Estudios Irlandeses, Number 1, 2006, pp. 156-189 ______AEDEI

Irish Cinema 2005 - Year in Review

Introduction by Tony Tracy ...... 156 Irish Film 2005: An Industry in Crises? by Roddy Flynn ...... 158 Boy Eats Girl by Ruth Barton ...... 162 Masculinity in Contemporary Irish Cinema by Debbie Ging ...... 164 Adam and Paul by Barry Monahan ...... 167 The Trouble with Sex by Emma Grealy ...... 170 Pure Mule by Tony Tracy ...... 172 Fair City by Helena Sheehan ...... 175 Mickybo and Me and The Mighty Celt by Pádraic Whyte ...... 178 Man About Dog by Díóg O’Connell ...... 180 Documentary Film and Television by Harvey O’Brien ...... 183 Pavee Lackeen by Seán Crosson ...... 185 Adaptations: Tara Road and Breakfast on Pluto by Tony Tracy ...... 187

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Introduction Tony Tracy, December 2005 essays on short film, low-budget and Irish- language productions.1 But they give a sense of On being invited to contribute to Estudios current activity nonetheless, and in a number Irlandeses with a reflection on film and of instances go beyond textual analysis to offer television output in the year gone past, I felt views on contexts of production, reception and that, rather than authoring a single overview, it distribution. Such a balancing of content and would be useful to invite colleagues in Ireland context is particularly important in a discussion to contribute to such an enterprise, on topics of the audio-visual sector since it is often chosen by them. Partly this had to do with a considerations of development trends and feeling that an e-journal for Irish Studies, with demographics that are as influential in shaping its wide and international accessibility, offers a a cinematic heritage as imaginative exertions. very distinct kind of distribution mechanism If there is a theme running through the which can function, at least in part, as a kind of generally diverse essays it might be that Irish barometer of current cultural activity for those film (and increasingly, television), having living outside Ireland. But equally, the format developed so quickly and impressively in the of a ‘year in review’ offered the possibility of aftermath of the reestablishment of the Film hearing from a range of emerging and Board in 1993, seems temporarily uncertain of established Irish film scholars in one place, its purpose and direction. Many writers here reporting on films and subjects that caught note that Irish film is caught between the their eye or chimed with their research. That said, it should be noted that contributors were 1. We note particularly Ken Wardrop’s short film invited to submit short pieces in an informal – Undressing My Mother which won the European or as informal as they wished – format. Film Academy Short Film Prix 2005 Award; The pieces that follow are not an Dermot Doyle’s accomplished ‘no-budget’ feature exhaustive overview of audio-visual debut Hill 16, and Andrew Legge’s charming and production in 2005 and I am especially visually sophisticated silent short, The Unusual regretful not to have been able to include Adventure of Henry Cavendish, all of which ______received widespread exposure and praise on the film festival circuit ISSN 1699-311X

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competing structures of a global and local audience. In the last months of 2005 several market - attempting to please both - while also new feature productions were announced, in attempting to come to terms with the seismic addition to a late year government gift of €1.5 political and social changes of Irish society million to the Film Board signalling a pick-up over the past decade. In discussion of RTÉ in momentum from what has been one of the drama series Pure Mule, I suggest that a least vigorous periods of production for a successful resolution of these tensions might decade. The year in review has been therefore lie in the development of more television both one of disappointments and emerging drama, with its quick ‘turn around’, lower possibilities. It is beyond the scope of this production costs, a tolerance for more small enterprise to explore how such character-centred stories and a localized developments might be reflective of wider primary audience. The national broadcaster ripples in the global industry; faltering cinema would appear to agree - after years of neglect - audiences and a proliferation of TV outlets are it commissioned a record 30 hours of drama not unique to Ireland. For now, though, there in2005. With the advent of digital projection seems to be a discernable cooling of interest in (Ireland is set to become the first country to go prestigious adaptations and historical projects entirely digital)2 the theatrical cinema market in favour of more contemporary subjects. For will, arguably, offer greater distribution now the Irish film and television sector would possibilities to low-budget and independent seem to be negotiating the insecurities of films, increasing the likelihood of a more adolescence. diverse choice for audiences and reinvigorating an artisan cinema. That remains to be seen. But 2. In March, 2005, Avica Europe, announced that no matter how accommodating the televisual the first of its countrywide digital cinema networks marketplace, feature film production for is now underway in Ireland which will result in a theatrical release is still the ambition for many groundbreaking nationwide conversion of Ireland's because of its scale, ambitions and potential cinema screens to digital format.

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Irish Film 2005: An Industry in Crises? only five of the 16 films awarded Production Roddy Flynn Finance Loans by the Irish Film Board since Oct 2004 had gone into production. For Irish “Ireland has a lot to offer incoming film producers such loans often represent the first producers, quite apart from our tax step in assembling a finance jigsaw: the incentives. Our locations are excellent. Our apparent consistent absence of other funders country is safe and welcoming to visitors. suggests a lack of confidence in the sector. We speak English . . . We have quite low Of course, all industries go through levels of bureaucracy, and those making slumps but with the occasional blip, the story films in Ireland can achieve access to very of the Irish film industry for the last decade has senior people, both in the Irish Film Board been an unfettered ascent. In 1993, for and in Government, far more easily than in many other locations. We have quite an example, the industry created the equivalent of informal 'can do' attitude, with a flexible 480 fulltime Irish jobs. By 2000 this reached a approach to overcoming any obstacles that peak of 1,742. And as a consequence many may arise. Perhaps most importantly, our people working in the industry have never film professionals, and those who support known it to do anything other than expand. them, are accustomed to meeting and are Hence the current sense of crisis. very capable of meeting the highest Why has this crisis come about? Analysis international standards.” of the downturn in both sectors (international John O’Donoghue, and domestic) of the industry reveals a Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism, different set of answers. With regard to May 16, 2005 Cannes Film Festival. overseas production, the stated reasons for the Notwithstanding the optimism of John fall-off usually point to “uncertainty” over the O’Donoghue’s speech, 2005 has been a future of the Section 481 film investment tax catastrophic year for film production in incentive in the run-up to Christmas 2003 Ireland. The last large scale Hollywood when then Minister for Finance Charlie production in Ireland - Jerry Bruckheimer’s McCreevy kept the industry guessing as to $100m King Arthur – completed its 90 day whether he’d retain it or not. However, given Irish shoot in September 2003. There have that McCreevy subsequently guaranteed the been other medium scale productions since - section’s retention until 2008 – thereby The Honeymooners completed a seven week creating certainty – it’s difficult to understand shoot in Ireland in September 2004 whilst the how this can still be having a substantial effect, latest version of Lassie (Sturridge) shot in two years on (notwithstanding lengthy lead-in several locations around Ireland from May times necessary to feature-film production). 2005 – but there has been nothing on the scale Therefore it is more likely that overseas of previous productions like Braveheart, Reign producers have been put off by changing terms of Fire or Veronica Guerin. This is reflected in of trade that have made Ireland Inc. less the fact that, measured in terms of production competitive internationally. In practical terms, activity, 2005 has been Ardmore Studios’ Ireland is now perceived – with some reason – worst since before the re-establishment of the as an expensive place to shoot. Indeed it is an Film Board in 1993. (Furthermore the studios expensive place simply to live in – a recent saw no production at all in the first half of survey by the Economist1 described Dublin as 2004.) one of more expensive places to live on the Alongside the fall-off in visiting face of the planet. Added to these basic costs, international productions there has been a producers have argued that union inflexibility similarly depressed level of indigenous imposes additional artificial costs, making activity. In a March 2005 Film Ireland article Ireland even less competitive. For example, director Liz Gill (Goldfish Memory) criticising SIPTU, No. 7 Branch which represents the the operation of the Irish Film Board’s Low- majority of film workers in Ireland, insists that Budget and Micro-Budget Feature Film Initiatives, noted that although 11 films were 1. The Spring 2005 audit by the Economist had the funded under the initiatives up to August 2003, capital falling one place from 22 to 23 since last only one - Studs (Paul Mercier)– had been year in the cost-of-living survey. Dublin is cheaper ‘greenlit’ (given the go-ahead) under either than Sydney or Hong Kong but remains more initiative since that date. As of October 2005, expensive than Rome, New York and Los Angeles.

159 crews working more than 40 miles outside At the Cannes Film Festival in May 2005, Dublin City Centre or Bray must be paid ‘per John O’Donoghue announced that the Irish diems’ (daily expenses over and above their Film Board would shortly make arrangements standard wages) to offset the hardship to appoint a Deputy Film Commissioner, based experience by their members as a result of such in Los Angeles, to liaise with the major studios long “commutes”. there and to effectively link these studios with However, the key factor is unquestionably the services and supports available in Ireland. changing exchange rates. As of 14 November (As of December 2005 the position has yet to 2005, one US dollar bought €0.85. In mid- be created due mainly to the lengthy absence June 2001, however, the Dollar’s peak versus of a Chief Executive at the Film Board – see the Euro in the last decade and a half, that below.) same dollar bought €1.19. Such buying power Similarly, in July 2005 the Film Board made Ireland a very attractive location for the announced the introduction of new producers of The Count of Monte Cristo, Reign management structure axing the positions of of Fire and Veronica Guerin all of which were Head of Production and Development and shot in 2001 and 2002, with cumulative Head of Marketing. (Production and budgets of over $150m. Subsequent exchange Development functions would in future rate fluctuations up to 2005 have made Ireland devolve to the Chief Executive.) But the Board 30% more expensive for Hollywood took the opportunity to entirely refocus the companies to shoot in than in 2001. (Even this efforts of the marketing department on is an improvement on December 2004 when attracting inward production with other the Dollar hit a 10 year low against the Euro, marketing requirements (i.e. those related to making one dollar worth just €0.77.) selling indigenous productions) being out- Meanwhile, with regard to domestic films, sourced as and when needed. Liz Gill claimed –in the article referred to Finally, on 10 November, at a launch for above– that the decline in indigenous the Irish Film Archive’s “Reel Ireland” touring production was at least partially the result of programme, John O’Donoghue again adjustments to the operations of the Film acknowledged that the competitive position for Board’s two low-budget initiatives, made Ireland as a production location had become under the tenure of Chief Executive Mark “less favourable… particularly with regard to Woods. Gill asserted that projects seeking low- the attraction of inward international budget funding now needed to have a sales productions.” He went to suggest that it was agent, distributor or bond company on board necessary to revise Section 481 “particularly before applying, conditions that many Irish with regard to big-budget productions” and producers were finding hard to fulfil. In effect, hinted that he was attempting (unsuccessfully she argued, the Board’s editorial choices were as it turned out) to steer Brian Cowen’s based on commercial rather than cultural or December 2005 budget announcement aesthetic criteria. Interestingly, in response, accordingly. Woods tacitly conceded that this was the case. With regard to indigenous production, However, he defended the need for market O’Donoghue had announced four weeks earlier money arguing that Board decisions to fund on 5th October, the unprecedented provision of production which lacked the tacit imprimatur “up to a total of €1.5 million of additional of marketplace partners, were open to charges funding” for the Irish Film Board to be spent of “spending taxpayer money on personal by close 2005, as a response to the decline in choices.” production activity in 2005 and to prevent Given all this, how have stakeholders in what he termed the potential erosion of the Irish film industry responded? Again the infrastructure, under-employment and answer depends on whether one is referring to emigration of skills from the sector. foreign or indigenous productions. With regard And with regard to both overseas and to the dearth of overseas productions, there has indigenous production, in October 2005, David been an increased emphasis on the promotion McLoughlin, Chief Executive of Screen of Ireland as a location (see John Producers Ireland (SPI), a representative group O’Donoghue’s speech above) and further for Irish film and television producers, noted changes to section 481 aimed at large-scale that having been in negotiation with SIPTU (i.e. overseas) productions have been mooted. since November 2004, that he hoped “very 160 soon” to reach agreement on more flexible office (e.g. Intermission, Song for a Raggy terms and conditions of film employment. Boy, Spin the Bottle), many failed to secure a So, what is the net result of this? To begin theatrical release outside Ireland: Mystics, one should acknowledge that, despite the Headrush, Bloom and Cowboys and Angels unfavourable production climate discussed were screened in Irish cinemas but nowhere above, some films have been made in Ireland else. Woods’ (unstated but implied) point was this year. Studs completed shooting at the start that the involvement of sales agents or of the year. Ken Loach’s War of Independence distributors hugely increase the chance that the drama The Wind That Shakes the Barley, and film will receive a theatrical release which may Tom Collins’s Dead Long Enough were both be used as a platform for a release in ancillary started and finished this year. In addition there (but also more lucrative) markets such as DVD have been several micro-budget features, and television. Although the assertion of a including Ronan Glennane’s Pride and Joy and decade ago that most Irish producers the astonishingly low-budget - €25,000 - Triple concentrated on finishing their films before Bill. And several overseas projects using addressing questions of distribution was Ireland as a location were shot here – in always overstated it did contain a grain of addition to Charles Sturridge’s Lassie, Ireland truth. Furthermore, Woods’ comments suggest was the location for the Charles and Camilla a familiarity with the document that laid much telemovie, Whatever Love Means. of the philosophical groundwork for restarting Furthermore, as this article goes to press the film industry in 1993: the 1992 Coopers (mid-December 2005), five further projects and Lybrand Report. Although often thought went into production – The Front Line, Speed of as giving equal weight to cinema as an Dating, Middletown, In Like Flynn and artform and an industry, any close reading animated feature Brendan and the Secret of could hardly fail to notice the stress laid in the Kells. document on the need for Irish film-makers to However there is also a sense that there is become more market aware. Indeed although now a need to take stock of what Irish film the document praised aspects of what the policy is/should be seeking to achieve. This “First” Film Board had achieved during its six- debate was ignited by Liz Gill’s comments on year tenure, it also concluded that its decisions the Film Board’s low-budget schemes but to concentrate on low-budget, locally cast subsequent events have broadened the pictures, had condemned the industry to the discussion. In April 2005, Mark Woods commercial sidelines. announced his resignation from the Film Board In short, the great unspoken truth about after just 19 months at the post, having been state support for the Irish film industry since offered a position at Ausfilm, the Australian 1993 is that it has been predicated on the film production promotion agency. In the press assumption that it generates a net economic release announcing his resignation, Woods return for the Irish economy. Any less tangible described his period at the Board as cultural benefits generated are a bonus but not “unforgettable”, a carefully chosen adjective, a prerequisite for support. And hence the stress given the perception that Woods had been on attracting large-scale productions which bruised by the negative response of local film- generally have a greater economic impact that makers to his tenure. their indigenous counterparts. Indeed as However, though his comments on the PriceWaterhouse Coopers demonstrated in importance of market-oriented finance were their December 2003 report on Section 481 for hardly welcomed by indigenous directors, they the Department of Arts and Tourism, the kind demand further consideration. There is a of smaller-scale budgets which characterise school of thought which argues that there is indigenous projects are actually unlikely to little point in spending money on funding films generate a net return for the economy. that no one will see and it is undeniably the Such films do win critical praise. Mark case that many of the indigenous films O’Halloran has been nominated for European supported by the Film Board over the past Film Award for his Adam and Paul screenplay. decade have failed to secure any kind of Perry Ogden’s Pavee Lackeen was selected for meaningful distribution. Even in 2003, a year screening by both the Toronto International when Irish films cumulatively enjoyed Film Festival and the Venice International unprecedented success at the domestic box Film Festival. It was also selected by the 161

Directors Guild of America Finders Series. Perry brings with him a seemingly tailor-made Critical praise is very hard to measure on a CV for this balancing act, having previously balance sheet, however. worked as former Head of British Screen In conclusion, Irish film finds itself once Finance and as the current President of Les again at a crossroads. The successful balancing Ateliers du Cinéma Européen (ACE). Having act between American and indigenous fallen foul of a regime change in British productions at the beginning of the new cultural politics (when he lost his BSF job), he century ensured a diversity of activity, is fully aware of the vicissitudes of state widespread employment and a cultural/ sponsorship. But for now, it seems that his economic balance which was finally achieved experience in weighing the industrial-artisanal nine years after the report which brought about tension is exactly the film policy that the Irish the re-establishment of the Film Board wish to pursue. recommended such a configuration as Dr Roddy Flynn lectures at the School of justifying government involvement. The Communications in Dublin City University incoming Chief Executive of the Board, Simon where he chairs the MA in Film and Media.

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Boy Eats Girl the bearer of the film’s most excessive display Ruth Barton of wealth – her stinking rich and overbearing (white) father owns a large suburban home Spending just under an hour and a half complete with riding stables – this is more the watching Ireland’s California-ised youth eat new Ireland of Louis Walsh and global pop itself is a pleasure. In Boy Eats Girl, directed stardom than of racial dispossession. The by Stephen Bradley for Element Films, a production’s other most immediate influence is clatter of Dublin secondary school kids, their the low-budget British genre film, notably cultural touchstones firmly located in West Shaun of the Dead (2004). In common with the Coast America, discovers that every blow job latter, Boy Eats Girl is primarily a comedy, but counts when their classmates start biting back. with less of the self-referential knowingness of The film establishes its central characters with recent American horror films, such as the light brushstrokes – there is the hero, Nathan Scream series of 1996 onwards. This didn’t (David Leon), whose mother, Grace (played by prevent the film from running into trouble with Bradley’s wife, Irish comedian Deirdre the Irish film censor who refused certification O’Kane), brings him back from the dead after unless the scene depicting the ostensible she has accidentally caused him to commit suicide attempt was cut. The issue went to the suicide; school rugby bully, Samson (Mark Appeal Board who unanimously reversed this Huberman), who causes the misunderstanding decision and the film was released with a 15A that leads to the half-baked suicide attempt certificate after Nathan spots him apparently going down Boy Eats Girl is not Ireland’s first on Jessica (Samantha Mumba), and the two ‘romzomcom’. Late in 2004, Conor guileless best friends, Diggs (Tadhg Murphy) McMahon’s Dead Meat laid claim to that title and Henry (Laurence Kinlan), who invariably when it opened in Ireland. A grungy, ad-hoc catch up with what is going on two seconds production, made under the Irish Film Board’s after it has happened. The trouble, as you microbudget initiative (which provides funding might expect from an Irish movie, starts in a for projects budgeted at under €100, 000), Church when Grace stumbles across a book of Dead Meat’s premise is that one day the curious imprecations lurking under the altar. bovine population of Ireland will turn on the Without realising that an all-important page is humans who have so insensitively infected missing, she quickly puts together some them with Mad Cow Disease (BSE). Their hokum and reanimates her beloved Nathan, victims, mostly from the Co. Leitrim area, are soon to cause havoc when he exacts his instantly rendered zombies and cluster in revenge on Samson’s neck. Before you can say roadside bands, alternatively consuming fresh ‘yum’, half the class is tucking into the other kills and stalking the living. A less polished half and only the inevitable small group of production than Bradley’s better-financed survivors is left to defend itself and wait for release, Dead Meat more obviously straddles the arrival of an antidote. the otherwise conflicting traditions of an older With its cast of pampered youngsters, its generation of Irish filmmakers and the new anodyne school buildings and its hierarchy of brash commercialism of its younger digital privilege, Boy Eats Girl knowingly recreates successors. The attack, it is suggested, may not the iconography of the American teen-pic. just reflect the revenge of the cows, but have Moreover, the kids all have the kind of names its roots in a much darker history, as its male you might just as easily hear in a Hollywood lead, Des (David Muyllaert) relates to the production. This effect was, the director has young woman, Elena (Marián Arújo), who said, a deliberate commentary on becomes his companion in the battle against contemporary Irish life: ‘the only ambition we the zombies. This is the area in which had for the film to be taken seriously as a Cromwell hung fifty men and children; it is theme was to have the idea that, with the Celtic also a countryside dotted with ruined churches Tiger and all of that nonsense which has come and round towers, symbols of an abandoned over the last ten years, we have all sucked up culture and religion. In such a landscape, the that huge amount of Americana, and this film wandering bands of starving, homeless country shows how much we have.’ Casting Samantha people could easily be mistaken for famine Mumba in one of the central roles further victims come back to haunt the present. At the connects the film to the new Ireland, though as same time, McMahon’s perspective is 163 resolutely metropolitan, viewing the Does it hold its own in Zombieland, or is it just countryside as the locus of an unspeakable a good Irish attempt at doing what other film horror. cultures take for granted? Rather more the By contrast Bradley’s film, for all its latter, I would say. parodic intent, is equally a celebration of a new globalism. We have suburbs, the film declares, Dr Ruth Barton is O’Kane Senior Research just like everywhere else, and a rock scene (the Fellow at the School of Languages, Literatures soundtrack features a selection of rising Irish and Film, UCD. bands such as Bell x1) with international appeal, and a youth population that dresses and talks in the idiom of teen TV. Our kids are Boy Eats Girl (Irl, 2005) obsessed with sex and its substitutes, and how they look and what they wear, just like teens in Director: Stephen Bradley all rich Western countries. We make genre Writer: Derek Landy Cast (Principal): Samantha Mumba, David films like everyone else’s. Given that Leon, Laurence Kinlan, Tadhg Murphy, Bradley’s previous film was the 1998 release, Sarah James Sweety Barrett, a quirky, somewhat fey re- Cinematographer: Balazs Bolygo shaping of the gangster drama to fit into a background of small town, coastal Ireland, the Music: Hugh Drumm, Stephen Rennicks distance he, and the aspirations of Irish Producers: Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe cinema, have travelled are immense. Invariably when local filmmakers make films that aspire to global status, they leave themselves open to comparisons and Boy Eats Girl found as many detractors as admirers in local press reviews.

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Masculinity in Contemporary Irish antiheroes who are variously marginalised, Cinema criminally active and ostensibly opposed to the status quo. They include I Went Down, Debbie Ging Saltwater, Flick, Last Days in Dublin, The In the mid- to late-1990s, Irish Cinema Actors, Head Rush, Intermission, The General, underwent a radical shift, which entailed, Ordinary Decent Criminal, Veronica Guerin, among other significant features, a thematic Accelerator, Crushproof, Adam and Paul and trajectory from the rural to the urban, from the Man About Dog. Many of these have been big historical to the contemporary and from the commercial successes and even those that did local to the universal (McLoone 2000, Ging not enjoy sustained theatrical release, such as 2002, Barton 2004). This shift also involved a Accelerator and Crush Proof, have achieved radical reconfiguration of cinematic cult status through video viewing among masculinities, not only in terms of the certain male audiences (Ging, PhD findings: representation of male characters but also unpublished). In press reviews and in the regarding how masculinity as discourse was films’ own marketing strategies, comparisons being addressed: the earlier critiques of with Trainspotting, Lock Stock and Pulp traditional patriarchal masculinity, which Fiction have been ubiquitous. Thus, in spite of emerged from a more politically-engaged and Irish cinema’s increasing generic and stylistic less commercial period in Irish filmmaking diversity and its growing ability to (Rockett 1994: 127), began to give way to accommodate different scales and models of more ambiguous, male-centered narratives, filmmaking, there remains a strongly whose protagonists resist unequivocal identifiable trend within indigenous ideological categorization. What is most filmmaking over the past ten years, whereby striking about this new cycle of male-themed traditionally male-oriented (sub)genres with and male-oriented films is its preoccupation universal appeal have been reappropriated with underclass, criminal and socially within an Irish context. marginalized masculinities and the popularity These constructions of masculinity signify of these underclass antiheroes at the height of an important break with Irish cinema’s the Celtic Tiger, a time of unprecedented preoccupation, up until the mid-1990s, with economic prosperity in Ireland. Although stringent critiques of oppressive, absent and recent years have also seen the emergence of a ineffectual fathers (Maeve, Exposure, The number of films set in middle-class mileux and Field, Korea, The Butcher Boy, Guiltrip, featuring non-normative, sexually-fluid and Country, A Soldier's Song, Into the West, Our reconstructed masculinities (About Adam, Boys, The Family and Amongst Women). More Goldfish Memory and When Brendan Met recent portraits of modern Irish masculinity Trudy), the hapless criminal, the stoner, the are, by comparison, not only less culturally- ‘loser’ and the underclass rebel remain specific but also less critical of hegemonic influential masculine types (Spicer 2001) in masculinity. However, rather than signalling contemporary Irish cinema. men’s willingness to adapt to the changes Arguably, this trend has as much to do wrought by second-wave feminism, these with the popularity of underclass-rebel and developments are suggestive of a somewhat neo-gangster iconography across the global more complex dynamic in the contemporary mediascape than it does with the social and ‘genderscape’, whereby the more traditional economic specificities of modern Ireland. elements of ‘hard’ masculinity, such as Elements of the new British gangster cycle excessive displays of drinking, fighting, (Chibnall 2001), the British underclass film (hetero)sexual bravado and involvement in (Monk 2000), the American “smart film” crime, have been resurrected and repackaged (Sconce 2003), the “gross-out” comedy in the form of the underclass rebel. In spite of - (Greven 2003), the “male rampage film” (Pfeil or arguably in response to - the ubiquity of 1996) and the “new brutalism” of Quentin discourses in the public arena which celebrate Tarantino (Shelley 1993) are variously the Metrosexual male and the perceived identifiable in a wide range of Irish films made achievements of feminism, these antiheroes over the past decade. Most of these films appear to be variously resistant, defiant, angry, revolve around themes of crime and social conflicted, troubled or disenfranchised in the exclusion, and feature sympathetic male face of key social transformations. In this 165 sense, they largely eclipse the politics, and further marginalising these groups. As aesthetics and target demographic of New Will Higbee has commented in relation to Laddism, a phenomenon which started out as French film La Haine, such imagery risks peculiarly British but which has cross-fertilised contributing to the “already exaggerated media with other forms to produce a range of global representation of the disadvantaged urban representations of ‘resistant’ masculinity. periphery as the site of violence and These male identities also encapsulate delinquency which warrants the repressive many of the features of the “protest police presence” (Higbee 2001: 202). Indeed masculinities” described by R.W. Connell the extreme polarity that has come to (1995), whereby young unemployed men, in characterise media representations of young the absence of a gendered claim to power, working-class men – as lawless and dangerous exaggerate their claims to masculinity through in the news media, yet reified as popular excessive displays of sexuality, violence and cultural heroes in advertising and the rebellion. Rather than being treated as a social entertainment media – may ultimately be problem, however, such behaviours are serving the same purpose, namely to stigmatise arguably presented as a subcultural lifestyle and essentialise underclass masculinity as which, according to British film theorist Claire social inevitability rather than social problem Monk (2000), appeals both to those of the State. represented and to a post-political male audience which has little or no experience of Debbie Ging is a Lecturer in the School of drugs, poverty or unemployment. As Irish Communciations, Dublin City University. She cinema has begun to look increasingly to is currently completing her doctorate on successful formulae from elsewhere, the self- Masculinity in Contemporary Irish Cinema and referential and allegedly ironic take on gender the Male Audience. Her other main research that is visible in films such as Trainspotting, interest is in the area of media and Lock Stock, Magnolia, Fight Club and Pulp interculturalism. Fiction has become increasingly visible on our screens, albeit in “indigenized” form (Pettitt Works Cited 2004). As Rod Stoneman readily acknowledges, “The cycle of created demand Barton, Ruth. 2004. Irish National Cinema. is locked into specific audience targeting, often Routledge: London and New York. focussed on a teenage male demographic” Chibnall, Steve. 2001. 'Underworld England: (2005: 259). Although the masculinities on Guy Ritchie and the British Gangster Film' display in Irish cinema are by no means static, in Filmhäftet # 118. homogenous or unambiguous, they can be said Connell, Robert W. 1995. Masculinities, to constitute a cohesive discourse or set of Sydney: Allen & Unwin. discourses on masculinity that articulate with Devlin, Maurice. 2000. Representations of and only make sense within the context of the Irish Youth. Doctoral Thesis (unpublished) social, economic and gender-political NUI: Maynooth. specificities of the past decade. Ging, Debbie. 2002. 'Screening the Green', in The aestheticisation and commodification Kirby, P., Gibbons, L. and Cronin, M. of socially-disadvantaged men, which (Eds.) Reinventing Ireland: Culture, Society according to the findings of the study cited and the Global Economy. London: Pluto, above (Ging, PhD thesis: unpublished) were 2002. most enthusiastically and least critically ______. 2004. 'The Lads from New Ireland: received by working-class male viewers, may Marginalised, Disaffected and Criminal ultimately reinforce stereotypes and Masculinities in Contemporary Irish preconceptions about social exclusion in the Cinema' in Film and Film Culture, Vol. 3. popular imaginary. Even though the films offer Waterford Institute of Technology. recognition and valorisation of marginalised urban identities by presenting a counter- Greven, David. 2003. ‘Dude, Where’s My discourse to the news media’s demonisation of Gender? Contemporary Teen Comedies and socially-disadvantaged male youth (Devlin New Forms of American Masculinity’ in 2000), their celebration of these ways of life as Cineaste, January, pp. 14-21. subcultural styles runs the risk essentialising 166

Higbee, Will. 2001. ‘Screening the ‘other’ Sconce, Jeffrey. 2003. ‘Irony, Nihilism and the Paris: cinematic representations of the New American 'Smart' Film in Screen 43:4 French urban periphery in La Haine and Ma Winter. 6-T va crack-er’ in Modern and Shelley, Jim. 1993. ‘Down These Mean Streets Contemporary France, 9 (2). Many Men Have Gone’ in The Times McLoone, Martin. 2000. Irish Film: the Saturday Review 20 February, p.5. Emergence of a Contemporary Cinema. ______. 1993. ‘Guest Appearance: The Boys London: British Film Institute. are Back in Town’ in The Guardian 7th Monk, Claire. 2000. 'Men in the 90s' in January, p.7. Murphy, Robert (Ed.) British Cinema of the Spicer, Andrew. 2001. Typical Men: The 90s. Representation of Masculinity in Popular Pettitt, Lance. 2004. ’“We're not fucking Eye- British Culture. I.B. Tauris. talians”: The Gangster Genre and Irish Stoneman, Rod. 2005. ‘The Sins of Cinema' in Barton, Ruth and O'Brien, Commission II’ in Screen, pp. 247-264. Harvey (Eds.) Keeping It Real: Irish Film and Television. London: Wallflower Press. Pfeil, Fred. 1996. White Guys: Studies in Postmodern Domination and Difference.

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Irish Cinema' in Hill, J., McLoone, M. and Hainsworth, P. (Eds.), Border Crossing: Film in Ireland, Britain and Europe. Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, pp.126- 139.

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Adam and Paul screenwriter(s) a vocalisation of characters’ otherwise undisclosed concerns, attitudes, Barry Monahan reactions and feelings. In this way, a theatrical externalisation through dialogue connects Taking their cue from comments made by spectators with characters intimately. Here, director Lenny Abrahamson, many reviewers however, this does not happen. The erratic, of Adam and Paul (2004) compared elements illogical or indecisive nature of many of the of the film’s style and content with the Laurel exchanges between Adam and Paul actually and Hardy series and Beckett’s Waiting for ironises the externalisation by rendering it Godot. In terms of characterisation and mood, pointless as they remain largely inaccessible to the similarities were so evident that few of the us. As an alternative, we are provided with journalistic critics ventured to assess the extent direct access to characters by another of the resemblances. Certainly, the minor cinematic device. The audience is granted segments of physical comedy pratfalls and certain limited proximity to Adam and Paul at dialogue non-sequiturs, and the gradual two moments of “internal focalization” emersion of the directionless protagonists into (Branigan, 2004, 103); firstly during the scene situations of epic and uncontrollable in which the perfect family tableau occurs with proportions echoed Henri Bergson’s notion of Janine and the “baba”, and later when they are the comic “snowball effect”, and justify the tripping. Any alignment with their point of 1 first comparison. Equally, the absurdity and view at these times is however fatally existential lack of purpose of the central undermined as we are not informed which of characters, their failure to act, their the characters is imagining or observing details vaudevillian routines and circular in these scenes. It seems at first that the taller conversations punctuated constantly by of the two is “seeing” the neon lights, the rhetorical questions, bear remarkable likeness cigarette packet and the half-eaten apple core to exchanges between Vladimir and Estragon on the bridge, but eye lines are not matched in in Godot. Even the bothersome stone in Paul’s a way that can positively confirm this. Our shoe – the impediment that inaugurates his separation from the “everyman” figures is also series of accidents – connects him with the maintained because we never learn from the continually suffering Estragon, the most diegetic evidence which of them is Adam and corporeal and physically cursed of Beckett’s which one Paul.2 While this offers an tramps. interesting alternative to the operations of the What becomes interesting once the star-system within mainstream genre cinema parallels have been suggested however, is the (the cast of the film were for the most part way in which Mark O’Halloran’s script – unknown Irish actors), it also counteracts the developed in collaboration with Abrahamson – sense of continuity across the Laurel and contemporises these earlier aesthetic and Hardy series, and the immediate audience structural moments for contemporary Irish identification with those personalities whose audiences, half a century after the first staging characters were Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, of En Attendant Godot in Paris. The both on and off screen. appropriation takes on a number of forms Although Dublin city can be identified which become useful in understanding how from a number of its iconographic and themes that are relevant for present-day Ireland architectural elements, the urban space is not may be voiced through universal paradigms. drawn upon to provide any sense of Irish The trope of the dual protagonist has locality or recognisable backdrop for precise appeared frequently in recent Irish cinema and geographical definition. Rather it is used as a while it provides another similarity to the texts narrative structuring device, containing the mentioned above, it also facilitates for the random addiction-motivated rambling of the protagonists as they move from one encounter 1. See Bergson’s “Le rire: essai sur la signification to another in search of their next ‘score’. du comique”, Paris: Presses Universitaires de Adam and Paul are the ultimate post-modern France, 1940, alternatively a translated version is available on the web under the title: “Laughter: an Essay on the Meaning of the Comic” at 2. It is not until the closing credits that audiences http://www.templeofearth.com/books/laughter.pdf . can positively identify the characters, but even then only if familiar with the actors.

168 flâneurs; but their aimlessness does not while the others suffered? Am I sleeping provide for a positive connection with the now?...” (Beckett, 1990, 84) expresses the urban space. Rather, they become socially absurdity of existence, but it implicitly guards alienated, detached and disoriented, and their Didi’s self-awareness as a positive quality. failure to feel at home everywhere (as does the Adam and Paul’s utter inability to consider modern flâneur) marks the futility and their existence in such terms, is played out absurdity of their existence. Although exterior through repeated references to Bulgaria. When spaces in the film are framed as an inversion of Paul first discovers that Adam’s coat is “Made the “homely” – an expressionistic rendering of in Bulgaria”, he says that he feels “sorry for the Unheimlich3 – interiors are even more them”. As the music reflects the tonal unwelcoming and uninhabitable. In an ironic qualities, sound and rhythms of Eastern reversal, the city is depicted as “home-turned- European music, it aligns them with those they inside-out” when items of domesticity are consider to be worse off than they. Ultimately, incongruously scattered on the landscape: they are confronted directly with the question televisions, a mattress, a microwave oven and of self-awareness when they meet a Bulgarian fragments of furniture are among the objects refugee who has been criticising Dublin. that cross easily from private to public spaces. When Adam asks him “Why are you here, Nonetheless, the cold urban landscape still then?” he returns the question: “ ‘Why am I provides greater justification for the here?’ Did you ever ask yourself the same characters’ existence than any of the interior question?” Incapable of considering an answer spaces depicted. The greasy café, the that would demand self-analysis, their next convenience shop, the “boring” materialistic exchange is reminiscent of Beckett: domesticity of Janine’s “cleaned-up” flat, and Adam: Come on! the grimy pub that is appropriately named Paul: Where? “The Coal Bunker”, are places in which Adam Adam: Just move! and Paul are shown to be utterly ill-at-ease. It is through the inversion of expectations The characters are never granted the void of inside and outside spaces, placing Adam and of cyclical purgatory of Didi and Gogo in a Paul as social outcasts, that the film dramatises narrative sense, because the addictive cycle our – and society’s – distance from them. The that suppresses them is rendered in a linear plot film thus comments on contemporary society structure. At the beginning of the film, a rack by excluding it from the picture. By removing focus positions them on either side of the two it, making it abject, it is associated with the distant power station towers in Ringsend, condition of the characters, implicating those geographically placing them somewhere absent, passive and apathetic parties of Celtic (unidentified) on the South West suburbs of Tiger Ireland in the on-screen situation by the city. Their journey ends when the final virtue of their absence, passivity and apathy. camera angle allows us sight of only one tower The unconquerable potency of their (the other is directly behind it) as Paul – now addiction is ultimately dramatised when, on alone – awakens from his drugged sleep. discovering that his friend is dead, Paul shrugs Unlike Beckett’s characters, who suffer from an historical amnesia that undermines their his shoulders, reflects for a moment and then 4 leaves, only to return after a pause to collect ability to construct a future, Adam and Paul’s the remaining bag of heroine from Adam’s future is bound to their briefly narrated past, pockets. The tragedy is sustained because they and the death of their friend Matthew. are never granted the moment of personal Evidently inevitably, after Adam’s demise, for enlightenment or self-realisation that Vladimir Paul it is only a matter of time. is given in the second act of Waiting for Godot. 4. Declan Kiberd has written in detail about The monologue that begins “Was I sleeping, Beckett’s characters’ relationship to their past, and he mentions specifically Estragon: “As a victim of a 3. In his writing on the “Uncanny”, Freud history which he does not understand, Gogo must emphasised the importance of the knowable deal with every situation as if it were a wholly new qualities, characteristics and aspects necessarily event.” (1996, 539) embedded within the unfamiliarity of the Unheimlich in order for it to maintain its horror. Dr. Barry Monahan lectures in Irish, See Nicholas Royle for a good explanation of this, European and early-American cinema at (Royle, 2003) Trinity College, Dublin. He has published 169 articles on Irish film history and contemporary Irish cinema, and is currently researching work by Abbey Theatre players and repertoire writers on screen.

Works Cited Beckett, Samuel. 1990. The Complete Dramatic Works, London: Faber and Faber. Branigan, Edward. 2004. Narrative Comprehension and Film, London, New York: Routledge. Kiberd, Declan. 1996. Inventing Ireland: The Literature of the Modern Nation, London: Vintage. Royle, Nicholas. 2003. The Uncanny: an introduction, Manchester: Manchester U. P.

Adam and Paul (Irl, 2004) Director: Leonard (Lenny) Abrahamson Writer: Mark O’Halloran Cast (Principal): Tom Murphy, Mark O’Halloran, Louise Lewis, Paul Roe, Ion Caramitru Cinematography: James Mather Music: Stephen Rennicks Producers: Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe

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The Trouble With Sex dependent mother Rosie (Susan Fitzgerald) is kept within the confines of a nursing home. Emma Grealy Here we encounter the first in the series of contrasting value systems. Traditional Ireland Shot in twenty-eight days, Fintan Connolly’s promotes family engagement and privileges The Trouble with Sex (2005) is a brash attempt local community while ‘New Ireland’ abuses at dealing with the formerly taboo subject of society for its own profitable gains. Michelle sex as a central subject in contemporary Irish ignores the street busker while Conor gives cinema. Paradoxically however, more results him change, Michelle dances with Conor’s in less. As was the case with the director’s father to console herself rather than out of need feature debut, Flick (2000), which focused for affection. Michelle seeks out Conor for primarily on the similarly under-exposed sexual gratification while he expresses subject of drug-dealing, the overt affection that is more genuine. Therein lies the representation of sexuality in the film thwarts proposed subtext of the film: the reversal of plot development, severs audience-character roles. The dominant male role has shifted as identification and limits the film’s narrative seen in the emasculation of Michelle. She is potential. The film vacillates between modes forced to reconfigure her femininity under the of melodrama and avant-gardism, unsure what heavy costuming of a male business suit for kind of film it is. It isn’t the serious exploration capitalist success and consequently substitutes of the boundaries of the screened sexual act sex for emotional engagement, which Conor seen in recent boundary-pushing engagements recognises during the break-up scene. While like Michael Winterbottom’s 9 Songs (2004) Conor unreservedly demands commitment, and Patrice Chereau’s Intimacy (2001) because Michelle, seeming to be speaking as a medium the sex scenes are perfunctory and banal. But for a modern mores, accuses him of naivety. neither is it a compelling romance; the Of course this is exactly the case as Conor characters fail to elicit any emotive response guards a more traditional morality which he from the viewer. makes known to Michelle on their first date, While Connolly claims sex in the film ‘Mid-thirties male seeks similar, no time- serves as a pivotal theme from which a wasters please’. relationship emerges (Shields 2005: 12); The film’s reliance on contrast is also promoting the film primarily as a love story, exploited in its cinematography. Director the film is better interpreted as an exploration Fintan Connolly has claimed that Caravaggio of the dilemma that ‘New Ireland’ faces. The and Edward Hopper inspired the visual meeting of Michelle (Renée Weldon), the character of the film (Shields 2005: 14), successful corporate lawyer and symbol of however its visual style is also highly New Ireland and Conor (Aidan Gillen), the reminiscent of Todd Haynes’s Far From anachronistic male anchored by loyalty to his Heaven (2002) and, in turn, Douglas Sirk’s All heritage, reveals a disparity between the two That Heaven Allows (1955). Cinematographer value systems. How can ‘New Ireland’ Owen McPolin draws on a palate of red, blue, reconcile itself with its traditional counterpart, black and white that function as codas for given this disparity? In this guise, the desire, contentment, death and loneliness characters therefore must reconcile their sexual respectively. Harsh, clinical lighting floods attraction to each other and their contrasting bedroom scenes for the first half of the film attitudes towards relationships. Perhaps a awaiting Conor and Michelle’s liaison to narrow foundation for a feature film, transfer from detached sexual encounter to nonetheless, this brings about a tug of war of emotional engagement, consequently warming contrasting representations. bleached white lighting to that of autumnal While the character of Michelle embodies yellow. Again the film depends on clear Ireland’s current engagement with capitalism parallels to fuse the transition from isolation to and the edicts of consumerism, Conor is stifled solidarity. In heightened contrast to bedroom by a sense of responsibility, the burden of scenes, Flynn’s bar, Conor’s environment, is a tradition and attendant frustration. He remains crypt of red walls covered in pictures of figures working in his family’s bar in order to care for of the 1916 Rising, thus chastising desire with his father (Eamon Morrissey), the caricatured images of sacrifice and solidifying Conor’s drunken, Irish male, while Michelle’s equally position as frustrated anachronism. Both 171 characters are also used as dual signifiers to Work Cited signpost narrative direction, a point most Shields, Paula. 2005. ‘Sex on a Low Budget’, obviously seen towards the close of the film Film Ireland, Dublin, May-June, 12. with the death of Conor’s father. This sequence of shots first shows Michelle in full black dress then cuts to Conor attempting to wake his The Trouble With Sex (Irl, 2005) father in bed. This is followed by a shot of Director: Fintan Connelly. Conor carrying the coffin at the funeral which Writer: Fintan Connelly, Catriona McGowan. cuts to Conor and Michelle’s chance meeting, Cast (Principal): Renee Weldon, Aiden Gillan, both dressed in formal black clothing, and Susan Fitzgerald, Declan Conlon, Darrah finally consolidating the sequence with the Kelly, Eamonn Morrisey. closing shot of the film where both characters Cinematographer: Owen McPolin. are in bed together. Music: Niall Byrne. Such a denouement obviously gives Producer: Fiona Bergin. symmetry to the piece as the closing shot returns to the opening of Michelle’s face, the lighting having changed from a hostile blue to sensual red, the implied argument being that Michelle is now a content, emotional participant in her relationship whereas previously she was disenchanted as a result of her connection to her adulterous boyfriend Ivan. In terms of the clash of ‘New Ireland’ and its traditional counterpart the film proposes a meek compromise: Conor sells his pub and thus all vestiges of his past in an attempt to engage with ‘New Ireland’ in the form of his relationship with Michelle and one would assume a new career. Michelle has empathised with Conor over the death of his father thus reflecting ‘New Ireland’s’ lament for the past. However, it is a fundamentally conservative conclusion, promoting monogamous heterosexual coupling above all, re-affirming the film’s uninspiring exploration of the contemporary Irish relationship- drama.

Emma Grealy is currently completing a Masters in Film Studies at University College Dublin.

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Pure Mule some way offer expressive possibilities for a Tony Tracy changed condition of Irishness. So successful have these series been in In any year ‘Pure Mule’ would be a significant critical and audience terms, one is tempted to achievement. That it received 8 IFTA suggest that a majority of development energy nominations in 2005 – winning 5 – speaks for and production finance should be directed to itself about its place in the televisual landscape this sector. The recurring presence of a group of the past 12 months. RTÉ, through its of individuals (actors, directors, producers) and Independent Production Unit (IPU) – as well production companies suggests that some have as a number of in-house productions – has now made just that decision, with Accomplice and made several years of television drama worth Grand Pictures in particular notable for their talking about, breaking a long and arid period cultivation of talent.2 At the very least a new of inactivity. Produced by ‘Accomplice TV’ and exciting space for audiovisual expression (producers David Collins and Ed Guiney, who has been opened up, which can confidently and also made ‘Bachelor’s Walk’), ‘Pure Mule’ is successfully compete with content from the US testimony to an impressively courageous and the UK in way that feature films in strategy of development by the IPU which has theatrical release find much more difficult. been responsible for a number of similarly ‘Pure Mule’, is arguably the most interesting, if not always as successful, projects artistically ambitious production to date; a over the past 5 years. stylish and confident amplification of themes ‘Pure Mule’s 6 hours of prime-time and setting found in a second textual television (6 x 52 min episodes) can be located precedent: writer Eugene O Brien’s play within two textual precedents. The first is a ‘Eden’. I saw this on its original Abbey tour in growing confidence in the production of 2001 and the clarity of its vision, television drama alluded to above which has characterisation and writing left an indelible resulted in mini-series as varied as ‘Any Time impression. Don Wycherley, who would soon Now’, ‘Bachelors Walk’ (3 series), ‘Love is after come to widespread attention in the Drug’, ‘Paths of Glory’, ‘Fergus’ Wedding’ ‘Bachelor’s Walk’, played opposite Catherine and ‘Showbands’. The primary target audience Walsh in a two-sided monologue between a for these programmes is the much sought-after married couple on in their 30s. Set – or at least 15-34 demographic, central to advertising inspired by – O’Brien’s native Edenderry, Co spend. In reality, they have come from the pens Offaly, the play’s title brought a degree of of middle-class programme makers in their 30s anonymity and therefore generality to the and bear the concerns and perspectives of the story’s setting, a painful and at times painfully 1 pre M50 generation. With the exception of the funny, meditation on married life in a small, ‘retro’ Showbands, these shows in various claustrophobic and unequivocally post- ways have attempted to depict a (post)modern lapsarian Irish country town. Like his fellow Ireland, located in the narrative ‘interstice’ emerging Irish playwriters, Conor McPherson between the immediacy (and production (who directed the Abbey stage production of values) of soap opera and universalising ‘Eden’) and Mark O’Rowe (‘Howie the tendency of cinema. Taken as a whole, we can Rookie’, ‘Made in China’), O’Brien adopted trace lineaments of concern in these series. the monologue form to give vent to character’s These would include a preference for the secret lives, exposing an agonizing gulf comic mode (although this is often tainted by a between public and private identities that bitter-sweet melancholia or satire); an attempt bordered on schizophrenic.3 Like O’Rowe and to locate the fault-lines of a culture in McPherson O’Brien’s world was resolutely transition; discomfort with changing social male – even when it offered a female voice - values among small communities of focussed around alcohol, frustrated sexual characters; and an interest in representing the ‘new spaces’ of Irish life – apartments, 2. As this article was going to press this analysis landmarks and construction sites – as if they in took a particular twist with news that Mary Callery, the commissioning editor of drama series for RTE, 1.The M50 is the perimeter road on the west of had left the broadcaster to join independent Dublin which began construction in the early production company Parallel Films. 1990s. 173 ambition and self-loathing. It made for dark narrative voice. Visually, the cinematograph and exhilarating viewing. of Owen McPolin puts the look of the series on ‘Pure Mule’ revisits similar territory – a par with many feature films. Among some characters and situations bear similarities McPolin’s credits are Showbands, Headrush to ‘Eden’ – giving voice and dimension to a and Flick, all of which featured photography of broader group of characters from an unnamed a rich and atmospheric quality, not quite small town. Neither rural nor urban this in- painterly or formal but far from social realism. between place is reminiscent of contemporary There is an expressive quality to his lighting Ireland at large – part of an amorphous sub- and composition which, in this instance, adds urban sprawl, caught between paradigms of flourishes of formal beauty to landscapes (the community, values and the social politics of much maligned midlands) and settings (the space. The use of locations are expressive of building site in particular) normally this see-saw identity: with the fulcrum of the unexplored and unacknowledged. The overall pub sitting between domestic interiors of effect is one of heightened realism, reflecting traditional Ireland (one of which houses the the alcohol-addled adventures of the painfully poignant figure of a middle-aged characters’ weekends. mother with Alzheimer’s) and a new housing If the series represents a community in estate which remains under construction for the transition the grounding preoccupation of entire series. The characters of ‘Pure Mule’ ‘Pure Mule’ lies in Ireland’s Catholic past. Its move physically and imaginatively back and creators and character are obsessed with sex forth between these spaces; confused and often and heterosexual union. The pub dominates as blind, they stagger (mostly literally) between the locus of interaction but only as a pretext, past and future, between the confines of through the anaesthesia of alcohol, to sexual tradition and the new promise of consumerist seduction. One of the series’ central characters, plenty. Scobie, is a builder during the week and rough- While many recent Irish films seem more hewn Casanova on the weekends, one minute properly suited to television than the big screen excited about the possibility of experiencing a in ambition and technique, ‘Pure Mule’ opens ‘real-life porn movie’, and later seducing his a space for a hybrid format. Showing the now married babysitter. He is also depicted influence of a structuring trend popular in US considering or engaged in masturbation on independent cinema (Magnolia, Night on several occasions. Male fantasy, desperation Earth, Crash, Traffic) and a commitment to and immaturity dominate the sexual agenda writing development found in some of the best with the three lead female characters of ‘Pure American television (The Sopranos) it allows Mule’ responding to that agenda to a greater or individual characters a separate episode lesser extent. The sexual politics of the series (‘Shamie’, ‘Kevin’, ‘Scobie’. . .) to shape the are its most compelling aspect – indeed there is point of view (offering ‘multiple focalisation’) little else – but they remain stubbornly of six weekends from Friday evening to predictable after a number of episodes. There Monday morning, while maintaining a broader is an underlying fixation with sexual repression communal canvas. The plurality of by the writer, with only a cursory interest in perspectives links the series with similar any larger dimension of modern Irish life. The cinematic narratives, allowing each episode to decision by Jennifer - the one female character stand alone while being part of a whole, while who is single and in no great hurry to get ‘her the generous length of the overall ‘story’ man’ - to re-emigrate at the end of the series facilitates a developing, complex and often (having returned from Australia at the unresolved set of relationships. Furthermore beginning), might be read not only as an this allows for a welcome balancing of gender inability to function within the crushingly dull, perspectives; three male, three female. Of if recently ‘liberated’, confines of small town course, this structure conforms to many sexuality but equally, on a meta-textual level, definitions of post-modern narrative in its in the drama that it has given rise to. polyphony and weakening of a central If elements of drink-filled ‘Pure Mule’ sound stereotypical and limited it’s because 3. A crises of language is inherent in O’Brien’s they are. What lifts them above familiarity and vision or, more properly, a crises of communication gives the series cultural resonance and in which language is opaque or deceiving. relevance is the quality of the writing and 174 uniformly excellent performances. There are Pure Mule (Irl, 2005) no actors named in the opening credits, no stars identified as central and few of the more Directors: Charlie McCarthy, Declan Recks Screenplay: Lauren Mackenzie (story), Eugene familiar faces of the Irish acting world here. O’Brien. Ireland has an almost baffling abundance of Cast (Principal): Garret Lombard, Tom acting talent, and all here breath life and soul Murphy, Luke Griffin, Eileen Walsh, Gary into their characters lifting them well beyond the types that they are inspired by and could so Lydon, Dawn Bradfield. easily be reduced to. Eileen Walsh, Dawn Cinematography: Owen McPolin Music: Mundy, Stephen Rennicks Bradfield and Tom Murphy deservedly took Producers: David Collins, Ed Guiney, Mary awards for acting at this years IFTAs but the Callery (executive, RTE) whole cast deserve credit for the nuance, complexity and depth of their performances. It was this collective presentation of flawed, confused, unremarkable and often unattractive characters that formed a strong bond with Irish audiences, so far from GAP-styled vacuity of Friends and similar sit-coms. Of course, ‘Pure Mule’ lapsed into sentimentality and cliché on occasion, and although it ignored many issues and characters that have come to make up contemporary Ireland, it sought to offer viewers an infrequently realised, though widely familiar vista of a culture still mired in the twin preoccupations of sex and drink. In this concern it showed itself to be as much a product of its time as of imagination. ‘Pure Mule’ aired over 6 weeks in September/October 2005. As for the title, it is explained in the publicity for the series thus: 'Pure Mule' can be positive or negative – 'went out, long queue, shite beer, no craic, walked home in the rain on me own, it was ‘Pure Mule’' or 'went out, straight in, no kissin', loadsa drink and scored big time, it was ‘Pure 4 Mule’'. It all depends on the intonation. Tony Tracy is Associate Director of the Huston School of Film and Digital Media, National University of Ireland, Galway.

4. http://www.rte.ie/tv/puremule/ (Accessed: November 4, 2005)

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Fair City and deaths, windfalls and debts, rows and reconciliations, but there often seemed to be Helena Sheehan insufficient reason why. It has often seemed to be soap opera by the numbers. There was a sense of a yawning gap in the Although most characters were supposed picture of Irish society emerging from RTE to be of working class origins, not many were drama ever since the demise of Tolka Row wage labourers and they worked primarily in (1964-1968). For the next two decades, there the local businesses. It often seemed that was talk of the need for a new urban serial. Carrigstown was more like a 1950s rural When RTE announced Fair City in its autumn village than a 1990s city. Everybody lived in schedule for 1989, it was at the centre of each other’s pockets and knew each other’s anticipation. Much effort and major investment business. This was soap opera convention, but had gone into its development. it was not urban life. The opening sequence evoked Dublin with As the years moved on, Fair City evolved. an aerial overview of the city. The pilot opened By 2001 it was going out 4 nights a week. The with a succession of breakfast scenes in a new opening sequence in 2005 is a stylish number of houses with a running thread of evocation of the tiger city, showing the Luas, various characters commenting on the story on the boardwalks, the cafe bars, but also the old the front of the Northside People featuring the flats, terraced houses and fruit stalls. It is the first anniversary of the local community look of a city that has come up in the world, as enterprise centre. As the day went on, these indeed it has. It shows too in the characters. characters all converged on this centre. In They are less downtrodden, but not fabulously between there was much happening: people rich, reflecting the rising tide lifting many (if coming and going, phone messages being not all) boats. conveyed, characters gossiping about other It has come to have more of a feel of the characters, rows about relationships and city about it with characters moving through money. There were a flurry of reviews and a the larger city, although there are still too vox-pop on the streets of Dublin. The many of them who own and work in local consensus was that it had got off to a frenetic businesses. Suzanne and Sarah went to start, that it was not clear who was doing what university. Location shooting opens out into and why, but that it should be given a chance. shopping centres, night clubs, city streets. The pace slowed somewhat, sometimes to There is also more of a sense of the wider the point of the pedestrian. All sorts of things world in the way the script refers outwards were tried, but the audience fell and the critics even when the cameras don’t go there, became harsher. Inside RTE, there was although it is intermittent and it varies with consternation, but also commitment to do scriptwriters. Sergei, a Russian immigrant, whatever it took to fix it. Sometimes it seemed even gave the locals a lecture on perestroika. that the desperation to make it better only Suzanne arrived back home from Borneo to made it worse. It was trying too hard to be scrutinise Carrigstowners on their use of fair something without being too sure what that trade products. Kay and Charlie, like much of something was. It was too bitty. There was too the rest of the world, read and discussed The much happening for too little reason. It was too Da Vinci Code. imitative. It was looking too much to The no politics or religion rule of earlier Eastenders and not enough to contemporary years is no longer in force, although there is Dublin. still a certain caution in dealing with politics By the end of first series, the centre was and the north is an area that is avoided. Now burnt down and characters had to find politicians are regular characters. They belong alternative employment. The emphasis was to “the party”, which is never named, but is more on personal relationships and less on unmistakably Fianna Fail. There have been community activities. All through the series references, even if only in passing, to the there has been much recycling of soap opera tribunals and the political corruption exposed clichés: much pairing and triangulating, long in them. Sometimes there have been storylines lost parents and children, rape, abortion, that situate the local community and its kidnapping, sexual harassment, blackmail, characters in relation to power and property, murder. There were comings and goings, births such as those about the closure of the local 176 library, a pirate radio station, a rent strike and a as a teacher in ruins, but he was questioned by proposal to re-site the homeless shelter. the Gardaí and the case was forwarded for An important story reflecting the evolving prosecution. relationship of Ireland to the politics of the The norms of sexual morality have shifted wider world was the entry of a refugee into dramatically in both soap opera and society. Carrigstown. Ashti was a Kurdish teacher who The dominant point of view in how Eoghan’s fled to Ireland, feeling caught between the character was constructed was that he was a Turkish authorities and those in armed struggle person of high moral character, whereas those against them. At first, the only work he could who messed with him were not. On abortion, find was selling The Big Issues on the streets there have been several stories. Niamh became of Dublin. It highlighted the difficult lives pregnant by Leo and went to England to do asylum seekers left behind, in this case what many Irish women have done, without including torture, the ruthlessness of those who much soul searching. A more maturely profiteered on their transit and the suspicions explored and morally nuanced story came surrounding them on arrival. when Kay and Malachy, who treated the news Characters represent interesting of pregnancy with joy, found themselves on dimensions of contemporary Ireland. Although the horns of an agonising ethical and emotional they rarely articulate any sort of ideological dilemma after the amniocentesis. The child self-consciousness, they nevertheless embody would be severely disabled. With great regret, a number of ideological positions. Nicola Kay went to England and had an abortion. Prendergast is an excellent embodiment of the Malachy could not accept it. The edgy painful yuppie mentality, while other characters give relationship between them after it was dealt occasional expression to a social critique to the with in a protracted and sophisticated way. left: Charlie Kelly, Tara McCann, Malachy For most of the time, the characters live Costello and Barry O’Hanlon. Older characters their lies outside the norms of Catholic sexual represent traditionalist Ireland in a society not morality with very little in the way of moral very respectful of its traditions in a more and discourse about it. The adulterous affair more confused way. Mary O’Hanlon, now between Dolores in an advanced stage of dead, was closer to the Irish mothers who pregnancy with Frank in the house doing work populated earlier serials. Eunice Phelan’s mind on new baby’s nursery pushed at the is a dustbin of contradictory half-baked ideas, boundaries of transgression. So too was Billy’s mixing old-fashioned Catholicism with tarot view that “sex is a commodity to be sold like cards, horoscopes, reincarnation and celebrity anything else”. The steamy liason between gossip. Sorcha, a secondary school teacher, and her The women have been relatively liberated. pupil Ross, the object of her daughter’s desire, They might not all have glamorous careers, but went far into the breach. they do a day’s work, even if it is working Fair City has tacitly tracked the behind the counter of a pub, sandwich bar or secularisation of Irish society. It is assumed corner shop. Going against gender stereotypes that most of the characters are Catholic, but it in their jobs were Robin, a car mechanic, Tess, impacts little on their lives. The first time a a taxi driver and Karl, a male nanny. priest entered Carrigstown as a core character The kinds of relationships explored have was when Malachy Costello appeared on leave been more various. Inter-racial romance might from the foreign missions. He was one of those raise a few eyebrows, but first Nicola and Ben priests who believed that they belonged with and now Louise and Joshua go with it. Gay the poor and oppressed. He became involved in Pride too came to Carrigstown. Eoghan Healy a relationship to Kay McCoy and eventually first appeared as a DCU student, working his became laicised and married. It was not way through university. Carrigstown took it in happily ever after. He could not settle into its stride when he came out. He subsequently private domesticity or confine his role in the became a teacher in the local school. He took community to being a publican. He still felt a up with Andrew, a fellow teacher, who had a sense of vocation and a pull to those struggling partner dying of aids, who wanted help to die. from below. He has devoted much of his time Andrew would not do so, but Eoghan did. to running a shelter for the homeless. Simon’s relatives denounced Eoghan in a The issue of clerical sexual abuse came to crowded school hall. Not only was his career the fore in special episodes. The serial in 177 recent years has broken from genre convention Dr Helena Sheehan, senior lecturer in the from time to time to deal with storylines which School of Communications at Dublin City foreground a whole set of new characters and University, is author of Marxism and the background the regular ones. These episodes Philosophy of Science: A Critical History dealt with a troubled victim, his family, his (1985), Irish Television Drama: A Society and abuser and priests on both sides of the debate Its Stories (1987) and The Continuing Story of about how the church should deal with it. A Irish Drama: Tracking the Tiger (2004). Her Killarney priest made Fair City the subject of courses on TV drama can be found at his homily, upset that the serial had portrayed a www.coms.dcu.ie/sheehanh/tv/tvdrama.htm priest breaking the seal of the confessional. The health service was at the centre of drama in another special, but it needed to be a lot more extras to convey how bad conditions were in the Mater hospital Accident & Emergency. This is not Dublin in the rare old times. It is not the fair city of fish mongers, of cockles and mussels, alive-alive-o. No, this is a Dublin of hotmail and health clubs, of sex in the city, of clubbing and cocaine, of refugees and racism, of crime and compassion, of poverty and property, of books and websites and universities. These Dubliners live in a new millennium, a multicultural milieu. They are open to its possibilities. These are the descendants of Molly Malone.

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Mickybo and Me and The Mighty Celt is coupled with a very real threat of danger. As they find a real gun loaded with ammunition, Pádraic Whyte the unpredictability of the boys’ behaviour heightens the tension of the film as Mickybo Although Mickybo and Me (2005) and The asserts ‘People don’t slobber at you when Mighty Celt (2005) initially appear to have you’ve got a gun’. As they ward off the older much in common by representing both images bullies, their naive understanding of the power of the conflict in Northern Ireland and of a gun, shaped by their surroundings and concepts of childhood, the films differ their cinema-going, causes them to make an enormously in their treatment of such issues. easy transition from the world of childhood While Mickybo and Me offers the spectator a play into the realm of armed violence. predominantly complex representation of Throughout the film, rather than portraying an childhood experience, The Mighty Celt adult nostalgia for childhood, Loane suggests succumbs to clichéd and stereotypical images that children can be just as dangerous and cruel of both childhood and Northern Ireland. as adults. Set in Belfast in the summer of 1970, However, the complexities of the text are Mickybo and Me is an adaptation of Owen undermined by the over-sentimentalised final McCafferty’s 1998 play Mojo-Mickybo and sequence which shows an adult Mickybo follows the story of two boys, Jonjo (9) and sitting in a pub while reading a letter from his Mickybo (8), one Protestant and the other now estranged friend Jonjo. The concluding Catholic. Inspired by a viewing of Butch lines contain the phrase ‘let the children be Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the boys adopt children’, conforming to stereotypes of the personas of the two anti-heroes and childhood innocence, a trope which dominates imagine that Belfast is their own Dodge city. The Mighty Celt. After believing they could be implicated in the Written and directed by Pearse Elliott, The death of Old Barney, the boys go on the run, Mighty Celt offers a representation of ‘Post- hoping to reach Australia. The strength of the Troubles’ Northern Ireland. The narrative film lies in the foregrounding of comic centres on a thirteen year old boy, Donal, who childhood adventures in the narrative, leaving works with greyhounds. He makes a deal with the violent sectarian conflict in the background Joe (Ken Stott), the owner of the kennels, that but always within sight. The atrocities of the if his dog (the Might Celt) wins three races, ‘Troubles’ are clearly represented and Donal (Tyrone McKenna) will get to keep the continually act as an impending threat to the dog for himself. However, Joe abuses the dog, boys’ games, but (until the end of the film) do reneges on his promise, and kills the Mighty not distract from the friendship of the two, Celt. which is the central focus of the narrative. This The film contains a great performance is evident when Jonjo is woken by bomb blasts from Gillian Anderson as Donal’s single in the middle of the night, as his main concern mother Kate and most of the humorous is with the welfare of his friend rather than the moments derive from Kate and O’s (Robert wider political implications of the violence. Carlyle) awkwardly comic interactions. Ultimately, the violent conflict in Belfast However, Elliott’s script lacks any depth or provides them with an even greater opportunity complexity and is laboriously episodic as the to re-enact scenes from Butch Cassidy and the narrative repeats cliché after cliché. This is Sundance Kid, to brandish guns, rob banks, mixed with a failed attempt at humour as a and escape from the police. Writer and director series of “bum-bandit” jokes uncomfortably Terry Loane establishes a comic tone to these align paedophilia and homosexuality. This capers, particularly in the climactic escape repetition is also evident in many of the themes sequence as the two boys decide to risk all and and images as the audience are saturated with jump into the sea. The scene is then quickly simplistic semiotics, with the result that the juxtaposed with a shot of Jonjo and Mickybo climactic confrontation scene lacks any dripping wet and seated in the back of a Garda dramatic tension. car, comically establishing that despite all their It is quickly established that while Kate bravado, their adventurous plan has failed. worships the memory of her brother, a member However, Loane never over- of the IRA who was killed during the sentimentalises the characters and this humour ‘Troubles’, she does not support any form of 179 continued violence. However, Elliott feels the Mickeybo and Me (Irl, 2005) need to repeat this argument ad nauseam. This issue eventually culminates toward the end of Director: Terry Loane Writer: Terry Loane, Owen McCafferty the film when an offer to give Joe a Cast (Principal): John Joe O’Neill, Niall punishment beating is emphatically declined. Wright, Julie Walters, Ciaran Hinds, Adrian Joe is represented as an evil two-dimensional Dunbar, Gina McKee, Susan Lynch. character that wishes to perpetuate violence and is established as a Northern Cruella De Cinematography: Roman Osin Vil, lacking any sense of complexity. As a Music: Stephen Warbeck Producers: Mark Huffam, Mike McGeagh result, Joe is aligned with butchering as he is repeatedly represented chopping meat for the dogs. The Mighty Celt (Irl, 2005) Similarly, while McKenna gives a good Director: Pearse Elliott performance as Donal, the child character is Writer: Pearse Elliot portrayed in sentimentally innocent terms as Cast (Principle): Gillian Anderson, Robert Elliott foregrounds the boy’s closeness to Carlyle, Ken Stott, Tyrone McKenna, animals and nature (in contrast to the violent Alison Finnegan and aggressive Joe). Such a technique Cinematography: dominates many children’s film from Lassie Music: Adrian Johnston Come Home (1943) to Fly Away Home (1996). Producer: Paddy Breathnach, Robert Walpole, However, as the audience are presented with a Paddy McDonald. plethora of shots of Donal bonding with the Mighty Celt, Elliot over-uses such a concept. As a result, by portraying simplistic binaries of good and evil, the film undermines the complexity of Peace Process culture in the North and adheres to stereotypical versions of both childhood and Northern Ireland.

Pádraic Whyte, an IRCHSS Government of Ireland Scholar, is studying for a PhD at Trinity College Dublin. His research examines film and literature for children in Ireland and he is currently the Secretary of The Irish Society for the Study of Children’s Literature.

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Man About Dog Man About Dog can be categorised as a “post cease-fire” film, whereby the North of Díóg O’Connell Ireland is used as a location backdrop with little exploration of politics in the story line Man About Dog (2004) is an Irish comedy- and almost no reference to the “Troubles”. In a caper-road-movie about three Northern wide- similar way to Accelerator (2000), Sunset boys who mange to get their hands on a prize- Heights (1998) and The Most Fertile Man in winning greyhound. They travel from North to Ireland (2001) the backdrop of Northern South in pursuit of their fortune chased by a Ireland is used to launch the narrative and big-shot greyhound breeder and a group of locate the story. While the premise of the plot Irish travelers, who are intent on claiming their may be linked to the “Troubles” or remnants of winnings. the conflict since the cease-fire, the central In the film many aspects of narrative dramatic theme is usually more universal and structure, theme and visual style that have often humanistic, less locally specific and 1 come to be identified with New Irish Cinema, rarely political, a characteristic of intersect, tracing key developments in Irish contemporary Irish writing that, on a surface cinema at large and in particular, the ongoing level, could take place ‘anywhere’.3 relationship between southern and Northern As Martin McLoone (2001) has argued, Ireland since the re-activation of Bord Scannan although many films set in Ireland since 1993 na hEireann/Irish Film Board in 1993. This are not necessarily political films, one can film reveals how identity politics and film engage with them in a political way, narratives have shifted significantly during this suggesting that far from being ideologically period, with the emphasis on the ‘national’ neutral, these films reveal a political nuance in being, in more recent times, eschewed. While its broadest sense. Whether as a reaction to the the discourse of national identity has served perceived notion of what an Irish film is or to Irish film well over a long period, providing a thirty years of political violence in Northern cogent methodology for examining Irish Ireland, recent Irish writers and directors are 2 cinema’s First Wave (1975-1989), off-shore increasingly appropriating the political and foreign productions over the past 30 years, situation in the North for comic purposes. The its value to the analysis of contemporary collective response among film-makers in indigenous film-making is less pronounced. Ireland, possibly reflecting a wider reaction to Film-makers in Ireland today appear less the cessation of political violence, is not to concerned with the exploration of national analyse and reflect through the medium of identity; contemporary Irish cinema reveals an film, but to laugh, creating a catharsis of relief identity formation that is more aligned to having finally discarded the fighting Irish mainstream popular culture relying on cultural stigma and stereotype that has sustained many universals rather than specificities. Where Irish film narratives. Comedy is the chosen identity is specific, it is at the level of method by southern film-makers to explore the consumer products that cross easily between Northern situation which often eclipses an national borders, mainstream cinema being one overtly political resonance. The record-setting of the dominant cultural underpinnings. Many box office receipts for Man About Dog, (€2.5 of the transformations in style and content million in Ireland, making it the highest within Irish film over the last decade or so can grossing Irish Film Board film since its re- be surveyed microscopically in the film Man activation in 1993) suggests that the domestic About Dog – illustrating developments in the macroscopic practices of New Irish Cinema at 3. While Irish producers / directors / screenwriters large. have not completely abandoned the “Troubles” as inspiration and story matter (Bogwoman (1997), 1.New Irish Cinema is a term Ruth Barton uses in Bloody Sunday (2002), A Further Gesture (1996), her book Irish National Cinema (2004) to describe Some Mother’s Son (1996), H3 (2001), Silent Irish cinema since the 1990s. Grace (2001), High Boot Benny (1993) Nothing 2. Off-shore productions refer to films made in Personal (1995) and The Boxer (1998)), these Ireland by foreign producers, principally US film- productions are being replaced by stories less makers. concerned with the political situation than using Northern Ireland as a location back-drop, since the dawn of the new millenium. 181 audience is responding favourably to this type popular culture, principally the movies, yet the of exploration. enduring spiritual and mythical resonance of Despite challenging the notion that a film has not been appropriated alongside the national cinema exists, in an article entitled iconography and visual style. “The Myth of an Irish Cinema”, Michael Thus the aesthetics, narratives and stories Gillespie (forthcoming 2006) states that ‘a film emerging since the re-activation of the Irish industry [in Ireland] does exist, but, from the Film Board in 1993 and since the cease-fire of beginning of the last century to the present, the 1994 reveal that Irish cinema is functioning efforts of foreign and national filmmakers have within a medium that combines an been indistinguishable from one another at international shape with national elements – every level of the production process’. His principally by integrating universal argument heralds a new way of examining (humanistic), global approaches to narrative Irish films like Man About Dog and those and theme while firmly rooting their elemental mentioned above that eschew and reject the expression to a local and often idiosyncratic parameters of national identity as a framing milieu. Seeking the ‘Irishness’ in Man About device. What he suggests is that now is the Dog and other films of this era as Gillespie time to shift focus, to look for the ‘Irishness’ in suggests, reveals a characteristic Irish humour, these films rather than claiming them as ‘Irish’. identifiable local actors and recognisable Certainly, looking for the ‘Irishness’ in Man locations. Far from making films that might About Dog poses a challenge. Firstly, the travel to an international market through their viewer must sieve through the ‘Americaness’ universal themes (such as the pursuit of a of the film which is much more overt. dream, of love, of ambition for example), it Referencing popular culture is not a new appears that this combination is addressed to a phenomenon in film but appears to be a domestic audience. These films tell stories that trademark of recent Irish film (When Brendan are structured within a mainstream American met Trudy, Kieron J. Walsh 2001). In Man narrative combined with strong local resonance About Dog, the references span a whole range and inflection, thus suggesting that identity in of mainstream films from Mad Max (1979) to Irish film is still a live issue and pertinent to Pulp Fiction (1994), either through deliberate cinema analysis. However, identity occurs at appropriation or straightforward self- the level of affiliation to products of popular reflexivity. culture – American generic film, and not Irish While the iconography of the “Troubles” history and politics – yet the comic and has not been left behind – murals, west Belfast, dramatic references in Man About Dog are isolated farms – the American road movie culturally specific and far from universal. dominates with its symbols of isolated diners While shaking off some of the domineering and gas stations against a ‘sublime’ landscape devices of the past, Irish cinema has still many which evoke notions of rootlessness and contradictions to work out. Man About Dog aimlessness. Just as the road movie is often reveals New Irish Cinema’s capacity for the associated with male existential angst, Man task and suggests that identity politics is a About Dog complies by satisfying the much more complex framework for analysis expectation of a restive and recuperative than the national dimension would suggest. function. The purpose of the road movie is to allow the character travel, and as Baudrillard Dr. Díóg O’Connell lectures at the Institute of suggests, the thrill of travelling to different Art, Design & Technology, Dún Laoghaire in places is the realisation of immortality rather film and media. She was recently awarded a than revelation through experience. Travelling, doctorate from DCU for her study of narrative by freeing the character from the social, puts strategies in contemporary Irish cinema. him/her on a different plane and thus evokes a spiritual dimension, a central tenet of the Works Cited American road movie. However, this reconfiguration of the journey as a mythical Barton, Ruth. (2004) Irish National Cinema. voyage is notably absent from the recent spate Routledge. of Irish road movies (I Went Down (1997), Gibbons, Luke; Hill, John & Rockett, Kevin. Accelerator). Clearly, identity in these recent (1987) Cinema & Ireland. Routledge Irish films is constructed by reference to 182

McLoone, Martin. (2001) Irish Film: The Emergence of Contemporary Cinema. Indiana University Press. Gillespie, Michael. (2006) “The Myth of an Irish Cinema” in Sionnach (Irish Studies Journal), Creighton University Press.

Man About Dog (Irl, 2005) Director: Paddy Breathnach Screenplay: Pearse Elliot Cinematography: Cian de Buitléar Cast (Principal): Allen Leach, Ciaran Nolan, Tom Murphy, Sean McGinley, Pat Shortt,

Fionnula Flanagan Music: Stephen Rennicks Producers: Simon Channing-Williams, Robert Walpole.

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Documentary Film and Television independent Mint Productions, was a chronicle of the life and career of one of the country’s Harvey O’Brien most controversial political figures, former The year 2005 was a significant one for Irish Taoiseach Charles J. Haughey. Though a major documentary, marking the release of one of the political force throughout much of his career, most important non-fiction films ever seen on including the early days of Irish television the island. Unfortunately, it was actually made when his desire to control his representation in 1968. The re-release of Peter Lennon’s led to a clash between the national broadcaster, Rocky Road to Dublin marked the climax of RTÉ, and the government led by his father-in- years of struggle for this disgracefully law Séan Lemass, Haughey went down in neglected film. Made in a whirlwind of camera flames in the 1990s with a series of scandalous stylo with the help of American financier revelations surrounding the misuse of State Victor Herbert and acclaimed nouvelle vague resources. Though the immediate storm had cameraman Raoul Coutard, Lennon’s long passed by 2005, the series promised an avowedly personal, angry assault on the important insight into a figure whose life stagnation of the Irish nation under the twin exemplified many of the darkest aspects of yokes of Church and State was both twentieth century Irish politics. In the event, condemned and repressed on its original though it drew the highest ever viewing figures release. for a documentary on Irish television, the Shown at the Cannes Film Festival in series did little more than present a basic 1968 but only reluctantly screened at the Cork historical overview, never quite probing the Film Festival the same year, the film received dark heart of the subject or of the nation itself. only limited distribution in Ireland until 2005. The Asylum, meanwhile, was a sensitive Its strident posing of the disturbing question portrait of St. Ita’s Hospital in Portane, Co. “What do you do with your revolution once Dublin, a mental health care institution whose you have it?” found favour with the French in imposing Victorian setting traditionally evokes May 1968, and had the film hailed “one of the cultural memories of bedlam asylums. Director three or four most beautiful documents the Alan Gilsenan, one of the most prolific of Irish cinema has given us” in Cahiers du Cinema. It documentarists, successfully debunked this was also held a revolutionary masterpiece by mythic image, while also drawing attention to the striking students behind the barricades of the real issues in mental health in Paris. This only further fuelled suspicion at contemporary Ireland raised by the fact that the home and the film was branded communist institution is slated for closure. Each episode propaganda. tackled a different dimension of the operations The theatrical and later DVD release of of St. Ita’s, including the subject of off-site Rocky Road to Dublin in 2005 met with residential treatment for recovering patients, considerably more favourable press in an literally moving outside the walls of the Ireland now freed of the psychic grip of the institution to ask bigger questions. Though no Church in the wake of scandals including that Titicut Follies (Wiseman, 1967), The Asylum at involving Fr. Michael Cleary, a Catholic Priest least demonstrated a documentarist’s eye for who appeared in Lennon’s film extolling the subject. virtues of celibacy when, in fact, he was in a Ironically, the most provocative non- sexual relationship with his housekeeper, who fictions to emerge from Ireland in the past few later bore him a son. The film received strong years have been personality-based television notices both in Ireland and the UK and brought series, including The Des Bishop Work its maker belated, but great satisfaction that his Experience (2004) which followed an work was finally being seen by the wide American stand-up comedian taking audience it had always deserved. employment in various low-end jobs in Ireland However, no documentary film made in including fast food and supermarket services. Ireland in 2005 could come close to matching In 2005, journalist and financial advisor Eddie the sense of excitement of Rocky Road to Hobbs’ four-part Rip Off Republic caused a Dublin. Of the feature documentaries produced major political panic. The programme, in in the year, probably the most high profile which Hobbs presented his personal and were Haughey and The Asylum, both shown professional opinions on examples of over four weeks. Haughey, made by the inequities in the Irish economy, proved 184 enormously popular with television audiences Seen along with his marvellous Useless Dog, and sparked debate throughout the country. which also received international attention at Political figures were quick to respond, which the Oberhausen Film Festival in 2005, amused the public even more, as the frenzy of Wardop’s work looks like the beginnings of a accusation and refutation amounted to a trial serious film-making career that we can only by media of the government’s economic hope will continue to include documentaries. strategies. The less remarkable personality- based series Karl Spain Wants a Woman Dr Harvey O'Brien is the author of The Real provided some surprise in that its risible Ireland: The Evolution of Ireland in premise, a stand-up comic goes dating, turned Documentary Film (Manchester, 2004) and co- out to provide an observational forum for a editor of Keeping it Real: Irish Film and display of real emotional need. Television (Wallflower, 2004) and the journal The Irish language series Scannal also Film and Film Culture. He is head of Film provided some surprise by nakedly focusing Studies at UCD Dublin. exclusively on scandalous material, including an interview with the infamous son of former Bishop Dr. Eamon Casey, whose downfall on this matter was the beginning of the end of the moral authority of the Catholic Church in Ireland. In other arenas of investigation, literary profiles were popular as ever, with John McGahern: A Private World picking up plaudits for best English-language documentary at the Irish Film and Television Awards and Patrick Kavanagh: No Man’s Fool earning a similar nod at the Boston Irish Film Festival.

The most interesting new non-fictions came from young filmmaker Ken Wardop, whose sensitive and moving short film Undressing My Mother was selected for a Critic’s Week screening at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival and continued to pick up awards in Japan and the USA throughout the year.

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Pavee Lackeen secondary to the stories he found from an extended period spent in the juvenile court and Seán Crosson among the travelling community. The subsequent narrative emerged largely from the It has become almost a truism among Irish lives of the Travellers themselves in his film-makers and scholars that foreign film- attempt to produce an authentic document of makers have been responsible for some of the their lives. more questionable representations of Ireland, Shot hand-held over 10 months on mini- creating, according to the authors of the DV in a pseudo documentary style, sometimes seminal study on Irish cinema, Cinema and called video-verité, whenever Ogden had time Ireland (1989), “a set of cinematic (and more particularly money), Pavee Lakeen representations which have tended to sustain a is the story of Winnie Maughan, a ten year old sense of cultural inferiority.” However, what is girl who shares a dilapidated caravan with her less remarked upon is the significant work mother and ten brothers and sisters on the made by filmmakers coming from outside outskirts of Dublin. While following Winnie’s Ireland that has tackled controversial issues day to day life, the film details the Maughan which have rarely engaged indigenous family’s struggles with poverty, neglect, the directors. In recent years examples include imprisonment of family members, alcoholism Peter Mullen’s The Magdalene Sisters and and a state bureaucracy that will do little to Paul Greengrass’s Bloody Sunday but one of assist, sometimes even manipulating the family the best Irish films of 2005, Pavee Lackeen in order to avoid their responsibilities. The (The Traveller Girl), was also made by a family are being pressurised to move by the British director. Originally from Shropshire, local council from the side of the busy road Perry Ogden grew up in London and made his their caravan occupies. However, when they do name as a photographer with some of the so (under threat of court action), promises of leading international fashion magazines improved conditions, including running water including Vogue and Elle. After moving to and sanitation, are never fulfilled. Indeed, their Ireland in the mid-1980s, Ogden became moving is revealed to be a ploy by the council interested in the stories behind the Nike-clad to move them to non-council land where they children he witnessed riding horses around are no longer the council’s responsibility. Dublin’s housing estates. It led to the Meanwhile, Winnie’s hopes of finding a place publication of his book Pony Kids in 1999 in a school for settled children is similarly which featured photographs of these kids at the frustrated as schools resist the admission of Smithfield horse fair. He found, through Traveller children. photographing and interviewing these children, In all of this the film eschews a that many came from Traveller families and conventional narrative, comprising instead told similar stories of marginalisation and simple narrative threads that reveal the discrimination. considerable challenges the family members Inspired by his experiences with the face. Ogden’s decision to build these stories, Traveller children, Ogden chose as the subject over an extended period, around an actual of his debut film, Pavee Lackeen, the Traveller girl and her family creates a sense of experiences of a Traveller family on the people living their own lives, rather than outskirts of Dublin. The film was featured at performing to a camera, particularly through the 2005 Galway Film Fleadh, where it won Winnie Maughan, who is an extraordinary the award for best first feature, and Ogden presence throughout revealing the genuine remarked on his innovative approach (at least innocence and intense curiosity of a ten year in the context of Irish cinema) to the project. old. While Travellers have featured in the work of In Pavee Lakeen, Ogden also draws clear, Joe Comerford (Traveller, 1981) and most but significant, parallels between the Traveller recently Kevin Liddy (Country, 2000), Ogden and immigrant communities in Dublin. As took the courageous decision to use an actual Winnie makes her way through the streets of Traveller family for his film, which is made up Dublin to fill her time after being suspended almost entirely of a non-professional cast. from school for fighting, all of those she meets Furthermore, while he initially drafted a script represent some of the major immigrant groups concerning a homeless boy, it soon became in Ireland. She enters a video store where only 186

Russian titles are available, information she is Pavee Lackeen (Irl, 2005) given by the Russian woman who works there; she browses in a hairdressers which is staffed Director: Perry Ogden Screenplay: Perry Ogden and Mark Venner entirely by African women; the only people we Cast: Winnie Maughan, Paddy Maughan, Rose see in the arcade where she goes to dance are Maughan, Rosie Maughan of Asian origin, including the girl who changes Cinematography: Perry Ogden the coins Winnie has salvaged from a fountain. Even the petrol station, where she goes with Producers: Perry Ogden, Martina Niland, John her sister Rosie to buy petrol for their mobile Rocha home’s generator, is attended by what appears to be a Chinese man. While the almost total non-appearance of any other Irish people (apart from council officials and social workers) in the film appears sometimes overly contrived, the message is clear: if Irish society cannot treat her own indigenous minorities with respect how can it hope to embrace the diverse immigrant groups that increasingly make up the country. The significance of this parallel was underscored in the 2004 Irish Government funded ‘Know Racism’ campaign, which found that Travellers and asylum-seekers were the minorities viewed most negatively by the majority population in Ireland. According to the report, 54 per cent of people believed most asylum-seekers were bogus, while a fifth said

Travellers should not have the same rights as the settled community. The theme of intolerance was a recurring concern of Irish film from the late 1990s whether based on sexual orientation (Johnny Gogan's The Last

Bus Home (1997)), religious belief (Syd

McCartney's A Love Divided, 1999 and Seán Walsh’s Bloom, 2004) or directed towards members of the travelling community (Kevin

Liddy's Country). The advent of mini-DV has facilitated the production in recent years of still more challenging and uncompromising explorations of this intolerance in contemporary Ireland. Ciaran O’Connor’s

Capital Letters (2005), was a dark, and sometimes brutal, portrayal of the exploitation and abuse of illegal immigrants in contemporary Ireland. Pavee Lackeen, equally, is not just compelling and sometimes innovative filmmaking, it is also an important and necessary work which raises important questions for Irish society to consider at a time of great change.

Seán Crosson lectures at the Centre for Irish

Studies and the Huston School of Film,

National University of Ireland, Galway.

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Adaptations: Tara Road and Breakfast were produced by experienced figures in Irish on Pluto cinema. Producer Noel Pearson, (My Left Foot, Tony Tracy The Field, Gold in the Streets) brought together a large cast of well known actors ...and God help you if you use voice-over in headed by Andie McDowell under the your work, my friends. God help you. That's direction of Gillies McKinnon for an flaccid, sloppy writing. Any idiot can write a adaptation of Maeve Binchy’s bestseller, Tara voice-over narration to explain the thoughts of a character. (Robert McKee character in Road. The presence of Ms Binchy’s name Adaptation, 2002) above the title and Ms McDowell’s below squarely placed the film in the marketing It would be surprising indeed if literary tradition of ‘international national cinema’ as adaptations were absent from a review of Irish practiced by Working Title and other British film in 2005 given the ongoing centrality of production companies over the past decade. A books – literary and popular – in the cultural headline US actor, a ‘brand-name’ author’s life of the nation. John Banville’s Booker Prize best-seller – already well known and 1 and Cecelia Ahern’s film deals notwith- established in the United States3 – and an standing, there was a surprising paucity of experienced cast and crew working quickly material adapted from page to screen in the last and efficiently is a particularly conceived kind year with the majority of young film-makers of cultural product with the producer as favouring original screenplays. This cultural alchemist turning the local into global predilection for originality is impressive gold. The central plot of the film, a house among a young industry but raises interesting exchange between the USA and Ireland would 2 questions about a storytelling heritage. Are seem an almost improbably calculated conceit film-makers now not interested in adapting for such a project (two women struggling to from previously published materials? Is film overcome different kinds of trauma – the death development being led by writer/directors of a child and the end of a marriage), allowing rather than creative producers? Is adaptation for not one but two audiences to find markers seen as a soft option, less cinematic and less of identification and engagement. Who hasn’t, ‘entrepreneurial’ than the long and hazardous after all, wondered what it would be like to live process of script development? Or, more another life for a while and tinker with the mundanely, is this hiatus more a blip than a possibility of romance with charming tendency? strangers? Maeve Binchy knows her audience, Two high profile and quite different film and more importantly from a producer’s point adaptations were completed in 2005, of view, her audience know her. encompassing both the literary and popular Tara Road proved to be an attractive poles of the Irish publishing world. And proposition to a considerable Irish cinema tellingly, in a year of limited production, both audience and gave a welcome fillip to a generally lack-luster year at the domestic box- office, where it took an unexceptional but not 1 John Banville won the prestigious 2005 Man embarrassing €500,000. The film was unusual Booker Prize for fiction with his novel ‘The Sea’. th in the prominence it gave two female leads On October 10 2005, industry website IFTN (Irish (Andie McDowell and Olivia Williams), Film and Television Network) announced that Cecelia Ahern had sold ‘the movie rights to her relegating male characters to the fringes – with novel ‘If You Could See Me Now’ to Walt Disney the exception of the ‘almost’ affairs. It was Pictures, who plan to adapt the book into a musical vehicle for Tony Award winner and ‘X-Men’ star 3. Tara Road is Binchy’s highest selling novel in Hugh Jackman’. Elsewhere it noted that in 2004 the US, largely as a result of its selection, and ‘Ahern sold the movie rights for her novel ‘P.S. I Binchy’s subsequent guest appearance, on the Love You’ to Warner Bros with Richard Oprah (Winfrey) Book Club in 1999. Oprah’s LaGravenese directing’. http://www.iftn.ie/news/ enthusiasm for the book’s self-empowered women index3.htm?area=Finance&fuseaction=section was echoed by Mrs Barbara Bush, who described (November 10th, 2005) the book as her favourite. Thus the film has substantial advance endorsement and marketing to 2 Might this tendency also be linked with the failure draw on in the North American marketplace. to attract distribution ‘pre-sales’ as outlined in Roddy Flynn’s article in this issue? 188 appealing to an audience over the now serious, serious’ and leaves in search of seemingly inviolable threshold of 34. But glamour and romance. His subsequent travels though the talented actors of Tara Road do a include spells as a Pocahontas inspired singer worthy job, the overall feel of the film is of a in Billy Rock’s showband (Gavin Friday – to TV movie. Grief and its transition to recovery whom McCabe dedicated the original novel) are difficult to show convincingly and until he is chased out of Ireland by the IRA, cinematic style must go someway in evoking followed by spells as a ‘Womble’, a the poetic sense of loss that words might Magician’s assistant, a peep-show entertainer, achieve on paper. To try to capture this process a late and poignant reconciliation with his and all its attendant detail over 90 mins using father, and finally a happy return to London as generally banal and functional methods is a surrogate mother. It is a vertiginous and difficult, to say the least. The screenwriter, episodic tale; high-camp picaresque set against Shane Connaughton (My Left Foot) does a a backdrop of rising IRA violence, sexual satisfactory job in condensing the very verbal revolution and social change spanning the Binchy source down from its door-stopper 1960s and early 1970s. dimensions, but there are simply too many This is a collaboration of the highest incidents and characters to allow us be moved, order; a playful and inspiring meeting of though it would be churlish to deny that we imaginations. Pat McCabe’s fecund and wildly become involved. Although Tara Road is no eccentric source material is bent to thematic cinematic milestone (it might have been more concerns recognisable from elsewhere in interestingly reworked as a TV series), and it Jordan’s work – emotional vulnerability and fails to match the artistic (and so far, the sleazy sex-for-sale demimonde of Mona commercial) success of Binchy’s earlier Circle Lisa, the sexual and political border-crossings, of Friends, it is nonetheless a welcome as well as the political backdrop of the addition to the range of films that make up a Northern Irish conflict found in The Crying diverse and vibrant national cinema. Game, and familiar issues of faith, guilt, Breakfast on Pluto is an altogether more transformation and the mutability of the daring and inspiring reworking of a literary subject, among others. Indeed, it is difficult to source. Neil Jordan follows his successful see where one author leaves off and the other return to prose fiction (the acclaimed novel begins – though there are identifiable changes Shade, 2004) with a return to the prose of Pat from the novel and the visualisation of McCabe with whom he memorably character and settings are all Jordan’s own. collaborated on The Butcher Boy (the subject Thus we see the director’s common fascination of a new monograph by Colin McCabe in the with the glitter world of bars and clubs and the Ireland Into Film series). Breakfast on Pluto, bracing air of the seaside. There is no other shows similarities to the earlier book/film in director who has shown such a sustained tone, themes and feeling but is nonetheless an interest in placing Irish characters in England – utterly original work, certainly the most particularly London and Brighton. The night exuberant and inventive Irish film made this and day worlds of nightclub acts and out of year, and possibly any year. Proving the lie to season holiday resorts frequently lend Jordan’s McKee’s dictate on voice-over as ‘flaccid’ the films a sad and sometimes tawdry air, but such story tells the sad tale of Patrick ‘Kitten’ tendencies are avoided here by the Murphy (in a captivating – and Golden Globe contrapuntal pace of the story, the rich cast of nominated performance – by Cillian Murphy), supporting actors, Cillian Murphy’s defiantly a boy conceived during a tryst between the ironic, jaunty and credible performance and an local Parish Priest (Liam Neeson putting an extensive soundtrack of period pop which all ironic twist on his long list of recent father- combine to deflect from the undeniably serious figure roles) and his house-keeper (Eva themes of the story to reach an emotionally Birthistle). Kitten is adopted after his mother uplifting conclusion. While Breakfast on Pluto abandons him – it’s the late 1950s and confirms rather than develops themes and illegitimate children would be automatically interests present in earlier Jordan films it does taken from their mothers – and brought up in a so with élan, daring and great film-making traditional household, which his colourful fluency, and confirms his status as the most personality – and cross dressing – soon gifted and original Irish film-maker at work outgrows. Kitten has no time for ‘serious, today. 189

Tony Tracy is Associate Director of the Breakfast on Pluto (Irl, 2005) Huston School of Film and Digital Media, National University of Ireland, Galway. Director: Neil Jordan Writer: Pat McCabe (novel), Neil Jordan Tara Road (Irl, 2005) Cast (Principal): Cillian Murphy, Liam Neeson, Brendan Gleeson, Laurence Director: Gillies MacKinnon Kinlan, Ruth Negga, Brendan Gleeson, Writer: Maeve Binchy (novel), Cynthia Cidre, Stephen Rea, Gavin Friday, Ian Hart, Eva Shane Connaughton Birthistle Cast (Principal): Andie MacDowell, Olivia Cinematographer: Declan Quinn. Williams, Stephen Rea, Brenda Fricker, Music: Various Srah Bolger, Iain Glen, Jean-Marc Barr. Producer: Neil Jordan, Alan Moloney, Stephen Cinematographer: John de Borman Woolley. Producer: Noel Pearson, Sarah Radclyff