Behind the scenes at the IFI Irish Film Archive

Over the summer months the IFI Irish Film Archive will be undertaking a major digital infrastructure upgrade project that will radically improve its ability to collect, preserve and make accessible the digital collections which it is acquiring in ever increasing quantities. Thanks to the assistance of the Department of Arts Heritage & the Gaeltacht the installation of high speed fibre optic cabling and new editing and ingestion equipment will see the archive expand its capacity to take in borne digital material and to create high resolution digital copies of the film and tape materials that it already holds.

On the cusp of this exciting development we felt it was an opportune time to go behind the scenes of the IFI Irish Film Archive and meet the people who care for our National Moving Image Collections.

Kasandra O'Connell

Kasandra O’Connell, Head of the IFI Irish Film Archive: “As Head of the Archive I have overall responsibility for strategy, policy and the technical development of the Archive. Over the last five years there has been a dramatic shift from an analogue environment to a digital one and the IFI Irish Film Archive, along with most other Archives around the world, is faced with the challenge of preserving and managing Digital collections to ensure their longevity. As most films and their accompanying materials are now being created and distributed in a digital format it is critical that we address this problem quickly to ensure no relevant material is lost.  This infrastructure project is the first phase of our Digital Preservation and Access Strategy and is a crucial development for us as it is the technical foundation upon which we will build our digital policies and procedures, thus ensuring we can continue to care for the remarkable collections we have responsibility for and make them more widely available in the future through new technology based access solutions.’’

Raelene Casey

Raelene Casey, Moving Image Access Officer: “My job is to find ways to make the content of the archive more accessible to all member of the public both commercially and non-commercially. We’re a not-for- profit private company, but we hold Ireland’s National Film Heritage in our care. As a result we need to strike a balance between providing commercial access to the collections and making sure our shared film heritage is available to everyone who wishes to explore it. As my colleagues and I are navigating the nascent waters of digital preservation and access we’re exploring ways to make this balance possible within the resources available to us. If you’ve any questions about accessing footage from the archive or fees involved, please email me.”

Columb Gilna

Columb Gilna, Collections Officer: “There are many different aspects to the job of a CO at the IFA. One minute I’m working with a roll of 16mm Black and White film from the 1930s (from our physical/analogue collection) and the next it’s a “.mov” file (from our digital asset collection). But it all boils down to collection care; through tracking, examination, documentation and correct storage. Our job is to follow best practice in preservation and collection management. Only then can the notion of sustained access become a reality.”

Vincent Kearney

Vincent Kearney, Archive Assistant: “As an archive assistant, I register and make technical assessments of film material being considered for inclusion in the Archive’s collections. Once a decision regarding acquisition has been made, I catalogue items joining the collections and prepare them for storage.”

Anja Mahler

Anja Mahler, Collections Assistant: “I am responsible for documentation and care of acquisitions from organisations with whom we have an archiving agreement, such as the Irish Film Board, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland and The Arts Council.  In my work I oversee condition assessment, accessioning, cataloguing, preserving and annual assessments of materials on 35mm film and tape carrier.  A digital infrastructure would allow for deposits to be in high resolution file format instead of tape, employing a Digital Asset Management System that will be of benefit to all processes involved in archiving film heritage.”

Gavin Martin

Gavin Martin, Collections Officer: “I am responsible for digitising the Archive’s Film Collections. My remit is to preserve or in some cases restore the image quality of the films I am turning into digital assets; these are then held as large uncompressed preservation files and as smaller digital access files which can be accessed by a variety of users. This upgrade will enable me to deal with much larger file formats that our current workflow allows for and I will also be able to undertake more sophisticated and extensive restoration projects.”

Manus McManus

Manus McManus, Senior Collections Officer: “I oversee the technical and preservation management of the Archive collections, liaise with film depositors and post-production facilities, and support the Head of the Archive in developing and implementing Archive strategy, policy and procedures. I will be assisting in adapting and expanding our collections-management policy to embrace the Archive’s new digital assets.”

Anita Ní Nualláin

Anita Ní Nualláin, Archive Assistant: “I am currently registering and cataloguing one of the largest non-professional collections in the Archive. I also check the condition of film material going out to and returning from screenings, and performs audits of at-risk material in the collections.”

Eilís Ní Raghallaigh

Eilís Ní Raghallaigh, Library Assistant: “As a library assistant in the IFI Irish Film Archive’s Tiernan MacBride Library, as well as supporting the librarian in the delivery of the library service, I am updating the library’s clippings archive and write a monthly library blog.”

Eoin O'Donohoe

Eoin O’Donohoe, Acquisitions/Compliance Assistant: “I assist with the incoming Irish Film Board and Broadcasting Authority of Ireland collections, mostly dealing with digital video tape. A large part of the role is carrying out condition assessment of the material to ensure that only the best quality tapes enter into the archive. Following the accession and cataloguing process, the material finds a permanent home on the shelves in the vault.”

Kieran O'Leary

Kieran O’Leary, Collections & Access Assistant: “I help to facilitate access to the archive’s holdings. The digital refurb will allow greater access to the collections, both within the building and off-site, as well as adding an extra dimension of preservation.”

Fiona Rigney

Fiona Rigney, Librarian and Document Archivist: “As the Librarian and Document Archivist I am responsible for the care of our Special collections and library. I also provide access and research assistance to everyone who uses the library and paper archive.   The Library holds one of the largest collections of film related publications in Ireland and the document collections provide contextual information on the production and history of Irish film, the Irish film industry, and film exhibition in Ireland; they consist of press clippings, filmmakers’ correspondence, production notes, images and posters.  All our collections are available to the public, for more information on our collections and our opening hours please visit the Library page”.

Learn more about the IFI Irish Film Archive and visit our website.

Cannes Film Festival 2014 (Part Two)

Ready for more complaints about queues? Welcome to the second and final blog from Cannes 2014!

Cast & crew of Xenia

Xenia played in Un Certain Regard and, directed by Panos H. Koutras, it follows two very different brothers who, after their mother passes away, go in search of the father who abandoned them as children. It's a camp affair overall, between the Greek Star audition (think X Factor) plot and a few musical numbers and dance routines thrown in for good measure. There are plenty of plot holes (didn't they do well to escape the police and sniffer dogs even though older brother Ody was giving younger brother Dany a piggyback?!) And there was also the bizarre sequence, reminiscent of The Night of the Hunter, where the two brothers drift along the river in a boat while various wildlife (including a giant sized rabbit!) come to the riverbank to watch them pass...? The film was picked up by a distributor but I don't see this having mass appeal on release. I managed to grab a quick video of Koutras and cast in their pre-screening address.

One of my favourites has been Damian Szifron's Wild Tales. This thoroughly refreshing and hugely entertaining Argentinian film pulls together six different, unrelated stories, each offering it's very own 'wild tale', largely about people on the edge losing control and crossing the line that society usually demands we stay behind. It works exceptionally well overall (although the humour level doesn't quite sustain throughout) and four of the six are truly wonderful. A special shout-out has to go to the third story which tells the tale of a cocky driver in a fancy car overtaking and abusing a slow driver in his clapped-out banger, hurling abuse as he speeds by. A few miles down the road however, he gets a flat, and who should be the next driver to arrive on the scene...? What follows is a hilarious exchange of revenge exacted which escalates and escalates until it reaches it's unimaginable and utterly hilarious climax. The whole film is wildly entertaining and a complete breath of fresh air. It's probably simply too much fun to win any major awards, but you never know...

Director Damian Szifron

In an almost-sequel, Mange tes Morts/Eat Your Bones by Jean-Charles Hue focuses on the traveling community in France, in particular three brothers (one of whom has just been released from prison following a fifteen year stretch) and their cousin. The most interesting scenes for me were the very natural conversations on the community's halting site with old rivalries coming to the fore. The main thrust of the film follows the four men as they attempt to break into a scrap yard to steal a consignment of copper that the youngest brother Mickael has learnt of. While Mange tes Morts could be viewed as a sequel (after Hue's 2010 film La BM du Seigneur which followed the same characters) it can equally be viewed independently. 

Cannes favourites Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne returned with Two Days, One Night, this time opting to work with a well-known actress (Marion Cotillard) instead of their usual lesser known faces. The story, set over a weekend, follows Sandra (Cotillard) as she sets out, reluctantly, to meet each of her colleagues one by one in order to secure their support for her in a ballot the following Monday where they must vote between her keeping her job or all the staff receiving a bonus. The main themes of the film revolve around depression/mental health and the wider economic situation. Many seem to have issue with the credibility of such a well known actress taking on the role of such an ordinary, down on her luck employee, but I had no such concerns. I don't think it's the Dardennes' finest work, but it's still absorbing and worthy of being in the Official Competition.

Pascale Ferran's Bird People is an interesting and unusual film which played in Un Certain Regard. I absolutely loved the opening sequence which randomly dropped in, for a few moments, on various different conversations during a train journey and the private thoughts people were having. Seamlessly going from someone having a heated argument to joining someone else listening to classical music on their headphones, it was a captivating opening. Once the main film gets started it very much splits into two stories. The first follows Gary (Josh Charles) and while staying at the airport hotel (where most of the action of the film takes place) he decides to change everything about his life, starting with quitting his job and leaving his wife. The second part follows Audrey (Anais Demoustier), one of the hotel's chambermaids who (literally) wants to soar to new heights (the clue is in the title people!). The Carte Noire IFI French Film Festival director Marie-Pierre Richard simply adored this film. You heard it here first!

Cast & crew of Bird People

From a flight of fancy to a journey of despair, in Hope, deep in the Sahara Desert, a young man from Cameroon  comes to the rescue of Hope, a Nigerian, as they navigate a dangerous journey to illegally gain access to Europe. Desperately bleak with obstacles facing them at every turn along their way, there is also great beauty, and the chemistry between the two leads is marvellous. I found this very engaging, powerful and thought-provoking, though never an easy watch. 

Playing outside competition, the title of Andre Techine's latest release, In the Name of my Daughter, may sound like a Sally Field made-for-TV movie, but it is in fact a solid piece based on a true story. Set in Nice, following the breakdown of her marriage, Agnes le Roux (Adele Haenel) returns home to her mother Renee (played by the ever wonderful Catherine Deneuve), owner of the Casino le Palais. She quickly befriends Maurice (a truly wonderful performance from Guillaume Canet), her mother's confidante and legal advisor, and their relationship deepens, despite his having a wife, son and string of other lovers. A fixed game at the casino, rigged by the mafia, throws the future of the business in jeopardy and loyalties are put to the test and broken. The film opens in the present day and then goes back in time, so despite me not being familiar with this true story (it apparently was back in the news only weeks ago with new twists and turns), one is aware from the beginning that Agnes has been missing, presumed dead for over 30 years and that Renee believes it was at the hands of Maurice. Techine offers us a very conventional film. The performances are great and the story is intriguing, and this should be met warmly by those interested in solid French film.

Following on from Saint Laurent on Sunday, it was time for me to move fashion house from YSL to Christian Dior. Dior and I is the new documentary from Frederic Tcheng which is a behind-the-scenes look at new Artistic Director, Raf Simons' first haute couture collection in his new role. The access granted to Tcheng is fantastic and the cast of characters involved in bringing the collection to fruition demonstrates a group of passionate, dedicated and loyal employees; and that in itself poses a slight problem for the film. They're all too nice! Dior and I lacks the foreboding central character of say Anna Wintour (she pops up in this too!) in The September Issue or her (perhaps more interesting) second in command Grace Coddington. Raf Simons is a much gentler character - although the cracks do begin to appear as the show draws closer. And tensions do begin to mount as the atelier team are put under increasing pressure, especially when one of the premieres doesn't cope particularly well with change or stress. Overall the documentary presents a rare opportunity to get to see the work and passion that goes into making a fashion collection and catwalk show, and it makes for a great companion piece to Saint Laurent.

Dior and I

Nadav Schirman's The Green Prince is a slickly produced documentary about one of Israel's most prized spies, the son of a top Hamas leader. Using a combination of first person testimony, archive footage and reconstructions, it charts how Mosab Hassan Youssef (code name The Green Prince) was recruited by the Israelis and how (and why) he turned on his own people, including his family and friends, and the relationship he developed with his Shin Bet handler, Gonen Ben Yitzhak. Produced by Schirman along with two-time Oscar winner Simon Chinn (Man on Wire and Searching for Sugar Man) and Oscar winner John Battsek (One Day in September), it has all the trademarks of these highly produced documentaries. It employs the real life thriller approach reminiscent of The Imposter and is it a fascinating, almost incredible story. It picked up the Audience Award at Sundance and I'd imagine it should also get a lot of attention from Cannes. 

In Un Certain Regard, Mathieu Amalric steps behind (as well as in front of) the camera in Le Chambre Bleue/The Blue Room. Two lovers, Julien (Amalric) and Delphine (Lea Drucker), conducting an affair, post-coitally lie in their blue room contemplating spending their lives together. This then cuts to the police interrogating Julien for a crime we know is related to their affair and respective spouses. But what has he done and is he indeed guilty? This is a stylish and classy film. It wavers slightly towards the end but it is still a very interesting and engaging film from the director/actor Amalric.

So what will win the coveted Palme d'Or and the other major awards? It's a hard one to call. For the Official Competition, as I was leaving Mommy (Xavier Dolan) and Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard; who has never won the Palme) had both just screened and were generating positive word, while many are still talking about Mister Turner (Mike Leigh) and Wild Tales (Damian Szifron) from earlier in the Festival. Leviathan (Andrey Zvyagintsev) - which is showing tonight - was being talked about as one of the favourites before the Festival even began. 

So that's it for me for Cannes 2014. I look forward to hearing (and debating the worthiness) of all of the winners. Until next May...

Ross Keane

Read Ross' festival blog - part one - here.

Keeping the summit dreams alive

What is different about seeing a wide-shot Everest, the world’s highest mountain for the first time in The Epic for Everest (1923), to seeing it captured on camera today? To my untrained eye, at least, nothing observable about the mountain has changed but context here is everything. To see the mountain rear up above the cameraman as an pure unconquered frontier of our planet feels entirely different to seeing it now, knowing the mountain is strewn with commercial expeditions, egos, industrial disputes, rubbish, fixed ropes, corpses, and a ladder allowing the most difficult climbing to be bypassed.

It’s not just getting to the top and back that matters, climbers and mountaineers rigorously debate the ‘ethics’ of what they call ‘style of ascent’. That’s why the climbing community made such a fuss last week when Ueli Steck climbed the smaller (though fiercely dangerous) Himalaya mountain Annapurna. Not only had he found a new route on the South Face, he’d gone up and down unroped and alone without supplemental oxygen in one astonishing 28-hour push.

While most modern mountaineers wouldn't object to the tactics used by Mallory and Irvine on Everest, the footage of the Tibetan people that the climbers used as porters and passed through en-route to Everest certainly lacks a different kind of style. The raw Imperialist viewpoint espoused by the intertitles which seems to barely distinguish Tibetan man from baby donkey is enough to make anyone squirm, though this patronising tone gives way in parts to an irrepressible wonder at the ancient monastic civilisation the team passes through in the high valleys of the Himalayas.

One thinks of Steck again, earlier this year the victim of a horrific confrontation between the Sherpas and a group of fast and light Alpine climbers on Everest, possibly exacerbated by the Western team having apparently outgrown the need for traditional Sherpa support. The Epic of Everest shows us this mutually exploitative relationship that shaped 20^th Century Himalayan mountaineering in its very infancy.

Do we crave and seek adventure in our own lives? What level of risk do we deem acceptable in pursuing it? For most of us it would fall far, far below the risks that Mallory and Irvine knowingly and paid for with their lives. Even today Everest remains, by any scale of human activity, phenomenally dangerous and yet thousands attempt it, sometimes controversially suppressing the most basic human instincts to aid ailing climbers to avoid harm or to keep their own summit dreams alive.

We’ll probably never know if Mallory and Irvine summited Everest before falling; it seems unlikely. But The Epic of Everest is a great chance to see a real frontier of human exploration.

Patrick Stewart

IFI 

The Epic Of Everest is showing, EXCLUSIVELY at the IFI, from October 18th to October 24th.  

Silent film no more!

“Not long to the tour now...” I hear my fellow musicians declare! Well, it's been an interesting journey that began over 12 years ago when I first researched ideas for a movie with a new score. Sunniva O’Flynn helped me select the film Willy Reilly and His Colleen Bawn, and it proved to be an exciting project for me as a composer so I began to create a voice for each character reflecting the theatrical performances you will see on the screen... 

The feature begins with a holdup… Squire Folliard is held up by the Highwayman Red Rapparee and his gang. Our hero Willy Reilly comes on the scene and rescues him, and the grateful Folliard brings Willy to his home where he meets and falls in love with the squire's daughter, Helen, the Colleen Bawn. Folliard opposes the liaison between Helen and Willy because of their different religious backgrounds, and seeks to encourage Helen to marry the bigoted, anti-Catholic Sir Robert Whitecraft… What will happen? Will the scheming Whitecraft get his way or will the Colleen Bawn find her true love?

Composer Bernard Reilly

After two performances in Meeting House Square, Temple Bar, and our debut at the National Concert Hall last summer, we are sooo excited about our three city tour in June where we will perform the 'live to screen' film concerts in Paris (Cinema Le Balzac, 10th June 8.30pm), Berlin (Kino Babylon, 8th June 8pm) and Madrid (Ciné Dore, 12th June 7.30pm). Please come and join us for our final pre-tour Dress Rehearsal with the CinéTheatre Ensemble on June 5th at 6:30pm Irish Film Institute,Temple Bar.

See you there!

Bernard Reilly

Composer

Willy Reilly and His Colleen Bawn with a magnificent new score composed and conducted by Bernard Reilly and performed live by the Irish Cine Theatre Ensemble will screen on Wednesday, June 5th at 18.30. Tickets available at the Box Office (016793477) and online. 

This event is 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, and is supported by Culture Ireland and The Arts Council of Ireland.  

Cannes Film Festival 2013 blog: Part Three

Day Four in Cannes and it's all about queuing. Long queues. Despite being full of industry professionals who you'd imagine would be the most reverential of audiences, Cannes audiences seem to have the worst cinema etiquette! Phones are constantly lighting up - it's half understandable as people are often logging on to check on ticket availability - but even at the bigger competition screenings, when they announce that all phones should be switched off, there's a constant glow of mobile phone activity. 

Another Cannes staple is the constant in and out as people come and go - again this is partly understandable as time is precious, so if you find yourself at a dud screening, there's always something else just about to start elsewhere that you could hedge your bets on instead. But what is completely infuriating is the constant chat. During L'Inconnu du Lac/Stranger by the Lake, three people had a full-blown conversation and then proceeded to giggle like nervous children at every sex scene. At The Great Beauty/La Grande Bellezza, the people beside me - who clearly weren't getting into Sorrentino's crazy world - were unable to keep their frustrations to themselves and had to critically debate the film there and then. At Grisgris my neighbours managed to combine a lot of my pet peeves - they left the sound on their phone on, took and sent texts, and decided to give a running commentary of the whole film!

Rant nearly over! Today, being the day of queues, Cannes etiquette once again took me by surprise. With all the talk about Nicholas Winding Refn's Only God Forgives, this morning's screening was always going to be in demand, and as Cannes goers realise, that means queuing. For a long time! So two hours in advance of the screening time, I had my place in the queue. However, for the next 90 minutes, new arrivals barged in front with no shame or skipped the queue to join friends. Where is the Cannes Cinema Etiquette? Survival of the fittest?!

So onto Only God Forgives. This divided audiences and critics at its first screening yesterday. But I was pleasantly surprised. It doesn't deserve the vitriolic response it's received in some quarters. Yes it's flawed, resembles a Greek tragedy and has many thinly developed characters. But it held my attention. Set in a Bangkok boxing club which acts as a front for drug business, Julian (a non-emotive Ryan Gosling) is pressured by his mother Crystal (Kirsten Scott Thomas) into avenging the death of his brother who was killed after murdering a young prostitute. Scott Thomas must have had great fun with her OTT role and it's a beautifully lit film. But boy is it violent? Let's just say it gives a whole new meaning to 'see no evil, hear no evil'. That was quite a lot of blood to stomach so soon after breakfast!

And from one queue to the next. As we draw towards the latter stages of the Festival there are reruns of some of the official selection, giving everyone a chance to see some of the bigger titles that they may have missed earlier in the week. So, for another two hours, I stood patiently in line (when else do you think I'd have time to write blogs!) for Arnaud Desplechin's Jimmy P. Based on a true story it follows Jimmy Picard (Benicio Del Toro), a Native American Blackfoot who fought in World War II in France. Upon his return and suffering from a range of symptoms including headaches and temporary blindness, Jimmy is admitted to a mental institution for soldiers. But when no simple medical solution can be found, the hospital management drafts in Georges Devereux (Mathieu Amalric), a French anthropologist and specialist in Native American culture. The relationship between doctor and patient forms the basis of this simply told story. With no huge dramatic climax, it's a gently engaging story with solid performances from both the leads and supporting cast (Gina McKee gives a lovely understated performance as George's partner Madeleine). 

Inside Llewyn Davis

Next up was a change in tone as I grabbed a late opportunity to see the Coen Brothers' latest, Inside Llewyn Davis. After a lot of very sombre films with challenging subject matters, it was a refreshing change of pace to enter the world of Ethan and Joel Coen for their story of a young folk singer in Greenwich Village in 1961. Struggling to make a living from his music and living on the kindness (which may be about to wear thin) of friends and family, Llewyn Davis is a little lost in life! Oscar Isaac is a wonderful lead and ably carries the film on his shoulders. The film starts brilliantly but somewhat loses its way during a road trip to Chicago with John Goodman in the back seat! But overall it's an enjoyable watch. There's the usual wonderful soundtrack that one has to come to expect from the Coens, but you'll even get to tap your foot along to a rendition of The Auld Triangle performed in Aran sweaters! It may not go down as a Coen classic but it's still a very enjoyable ride. 

Ross Keane

Director

Cannes Film Festival 2013 - read Ross' blogs: Part One and Part Two. 

Cannes Film Festival 2013 blog (Part Two)

Day 3 at Cannes began with glorious sunshine and ended with a lot of rain! Would the films follow the same path and start full of cheer and end on a damp note?

My first film of the day - and possibly my favourite to date - was La Jaula de Oro/La Cage doree (unofficial English title: The Golden Cage). This film by Spanish director Diego Quemada-diez was a beautiful and powerful story of three young teenagers trying to flee Guatemala towards Los Angeles. When they meet an Indian boy who joins their group, things begin to change within their group dynamics. Their struggle can be heart-breaking at times and I found myself so drawn into the story that I was just willing them to get a good break. It's tender, moving and beautifully shot and I can't wait for more people to get to see it so I can talk with them about it!

La Jaula de Oro/La Cage doree 

The theme of Wednesday seemed to be people down on their luck and Grisgris - which was playing in Competition - could certainly fit the bill. Despite a paralysed leg, 25-year-old Grisgris dreams of being a dancer. But when his stepfather becomes ill and the family cannot afford the medical bills, he resorts to desperate measures to try to help his family. The actor Souleymane Deme, also paralysed in real life, puts in a moving performance. He scored a lot of points from the Cannes crowd after he danced for everyone on the red carpet before the screening! It's a touching tale by director Mahamat-Saleh Hardoun. 

The Argentian comedy Diablo was next on my list but coupled with a few technical hitches and soaking shoes (yes, the rain had started at this stage), perhaps I wasn't in the right frame of mind for it as it didn't do anything for me. 

The final film of the night was a special screening of the 1972 documentary Weekend of a Champion which had been re-edited and updated with new material. It follows Roman Polanski and his friendship with Formula One driver Jackie Stewart and focuses on the sportsman's attempt to hold onto his title at the Monte Carlo Grand Prix. For anyone with an interest in motor racing, this film is an absolute must. For the non-enthusiasts, it does go into a lot of detail about which gear you should be in at each turn during the circuit! It was a very special screening however with lots of guests in attendance including Polanski and stars of two of his films' stars Christoph Waltz and Adrien Brody (both sitting just 5 seats away from me!) and lots of people from the motor racing world including Jackie Stewart, Damon Hill and Alain Prost.

Weekend of a Champion

So despite the earlier sunny weather, by the time I dragged myself home at the end of the day after lots of queuing in the rain, I looked like a drowned rat. This Cannes business isn't all glamour you know!

Ross Keane

Director

Read Part One of our Cannes blog. 

IFI's Ross Keane at Cannes 2013: Part 1

I arrived in Cannes this year, for my second visit to the Festival, a few days after its official opening and was instantly playing catch up! With five nights already under the belt for many people, and with reviews flooding in, I quickly scrambled to figure out what I had to see. 

By the time I got settled and registered, there was only time for one screening on Monday, and since we often find many films for the IFI French Film Festival at Cannes, I decided to begin proceedings with Les Rencontres d'apres minuit. It's a film many have been talking about - largely due to its controversial subject matter. The film is set over the course of one night as a variety of guests arrive for an orgy. With guest names including The Slut, The Stud and The Teen, it's not your average dinner party! The cast includes Eric Cantona and Beatrice Dalle. All put in good performances but I wanted the film to engage me more overall. 

Les Rencontres d'apres minuit

Tuesday saw a marathon day of five films. The morning started with another French film and one that had also generated a lot of talk and interest. Playing as part of Un Certain Regard, L'Inconnu du lac/Stranger by the Lake is also causing a bit of controversy. Set in a cruising spot for gay men, the film contains a lot of explicit scenes, but the tone changes when the main protagonist witnesses a murder and the film suddenly becomes a whole lot more engaging. It's beautifully shot and utilises just three locations throughout the film - the car park, the lake and the woods. It's a thought-provoking film by Alain Guiraudie and one that we're all still discussing. 

Cast and crew of L'Inconnu du lac/Stranger by the Lake

Fresh from a lot of media attention, Pussy Riot are the focus of Mike Lerner's doc, Pussy Riot - A Punk Prayer. The film follows the band in the build up to their performance at the Orthodox Cathedral, their subsequent arrest, court case and appeal. With good access to the band and their families, it presents a fairly balanced view of the situation, at times with the girls coming across as extremely naive and foolish, while at the same time exposing religious extremism. 

Pussy Riot - A Punk Prayer

Steven Soderbergh may have said he had made his last film, but Behind the Candelabra - which was made for TV - gives us a good chance to see his work back on the big screen. Telling the story of virtuoso pianist Liberace (Michael Douglas) and his secret five year love affair with Scott Thorson (Matt Damon), it's a thoroughly entertaining watch. The first half is an enjoyable romp, fairly frivolous with its fair share of chuckles. But as their relationship begins to spiral and the cracks begin to show, it starts to become a darker affair. The two leads give great performances. Michael Douglas clearly relishes the opportunity to play the effeminate Liberace, while Matt Damon has the bigger character arc to portray going from wide-eyed country boy to a near-replica of his camp older lover, with a drug habit on the side to add to the effect. A mention has to go to Rob Lowe, the plastic surgeon who works on both leads - his facial paralysis, squinting eyes and inability to take a sip due to his own amount of surgery gives for a wonderfully comic performance. 

Behind the Candelabra

Youth /Jeunesse is a French film from first time director Justine Malle dealing with first love and the looming loss of a parent. It's a good first film and particularly shines during the protagonist's attempts to discover her sexual identity. 

La Grande Bellezza/The Great Beauty

The final film of the day was the red carpet gala of Paola Sorrentino's La Grande Bellezza/The Great Beauty. The whacky world of Sorrentino was a joy to spend just over two hours in. The opening ten minutes - including a frenzied party scene - was a joy to watch and set the tone for the whole film. Toni Servillo was fantastic as main character Jep Gambardella who celebrates his 65th birthday and looks on at the world and characters around him. While it could do with an edit, and doesn't all quite make sense, if you let it wash over you and don't ask too many questions, it's an absolute pleasure. 

Ross Keane

Director

Two anime classics coming to the IFI this May!

A chance to see anything from Studio Ghibli on the big screen is not to be missed and Studio Canal have seized the opportunity of the 25th anniversary of two titles, My Neighbour Totoro and Grave of the Fireflies which were released as a double bill in Japan in 1988, to release them in cinemas on this side of the world. 

If you have never seen Totoro, or you know a small person who has yet to enter the magical world of forest creatures, spirits, brave and curious children that are typical of Japanese master Hiyao Miyazaki’s creations, then do them and yourself a favour, and bring them along to the IFI during these special May screenings, from 24th to 30th of May. 

My Neighbour Totoro

Showing in the dubbed version on May 25th and 26th (voiced by Fanning sisters, Elle and Dakota), Totoro wasn't a hit on first release; Japanese viewers took time to find its appeal. However they and the rest of the world soon recognised the sheer beauty and ingenuity of this hand-drawn rural fantasy world in which the girls wander while seeking comfort for the absence of their hospitalised mother. Totoro, created by Miyazaki for the film, turns out to be a big friendly creature, and his film offers us family life and forest life where the girls' imaginations are allowed to roam and invites the viewer to engage their imagination too. Lovingly crafted, in every corner there is something happening and not one frame of the film is wasted.

Grave of the Fireflies

Look, watch and marvel at the work of a master. His new film, The Wind Rises, opens in Japan in July. 

Alicia McGivern

Head of IFI Education

My Neighbour Totoro and Grave of the Fireflies will screen at the IFI from May 24th to 30th. Book online or call our Box Office on 01-6793477. 

The Neil Jordan Collection at the Irish Film Archive

Coinciding with the IFI’s full retrospective of Neil Jordan’s cinematic work throughout the month of May, the IFI will be displaying rarely-seen documents donated by Neil Jordan to the IFI Irish Film Archive.

Kasandra O'Connell (Head of IFI Irish Film Archive) and Neil when Neil officially donated his research and document collection to the IFI Irish film Archive

In June 2009, coinciding with publicity for director Neil Jordan’s upcoming feature Ondine, it was announced that Jordan had donated the paper material relating to his films to the IFI Irish Film Archive of the Irish Film Institute. The material had been regularly transferred to the Archive since 2006, but the delay in publicising the acquisition means that this fascinating collection has been catalogued and is now fully accessible to researchers.

Jordan’s collection has been delivered film by film, and currently the Archive holds material from The Crying Game (1992), Interview with the Vampire (1994), Michael Collins (1996), The Butcher Boy (1997), In Dreams (1999) and Breakfast on Pluto (2005). Documents relating to other productions are being delivered and made accessible on an on-going basis.

Storyboard from 'Michael Collins'

The material for each film includes documents relating to background research, production and set design, location scouting and photography, visual effects, soundtrack and sound mixing, awards, press, storyboards, shot lists, production schedules, draft scripts and screenplays, and stills. Together the material gives an insight into the working methods of one of Ireland's foremost directors.

Jordan initially had success in the 1970s as an author, before beginning his film career as script consultant on John Boorman’s Excalibur (1981) and directing the documentary The Making of Excalibur: Myth into Movie. He also wrote the script for Joe Comerford’s Traveller which premiered at the Cork Film Festival in 1981. In 1982 he wrote and directed his first feature film, Angel, funded by the newly-established Irish Film Board. This was followed in 1984 by The Company of Wolves, and subsequently Mona Lisa (1986), High Spirits (1988), We’re No Angels (1989) and The Miracle (1991).

In 1992 Jordan directed The Crying Game which brought him international acclaim and was nominated for six Academy Awards, winning Best Original Screenplay. Jaye Davidson was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Dil, but the Archive’s collection reveals the range of other actors who had originally competed for the role. Headshots of these actors made up as women are present, and seem strangely jarring dressed as the character made famous by Davidson’s outstanding performance.

The Crying Game head shot of Jaye Davidson

Following the international success of The Crying Game, Jordan went to America to direct an adaptation of an Anne Rice novel, resulting in the Oscar-nominated film Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles. As in the The Crying Game collection, the possibility of other potential actors in key roles are presented in the Archive's collection. Various (uncast) A-list actors are beautifully sketched as the vampires Louis and Lestat, as well as the film’s stars Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. Research material for the vampires' look includes a grotesque file of images of corpses in various stages of decomposition.

Jordan returned to Ireland in 1996 to make Michael Collins, a project which he had been working on since the 1980s. Around 100 versions, fragments and rewrites are held under various alternative titles, spanning years of script development. Once completed the film was nominated for two Academy Awards, validating the unusually long time the project spent in pre-production.

Casting polaroid shot of Eamon Owens for The Butcher Boy

Following the success of Michael Collins, Jordan worked on an adaptation of Pat McCabe’s novel The Butcher Boy (1997). Again the script exists in multiple rewrites and revisions. A key issue with the adaptation appears to have been the colloquial language used, with the collection including various lists of Irish slang terms and their “translations” for American audiences. Following The Butcher Boy Jordan returned to the US once again in 1999 to make In Dreams and the The End of the Affair. This was followed by The Good Thief (2002), filmed in the South of France.

Jordan then set up the production company Company of Wolves which produced Intermission (2003) and The Actors (2003). In 2005 he adapted another Pat McCabe novel for the screen, Breakfast on Pluto. One script used by Jordan during the making of the film includes handwritten amendments made on set, showing that even during the shooting changes could be made.

Neil Jordan and Ian Wilson on set of The Crying Game

Overall, the Neil Jordan Collection gives a fascinating insight into the practicalities of the production of major feature films. Seemingly mundane items build a picture of the work involved in bringing the production together, including documents like prop lists, logs tracking tides, sunrise and sunset times, arrangements for shooting “behind-the-scenes” footage, and files of photographs taken by location scouts around Ireland and the UK. Such documents may be of interest both to film fans wishing to contextualise Jordan’s body of work, and to budding filmmakers curious to see the approach taken by a veteran Irish film director.

The Collection is an incredibly rich resource for Irish film researchers, and in time should be completed with the addition of material relating to all of Jordan’s films mentioned in this article. The collection is available for researchers at the Irish Film Archive by appointment. Many of the films mentioned are also available to view at the Archive's viewing facilities.

Rebecca Grant

IFI Librarian (2006 - 2012)

See our exclusive collection of production files, stills, draft scripts, set design and storyboards, all of which give a fascinating insight into the creative process of one of Ireland’s most acclaimed directors is now available online.

Neil Jordan Retrospective runs throughout May at the IFI. His new film, Byzantium, opens on May 31st.

This article was first published in Film Ireland in 2009 and it has been made available online with their kind permission.