The Quare Fellow

This film is based on a play by Irish playwright Brendan Behan. Often when we think of prison films, it is most likely from the prisoner's point of view. In The Quare Fellow, the story is about a young idealistic prison guard. The film appears to take place over only a few days.

Patrick McGoohan is the main character, Tommy Crimmin. On his first day at work, he is full of zeal and sees his job as one of protection, pretty much black and white as to what he is there to do. He is a little naïve, being a country boy from rolling Irish hills.

It's evident early on in the film that the story has something to do with capital punishment, as there is a man in the solitary cell having a hearty meal, and discussion that the doctor has to make sure the prisoner is healthy before he is executed.

There are two men waiting to be executed. Tommy meets the wife of one of them (Sylvia Syms, who forgets her Irish accent for most of the film), and she feels that she has somehow caused her husband to be in this position. But she is also quite hardened to her predicament.

Although McGoohan doesn't appear that young (he was 34 when he did this), his character of Tommy is naïve and gets tricked/taken advantage of by prisoners (teasing, not really malice), which gives the film a bit of humor (just a bit, it's quite depressing otherwise). Also there is no training, Tommy is just thrown into the job on his first day, although there is a helpful older guard (sympathetically acted by Walter Macken). They discuss whether each "believes in" capital punishment.

Through his witnessing the wife's behavior and guilt, whom he sympathizes too much with, and his own experiences at the prison, Tommy eventually is uneasy about the execution. Character by character, we see how others are affected too.

CIFF 2012: The Citadel

In an unnamed desolate Irish neighborhood, a young couple are preparing to leave their condemned public housing high rise. They are looking for a more hopeful future as she is pregnant. As Tommy gets in the elevator to go down, his wife is attacked by some creepy faceless kids in hooded sweatshirts, who seem to want her unborn child. She dies but the baby is saved.

As a result, Tommy has become paranoid and fearful of leaving his new but equally bad public housing apartment. He barricades himself and his baby inside and can barely force himself out to attend therapy sessions to confront his fear and agoraphobia. At his wife's funeral, he meets an angry priest who seems to know something of the creatures who killed his wife. A caring nurse tries to help Tommy.

Later the priest reveals that the creatures are people who have been infected by the evil of the high rise, turning into zombie-ish creatures who prey on those on whom they smell fear. With the help of a blind boy, who appears to be one of those creatures but has been helping the priest, they are shielded from the blind creatures' smell and are able to escape.

CIFF 2012: The Art of Conflict

This documentary is about murals in Belfast, Ireland that have depicted the history and volatile emotions surround the hundreds of years of oppression that the Irish, especially those in the Belfast and Ulster regions, have felt under British rule. They depict scenes from the times of William of Orange to fairly current unrest (1980s). Made by Valeri Vaughn, the actor Vince Vaughn's sister, and he narrated.

The artwork (of the more recent unrest) often are paintings off of newspaper photographs, or memoralizations of the dead, whether they were militant rebels or innocent bystanders, or depicted whom they saw as enemies, such as Margaret Thatcher, or heroes, such as Bobby Sands. Depictions of older history show key battle scenes or moments of victory or defeat. Sometimes there are even paintings that show correlations to other civil uprisings, such as the Little Rock, Arkansas/Central High School conflict when schools were desegregated--comparing this to the time when a small group of Irish Protestant grade schoolers had to pass through a heavy Catholic community to get to school, and suffering an attack.

Murals are shown to be done with care, artistry, and maintained with respect (during Q&A the filmmakers and an attending muralist said that although it was unspoken, you would put your life in your hands if you dared deface a painting). Although many of the murals from the 1960-80s show hooded militants defending their turfs, in recent years government intrusion/reform have forced some of these murals to be painted over with new murals showing modern social problems such as drug abuse or things like that. Even though this was a way to try to deflate some of these long-standing emotions, the filmmakers admitted the Irish don't appreciate that the government is forcing this change, as it doesn't really change the emotions of the community.

The film ends in a hopeful note as two artists from opposite sides joined together to paint a version of Picasso's Guernica, an anti-war painting.

Free event: Albert Nobbs

Did you catch Albert Nobbs when it played recently?  If not, the Northbrook Public Library has a screening this weekend.  See Glenn Close play a man in a project she had been trying to realize for quite a few years.

Albert Nobbs

Saturday, May 12, 2012

2:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Northbrook Public Library

1201 Cedar Lane, Northbrook, IL

A Film With Me In It

In this Irish black comedy, we see Mark (Mark Doherty), an unsuccessful actor, have the worst day of his life.

He and his girlfriend live in an apartment with his quadraplegic brother, that is falling apart. The window keeps sliding down, the kitchen light keeps going out, but he can't really bug the landlord as they owe three months rent, unbeknownst to his girlfriend. Their upstairs neighbor Pierce (Dylan Moran) can't help much because he is an unemployable writer/waiter, and he too owes.

So begins Mark's very bad day, where, in one accident after another, several people are killed in freak accidents in his apartment, complicated by a visit from a policewoman. Pierce tries to convince him that no one is going to believe they were all accidents so the guys have to find a way out of this.

I Love Valentine's Day!: December Bride

A story about a threesome for Valentine's Day? Well, maybe.

In early 1900s Ireland, an old widower is in need of female help, so hires on a young woman Sarah (Saskia Reeves) and her mother. Immediately his two sons has eyes for her (Donald McCann as Hamilton Jr. and Ciaran Hinds as Frank). The widower dies, and Sarah and the sons start doing things like not attending church. Sarah's mother eventually quits in protest of her daughter's disobedient behavior. Sarah stays on.

Hamilton is more serious and practical. Frank is a bit broody and a little more carnal. Although Sarah welcomes attentions of other men, suprisingly, she takes to both of the sons. Sarah becomes pregnant but refuses to marry or name the father.

Patrick Malahide plays the local preacher.

Not the same old-same old: The Secret of Roan Inish / The Straight Story

Occasionally an artist will veer off the beaten path and surprise us with something totally unexpected of them. Two such examples are The Secret of Roan Inish and The Straight Story.

The Guard

Many reviews of The Guard make note of the odd couple relationship of its two lead characters played by Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle (Cheadle co-produced). It is called "The Guard" for a reason--and not "The Guard and the FBI Agent." At heart The Guard is a character film of Gleeson's Gerry Boyle, a Connemarra policeman, and the pride he has for his community and himself, to the point of disregarding other things that to you and me would seem more important.

Ondine

A modern day selkie (seal maiden) fairy tale, starring Colin Farrell, an Ireland based story directed and written by Neil Jordan.

The film gets quickly underway as Syracuse (Farrell; nicknamed Circus for his drunken bad boy past, and a play on his name) in his fishing trawler hauls up a beautiful young woman in his net. Bewildered, he is unable to turn her over to the hospital when she pleads for anonymity and help. He puts her up in an isolated island cottage that belonged to his dead mother.