Narrative Strategies in Contemporary Irish Cinema: 1993-2003 Dióg O’Connell B.A., M.A. This thesis is submitted to Dublin City University for the award of PhD in the Faculty of Humanities. September 2005 Department of Communications Supervisor: Dr. Pat Brereton I hereby declare that this material, which I now submit for assessment on the programme of study leading to the award o f PhD is entirely my own work and has not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my own work. S i g n e d ID No: ^ & 0 5 ^ ^ Date: O Q ‘ ° 5 SUMMARY This thesis is concerned with the exploration of narrative strategies in contemporary Irish film between 1993 and 2003. Central to the methodology is the relationship between theory and practice, executed through an approach which combines the theory of narratological studies with a practical approach to craft analysis and screenwriting, contributing to the growing debate around praxis by academics and trainers in film schools throughout Europe and North America. This study examines the role of Bord Scannan na hEireann during its first ten years after it was re-activated in 1993, examining shifting policy as it relates to scriptwriting in particular. My interest lies with how writers and directors construct story-worlds to express in the filmic medium. Hence I am less concerned with issues national but rather how Irish films explore aspects of the human condition that can resonate beyond limited national boundaries. I examine how films can act as educators of the emotions and how narratives can explore different levels of the human experience through internal and external characterisation. I am also interest in how this contemporary era relates to its predecessor and how filmmakers have made the transition from the 1st wave to the 2nd wave. Keen to situate storytelling and its expression within a global, international and historic setting, I analyse how ancient forms, such as tragedy, can be appropriated for modem stories. While most critics view this period (1993-2003) negatively compared to what is considered its more radical predecessor, this study concludes that these films emerge from a different context and reflect a film culture that is rooted to an international framework. The tensions and fissures within contemporary Irish film result from an era of filmmaking that is developmental, evolutionary and teleological. TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface Chapter One - Narratology and New Irish Cinema 1 Chapter Two - Educating Emotionally through Universal Storytelling - The Boy from Mercury 59 Chapter Three - Characters that “say and do” and characters that “see and hear” - Accelerator and Disco Pigs 97 Chapter Four - Negotiating narrative Coherence through Internal and External Struggles - The Most Fertile Man in Ireland, A Man of No Importance, About Adam and When Brendan met Trudy 132 Chapter Five - Nora - a Love Story of Equality 173 Chapter Six - The Tragic Potential in the Story of Song fora Raggy Boy 218 Conclusion 256 Appendix 1 266 Bibliography 269 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would not have reached this stage without the assistance, in various guises, of many people. Firstly, I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Pat Brereton for all his advice, help, support and encouragement through-out this process. I am grateful to the RTE Scholarship Scheme for providing financial assistance for registration fees. Thanks also to the Institute of Art, Design & Technology and Dr. Josephine Browne in particular, for protecting me from extra administrative and committee burdens as well as supporting me with a research-friendly time-table for four years. Some of the ideas developed here were presented to a ‘jury of my peers’ at the Irish Postgraduate Film Research Seminar (2003-2005), an invaluable exercise for a research student. Thanks to Dr. Kevin Rockett and Dr. John Hill for organising the seminars and subsequent publications. To my colleagues at the Institute who read drafts, critiqued and commented supportively - Dr, Maeve Connolly, Dr. Barbara Hughes, Selina Guinness and Dr. Carol Mackeogh and the librarians Fiona and Fionnuala for the endless supply of inter-library loans. Also special thanks to Antoinette Prout at the Irish Film Institute Library for keeping an excellent archive on Irish cinema. Many other people helped with this project by providing information, critical engagement or simply by giving their time as listeners or readers - they include the following: Dr. Ruth Barton, Martin Duffy, Igor Korsic, Lorinda Doyle, Seamus White, Deirdre Kerins, Liz Gill, Aisling Walsh, Rod Stoneman, Rebecca O’Flanagan, Conor McHale, Debbie Ging, Deirdre O’Connell, Mary Ann Kenny and Dr. Niamh Reilly. This thesis could not have been undertaken and completed without the support of my husband, Declan Dalton who not only waited on the sidelines for me to finish but cheered me on all the way. To my daughters, Aoife (5) and Ailise (3), let’s go to the cinema! curiosity about native film developed, becoming a fascination which has intrigued and absorbed me ever since. Initially as a post-graduate student completing a Masters thesis on the work of Pat Murphy and Margo Harkin as Irish feminist filmmakers, later as a lecturer in Film Studies, Irish Cinema and Scriptwriting and also as a story developer / scenarist on the Writers’ Team of Glenroe (RTE television drama), I have followed keenly the developments, changes, evolutions and ruptures within Irish cinema over a fifteen year period. This thesis emerged specifically from observations made about contemporary Irish cinema since the re-activation of Bord Scannan na hEireann in 1993, is influenced by a dual interest in narrative form and how contemporary writers and directors are mastering and exploiting its potential and out of a keen interest to contribute to the discourse from the perspective of praxis. Most writers on Irish cinema agree that there is a marked difference between the cinematic material which emerged from the 1st Bord (1981-1987) and that which is being produced since its re-activation in 1993, principally at the level of narrative form but also with regard to content (Barton, 2004; Ging, 2004; McLoone, 2000). Assessing the differences between these two periods in Irish filmmaking, how and why they emerged and hence establishing the more recent ‘wave’ as distinct and separate yet evolutionary and developmental is the primary focus of this thesis. In achieving this goal, the methodology strives to establish a clear and practical nexus between theory and critical analysis as the dominant mode of interrogation of Irish film and practical and specific script/storytelling strategies as a method developed here, thus establishing a meeting point between theory and practice. As an observer and participant in the scriptwriting process and an academic engaged with the debates in Irish cinema, my interest in theory and practice seemed an isolated one. However, just as storytellers do not operate in a vacuum, my search was not cast without context. Some may argue that this need to relate theory and practice is a ‘new millennium’ urge on behalf of the academy for legitimacy beyond the enclosed world of the university or maybe evidence of the imminent implosion of Cultural Studies; either way it points towards a widespread praxis concern among academics, from the work of media commentator and practitioner Des Bell (2004) to high-end cultural theorist Edward Said (Cleary, 2005). Teaching on an academic programme within the Institute of Art, Design and Technology which houses the National Film School, my explorations along these lines have a comfortable habitat, particularly as I explore contentious issues around the pedagogy of scriptwriting and Film Studies broadly. This study is not a genre analysis of contemporary Irish film principally because the industrial context is dissimilar. As genre is a term developed for the analysis of the Hollywood Studio System which relied on the vertical integration of production, distribution and exhibition as an economic model for success, it is not wholly appropriate here. The economic infrastructure for Irish film production has, for the most part resisted such industrial norms. Furthermore, Irish writers and directors have forgone working within genre (either for artistic or economic reasons) and Bord Scannán na hÉireann has highlighted the lack of genre scripts landing on their desks. While a generic analysis therefore would more than likely end in a cul de sac, what it may reveal however is whether the scripts eschew ‘genre’ as a consequence of flawed structure or because appropriating genre does not fit the context for or expression of contemporary Irish stories, a ponderable this thesis will elucidate on. Neither is this thesis a thematic or content analysis of Irish film, principally because such analyses focus on one aspect of narrative, content or subject matter at the expense of narrative form or story strategy. This thesis is not concerned with what ‘issues’ preoccupy contemporary Irish filmmakers as this has been expertly evaluated by others in the field (Barton, 2004; Ging, 2004; McLoone, 2000; Pettitt, 2000). The primary aim of this thesis is to examine narrative strategies in contemporary Irish film through a formalist address while exploring the purpose or function of such stories through an appropriation of cognitive theory, myth-criticism and Jungian analysis. Consequently this combined methodological approach will shed light on the theory/practice debate within cinema studies. While not focused on the work of Jim Sheridan specifically or tangentially, this thesis sits chronologically between In the Name of the Father (1993) and In America (2003) by coincidence rather than design. However, the position adopted for analysing narrative strategies is inspired by Sheridan’s approach to story-telling which is regarded as humanistic, universal and concerned with prevailing myths about humanity, both local and global.