Suffragette.

Another fact based story, this time one which has been constructed around the woman’s suffrage movement in Britain in the late 19^th and early 20^th century. The movie includes some real life characters, Emmeline Pankhurst (Meryl Streep) leader of the movement and Emily Davison (Natalie Press) a militant suffragette who was jailed on nine occasions and force-fed 49 times both written in along side some very convincing fictitious characters.   Written by Abi Morgan who was also responsible for screenplay for Brick Lane (2007) co writer on the Steve McQueen directed movie Shame (2011) and created and wrote the six-part British TV drama Series River that stars Stellan Skarsgard and Nicola Walker. Directed by Sarah Gavron, who won a Best Director award for Brick Lane, Suffragette (2015) was selected to open the 2015 BFI London Film Festival.

 

The protest goes on (the London Premiere) 

The brave women that Morgan's story was based upon. 

As I have already said Morgan’s story is based around real life facts that emanates from the decision of Emmeline Pankhurst to concentrate on deeds and not just words, an edict that went a long way to radicalise woman of all classes encouraging them to participate in actions of social unrest and acts of destruction.  At the centre of the narrative is Maud Watts, played by Carey Mulligan in award winning mode, who has worked in the same laundry since a very young child, a married woman with a small child of her own. We witness Maud accidentally getting mixed up with a window-breaking riot in Oxford Street London. This single incident leads her deeper into the movement and the effect it has on her and her family life.

 

'Deeds not Words' 

Although most people will be familiar with the woman’s movement and its battle to allow female voting rights the movie really does concentrate the mind on how difficult and hard it was to win what should have been a basic right for all women over the age of eighteen. It’s still incomprehensible to believe that it took until 1928 for woman to get parity in the UK with men over their voting rights. Just one more example of how hard it is to go against the establishment and their paid lackeys. The film is difficult to watch at times not because of what you see on the screen but because of the story it’s portraying, an unbelievable mix of sadness, hardship and dedication. The cast also includes Helena Bonham Carter, Brendan Gleeson, Ben Whishaw and Anne-Marie Duff.

Arrested by the Establishments Lackeys. 

Calvary.

“Killing a priest on a Sunday, that would be a good one know.” During a confessional, Sligo priest Father James is told that he will be killed on the next Sabbath, not because he is a bad priest, in fact quite the reverse, but because he is a well-respected man of God and well thought of by his congregation. He has been subjected to this death threat to atone for the sins of the Catholic Church and a paedophilic priest that was never brought to justice and has since passed away. The confessionee tells of systematic abuse where sexual acts were performed on him as a young lad over a period of many years leaving him in a disturbed state. We spend the following week in the company of Father James who knows who has threatened him, but we are left to guess which of his rather unsavoury parishioners will or will not carry out the death threat.

 

The beautiful Sligo countryside. 

We get to meet the human flotsam that are continually challenging James Lavelle’s commitment to his faith. There’s the rich local tycoon (Dylan Moran) whose wealth had not stopped his wife and children from leaving him, the cuckolded local butcher (Chris O’Dowd) whose promiscuous wife Veronica (Orla O’Rourke) seems to be up for sex with any one except her husband and her latest conquest Simon (Isaach de Blankole) an African motor mechanic and there’s a very cynical doctor (Aidan Gillen) who seems to be obsessed with suffering and we must not forget the sexually frustrated Milo (Killian Scott). As one of our audience remarked during the discussion that followed the screening, “more a whose-gonna-do-it than a whodunit.”[1] Like John Michael McDonagh’s first feature film The Guard (2011) Calvary (2014), which is the penultimate film of this seasons Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre Film Club programme, has little to do with social realism and is far darker than his debut movie and is not a comedy, black or otherwise!   

 

Some of the most tender scenes are between the priest and his daughter. 

Introduced by Julie McMorran who informed us that McDonagh, who was born in England of Irish decent, also wrote the screenplay for tonight’s film and was the brother of writer and director Martin McDonagh who was responsible for Six Shooter (2004), In Bruges (2008) and Seven Psychopaths (2012).  Both of the brothers have a slightly different approach to presenting a story, which normally allows a sense of compassion for the main protagonist and both tend to use Irish actors including Brendon Gleeson who played Donnelly in Six Shooter, Ken in In Bruges, Gerry Boyle in The Guard and Father James in John Michaels latest film.

 

Will the church come to Father James aid?

Unlike the young priest in his church Father James is not naive man but one who has lived and loved in the non-secular world. He has been an alcoholic, was widowed and has a daughter who comes to visit him from her home in London. In fact some of the most tender and emotional scenes in the film are between the priest and his daughter Fiona (Kelly Reilly) who has recently attempted suicide.  It was generally agreed by the RBCFT audience that this well written film got very much darker as the story went on and did not have the humour that the directors debut film contained. However it did set out some very interesting questions mainly involving people’s faith and their belief in a superior being. Described as a ‘terminal illness melodrama’[2] a powerful, and at times moving story, about a man who is deemed guilty by association and like Christ is punished for the sins of others.

Will it be the end for James Lavelle?

---

[1] Alec Barclay

[2] Connor McMorran

The Raven 2011.

The Raven.

It worry’s me greatly when two very intelligent young men, who views I normally respect, declare, during the Film Club’s discussion, that cinemas are no longer able to sell tickets for a good quality adult movie! They also informed us that the biggest market is for youth orientated movies and the ‘safe’ type of film that appeals to what’s referred to as the ‘grey pound’. The only reason for this ridiculous state of affairs is obviously brainwashing!  Indoctrinating the young popcorn demographic into accepting more and more second rate American unintelligent rubbish until they think this is all that’s on offer. A successful movie for the over sixty fives is know judged purely on whether or not they leave the cinema smiling? On leaving the cinema where I first saw The Deerhunter in 1978 I was in tears does this make it a bad film? Thankfully there are still filmmakers about, mainly from Britain and world cinema that can still make a descent imaginative, intelligent, challenging and creative movie.

This weeks Robert Burns Centre Theatre Film Club movie was The Raven (2012) and was hosted by one of the RBC’s young programmers James Pickering who wasted no time in getting through his introduction so the paying audience could get on with the film. An American thriller set in Boston in 1849, its a fictional account of the last days of Edgar Allan Poe’s life, in which the author, poet, editor and literary critic pursues a serial killer whose murders mirror those in Poe’s tales of mystery and the macabre particular The Murders in the Rue Morgue and The Pit and the Pendulum both of which have been made into feature films. 

John Cusack plays Edgar Allan Poe.

Directed by James McTeigue an Australian whose directorial debut was V For Vendetta (2006), before this he was an assistant director on various feature films including Star Wars II (2002) and The Matrix Trilogy (1999-2003). The rather puzzling Edgar Allan Poe, whose actual death was probably shrouded in more mystery than that shown in the film, was played by John Cusack who seems to have lost his way since great films like Being John Malkovich (1999), The Thin Red Line (1998) Grosse Pointe Blank (1997) and the award winning The Grifters (1990). The English actress Alice Eve, who you may remember from Starter for 10 (2006), plays Poe’s love interest Emily Hamilton with her father portrayed by Brendan Gleeson whose best role amongst many is Sergeant Gerry Boyle in the excellent Irish black comedy The Guard (2011), now there’s a film that makes you leave the cinema with a broad grin. Welshman Luke Evans (Tamara Drew 2011, The Blitz 2011, The Three Musketeers 2011) plays the dynamic Inspector Emmett Fields.

The murders mirror Poes stories.

As my esteemed colleague remarked if you suspend your disbelief The Raven is a moderately entertaining gothic thriller with some great period detail and was generally enjoyed by the film club audience. There were one or two reservations the main one being that the villain was not signposted as the film evolved and was not revealed until the very end, something that did not spoil my enjoyment of the film as I felt that is was more a study of Poe’s psyche than a murder mystery. We all agreed that language was used to great effect by the main character, enriching the film. It was compared with the two recent Sherlock Holmes films, which in my opinion were not as good, full of stupid and unnecessary banter between Holmes and Watson. The only thing that spoilt this film was the completely out of place end credit that would have been more at home included in a Bourne or Bond film and not in a period drama.

Thought you may be interested in this press article that involves the country that last weeks movie was set in, people should read this before they see the film! Yemen on brink of food crisis.

The Guard

Gerry Boyle the Policeman.

Ireland would certainly have not been able to produce such welcome additions to cinema without the funding they receive from the indie-focused Irish Film Board. To name but three of the recent most successful examples to come out of the Emerald Isle would have to include the award winning In Bruges (2008), an hilarious movie that is made even funnier with the banter between the two main characters Ray and Ken (Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson). This is the story of two hit men sent to Bruges to await further instructions after a contract killing goes horribly wrong. Also Garage (2007) directed by Lenny Abrahamson and shot in Southern Ireland. Josie is a lonely petrol station attendant who’s hapless searches for intimacy over the cause of one summer sees his little niche threatened and his life changed forever. The Irish comedian, singer and writer Pat Shortt plays Josie a lonely but good-natured caretaker of the crumbling garage of the title. This is an extraordinary powerful film with a great funny/sad performance from the lead.

Gerry Boyle the Ladies Man.

Gerry Boyle the Diplomat.

 ‘Actor friendly, writer led, bristling with attitude and bloody funny to boot’ is how Trevor Johnston described the most successful independent Irish film to be shown in Ireland, taking more money in box office receipts than Ken Loach’s The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006) which previously held the record. The Guard (2011), written and directed by John Michael McDonagh, the brother of playwright, screenwriter and director Martin McDonagh who was responsible for In Bruges, tells the story of Sergeant Gerry Boyle (Brendan Gleeson) a small-town Irish policeman with a confrontational personality, a subversive sense of humour, a dying mother, a penchant for ladies of pleasure, and absolutely no interest whatsoever in the international cocaine smuggling ring that has brought an FBI agent, Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle) to his quite backwater. However when his over enthusiastic new partner disappears, his favourite hooker attempts to blackmail him and the drug traffickers try to buy him off, the good Sergeant decides he had better take a more personal interest.

A real laugh out loud, politically incorrect comedy thriller with a ‘one-liner’ heaven of a script from McDonagh. Brendan Gleeson is on fine form, executing wisecracks with a great deal of panache and hilarity, the big man was greatly deserving of his Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor. A modern day spaghetti western set in Connemara, which even includes a Morriconeesque soundtrack to boot. 

The Irish Film Board!