IFI May Programme

MAY 2013

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THE IRISHFILM INSTITUTE

EXHIBITPRESERVEEDUCATE

The Irish Film Institute is Ireland’s national cultural institution for film. It aims to exhibit the finest in independent, Irish and international cinema, preserve Ireland’s moving image heritage at the IFI Irish Film Archive, and encourage engagement with film through its various educational programmes.

FRENCH DEBATE

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Émilie Dequenne (Rosetta) was a deserving winner of Best Actress in the Un Certain Regard strand of last year’s Cannes Film Festival for her outstanding performance in Joachim Lafosse’s Our Children (see page 10), a penetrating study of immigration, social status, and psychological decline. Compelling and claustrophobic, it’s a superb film whose events will stay with audiences long after its conclusion.

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The Critical Take, the IFI’s FREE monthly forum on film, will meet on May 29th (18.30) to discuss the re-issue of Jerry Schatzberg’s Scarecrow (1973) starring Gene Hackman, Olivier Assayas’ new film Something in the Air and Tobias Lindholm’s A Hijacking. Panellists will include Head of French and Francophone Studies at UCD, Dr. Douglas Smith and the IFI Irish Film Archive’s Collections Officer Anja Mahler. Book your FREE ticket at the IFI Box Office.

As part of this month’s Neil Jordan Retrospective (see page 16), the director will be joined by his friend and frequent collaborator, novelist Pat McCabe, in a broad-ranging conversation exploring Jordan’s work in film on Saturday, May 25th (14.10). Reserve your FREE ticket for this Afternoon Talk at the IFI Box Office.

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Our French Film Club screening in partnership with Alliance Française will be Olivier Assayas’ Something in the Air (see page 14 for notes) on May 29th at 18.40. Film blogger and teacher James Dempsey will introduce the film. IFI and Alliance Française members can avail of a discounted ticket price of €7 for this screening (please request at Box Office).

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DIRECTOR’S NOTEDIRECTOR’S NOTE

MAYAT THE IFI

Welcome to the IFI’s May programme as we present a major retrospective of one of Ireland’s leading directors, Neil Jordan.

Following on from our celebration of new Irish film throughout April, this month allows us to further explore home-grown talent through a focus on the work of one of Ireland’s leading and most important film directors, Neil Jordan. In the lead-up to the release of Jordan’s latest feature Byzantium (from May 31st) starring Saoirse Ronan and Gemma Arterton, we’re delighted to present his 16 other cinematic works. On May 25th we will also present a free public interview with Neil Jordan conducted by his collaborator on The Butcher Boy, Pat McCabe. Please check online (www.ifi.ie) for more details on film introductions by Jordan and special guests throughout the retrospective. This season is presented in partnership with Bord Scannán na hÉireann/Irish Film Board on the occasion of their 20th anniversary.

This year I’ve often written about our IFI International programme of major events across Europe presented by the Irish Film Institute as part of the International Culture Programme to celebrate Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union. While these events continue throughout May, there are also many events closer to home to celebrate Ireland’s Presidency. IFI National is proud to present a programme of short films exploring impressions of Ireland and Europe in collections at the IFI Irish Film Archive. At a time when our relationship with Europe is at the forefront of local debate, we hope this programme will further spark discussion on our relationship with Europe in the past, present and future.

This touring programme will be presented nationwide in arts centres (including The Triskel in Cork, The Model in Sligo, The Visual in Carlow, and Dunamaise Arts Centre in Laois), libraries (including Ardkeen Library in Waterford, 14 Tipperary libraries, and the New Ross Library in Wexford) and other locations including schools and the EU House on Dawson Street, Dublin 2. For full details of the touring programme and a list of locations, please visit www.ifi.ie/nationaleu This programme is supported by the Arts Council Local Partnership Scheme as part of Culture Connects, the EU Presidency Culture Programme.

There are also plenty of great new releases this month including Pedro Almodóvar’s fun and frisky I’m So Excited! which comes hot on the heels of a major IFI retrospective of his work throughout April; Joachim Lafosse reunites the male leads from A Prophet (Tahar Rahim and Niels Arestrup) in the immensely powerful Our Children; while the writer-director of Take Shelter, Jeff Nichols, returns with Mud, cementing him as one of the most exciting new directors working today.

With all of this on top of continuing strands including Feast Your Eyes (Bella Martha), the Experimental Film Club (Unrolling Processes), and our annual celebrations with Bealtaine and the Dublin Dance Festival, May promises to be another busy month at the IFI!

Ross KeaneDirector

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MAY 2013DATE SCREENING TIME

1STWED

ARCHIVE AT LUNCHTIME: PROGRAMME 1LOVE IS ALL YOU NEEDWHITE ELEPHANTTHE PLACE BEYOND THE PINESJUMPANGEL

13.10

13.40, 16.00, 20.50 13.40, 20.30 14.00, 17.00, 20.00 16.20, 18.30 18.30

2NDTHURS

LOVE IS ALL YOU NEEDWHITE ELEPHANTTHE PLACE BEYOND THE PINESJUMP

13.40, 16.00, 20.50 13.40, 18.20, 20.4014.00, 17.00, 20.00 16.20, 18.30

3RDFRI

LOVE IS ALL YOU NEEDTHE GATEKEEPERSI’M SO EXCITED*

SCARECROWWHITE ELEPHANT

13.50, 18.2014.00, 20.5014.30, 16.30, 18.30, 20.3016.10, 18.3016.10, 20.40

4THSAT

ARCHIVE AT LUNCHTIME: DOUBLE BILLTHE COMPANY OF WOLVESTHE GATEKEEPERSI’M SO EXCITED*

LOVE IS ALL YOU NEEDWHITE ELEPHANTSCARECROW

13.10

14.1014.10, 20.5014.30, 16.30, 18.30, 20.30 16.10, 18.3016.20, 20.50 18.30

5THSUN

MONA LISATHE GATEKEEPERSI’M SO EXCITED*

LOVE IS ALL YOU NEEDWHITE ELEPHANTSCARECROW

14.1014.10, 20.5014.30, 16.30, 18.30, 20.3016.10, 18.3016.20, 20.50 18.30

6THMON

ARCHIVE AT LUNCHTIME: PROGRAMME 1SCARECROWTHE GATEKEEPERSI’M SO EXCITED*

LOVE IS ALL YOU NEEDWHITE ELEPHANTHIGH SPIRITS

13.10

13.50, 18.3014.10, 20.5014.30, 16.30, 18.30, 20.3016.1016.20, 20.5018.30

7THTUES

SCARECROWTHE GATEKEEPERSI’M SO EXCITED*

LOVE IS ALL YOU NEEDWHITE ELEPHANTLUX PRIZE SCREENING: JUST THE WIND

13.5014.10, 20.4014.30, 16.30, 18.30, 20.3016.10, 18.3016.20, 20.50 18.30

8THWED

ARCHIVE AT LUNCHTIME: PROGRAMME 2SCARECROWTHE GATEKEEPERSI’M SO EXCITED*

LOVE IS ALL YOU NEEDWHITE ELEPHANTWE’RE NO ANGELS

13.10

13.5014.10, 20.4014.30, 16.30, 18.30, 20.3016.10, 18.3016.20, 20.50 18.30

9THTHURS

SCARECROWTHE GATEKEEPERSI’M SO EXCITED*

LOVE IS ALL YOU NEEDWHITE ELEPHANT

13.50, 20.50 14.00, 18.3014.30, 16.30, 18.30, 20.3016.10, 18.30 16.10, 20.40

DATE SCREENING TIME

10THFRI

THE EYE OF THE STORMOUR CHILDRENI’M SO EXCITED*

MUD

13.00, 18.2013.50, 16.10, 20.5014.30, 16.30, 18.30, 20.3015.30, 18.10, 20.40

11THSAT

ARCHIVE AT LUNCHTIME: DOUBLE BILLMUDI’M SO EXCITED*

THE MIRACLETHE EYE OF THE STORMOUR CHILDREN

13.10

13.30, 18.10, 20.40 14.30, 16.30, 18.30, 20.3016.1018.30 20.50

12THSUN

IRELAND ON SUNDAY: TAX CITYTHE EYE OF THE STORMI’M SO EXCITED*

THE CRYING GAMEOUR CHILDRENMUD

13.0013.40, 18.2014.30, 16.30, 18.30, 20.3016.1016.10, 20.5018.20, 20.50

13THMON

MUDARCHIVE AT LUNCHTIME: PROGRAMME 2THE EYE OF THE STORMI’M SO EXCITED*

OUR CHILDRENINTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE

13.00, 15.30, 20.40 13.10

14.10, 18.30 14.30, 16.30, 18.30, 20.3016.20, 20.5018.20

14THTUES

THE EYE OF THE STORMOUR CHILDRENI’M SO EXCITED*MUDMICHAEL COLLINSBROKEN + Q&A

13.00 13.40, 16.00, 20.5014.20, 16.20, 20.5015.30, 18.10, 20.50 18.2018.30

15THWED

MUDARCHIVE AT LUNCHTIME: PROGRAMME 1OUR CHILDRENI’M SO EXCITED*

THE BUTCHER BOYTHE EYE OF THE STORM

13.00, 15.30, 20.40 13.10

14.00, 20.5014.30, 16.30, 18.30, 20.3018.3018.30

16THTHURS

THE EYE OF THE STORMOUR CHILDRENI’M SO EXCITED*

MUD

13.00, 18.20 13.50, 16.10, 20.5014.30, 16.30, 18.30, 20.3015.30, 18.10, 20.40

17THFRI

OUR CHILDRENI’M SO EXCITED*A HIJACKING

MUDSIMON KILLER

13.50, 18.20 14.00, 18.40 14.10, 16.20, 18.30, 20.40 16.10, 20.40 16.10, 20.40

18THSAT

ARCHIVE AT LUNCHTIME: DOUBLE BILLMUDA HIJACKING

SIMON KILLERIN DREAMSOUR CHILDRENI’M SO EXCITED*

13.10

13.30, 20.4014.10, 16.20, 18.30, 20.40 14.10, 18.4016.1016.20, 20.5018.50

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DATE SCREENING TIME

19THSUN

MUDOUR CHILDRENWIM VANDEKEYBUS SPECIALNOT I + THE END OF THE AFFAIRSIMON KILLERA HIJACKINGI’M SO EXCITED*

13.30, 20.4013.50, 18.20 14.0016.10 16.10, 20.40 16.20, 18.30, 20.40 18.40

20THMON

ARCHIVE AT LUNCHTIME: PROGRAMME 1I’M SO EXCITED*MUDA HIJACKING

SIMON KILLEROUR CHILDREN

13.10

13.50, 18.30 15.50, 20.30 14.10, 16.20, 18.30, 20.40 14.10, 18.4016.20, 20.50

21STTUES

I’M SO EXCITED*OUR CHILDRENA HIJACKING

MUDSIMON KILLERTHE GOOD THIEF

13.30, 20.4013.50, 18.20 14.10, 16.20, 18.30, 20.40 15.30, 20.4016.1018.30

22NDWED

ARCHIVE AT LUNCHTIME: PROGRAMME 2I’M SO EXCITED*A HIJACKINGSIMON KILLERMUDOUR CHILDRENFEAST YOUR EYES: BELLA MARTHAMONTHLY MUST-SEE CINEMA: ANOTHER SHORE

13.10

13.50 14.10, 16.20, 20.40 14.10, 20.5015.50, 20.40 16.2018.3018.30

23RDTHURS

OUR CHILDRENI’M SO EXCITED*A HIJACKING

MUDSIMON KILLER

13.50, 18.20 14.00, 18.40 14.10, 16.20, 18.30, 20.40 16.10, 20.40 16.10, 20.40

24THFRI

WILD STRAWBERRIES & BEALTAINE 2013: THE GREAT GATSBYSOMETHING IN THE AIRMY NEIGHBOUR TOTOROA HIJACKINGMUDEVERYBODY HAS A PLANGRAVE OF THE FIREFLIESTHE KING OF MARVIN GARDENS

11.00

13.40, 16.10, 20.50 14.00 14.00, 18.40 15.50, 20.30 16.10, 20.50 18.30 18.40

25THSAT

THE MAKING OF EXCALIBUR: MYTH INTO MOVIEARCHIVE AT LUNCHTIME: DOUBLE BILLMY NEIGHBOUR TOTOROAFTERNOON TALK: NEIL JORDAN PUBLIC INTERVIEWGRAVE OF THE FIREFLIESSOMETHING IN THE AIRBREAKFAST ON PLUTOTHE KING OF MARVIN GARDENSMUDA HIJACKINGEVERYBODY HAS A PLAN

13.00

13.10

13.3014.10

14.1015.30, 18.10, 20.40 16.1016.1018.2018.40, 20.5020.50

DATE SCREENING TIME

26THSUN

IFI FAMILY: THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOODMY NEIGHBOUR TOTOROTHE BRAVE ONELIFE IN MOVEMENTSOMETHING IN THE AIREVERYBODY HAS A PLANGRAVE OF THE FIREFLIESTHE KING OF MARVIN GARDENSA HIJACKINGMUD

11.00

13.0013.3014.0015.50, 18.20, 20.50 16.10, 20.5016.2018.2018.4020.30

27THMON

ARCHIVE AT LUNCHTIME: PROGRAMME 2SOMETHING IN THE AIRA HIJACKINGGRAVE OF THE FIREFLIESEVERYBODY HAS A PLANMUDTHE KING OF MARVIN GARDENSMY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO

13.10

13.20, 15.50, 20.30 14.00, 18.4014.1016.10, 20.5016.10, 20.5018.20 18.40

28THTUES

SOMETHING IN THE AIRMUDA HIJACKINGEVERYBODY HAS A PLANMY NEIGHBOUR TOTOROGRAVE OF THE FIREFLIESIFI & EXPERIMENTAL FILM CLUBTHE KING OF MARVIN GARDENS

13.20, 15.50, 20.4013.4013.5016.00, 20.3016.3018.3018.3020.50

29THWED

WILD STRAWBERRIES & BEALTAINE 2013: THE GREAT GATSBYARCHIVE AT LUNCHTIME: PROGRAMME 1MUDSOMETHING IN THE AIRA HIJACKINGEVERYBODY HAS A PLANMY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO THE CRITICAL TAKETHE KING OF MARVIN GARDENSGRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES

11.00

13.10

13.4013.40, 16.10, 18.40 14.00, 18.4016.10, 20.5016.3018.3020.4021.10

30THTHURS

THE KING OF MARVIN GARDENSSOMETHING IN THE AIRA HIJACKINGGRAVE OF THE FIREFLIESMY NEIGHBOUR TOTOROONDINETHE STONE ROSES: MADE OF STONE (PREVIEW + SATELLITE Q&A)MUDEVERYBODY HAS A PLAN

13.40 14.00, 16.30 14.20, 18.20 16.20 16.30 18.3019.30

20.20 20.50

31STFRI

WILD STRAWBERRIES & BEALTAINE 2013: DANCE ACROSS DUBLINSOMETHING IN THE AIRBYZANTIUM

POPULAIRE

EVERYBODY HAS A PLAN

11.00

13.00, 18.20 13.20, 15.50, 18.20, 20.5013.50, 16.10, 18.30, 20.50 15.30, 20.50

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Programme events and times may be subject to change on occasion. Please visit www.ifi.ie or see IFI daily ads in The Irish Times for the latest information.

Scan the QR code opposite with your phone for the latest programme information.

* Includes the IFB-funded short, Oxygen (see page 9)

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MAY 2013NEW RELEASES & IFI CLASSICS

FILM INFO:82 minutes, U.K.-Ireland, 2012, Colour, D-CinemaNotes by Alice Butler

Set in Derry on New Year’s Eve, and drawing focus on a cast of predominantly young actors, this Romeo & Juliet-type tale, not unlike the Baz Luhrmann production in terms of energy and visual style, is smart and adeptly constructed. Conveying the carnival feel of the night in question and making atmospheric use of its particular sense of momentum, Jump quickly establishes the relationship between Greta (Nichola Burley) and Pearse (Martin McCann), who meet by

chance on a bridge while the rest of the city is wrapped up in revelry.

The instant attraction between them is thwarted by an unwelcome connection in the form of Greta’s father, one of the city’s most brutal criminals. While the couple attempt to escape this, Greta’s friends –Charlene McKenna and Valene Kane – run into dire straits of their own, altering and uniting all four lives irrevocably.

JUMP

MAY 1ST – 2ND

MAY 1ST – 2ND After the visceral love story that was Blue Valentine (starring Ryan Gosling) writer-director Derek Cianfrance shows no lack of ambition in this expansive contemporary saga, engrossingly tracing the longterm ripple-effect of questionable moral decisions. The ever-charismatic Gosling returns as a rootless carnival daredevil biker who tries to settle down when he learns he’s the father of waitress Eva Mendes’ child. How he chooses to support his new family however, brings him into

contact with local cop Bradley Cooper, here delivering a handsome yet slippery turn as a beat officer whose designs on ascending the career ladder take priority over ethical imperatives. Shaping events into a fascinating triptych structure, Cianfrance subsequently explores the ultimate ramifications of the two men’s actions, as the film is powered towards a satisfying, poetic conclusion by its stellar, committed performances and cameraman Sean Bobbitt’s intensely radiant images.

FILM INFO:140 minutes, U.S.A., 2012, Colour, D-CinemaNotes by Trevor Johnston

THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES

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MAY 1ST – 9TH After her Oscar-winning moral drama In A Better World, Denmark’s Susanne Bier returns with this charmer, bringing a dash of laughter, a smattering of home truths and plenty of Italian sunshine. Brassy blonde Trine Dyrholm holds centre stage as a hairdresser recovering from cancer surgery, whose errant hubby disgraces himself with the office girl only days before the couple must to fly to Sorrento for their daughter’s wedding. Also attending is Pierce Brosnan, father of the groom,

a gruff, work-obsessed fruit ‘n’ veg importer who lost his wife in tragic circumstances years earlier.

No, you probably won’t need three guesses to work out where the story’s going, but the filmmakers refuse to talk down to the material, and Dyrholm is absolutely stellar as the doughty heroine while Brosnan responds to every single layer of emotion in one of the best roles he’s ever had.

(DEN SKALDEDE FRISØR)

FILM INFO:116 minutes, Denmark-Sweden-Italy-France-Germany, 2012, Subtitled, Colour, D-CinemaNotes by Trevor Johnston

LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED

MAY 1ST – 9TH The challenge of retaining your faith in the face of everyday poverty, suffering and injustice provides a compelling core to this latest from brilliant Argentinian director Pablo Trapero. Lion’s Den and Carancho displayed his skill at fusing social issues with gripping thriller narratives, and here adapts to the daunting environs of a real-life shantytown in Buenos Aires, surrounding the massive empty shell of an unfinished hospital – a monument to failed good intentions. Ricardo

Darín exudes troubled decency as the embattled priest caught between church officialdom and his hardscrabble flock, while the arrival of Jérémie Renier’s big-hearted but impetuous Belgian missionary only escalates the temperature of the neighbourhood drugs war. Examining the gnarly realities of compassion, the film is resolutely fair-minded towards the local residents who took part in its production, and eschews easy answers in pondering the conundrum of making a difference.

(ELEFANTE BLANCO)

FILM INFO:110 minutes, Argentina-Spain-France, 2012, Subtitled, Colour, D-CinemaNotes by Trevor Johnston

WHITE ELEPHANT

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MAY 3RD – 9TH The personnel of the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, work in secrecy, with only the identity of the head of the organisation known to the public. In a striking coup, documentarist Dror Moreh here interviews no less than six former incumbents in the post – and it’s what they have to say which makes this a startling and provocative contribution to the Middle East debate. Contextualised by an astute use of news archive, these wily old warriors are firstly humanised by a recognition of

the psychological and emotional toll of knowing you’ve killed innocent people along with terrorist targets.

However, while their loyalty to defending their homeland remains rock solid, what astonishes here is their anger at the lack of Israeli political leadership in finding an accommodation with the Palestinians – perhaps even despair at how modern Israel’s hawkish mindset has left the country morally compromised. A genuine eye-opener.

(SHOMEREI HA’SAF)

FILM INFO:96 minutes, Israel-France-Germany-Belgium, 2012, Subtitled, Colour, D-CinemaNotes by Trevor Johnston

THE GATEKEEPERS

MAY 3RD – 9TH Gene Hackman’s favourite among his own films, and the Palme D’Or winner at Cannes in 1973, this picaresque character study remains one of the least-known gems from the golden age of early ‘70s American cinema. Frame after beautifully-composed frame conveys a scuffed eloquence as Hackman’s uptight loner and Al Pacino’s seemingly happy-go-lucky ex-sailor hitch their way across middle America, their journey shaped by old acquaintances, outbursts of

violence, stalled hopes, and last-gasp ambition. Underneath it all there’s a deft portrait of flawed masculinity meeting the challenge of connection and commitment, Pacino providing a seemingly outgoing foil to Hackman’s brilliant work as a volatile control-freak beginning to realise the depth of his isolation. But it’s the atmosphere, the places and faces – like some Tom Waits song brought to life – which are time-locked yet timeless, in a film crying out for rediscovery.

(IFI CLASSIC)

EXCLUSIVELY AT IFI †


SCARECROW

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MAY 10TH – 16TH Director Fred Schepisi (Last Orders) returns to Australian filmmaking for the first time since 1988’s A Cry in the Dark with this ambitious adaptation of a novel by fellow countryman and Nobel laureate Patrick Wilson. On her deathbed in early-1970s’ Sydney, petulant, domineering Elizabeth (Charlotte Rampling) is reluctantly visited by her two children, each of whom is eyeing up an inheritance. Basil (Geoffrey Rush) arrives from London, while sister Dorothy (Judy

Davis), retaining the title of Princess after her divorce from a French nobleman, comes from Paris. Each bears the scars of their childhood, carried over into adulthood. Despite increasing doses of morphine, Elizabeth remains a destructive force in their lives even now, as wounds are re-opened and traumas revealed. As one would expect, the film’s greatest strength is its leading cast, each of whom excels as fragile, damaged individuals.


FILM INFO:119 minutes, Australia, 2011, Colour, D-CinemaNotes by Kevin Coyne

THE EYE OF THE STORM

(LOS AMANTES ASAJEROS)

FILM INFO:90 minutes, Spain, 2013, Subtitled, Colour, D-CinemaNotes by Trevor Johnston

Hands up who expected this! Almodóvar breaks his run of essentially serious recent melodramas to return to the frisky ribaldry characterising his ‘80s career up to Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. A Spanish airline flight is supposedly heading for Mexico City, but its landing gear is crocked, so the pilots circle over Spain, leaving an enthusiastically camp trio of male cabin attendants to entertain the handful of business-class travellers. That the passengers in economy have

been drugged into slumber is just one indication Almodóvar’s also aiming at a bitter metaphor for his homeland’s recent scandalous financial downturn, but his film’s also outrageous fun as the mescaline-spiked ‘Valencia cocktail’ is served and sexual inhibitions are loosened. Riotously naughty, but far from empty-headed, it’s another Almodóvar must-see, graced by generous cameos from old favourites Antonio Banderas and Penelope Cruz.

I’M SO EXCITED!

MAY 3RD – 23RD

IFI IRISH SHORTSThese screenings will include Peter Sheridan’s Irish Film Board short film, Oxygen, about an elderly woman whose joie de vivre keeps her one step ahead of her carer and son. (3 mins, 2004, Colour.)

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MAY 10TH – 30TH In this backwoods Arkansas rites-of-passage story, Matthew McConaughey continues his transformation from fading heart-throb to compelling character actor, as a fugitive ne’er-do-well (his name is indeed ‘Mud’) who promises two local lads his wreck of a boat if they help him contact his estranged girlfriend (Reese Witherspoon). Exposure to the adult world of troubled romance and potentially lethal vengeance proves quite an eye-opener for idealistic Ellis

(Tye Sheridan) and his more circumspect pal Neckbone (Jacob Lofland), whose gradual coming-of-age Take Shelter writer-director Jeff Nichols records with the same respect and affection he affords the unspoiled local lakes and rivers. Affectionately echoing both Huckleberry Finn and Stand by Me, this unhurried slice of Americana offers a junior adventure story told from the wise perspective of an older head as the increasingly tense drama plays out. One to savour.


MUD

MAY 10TH – 23RD The quest for domestic bliss becomes an inescapable nightmare in this immensely powerful Belgian character study based on shocking true-life events. Emilie Dequenne, already an indie icon as the Dardennes’ Rosetta, is arguably even more affecting here as a young mum whose children and Moroccan-immigrant husband Tahar Rahim are stuck under the same roof as his seemingly generous benefactor, respected doctor Niels Arestrup. Effectively reuniting the male leads from

A Prophet, the film intelligently uses them to different ends, since Arestrup’s quietly-spoken presence proves an insidiously oppressive reminder of Rahim’s family’s social and economic subservience. Dequenne yearns for her own life, but enveloping entrapment pushes her closer to the edge, as director Joachim Lafosse’s sensitively reserved visuals guide us towards the unthinkable. A tough subject, but this masterly achievement is without question one of the films of the year.

(A PERDRE LA RAISON)

FILM INFO:111 minutes, Belgium-Luxembourg-France-Switzerland, 2012, Subtitled, Colour, D-CinemaNotes by Trevor Johnston

✔Programmer's Pick. See page 2.

OUR CHILDREN

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MAY 17TH – 23RD Nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance last year, Antonio Campos’ second feature sees lovelorn American Simon (Brady Corbett, Martha Marcy May Marlene) licking his wounds in Paris following the breakup of a long-term relationship. Wandering into a sex club, he meets enigmatic prostitute Victoria (Mati Diop, 35 Shots of Rum). Recognising something in each other, the two eventually move in together, and Simon draws her into a scheme to blackmail her married clients. While

there are previous clues, this is the strongest indication yet that behind Simon’s charming, boyish exterior lurks a true sociopath, willing to lie and manipulate in any situation in order to turn it to his own advantage. Campos does an excellent job of slowly and quietly building an atmosphere of tension and menace while Corbett’s icy portrayal of the morally disengaged Simon is difficult to shake.

FILM INFO:101 minutes, France-U.S.A., 2011, Subtitled, Colour, D-CinemaNotes by Kevin Coyne

SIMON KILLER

MAY 17TH – 30TH A nightmare scenario unfolds for a Danish cargo ship in the Indian Ocean when armed Somali pirates take over the vessel. Back in Copenhagen, Søren Malling’s no-nonsense CEO is determined to stonewall the hijackers, understandable from his perspective but leaves Pilou Asbæk’s sympathetic cook and the other western crew members nervously sweating it out on-board. Writer-director Tobias Lindholm, who previously scripted the excellent wrong-man drama The Hunt, calibrates

every move in the anxious negotiations with assured precision, bringing documentary-style veracity to this study of the price of principles and the source of human courage. We share the sweaty claustrophobia of the captives just as much as the awful responsibility carried by the boss who’s possibly in over his head. Utterly gripping, and if Gary Skjoldmose Porter is especially convincing as the jargon-spouting corporate security consultant, that’s actually his job in real life!

(KAPRINGEN)

FILM INFO:99 minutes, Denmark, 2012, Subtitled, Colour, D-CinemaNotes by Trevor Johnston

A HIJACKING

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MAY 24TH – 30TH Originally released as part of a double bill with My Neighbour Totoro, Grave of the Fireflies is a more mature film, set in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. It begins with the death of 14-year-old Seita, whose spirit narrates the experiences and tribulations encountered by himself and his younger sister Setsuko after the loss of their mother and home in a bombing raid. At first, they find shelter with a willing aunt but as food becomes scarcer and she begins to resent the burden

of caring for the children, they strike out on their own, initially with some success, but ultimately, as we already know, with tragic results. While the film’s themes are open to interpretation, whether it’s pro-social responsibility or anti-war, what is undeniable is its power to move audiences. See page 24 for our IFI Family screening this month.

(HOTARU NO HAKA)

(IFI CLASSIC)

FILM INFO:89 minutes, Japan, 1988, Subtitled, Colour, D-CinemaNotes by Kevin Coyne

(IFI recommended age: 12+)

GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES

MAY 24TH – 30TH Hayao Miyazaki’s second film for Studio Ghibli, My Neighbour Totoro was one of the first to draw international attention to Japanese animation, and is now generally considered one of the best in the genre. Its appeal is not hard to recognise; the visuals are beautifully hand-crafted, and it is, as Roger Ebert wrote, “a children’s film for the world we should live in, rather than the one we occupy”. When sisters Satsuki and Mei move to an old house to be closer to their ailing mother, they discover

a magical world in the nearby forest, populated by benign, playful spirits and trolls. Befriended by these creatures, the girls are comforted in their time of need. Effortlessly adding fantastical elements to a story grounded in reality, Miyazaki tells a tale that is simple, wonderful, and utterly unforgettable. This film will be shown in a dubbed version on May 25th and 26th. All other screenings will be subtitled. See page 24 for our IFI Family screening this month.

(TONARI NO TOTORO)

(IFI CLASSIC)

FILM INFO:86 minutes, Japan, 1988, Subtitled, Colour, D-CinemaNotes by Kevin Coyne

(IFI recommended age: PG)

MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO

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(IFI CLASSIC)



Director Bob Rafelson and his leading man Jack Nicholson created a sensation together with 1970’s Five Easy Pieces, but their moody and melancholy second collaboration has never quite had the attention it deserves. Both are films about the family and its discontents, but where Nicholson played a restless free spirit in the earlier release, two years later he’s intense and somewhat buttoned-up as a late-night radio host who gets ensnared in his estranged sibling’s dangerously speculative

business dealings. Here Bruce Dern is utterly memorable playing the kind of loose-cannon Nicholson himself usually essayed, though crumbling, out-of-season Atlantic City is just as much a character in the movie, whose title’s derived from the original American version of Monopoly. Dreams and desolation in a town where the party’s definitely over – made in 1972, but this really is a film for now.

THE KING OF MARVIN GARDENS

MAY 24TH – 30TH

FROM MAY 24TH Viggo Mortensen stars in Ana Piterbarg’s directorial debut as twin brothers Agustín and Pedro. Agustín is a successful doctor, married to the attractive Claudia (Soledad Villamil, The Secret in their Eyes), and ultimately frustrated with his life. Pedro, on the other hand, is a beekeeper with a sideline in kidnapping. When the latter announces his terminal illness, Agustín sees an opportunity to assume his identity and start afresh, which he grasps immediately. Stepping into

his brother’s shoes however, is not without complications, most notably in the form of his young assistant, Rosa (Sofía Gala, Tetro), and shady childhood friend Adrián (Daniel Fanego). At heart a crime thriller, the film gives the ever-reliable Mortensen an opportunity to shine, creating distinctive and complex characters in the dual role. Neophyte Piterbarg shows an admirable restraint, allowing the plot to unfold at its own pace.

(TODOS TENEMOS UN PLAN)

FILM INFO:118 minutes, Argentina, 2012, Subtitled, Colour, D-CinemaNotes by Kevin Coyne

EVERYBODY HAS A PLAN

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FROM MAY 31ST Two hundred years old and never been kissed – growing up is hard to do when you’re one of the undead and your mother keeps moving from town to town lest the family’s dark secret be discovered. Remarkably, Neil Jordan’s latest offering finds a fresh take on blood-drinking mythology, as troubled daughter Saoirse Ronan recounts her tale in a concerted effort to make sense of her life, while Gemma Arterton uses her mercilessly voluptuous wiles to play maternal protector. With the film’s

seedy contemporary seaside setting, its love of the Gothic and time-spanning storytelling, screenwriter Moira Buffini proves right at home in quintessential Neil Jordan territory.

Starting with a very Irish slant on vampire legend, this certainly has its narrative foibles, yet ultimately balances bloody mayhem with a palpable, poetic depth of yearning. Good to see Jordan going for the jugular again.

FILM INFO:119 minutes, Ireland-U.K., 2012, Colour, D-CinemaNotes by Trevor Johnston

BYZANTIUM

See page 16 for our Neil Jordan Retrospective which will include a free public interview with Jordan hosted by Pat McCabe.

FROM MAY 24TH The brilliant Olivier Assayas surveyed the ‘70s radical terrorist landscape in his epic Carlos and now he revisits his own back pages in 1971 Paris, reconciling raging hormones, post-‘68 ideological ferment and the nascent stirrings of creativity. It’s a fascinating fresco, with a generous ensemble feel, which never uses hindsight to mock its youthful idealists debating their solidarity with the proletariat. Instead there’s a kind of nostalgia for a culture where ideas were taken so seriously, even if they

pointed towards worryingly violent resolutions, and presented doctrinaire restrictions on the development of a personal aesthetic. Shot with the kind of insouciant grace most filmmakers can barely dream of, this is haunting, immersive and impassioned, its moments of visceral threat and casual sensuality intensified by a truly choice soundtrack, including Nick Drake, The Soft Machine, The Incredible String Band and Kevin Ayers.

(APRÈS MAI)

FILM INFO:122 minutes, France, 2012, Subtitled, Colour, D-CinemaNotes by Trevor Johnston

SOMETHING IN THE AIR

FRENCH FILM CLUBThere will be a French Film Club screening of this film on May 29th, 18.40. Please see page 2 for details.

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FROM MAY 31ST The year is 1959, and for an ordinary girl from the provinces, landing a secretarial job in super-chic Paris is the height of ambition. Gamine-yet-clumsy Rose (Déborah François) however, has something other hopefuls don’t – blazing typing skills! Enter dishy businessman Louis (Romain Duris) who realises her particular gifts are less suited to office duties than the national speed typing championships. A severe training régime is in order, but are troublesome emotions going

to impede their professional tilt at fleet-fingered glory? The just-so costumes and delightfully immersive period detail – where did they get all those vintage typewriters? – are a huge source of pleasure in this very cute Gallic combination of sports movie and romance. There’s a dab of social comment, but essentially it’s a light-hearted charmer, deliciously played by François and Duris relishing the chance to kick back and relax.

FILM INFO:111 minutes, France, 2012, Subtitled, Colour, D-CinemaNotes by Trevor Johnston

POPULAIRE

Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy revive their on-screen amour in Before Midnight, the third instalment of Richard Linklater’s romantic tale following Jesse and Celine’s relationship that blossomed on a train bound for Vienna in Before Sunrise, was rekindled in Paris in Before Sunset and now has matured into a long-term attachment as we meet the couple holidaying in Greece, both now in their 40s. It’s a stunning sequel replete with exceptional performances from its leads.

Claude Miller’s final feature before he passed away is Thérèse Desqueyroux, starring Audrey Tautou. Adapted from Francois Mauriac’s 1927 novel of the same name, this elegant drama closed the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. Abbas Kiarostami’s Like Someone in Love is a beautifully-shot fable from the master filmmaker that sees a student moonlighting as a call girl who develops an unexpected connection with a widower in Tokyo.

FILM HIGHLIGHTS IN JUNE

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NEIL JORDAN RETROSPECTIVE

If Neil Jordan didn’t exist, you’d be hard-pressed to invent him. There’s simply no precedent on these shores for a gifted young novelist turning to film, then carving out a decades-long career at home and in Hollywood, all the while keeping his creative integrity defiantly intact. Back in the ‘70s, the notion that someone from Ireland could pull off that sort of trick would have seemed an absurdity. Nowadays however, Jordan is pre-eminent though not alone among Irish film-makers of world stature, and continues to thrive in a native context where cinema is now central to the arts culture rather than a luxury product to be imported from elsewhere.

As a prelude to the release of Byzantium, his latest darkly captivating saga, here’s a splendid opportunity to survey a major filmography – to be challenged by Jordan’s consistently bracing insight into the best and worst of ourselves, to savour his bitter humour, admire his visionary craft, and thrill to some magnificent performances. Visit some old friends. Make some new ones. Reassess. And marvel.

Introduction and notes on individual films by Trevor Johnston.

Neil Jordan will be interviewed by his friend and collaborator Pat McCabe in our FREE Afternoon Talk on Saturday, May 25th. See page 2. Byzantium opens May 31st. Please see page 14 for notes.

In partnership with

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THE MAKING OF EXCALIBURAs part of this season, we’re pleased to screen the first feature ever directed by Neil Jordan, The Making of Excalibur: Myth into Movie , which he filmed on the set of John Boorman’s 1981 epic , and which is now preserved in the IFI Irish Film Archive. May 25th (13.00). Tickets €5.

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The first-time writer-director certainly laid down a marker here, casting signature actor Stephen Rea as a showband saxophonist who’s shocked by the senseless terrorist shooting of an innocent

waif outside a border country dance hall. As he would throughout his subsequent career however, Jordan challenges the audience’s easy moral assumptions when Rea’s angel of vengeance leaves his own bloody trail, lost in a miasma of contradictions once he picks up a gun himself.

Confrontational, spare, and poetic, Jordan’s courageous foray into the dark psychic chasm at the heart of the Troubles remains an indelible landmark in Irish film.

FILM INFO:92 minutes, Ireland-U.K., 1982, Colour, 35mm

MAY 1ST (18.30)

ANGEL

The start of an ongoing partnership with producer Stephen Woolley showcases Jordan’s evident affection for Gothic fantasy. Adapting Angela Carter’s oneiric short stories in collaboration with the author, this

imaginative combination of classic fairy tale and Hammer horror surveys the troubled dreams of an adolescent girl, whose subconscious sexual anxieties refract childhood tales through adult flesh-and-blood desire. Structurally, it only just hangs together, but production designer Anton Furst’s studio-created magic forest is a marvel, the sinewy lupine transformation effects are a nostalgia trip in themselves, and Hollywood legend Angel Lansbury is just perfect as the heroine’s understandably protective grandma.

FILM INFO:95 minutes, U.K., 1984, Colour, 35mm

MAY 4TH (14.10)

This underworld thriller, co-written with David Leland, brings a new level of emotional intensity to Jordan’s work and introduces a central theme – that love is never ours to control. In the employ of seedy

kingpin Michael Caine, Bob Hoskins is heart-rending as the humble driver who falls hopelessly for elegant black prostitute Cathy Tyson without realising she’s in the throes of her own romantic obsession.

Characteristically for Jordan, it’s a classic song which defines the idealistic longing ensnaring the characters, the lustrous croon of Nat King Cole’s title tune contrasting brilliantly with the sleazy realities of ‘80s London’s meanest streets.

FILM INFO:104 minutes, U.K., 1986, Colour, 35mm

MAY 5TH (14.10)

THE COMPANY OF WOLVES


MONA LISA

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This misbegotten tilt at a sort of Celtic Ghostbusters is never quite as awful as its unenviable reputation suggests. The comic set-up’s actually quite promising as a full-on Peter O’Toole hopes to save his ancestral

seat by pretending it’s haunted, only for real spectres to emerge from the woodwork and mingle with his American visitors.

True, it falls down badly attempting large-scale slapstick high-jinks, but the dialogue fires out a few zingers, and Liam Neeson is, frankly, hilarious as the old place’s lustiest long-dead resident. The studio patched together the final cut, which remains shambolic but not unendearing.

FILM INFO:96 minutes, U.K.-U.S.A., 1988, Colour, 35mm

MAY 6TH (18.30)

HIGH SPIRITS

A big-time Hollywood budget, a David Mamet screenplay, Robert De Niro and Sean Penn – what could go wrong? In retrospect, the critical thumping for this religious-themed frolic seems somewhat unjustified,

since it works pretty well on its own (admittedly fairly singular) terms.

As fugitive convicts Bob and Sean don clerical garb to break for the Canadian border, the unlikely meeting of criminal cunning and Christian charity is about to move hearts and minds in unexpected ways. Mamet scripts the two leads as barely articulate dolts, eschewing formular wise-crackery in favour of a wry, somewhat quizzical irony that’s definitely Jordan’s domain.

FILM INFO:106 minutes, U.S.A., 1989, Colour, 35mm

MAY 8TH (18.30)

Two consecutive box-office clunkers sent Jordan back home to regroup, and this intimate drama unfolding on the Bray seafront is the closest his films have come to the world of his short stories. Teens Niall

Byrne and Lorraine Pilkington are such firm buddies they hardly dare acknowledge the attraction between them, but he’s in for a life lesson when visiting American actress Beverly D’Angelo throws him for a hormonal spin.

Jordan arguably overplays the mystery angle, but otherwise this is a delightful compendium of favourite elements – problematic romance, musical standards, the seaside, fractured parental relationships, and a seasoning of fantasy.

FILM INFO:97 minutes, U.K.-Ireland, 1991, Colour, 35mm

MAY 11TH (16.10)

WE’RE NO ANGELS

THE MIRACLE


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Now that he was ‘Academy Award Winner Neil Jordan’, his ascendant stock brought him the long-gestating screen version of the first volume in Anne Rice’s million-selling Vampire Chronicles. If the presence of Messrs. Cruise and Pitt hint at some Hollywood sell-out, the reality is a surprisingly uncompromised vision – a dark and brooding affair, whose vampire theme allows Jordan to ponder the moral borderlines

of our very humanity. Cruise and Pitt excel in their contrasting takes on the awful temptations of immortality, but the standout is 12-year-old Kirsten Dunst, truly chilling as a soulless fiend trapped in a child’s body.

INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE: THE VAMPIRE CHRONICLES

MAY 13TH (18.20)

MAY 12TH (16.10) Shot in parlous circumstances as its British producers neared bankruptcy, Jordan’s portrait of an IRA gunman embracing his humanity in unexpected circumstances proved the pivotal moment in his career, after an ingenious U.S. marketing campaign swept the film all the way to Oscar night. Stephen Rea once more embodies seriously conflicted innocence as the protagonist’s promise to ill-fated squaddie

Forest Whitaker prompts a life-changing encounter with the latter’s alluring lover (a once-in-a-lifetime performance from Jaye Davidson).

The anguish of love and the rewards of compassion combine to make this an enduring modern classic, long after its much-touted ‘secret’ is out.

FILM INFO:112 minutes, U.K.-Japan, 1992, Colour, 35mm

THE CRYING GAME

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MAY 14TH (18.20) Jordan’s national creation myth was always going to be controversial, but at heart it plays out on a historic scale the personal conflict seen in Angel – once you pick up a gun, even with good reason, it’s difficult to put it down again.

Liam Neeson’s intelligently calibrated performance captures the seductive charisma of Collins and his self-doubt, while Jordan’s direction

brings startling ferocity to the guerrilla warfare.

Yes, Julia Roberts is too strong a presence for her subsidiary romantic role, but she brought studio financing to a movie which never settles for the easy answers of many a Hollywood epic.

FILM INFO:132 minutes, U.K.-Ireland-U.S.A., 1996, Colour, 35mm

MICHAEL COLLINS

MAY 15TH (18.30) It says a lot about Jordan’s phantasmagorical adaptation of Pat McCabe’s novel that by the time Sinéad O’Connor turns up as the Holy Virgin we hardly bat an eyelid.

A fresco of 1950s’ provincial Irish mayhem and madness, it traces the finest of lines between innocence and psychosis as schoolboy anti-hero ‘the incredible Francie Brady’ tackles bourgeois convention, failed parents

and priestly authority in a passionate quest for happiness. . . which ends very badly indeed.

Fearlessly imaginative, black as tar yet ultimately profoundly moving, it’s another one for the ages, thanks in no small part to Eamonn Owens’ indelible, force-of-nature central turn.


THE BUTCHER BOY


Neil Jordan will be interviewed by his friend and frequent collaborator Pat McCabe in our FREE Afternoon Talk on May 25th (14.10). See page 2.

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An essay in the art of thievery as Nick Nolte’s grizzled American expat plans a daring heist on the Monte Carlo casino, and Jordan remakes Jean-Paul Melville’s 1956 classic of Gallic cool, Bob Le Flambeur.

It’s hardly a direct copy, since the plot’s reconceived to include Emir Kursturica in fine fettle as a hi-tech security expert, yet the solid provenance seemingly allows the movie to relax in its own skin and mosey amiably towards the climactic break-in.

Admittedly, some stylistic flourishes out-stay their welcome, though cameraman Chris Menges conjures something wonderful from the Riviera’s combination of tourist seediness and azure light.

FILM INFO:109 minutes, France-U.K.-Ireland-Canada, 2002, Colour, 35mm

MAY 21ST (18.30)

Ever unpredictable, Jordan followed a creative high with a psychological thriller which found few admirers. The key image of a lost community beneath a Massachusetts reservoir suggests a lingering suppressed

subconscious, as illustrator Annette Bening is assailed by visions of a child killer. Her dreams have a disturbing way of coming true however, as the story sidesteps credibility to follow its own hallucinatory logic. Is the horror coming from without or within?

Bening’s performance, so committed it’s truly frightening, makes it palpable either way and there’s a memorable suspense set-piece at a school play showing Jordan at his visionary best.


MAY 18TH (16.10)

Not perhaps the most obvious filmmaker to tackle the tortured Catholicism of Graham Greene’s autobiographical 1951 novel, yet Jordan proves utterly invested in its writer protagonist Bendrix –

a man seething with anger at the very heavens after the break-up of a torrid wartime liaison. A rainswept London under Nazi bombs provides an immersive context to the film’s intricately structured roundelay of flesh and faith, while the astutely restrained contributions of Ralph Fiennes and Julianne Moore move in tune with the film’s mature sophistication. Vintage chanteuse Jo Stafford’s aching rendition of Haunted Heart sets exactly the right mood of melancholy yearning.

FILM INFO:102 minutes, U.K.-U.S.A., 1999, Colour, 35mm

MAY 19TH (16.10)

IN DREAMS

THE END OF THE AFFAIR

THE GOOD THIEF

Not I, Jordan’s short film made for the Beckett on Film project and which stars Julianne Moore, will screen before this feature.

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Jordan turns to Patrick McCabe’s boundless imagination once more and recreates Ireland’s turbulent 1970s as an odyssey of gender-bending possibility, courtesy of irrepressible cross-dressing Patrick

‘Kitten’ Braden. Cillian Murphy triumphs in the central role with a blend of determined flounce and bruised fragility, holding together a picaresque narrative which ultimately relinquishes momentum for in-the-moment revelation. What moments they are though, including Brendan Gleeson as a psychotic Womble, Liam Neeson’s sympathetically flawed cleric, and an IRA nerve centre as never seen before. And for all the fizzy stylisation, we never lose sight of the heartbreak and horror only just kept at bay.

FILM INFO:129 minutes, Ireland-U.K., 2005, Colour, 35mm

MAY 25TH (16.10)

BREAKFAST ON PLUTO

Working for Lethal Weapon producer Joel Silver as director-for-hire, Jordan turned this revenge thriller to his own uncompromising ends, following NYC radio personality Jodie Foster’s unsettling journey

from battered and bruised crime victim to gun-toting urban vigilante. An obvious companion piece to Angel, it leaves the audience to pass judgment on her increasingly extreme actions, and indeed their relevance for America’s on-going firearms debate. Terrence Howard almost out-shines his brilliant leading lady as the investigating cop trying to keep the faith, but no-one here will emerge morally unscathed. Visceral and disturbing, this could well be Jordan’s most under-rated film.

FILM INFO:122 minutes, U.S.A.-Australia, 2007, Colour, 35mm

MAY 26TH (13.30)

Back in Ireland for some Celtic faerie lore, and the appearance of a ‘selkie’ in the nets of Cork fisherman Colin Farrell. When he takes sea-nymph Alicja Bachleda ashore, fortune begins smiling on him, but can the

legends really co-exist with a gnarled modern world of complex domestic arrangements, drink problems and a daughter on dialysis?

Jordan attempts the near-impossible in crafting a story that’s ethereal and tough at the same time, and if it never quite comes together, it’s certainly a distinctive entry in his filmography, shot in hues of rich marine green by Wong Kar-Wai’s cameraman Chris Doyle.

FILM INFO:104 minutes, Ireland-U.S.A, 2009, Colour, 35mm

MAY 30TH (18.30)

THE BRAVE ONE

ONDINE


Neil Jordan will be interviewed by his friend and frequent collaborator Pat McCabe in our FREE Afternoon Talk on May 25th (14.10). See page 2.

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IFI EVENTS

IFI EVENTSIRELAND ON SUNDAYMONTHLY MUST-SEE CINEMAARCHIVE AT LUNCHTIMEIFI FAMILY LUX PRIZE SCREENING: JUST THE WINDBROKEN + DANIEL CLAY Q&AIFI & DUBLIN DANCE FESTIVALFEAST YOUR EYESIFI & EXPERIMENTAL FILM CLUBMADE OF STONE (PREVIEW + SATELLITE Q&A)WILD STRAWBERRIES & BEALTAINE 2013

This months’ selection is one of the most delightful comedies in the IFI Irish Film Archive’s collection. Another Shore is a 1948 Ealing Studios tragi-comedy set in Dublin. Gulliver Shields (Robert Beatty) is a bored civil servant who day-dreams of escaping his mundane existence and sailing to Raratonga in the South Seas. Lacking the 200 guineas

he requires to get there, he concocts a far-fetched money-making scheme which has him sitting at the dangerous junction of Dame Street and College Green every day waiting to save the life of a wealthy person and bag himself a handsome reward. Life gets complicated when fate sends wealthy, generous, and itchy-footed Alistar MacNeill (Stanley Holloway) his way but also beautiful motorist, Jennifer (Moira Lister), who has romantic but stay-at-home designs on him. It is perhaps surprising that this fine comedy, directed by Charles Crichton (A Titfield Thunderbolt, The Lavender Hill Mob) and based on Judge Kenneth Reddin’s popular novel, isn’t more widely known. For local audiences, the extensive street sequences in post-war Dublin are a particular pleasure.

DIRECTOR:Charles Crichton

FILM INFO:90 minus, U.K., 1948, Black and White

MAY 22ND (18.30)

Ireland on Sunday is our monthly showcase for new Irish film.

In a departure from our usual form, this month’s Ireland on Sunday screening features a short drama film followed by a long interview with stellar cast and crew.

Tax City is a muscular new drama directed by U.K.-based Irish-born Tom Begley and written and produced by Andy Nolan. Set in 1990s’ London, Tax City follows the sensational comeback of rock star Johnny Costa (Jon Campling), his tragic fall from grace and his perilous fight for survival on the streets of London. Costa is forced to confront Fintan (played by former-World-Champion-boxer-turned-actor Steve Collins) the brutal leader of a real life, Irish-dominated Taxing Squad gang that preys on the homeless community.

The film screening will be followed by a Q&A with Begley, and with Steve Collins who will be appearing in advance of an imminent grudge fight with former World Champion, Roy Jones Junior. Tickets €5.

TAX CITY

DIRECTOR:Tom Begley

FILM INFO:20 minutes, 2013, Colour, D-Cinema

MAY 12TH (13.00)

ANOTHER SHORE

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Join us for FREE screenings of films from the IFI Irish Film Archive (see calendar for dates and times). Simply collect your tickets at the IFI Box Office.

This month: more nostalgic snapshots of Ireland (some more accurate than others. . .)

PROGRAMME 1: HAPPY TO MEET. . . SORRY TO PART This travelogue, featuring the music of Horslips and borrowing its name from their first album (released in 1972), is a light-hearted whistle-stop tour around Ireland narrated by a fictional British traveller and his jolly Irish host.FILM INFO: 28 minutes, 1974, Colour

PROGRAMME 2: GLIMPSES OF ERIN Though full of Blarney and some distortion (“Galway is a thriving little town in the south of Ireland”), this cinema short is notable for its portraits of noble Irish peasants.FILM INFO: 8 minutes, 1934, Black and White

IRELAND: A NEW LOOK AT THE EMERALD ISLE This educational film for American schoolchildren is both facile and inaccurate. The voice-over asserts: “The port city of Galway lies on the northeast coast” and “Ireland cannot import fuel because of its farm economy”. Prepare to be bemused.FILM INFO: 18 minutes, 1967, Colour

THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD MAY 26TH (11.00) Take a swashbuckling, handsome hero, a beautiful maid and a dastardly villain terrorising the people. . . It can only be The Adventures of Robin Hood, the classic adventure from Warner Bros., which is showing for IFI Family to mark the 90th anniversary of the famed Hollywood Studio.

Despite several knowing re-makes, this early version of the great legend remains one of the most popular. Starring Errol Flynn as the robbing-the-rich outlaw, and Olivia de Havilland as Maid Marian, it’s a terrific adventure that is a great reminder of the glory days of the studios. Not only did Warner Bros. bring audiences the first sound picture with The Jazz Singer, but this film made stunning use of Technicolor; the action scenes never lose energy, while the sets and costumes just add to the atmosphere of Saxon England where men were dashing and villains were set up to be gloriously foiled by the hero himself or any of his Merrie Men.

Tickets: €4.80 per person, €14.40 family ticket (2 adults + 2 children/1 adult + 3 children)

DIRECTORS: Michael Curtiz and William Keighley

FILM INFO: 102 minutes, U.S.A., 1938, Action/Adventure/Romance

Turn to page 12 for other family-friendly films at the IFI in May: My Neighbour Totoro and Grave of the Fireflies.

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The Lux Prize is the annual European Parliament Film Prize aimed at raising awareness of films that have the European public debate as their central theme. The selected films all offer an opportunity for citizens to reflect on the main social and political issues facing the E.U. today.

(CSAK A SZÉL)

DIRECTOR:Bence Fliegauf

FILM INFO:91 minutes, France/German/Hungary, 2012, Drama, English Subtitles

MAY 7TH (18.30)

JUST THE WIND

To mark Europe Week 2013, we are screening one of the three Lux Prize 2012 finalists. Set in Hungary, Just the Wind is the story of four members of a gypsy family who live on an isolated farm. The two children, Anna and Rio, and their mother Mari must defend themselves against the possibility of attack by a racist ‘hunter’ gang who have been attacking and murdering gypsy families they call ‘the crows’. A harrowing and affecting tale that is based on a true story, the film deservedly won a Silver Bear at Berlinale.

This event is FREE but advanced booking is essential as places are limited. Please email your ticket request only to [email protected]

In collaboration with the British Council on the occasion of ‘Words On The Street: Literature Night’ (May 15th), the IFI is delighted to welcome author Daniel Clay to introduce a screening of Rufus Norris’ acclaimed adaptation of his novel, Broken, and take part in a post-screening Q&A session on his work.

Adapted for the screen by Mark O’Rowe, the film has discovered a real talent in Eloise Laurence, who plays 11-year-old Skunk, daughter of divorced lawyer Archie (Tim Roth).

When a neighbour’s daughter accuses Skunk’s friend Rick, a young man with learning difficulties, of rape, a chain of events is set in motion that sees the young girl dealing with the repercussions of violence, first love, strained familial relationships, and personal danger. Her warmth and intelligence keeps the viewer engaged throughout.

MAY 14TH (18.30)

FILM INFO:91 minutes, U.K., 2012, Colour, D-Cinema

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Wim Vandekeybus, Artistic Director of Flemish dance company Ultima Vez, is renowned for his choreographic and filmmaking work. This programme (May 19th) will include dance-for-camera, documentaries and shorts, and will feature films including Blush, a dazzling voyage of contrasts between the landscapes of

Corsica and the slummiest depths of Brussels, and Silver, inspired by the nursery rhyme “One for sorrow, two for joy.” In 2007 Sydney Dance Company appointed 29-year-old Tanja Liedtke as their new artistic director. Shortly afterwards she was killed in a road accident. Eighteen months after her death her collaborators embark on a world tour of her work and together try to make sense of their loss. Life in Movement (May 26th) is a powerfully rendered take on art and artists, creativity and our own mortality. The screening of Life in Movement is proudly supported by the Tanja Liedtke Foundation.

FILM INFO:Wim Vandekeybus Special: 90 minutes (approx.)Life in Movement: 90 minutes (approx.),New Zealand, 2011

WIM VANDEKEYBUS SPECIAL MAY 19TH (14.00) LIFE IN MOVEMENT MAY 26TH (14.00)

BROKEN + DANIEL CLAY Q&A

One of the most iconic bands of the last three decades, the Stone Roses’ reputation rests almost entirely on their timeless debut album and a swaggering cool to which none of their many imitators even came close. But, after flaring so brightly, the group acrimoniously fell apart in the mid-‘90s. Each went their own way before reforming

and touring in 2012, to the delight of a generation. Shane Meadows’ new documentary follows the history of the band, using rare and previously unseen archive footage from their own private collections, building an intimate, warts-and-all picture of the group, culminating in their triumphant homecoming gigs at Manchester’s Heaton Park. This screening will be followed by a satellite Q&A with the film’s director Shane Meadows, producer Mark Herbert, and a rare public appearance from the band itself.

MAY 30TH (19.30)

THE STONE ROSES: MADE OF STONE(PREVIEW + SATELLITE Q&A)

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The inspiration for Scott Hick’s paltry No Reservations (2007) – with Catherine Zeta-Jones failing to cause a stir in the central role – Bella Martha (Mostly Martha) is the much less cheesy version of German writer-director Sandra Nettelbeck’s original story about a perfectionist chef forced to review her unyielding work ethic when a tragic family

accident leaves a young niece in her charge. The restaurant where most of the action takes place – a sparse, sophisticated affair – is run almost entirely by women, that is until the arrival of vivacious Mario, hired to fill in for Lea, Martha’s heavily pregnant sous-chef. Although Martha fiercely opposes Mario’s cheery presence in her kitchen, she notices the positive effect he has on her dejected niece who, struck down by grief, has been refusing to eat. With mouth-watering dishes featuring in almost every scene, this is an engaging study on the intricate connection between appetite and well-being.

This screening will be followed by a meal in the IFI Café Bar. Tickets €20 (free list suspended). Online booking is available at www.ifi.ie or call the IFI Box Office on 01 679 3477.

MAY 22ND (18.30)

(MOSTLY MARTHA)

DIRECTOR:Sandra Nettelbeck

FILM INFO:109 minutes, Germany, 2001, Subtitled, Colour, DVDNotes by Alice Butler

BELLA MARTHA

The central work of this month's programme, curated by Esperanza Collado, is The Room Called Heaven, the most recent film from Los Angeles-based Spanish filmmaker, Laida Lertxundi. Lertxundi’s filmmaking expresses situations of process: perceptual processes, film production processes, and the process in which a

film runs from one reel to the other. The notion of process connects The Room Called Heaven with the structural reflections of Hollis Frampton's Lemon – an exploration of luminous modulation unrolling in time, translated to the volumetric illusion of space – and the positioning of the cinematographic medium between a mobile condition and a static one, as suggested in James Benning's Ten Skies.

These three masterpieces make up a powerful programme of plastic beauty and insightful reflection that should not to be missed.

MAY 28TH (18.30)

FILM INFO:Lemon: 7 minutes, U.S.A., 1969, Colour, DVD; The Room Called Heaven: 11 minutes, Spain-U.S.A., 2012, Colour, 16mm; Ten Skies: 99 minutes, U.S.A., 2004, Colour, 16mm

UNROLLING PROCESSES

May brings the annual Bealtaine Festival, a month-long celebration of renewal, creativity and growth in ageing. Coordinated by Age & Opportunity, Bealtaine 2013 is a packed programme of activities that includes film, theatre, dance, art, and music.

May 2013 is also all about Gatsby, with the release of Baz Luhrmann’s much-anticipated adaptation of the classic

American novel. For Bealtaine, we are showing the 1974 version, starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow and, in response to the Festival theme “What kind of old do you want to be?”, we’d like to you to unleash your creative side for our Gatsby celebration by dressing in costume, or join the audience for the dance theatre performance of CoisCéim Broadreach.

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Based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, the story of Nick Carraway and his fascination with the lavish lifestyle of his Long Island neighbour J. Gatsby gets the full period treatment in this version by British director, Jack Clayton. The big parties, the

scandals, the music, the fashion, all play a part in this rich, if understated adaptation.

On May 29th, we’d like to bring some of Gatsby’s party spirit into the IFI by inviting you to dress in 1920s garb for the occasion. Call upon your inner flapper, dig out your old tux, or put a feather in your hair – anything goes! There’ll be prizes for best costume, and cocktails (non-alcoholic) will be served alongside dancing and music in the foyer. Let’s recreate the spirit of the Jazz Age at IFI Wild Strawberries during Bealtaine 2013.

€3.85 including regular tea/coffee before the screening.

MAY 24TH & 29TH (11.00)

DIRECTOR:Jack Clayton

FILM INFO:144 minutes, USA, 1974, Drama/Romance

THE GREAT GATSBY

During Bealtaine each year we are delighted to collaborate with CoisCéim Broadreach and Dublin City Council, and host a dance theatre performance in the IFI Foyer.

This year’s performance, Dance Across Dublin, draws inspiration from different

Dublin communities and the way in which people identify with their own area. This lively dance theatre piece presented by the ensemble is set to some of the best dance music around from great classics to the latest popular hits.

Prior to the performance, we will screen a number of short films in which dance and music are used to tell a particular story. The film selection will include Moore Street Masala and Dental Breakdown.

€3.85 including regular tea/coffee. As places in the foyer are limited, early booking is advised.

MAY 31ST (11.00)

DANCE ACROSS DUBLIN & SHORT FILM SCREENINGS

WILD STRAWBERRIES & BEALTAINE 2013

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THE IRISH FILM INSTITUTE

IFI LOYALTY CARD

Spend at IFI Cinemas, IFI Film Shop or IFI Café Bar and collect 4c back in points to redeem against free cinema tickets for every €1 you spend

With our regular double points events and extrapoints offers, you’ll have enough points to treatyourself in no time

Plus IFI members will automatically get doublepoints on all their purchases – and that evenincludes double points on all our bonus point offers!

Sign up for an IFI Loyalty Card and you’ll be going tothe cinema for free in no time...

Fancy building points each time you make a purchase at the IFI? Want to convert those points into free tickets?

Now you can with the IFI Loyalty Card! With points for everyone who spends at the IFI, and with double points for members, you’ll be able to reap the rewards of all your visits to the IFI!

4c back in points at the IFI for every €1 spent.

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MEMBERSHIPSCHEMEFree tickets, discounts on tickets, free screenings and a host of other benefits... It can only be the IFI Membership!

One free preview screening every month*Free cinema ticketDouble loyalty points which can be redeemedagainst more free ticketsDiscount on tickets (approx. 15% cheaperevening tickets)Monthly programme posted to your home (free of charge)10% discount in the IFI Film Shop10% discount on food at the IFI Café Bar (over €10)**Discounts on tickets for up to 3accompanying friendsConcession prices on selected film coursesand special eventsPriority notification of special eventsDedicated Members’ Pages on the IFI websitewith latest news and updatesWeekly ezine sent direct to your inbox with allthe latest releases and news from the IFI

Places are limited. Members are notified by email to apply for tickets and winners are then chosen randomly.Maximum two diners per membership can avail of discount.

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MEMBERS (€25, €15 CONCESSIONS)

All of the Member benefits plus:

Special invitation to the Annual Members’Evening with an exclusive free screening,private programme review by the IFI Directorand drinks receptionInvitation for you and a guest to one FestivalOpening Night per annum, which includes cinematickets plus access to the drinks receptionFree membership of the Tiernan MacBride Libraryat the IFI (worth €20)Annual tours of the Irish Film Archive at the IFIListing on the IFI website as a Best MemberListing in one monthly programme per annum asa Best Member

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BEST MEMBERS (€99)

Contact the membership office on 01 679 5744 for more details on customised corporate packageswhich include:

Discounted membership rates for your employeesDiscounted tickets for your employeesPrivate screenings or special events for yourclients or staffPresentations/meetings in a unique environmentUnique opportunities for corporate entertainment and staff socialsRecognition for your organisation as a supporter ofthe arts through IFI publications, website etc.

The IFI Corporate Membership packages can fitperfectly within any company’s CSR policy, internalmarketing plans or sports and social calendar!

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CORPORATE MEMBERS

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PUBLIC & CLUB SCREENINGSAround half of our films are classified by the Irish Film Classification Office, are open to the general public and do not require membership. Unclassified films require membership. You have two options: annual membership (€25 or €15 concessions) or daily membership (€1 per person each time you visit the cinema). For further details on membership, please go to www.ifi.ie or call our Box Office.

†Correct at time of going to print

LOYALTY & MEMBERSHIPThe IFI Loyalty Card is free and allows you to earn points that you can later exchange for free cinema tickets. Membership gives you a free preview screening every single month and discounts when you spend at the IFI. Go to www.ifi.ie or call our Box Office for details. Please remember: no card, no points!

PARKINGOn presentation of your IFI cinema ticket, the Fleet Street Car Park will offer IFI patrons a special rate of €5.00 for 3 hours’ parking. Simply present the cinema ticket along with the parking ticket when you pay at the cash desk, prior to collecting your car.

BOX OFFICE & PRICESADMISSION FEESThese apply to regular IFI screenings and do not necessarily apply to special events or festivals. Reduced admission fees for annual members and their guests are detailed in brackets.

MONDAY – FRIDAY12.30pm to 6pm €7.50 (€6.70) Conc. €5.80 (€5.20)6pm to 10pm €8.90 (€7.70) Conc. €7.50 (€6.70)

SATURDAY – SUNDAY*12.30pm to 4pm €7.50 (€6.70) Conc. €5.80 (€5.20)4pm to 10pm €8.90 (€7.70) Conc. €7.50 (€6.70)

*and Bank Holidays

Credit card bookings can be taken between 12.30pm and 9.00pm on (01) 679 3477 or 24-hours at www.ifibooking.ie. Online and telephone bookings are subject to a booking fee of 50c per ticket to a maximum of €1 per transaction. There are no booking fees on any ticket purchase made in person at the IFI Box Office.

All cinema screens at the IFI are wheelchair accessible.

CONTACT

YOUR VISITTO THE IFI

Films start at the times stated in this programme. Latecomers may be refused admission after the start of the feature.

LATECOMERS POLICY

IFI BOARDPatron: Michael D. Higgins, President of Ireland Board Members: Lenny Abrahamson, Michael Collins, Eve-Anne Cullinan (Chairperson), Sheila de Courcy, Garry Hynes, Neil Jordan, Margaret Kelleher, Trish Long, Kevin Moriarty, Patsy Murphy, Dr. Harvey O’Brien, Dearbhla Walsh.

Irish Film Institute, 6 Eustace Street,Temple Bar, Dublin 2

Box Office: (01) 679 3477, Web: www.ifi.ie

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@IFI_Dub@IFI_Filmshop

DUBLINWRITERSFESTIVAL2013MAY 20–26www.dublinwritersfestival.com

Documents

IFI May Programme