The Sea.

Director:	Stephen Brown
Country:	Ireland, UK
Year:	2013
Running Time:	87 mins
Principle Cast:	Ciaran Hinds	Max Morden
	Charlotte Rampling	Miss Vavasour
	Natascha McElhone	Connie Grace
	Rufus Sewell	Carlo Grace
	Sinead Cusack	Ann Morden

Its not very often your have a Man Booker Prize Winner help introduce the world premiere of a film. John Banville, wrote The Sea in 2005 and adapted it for the big screen producing a script with which our other guest, the director Stephen Brown was to translate onto the big screen and what a good job he made of it.

Man Booker Prize Winner John Banville.

Described as ‘a journey back in time to a summer of turbulent emotions’. The summer in question is the early 1950’s and the place is Co Wexford located in the South East Region of Ireland in fact it was filmed on the same beaches where Spielberg shot Saving Private Ryan. Max Morden, a retired art historian, returns to where he and his family spent their summer holidays to reconcile himself with both the events of his youth, and the recent loss of his beloved wife Ann. He stays in a boarding house that was once the home of the Graces, a family that befriended him during this idyllic youthful period of his life, which in turn awakened his latent sexuality and subsequently involved him in a tragedy that was to have a marked effect on the remainder of his life including taking solace from copious amount of alcohol in an attempt to nullify his bad memories.

Basically Banvilles story is one of age, loneliness and the effect that death of a loved one can have upon a person and the ensuing grief that follows such a tragedy. Brown’s debut feature is a sensitive piece of filmmaking with a small ensemble cast of experienced actors that manage to convey the subtleties of the novel successfully to the big screen.  Ciaran Hinds is especially good with Charlotte Rampling still able to play the femme fatale with her oriental robe and cigarette holder. The film took only 25 days to film and both Stephen Brown and John Banville informed a sell out Filmhouse screening that they were very pleased with the end result as were the appreciative festival audience.