Tds Prod Notes 1[1]

The Delinquent Season/Production Notes Short Synopsis The Delinquent Season is a tense drama, which revolves around two couples in suburban Dublin – Jim (Cillian Murphy) and Danielle (Eva Birthistle), and Yvonne (Catherine Walker) and Chris (Andrew Scott). On paper, they both appear to live in marital bliss, until an altercation between one couple occurs and cracks begin to appear in both of these seemingly steady marriages. The Delinquent Season is an examination of love, lust and family relationships and asks the question how well do any of us really know each other? Long Synopsis Please note – NOT for publication Jim and Danielle, a happily married couple, discover that their friends, Yvonne and Chris, are having problems. Chris has become increasingly volatile of late and, one night, when he lashes out and hits Yvonne, she lands on their doorstep seeking refuge and certain that her marriage is over. Jim visits Chris who reveals that he is terminally ill, and that, unable to deal with the enormity of this fact, he has been keeping it a secret from his wife and children – an act which has begun to take its toll on him emotionally. He makes Jim promise to keep it a secret for the moment. Reluctantly, Jim agrees. But, when, the following day, a fragile and confused Yvonne awkwardly propositions Jim, previously suppressed feelings rise to the surface and they embark on a passionate affair. After some time, realising that they have fallen in love with one another, they are faced with a choice. To leave their respective families, or to end the relationship. They decide they want to be together. That night, though, his health having gotten worse, Chris finally tells Yvonne about his illness. She ends the affair with Jim in order to take care of him in his dying days. At around the same time, Danielle discovers that Jim has been unfaithful (though not who with), and throws him out, ending their relationship. Jim pursues Yvonne, needing to know if they can be together after Chris dies. She is angered by his lack of sensitivity and, when she discovers that he knew all along about Chris's illness, rejects him completely. Alone now, Jim has a one night stand with a slightly difficult woman named Orla. Chris dies. At his funeral, Jim attacks Danielle's new partner and is beaten up by him. He finds himself at last in an Accident and Emergency room, lonely and despairing. A year passes. Not having seen Jim in that long, Yvonne realise that she has never stopped loving him. She calls him and they have dinner together where she opens her heart and declares her desire to be with him. But he tells her that he is in a new relationship and is not prepared to leave it. Jim returns home to his partner, Orla. We see that theirs is not quite a perfect match and sense that he should really be with Yvonne. But whatever reasons he has for remaining with Orla, they remain unrevealed. About the film The Delinquent Season began principal photography in November 2016 and the tight three-week shoot took place on location in Dublin, Ireland. Written and directed by Mark O’Rowe, the cast includes Cillian Murphy (Peaky Blinders, Dunkirk), Eva Birthistle (Brooklyn) Catherine Walker (Critical) and Andrew Scott (Spectre, Sherlock). Cillian has worked with Mark before and appreciates the way he writes saying “I think he is a tremendously important writer in Ireland, I really think you can count on your hand the important writers of our generation and I think Mark along with Enda Walsh are two of them”. A Parallel Films production, directed by Mark O’Rowe, the film is produced by Alan Moloney and Ruth Coady and executive produced by Dixie Linder and Nick Marston with support from the Irish Film Board and RTE. Protagonist Films is handling the worldwide distribution with Element Pictures releasing in the UK and Ireland. Mark O’Rowe Writer/Director As Writer/Director of The Delinquent Season “When actors are saying my words and certainly one of the most enjoyable parts of the process as a writer/director is when an actor takes your words, says them and provides something very vibrant and interesting to the text. When directing, a good cast of actors is essential, and then you need as the writer to trust them with the dialogue”. Mark on writing The Delinquent Season “I started writing The Delinquent Season (TDS) about two or three years ago and it came out of a frustration with writing scripts and handing them over to other directors and having those directors interpret my words in ways I wouldn’t. That being said, actors are what brings the dialogue alive. I feel a big responsibility to myself to write truthfully”. Catherine Walker says of Mark’s script “he is a genius and no one writes like him and so the story takes your breath away in its seeming simplicity”. Producers Alan Moloney and Ruth Coady from Parallel Films who have a long-standing relationship with Mark as a writer, said of this script “Mark produced this script very specifically for himself to direct. The story is beautifully intimate and extremely relatable”. Mark on Directing The Delinquent Season The Delinquent Season is Mark’s first feature film to direct. Mark said of directing “film by its necessity needs to be a more director-led medium, because someone needs to have it all in their head – and that’s the director. In film everyone is looking to YOU as the director for decisions”. The Delinquent Season Screenplay Cillian said of the screenplay “it’s just brilliantly observed writing, I think he writes extraordinary dialogue, beautiful dialogue and that there is a real rhythm to it.” Catherine Walker refers to the ‘musicality of Mark’s writing’. Cillian continues “it’s a real gift for any actor to get dialogue that’s so beautifully written but for me I think he has written Irish males really, really well – he’s just got this insight into the Irish male”. Mark started working on the screenplay three years before he shot it and it came about because, as he said, he “didn’t want to give his words into the hands of another director.” And so he wrote this to direct it. He was very specific about writing about something he knew and keeping the subject and locations tight, as this was his film directorial debut. Mark says of the script “it’s very close to the bone and I think that’s what makes it slightly unique”. He wanted to tell a story of people who had “high moral standards” and “people who were in love and in happy relationships and what happens when something is said that cannot be unsaid”. Eva says of the screenplay “the simplicity is in how well it’s been thought out. As an actor you rely heavily on really good writing, authentic writing that you think you would actually speak in that situation”. Andrew said of the script “the thing I adore about this script is its lack of judgement about humanity“ . Catherine said of the script “it’s such an extraordinary script with such details, it’s so incredibly moving and intense that you want to understand every detail of it”. Alan Moloney, producer of The Delinquent Season said “what Mark has written is a beautiful, tender, poignant, terrifying piece of writing”. Mark O’Rowe double jobbing as writer and director Andrew said of Mark writing and directing The Delinquent Season “he has a particular rhythm to the way he writes and that has to be adhered to, which is something that can often be ignored on film sets.” Eva said that she has worked a number of times with writer/directors “often it just doesn’t work as they can be too close to direct you, but this has not been the case with Mark. He is a stickler about getting the lines right but it’s because they are better than what we would say as actors!” As the director, the cast referred to Mark’s notes being clear and concise. For Cillian, he said of his experience “Mark has lived with this script for years, he knows these characters intensely and can problem solve I think much easier”. Eva said that it “was a no brainer when I was asked did I want to work with Mark as I have genuinely been a fan for years, Mark is a very confident director and communicated so well to us actors. It’s been a pleasure to work with him and speak his lines”. As Ray Ball, the production designer, said “it’s a fantastic script and Mark completely owns it, it’s wonderful to deal with the author as a director because his depth of knowledge is bottomless”. Ray continued “Mark knew these characters deeply… he had a very fixed idea of who these people were, I think right down to their diets!” Lydia McGuinness said, having worked with a writer/director before “it brings its own dynamic to the film set because no one knows the script better than the director”. Ray continues “it’s a great luxury to work with the author who is also the director, for reasons of access to character – there’s no interpretation and there’s no misinterpretation, it’s a direct line of communication”. Producer Ruth Coady said of Mark double jobbing as writer and director “we were never wary of Mark taking on this project as both writer and director, he has been training for this for a long time.

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