites is the 2005 horror miss Reeker.

Reeker follows a group of strangers inexplicably trapped in an apparently spooky desert oasis. If it wasn’t enough that they are plagued by visions of death, they also must escape a decaying creature that preys on them, hoping to kill them in the most violent of ways. What makes this movie a guilty pleasure trashy film love for me is not the awkward cinematography, the stunted dialogue, or the convenience of having a blind man with a strong nose around while being haunted by something that you can’t see but you can certainly smell, what I love to hate about this movie is the simple fact that they are being haunted by what I like to call ‘the smelly ghost fog’. We see only glimpses of the wispy creature which plagues our plucky protagonists, but we gather that it smells god-awful. I can only hope that the idea was pitched as ‘smelly ghost fog’.

At times Reeker fancies itself as the new Saw, with an onslaught of unlikely and horrifying murders, but it seems unsure of whether or not to throw itself entirely into the newly emerging ‘torture-porn’ genre and, as a result throws a twist in at the end in order to hyphenate its generic status to ‘horror-mystery’. When Saw first emerged, it was the violence which shocked audiences, but there was a certain intelligence to the layout of the film which, like Silence of the Lambs made it even more frightening. Whilst Reeker pulled off the torture-porn violence, it is lacking in that intelligence and elicits more giggles than screams. The twist towards the end is guaranteed to surprise some viewers, but as a lover of the genre, it became glaringly obvious that the entire movie is built around the premise of this twist, which points out major conveniences in the story which I would have been happier without. Whereas I love the strong-nosed blind man chasing the smelly ghost, the twist adds purpose and removes some charm for me.

There is a massive upside to all this mockery, when doing some research for this article I happened upon; No Man’s Land: The Rise of Reeker. That’s right, there’s a prequel and I couldn’t be more excited. Needless to say I’ll be curling up on the couch tonight; I have a hot date with a Smelly Ghost Fog.

In 1969 the Dingle Peninsula was changed forever when director David Lean decided to film Ryan’s Daughter on location in the area. The film, which won two Oscars, inspired Michael Tanner to research the locations used by interviewing the local people involved in the film’s shoot. The result is an unvarnished account of the troubled shooting of the film, both on and off camera, and how its stars – Robert Mitchum, Sarah Miles, Trevor Howard, Christopher Jones and John Mills – coped with a year on Ireland’s west coast.

The story is largely told in the words of local people who were drivers, extras, prop men, landladies, actors or mere observers. With archive material and pictures of actual locations used, this is the behind-the-scenes story of a film which changed the Dingle Peninsula overnight, saw more antics than usual by stars, and resulted in David Lean making no film for fourteen years.

Published in May 2012, price €12.99/ £10.99

At 7.30pm on  Wednesday, 23rd May in the basement of Filmbase there will be a screening of Poitín (1977), the first feature film to be made entirely in Irish (with English subtitles). The film was produced by Cinegael, written and directed by Bob Quinn, and stars Cyril Cusack as a moonshiner in rural Connemara, living in an isolated cottage with his adult daughter. Two local degenerates, played by Donal McCann and Niall Tóibín, terrorise the old moonshiner for his contraband liquor, threatening to kill him and rape his daughter.

The film first aired to the Irish public on RTÉ on Saint Patrick’s Day in 1979 and caused a national outrage. Taken by many as a direct insult to the idealized Western Irish identity, particularly pointing to the ‘spud fight’ scene in the film, criticism echoed the response to John Millington Synge’s stageplay The Playboy of the Western World some seventy years earlier.

The screening is part of a fundraising event  to fund the making of an upcoming short film to be shot on the RED Epic camera in Wicklow in June of this year. The story of the film revolves around a daughter who returns to her rural family home and starts to unearth some long suppressed memories.

All the details for this event can be found at facebook.com/events/38985273105809

Entry is 5 Euro.

https://vimeo.com/grandboy/carafilm

2 Days In New York is the sequel to the 2007 film, 2 Days in Paris. Julie Delpy reprises her role as Marion, a French photographer living in New York with her boyfriend, here played by Chris Rock. Her family arrives from France on the eve of her exhibition where she plans to sell her soul for $10,000, along with her photographic work. The three of them – her father, sister and her sister’s ex-boyfriend – all stay in their small apartment rather than checking into a hotel. The film doesn’t necessarily follow an overall plot, rather it is simply two eventful days put into a film. The film’s structure, dialogue and even costume and set design is hugely reminiscent of Woody Allen films and isn’t done particularly well.