A Western for people who don’t like Westerns?

It’s never an easy task, writing a review of a classic and much beloved film.  This is even more daunting in the case of High Noon - writes Sue Murphy, our guest blogger for The Western Season at the IFI. 

Almost 60 years old, High Noon has often been described as the greatest Western of all time, one of Gary Cooper’s greatest performances and the breakout role for Grace Kelly who was just 23 when the film was released in 1952.  Despite providing entertainment for generations there is no doubt that High Noon has shouldered the burden of becoming a symbolic piece.

Mid morning Hadleyville in the New Mexico territory, amidst burning heat and rising dust, three men ride through town.  It has been years since their departure, the circumstances of which have not been forgotten.  They ride towards the local railway station, leaving the town in a flurry.  They pass the Justice of the Peace where a marriage ceremony is taking place between the soon-to-be-ex Marshal, Will Kane (Cooper) and his bride, Amy (Kelly).  Just before they plan to leave the town to set up their new life, Kane hears that Frank Miller’s boys are back in town and Miller plans to be in on the noon train.  Miller was put away by Kane and he promised he would return to kill him for his part in the arrest. Despite the scared townsfolk running for cover Kane refuses to leave town.  As the time creeps closer to noon and with the train en route, Kane stands alone to face down his old enemy.

In the same breath as High Noon is described as the Greatest Western of all time, it has come to be known as the “Western for people who don’t like Westerns”.  The bulk of the 84 minutes of the film which was aimed to be filmed in real time, concerns Kane’s quest to find allies.  High Noon simmers before your eyes, both metaphorically and literally.  The heat is visible on the faces of the characters, sweat pouring down their cheeks, while Cooper’s Kane is almost suffocated in his panic to find anyone to help him.  The director Howard Hawks was known to have openly criticized the representation of the Marshal to which Zinnemann retorted “Sheriffs are people and no two people are alike.”   There is barely any action, but the film does not suffer from it, rather Zinnemann proved his own point with an understanding of each character and individual that is rarely witnessed in the genre.  

There is perhaps no need to fawn over Cooper’s role as Kane as that has been done since the film’s release by audiences and critics alike.  (Cooper received an Academy award for his portrayal of Kane)  It is, however, worth noting that he suffered greatly throughout the production with a bleeding ulcer.  This didn't stop Cooper and Grace Kelly continuing an affair for the entirety of the filming.  Many were considered for the role of Kane, including Gregory Peck who claimed it was one of his greatest regrets not taking the part but that he could never match Cooper.  He carried the show, the hero of the hour who stood for his principles against not only an old adversary but a town who shamefully turn their back.

In hindsight, the production was dogged by controversy.  Carl Foreman who had written the screenplay was brought in front of the House of Un-American Activities Committee and although he had no involvement with the Communist party for over ten years, he refused to divulge names of those who were.  Stanley Kramer, his working partner at the production company they shared, forced him to sell his half of the company in case any association arose with the Communist party and their future would be destroyed.  Kramer attempted to have Foreman completely removed from High Noon, but following an intervention by Cooper and Zinnemann, he was allowed to continue on his capacity as producer and writer.  His producer credit was removed before release and Foreman became blacklisted by Hollywood in its aftermath.  In its appeal to community values in the face of an external threat, High Noon is often seen as an outspoken critique of  HUAC and  blacklisting. 

Zinnemann fought through his entire life to ensure that High Noon was only ever seen in black and white, and to witness it on the big screen in all of its glory in the IFI last night was a sight to behold.  

- Sue Murphy -

Sue Murphy graduated from Trinity College in 2008 with a Masters in Film Theory and History.  Beginning on Spin 1038's We Love Movies, Sue began reviewing for various outlets including the Movies and Booze slot for Sean Moncrieff and RTE Pulse.  She has written for websites like Culch.ie, yay.ie and the Galway Film Centre.  Sue now guest blogs for the IFI.

'High Noon' opened the IFI's The Western Season, which continues between August 24th - 28th. Tickets are available online on www.ifi.ie or from our Box Office at 01-679 3477.

IFI’s Staff Favourites: Mid-August Lunch

Fans of Gianni di Gregorio’s Mid-August Lunch (Pranzo di Ferragosto) will be licking their lips in anticipation of his upcoming film, The Salt of Life. But before it reaches the cinema, it may be well worth getting hold of his first, much-loved feature, just to remind yourself of the delights that may be in store from this talented writer/actor/director.

Set in a sultry Rome over the August 15th bank holiday weekend, di Gregorio plays the middle-aged son whose life revolves around looking after his aged mother, Valeria, drinking wine and cooking. His weekend turns upside down when he’s imposed upon to look after the apartment block caretaker’s mother – in return for his waiving overdue service charges. Then the doctor’s mother lands in on them as well. Before he can open another bottle, Gianni has four seniors with varying medical and dietary demands in his charge. Ruling over the lot is Valeria, resplendent in full theatrical makeup and a towering wig. She’s like someone from Dynasty and indeed controls the home like one, refusing to give the guests rights over the TV or to join them at the table. At first irritated by their bickering and peevishness, Gianni works his way through several glasses of wine, moaning to a local ‘character’ about his fate. He escapes too, in the search for some fish, in a brief road journey on the back of a motorbike, where we get a glimpse of the kind of life Gianni dreams of. But once back home, he gets totally caught up, fending off drunken advances from Marina, and negotiating a way through their various demands.

With a lightness of touch in direction and a deftness in his performance, di Gregorio makes his middle-aged character appeal and amuse as he works his way through several glasses of wine and countless cigarettes. Watching this sometimes vacant looking character settle into the night and ultimately warm to the palm-reading and chat that diverts the women, it’s hard to imagine that he’s the writer of Gomorrah, the hard-hitting drama about organised crime in Naples.

When Mid-August Lunch was first released, some people said ‘nothing happens in it’. That’s true, but maybe that’s the point. In Gregorio’s screenlife nothing much does happen other than the day to day round of meals, medicaments, forays to the bar, chat and tv. And yet, on a stifling august weekend, for a brief couple of hours, there’s friendship, laughter and tenderness, among a group of women whose family had dispensed with them for other pursuits. By the end of the film, we’re dancing with him in that small overcrowded room, where for a brief period, the womens’ isolation and awareness of their mortality is forgotten. Treat yourself to some mid-august warmth with this gem of a film.

Alicia McGivern

Head of Education

IFI

Mid-August Lunch is available on DVD from IFI Bookstore. Salt of Life runs exclusively at the IFI in August 12th - 25th. Tickets on sale now at www.ifi.ie or 01 679 3477. 

The Western Season 24th to 28th of August

It’s time to throw on your most expensive Stetson, climb into those cowboy boots and grit your teeth in a way that Clint Eastwood would even be jealous of, because this month at the IFI the Western Season will be screening some of the choice picks from the genre.  

High Noon

Although the Western has been pigeon-holed as the all-American film, The Western season attempts to look at the range of films that have evolved from the genre’s archetypal beginnings at the onset of the 20^th century.  

For many, the Western conjures up the notion of an isolated life on the American frontiers in the late 19^th century, dusty towns with cowboy-filled saloons, where ladies were ladies and pistols at dawn was an everyday theme. As the genre matured Westerns developed and changed, adapting to political sentiments of the times they have been filmed in and the cultural outlooks of international filmmakers.  Personally, Westerns are nostalgic, invoking memories of sitting with my father on a Sunday afternoon watching John Wayne chase Indians across the Prairie. Die-hard Western fans won't want to miss these films on the big screen while those less familiar with the genre will relish the chance to see some of the all-time classics.  

High Noon

The Season kicks off on the 24^th of August with a screening of the now classic High Noon.  Starring Grace Kelly, arguably one of the most beautiful women to ever grace the silver screen and the legend that was Gary Cooper, High Noon tells the story of lawman Will Kane, who on the day he hangs up his badge is told that Frank Miller, a man he put away years before, is returning to obtain his revenge.  Kane soon discovers he stands alone after the townspeople he has protected for so long refuse to help and turn their back on him and his new wife.  Scooping four Oscars and receiving another three nominations, High Noon has taken its place among the Western greats.

Rio Bravo

When you say Western, the name John Wayne will not be far away from your lips and the first of two screenings of the actor’s unforgettable performances is Rio Bravo.  In Southwest Texas, the local sheriff must succeed in keeping a murderer in custody until the Marshal arrives.  However, his brother, hiring gunslingers attempts to have his brother freed.  Made as a political riposte to High Noon, the two classics provide some of the most evocative illustrations of the divides of the McCarthy era.

The Searchers

After Rio Bravo whets your appetite for more John Wayne screenings the season delivers with the timeless The Searchers. Wayne plays a Veteran civil war soldier who spends years attempting to rescue his niece from the Indians who ransacked his brother’s house and killed his sister-in-law who he desperately, but secretly loves.   The violence of his passions simmer in the subtext and his love for a woman who can effectively never love him back will touch even the most hardened hearts.

Lemonade Joe

Proving just how much the Western had evolved in such a short space of time, Lemonade Joe, a Czechoslovakian take on the genre was released in 1964. 'Red Westerns' were popular in Eastern Europe, a favourite even of Joseph Stalin, they evolved a distinctly un-American bias during the Cold War.  Masquerading as a comic musical while on the other hand, displaying serious political undertones, Lemonade Joe focuses on clean-living Joe who attempts to clean up a whiskey-drinking cowboy town.  The film calls into question government, society and of course, your view on Joe himself...  Lemonade Joe will also screen on the 27^th of August.

The Outlaw Josey Wales

For full listings of The Western including The Outlaw Josey Wales (another classic with Clint Eastwood both acting and directing this anti-war Western), visit www.ifi.ie.  This weekend borrow a phrase from Gary Cooper in High Noon, “I've got to, that's the whole thing.”

Sue Murphy

Sue Murphy will be guest-blogging for the Western Season, August 24th - 28th at the IFI. To keep up to date with all the reviews and upcoming events, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and here at Blogger.

IFI Family Festival: Beast Hunt Results announced

Thank you to everyone who took part in our IFI Family Film Festival Beast Hunt. Congratulations to Frances, Ryan and Charlie and everyone else who completed the hunt.

Chata © Chris Judge

IFI Family Festival Beast Hunt Results:

1^st – Frances   12.20

2^nd – Ryan       12.22

3^rd – Charlie    12.23

Other participants: 

Tayler & Lara - 12.30

Elena & Jack - 12.32

Cian - 12.34

Jeff & Julia & Samuel - 12.35

James - 12.36

Keela - 12.38

Layla - 12.38

Mia - 12.40

Maya & Catalina - 12.40

Julia & James - 12.45

Maria & Liam - 12.54

Hugh & Rory - 12.56

Sarah - 12.58

Ashling - 12.58

Holly - 12.59

We would like to thank the amazing illustrator and painter Chris Judge for facilitating the workshop A Beasty Creation, and for his involvement in the Beast Hunt. As part of the IFI Family Festival, we screened his short film The Lonely Beast and Chris' illustrated book is now available at the IFI Film Shop. 

We hope you had fun. See you next year!

IFI Family Festival Team 

August at the IFI

Welcome to our programme for August which includes a focus on films representing the Traveller community, a season of Westerns and the first part of a retrospective on legendary French filmmaker Alain Resnais.

Pedro Almodóvar's The Skin I Live In 

The steady stream of strong Irish documentaries continues at the IFI this August with Ian Palmer’s Knuckle, a decadein-the-making exploration of the violent elements of Irish Traveller culture. Accompanying the release is a season of  Traveller films that gives a wider view of the way that the community has been represented, from Joe Comerford’s debut feature Traveller to Perry Ogden’s fine examination of Traveller life during the Celtic Tiger years in Pavee Lackeen. There will be a chance to debate and discuss the cinematic representation of Travellers during a panel discussion with filmmakers alongside community artists and representatives.

Travellers On Film: Southpaw

The IFI Western Season demonstrates what a particularly highly contested genre the Western has become. Alongside popular political films such as High Noon and Rio Bravo, the season also includes a rare screening of an example of the once-popular Eastern Bloc Westerns (or Osterns). Lemonade Joe gives a fascinating insight into how the iconography of the American West was successfully adapted and reimagined to suit Communist regimes.

High Noon

Heritage Week (August 20th – 28th) is traditionally a busy time for IFI National and 2011 is no exception. The Kingdom and I: Kerry on Film is a programme of rarely-seen silent and sound films from the IFI Irish Film Archive which will screen at St. John’s Theatre, Listowel on August 25th. Elsewhere, Willy Reilly and His Colleen Bawn (1920) will screen on August 25th at the Pearse Museum, Rathfarnham, where the film was shot in 1920, and Dublin in the Rare Oul’ Times will return to the Dublin City Public Libraries network.

August has a packed schedule of new releases that include Project Nim, James Marsh’s hotly-anticipated follow-up to Man on Wire; In a Better World, this year’s Best Foreign Language Film Oscar winner; and another journey into Pedro Almodóvar’s unique imagination with The Skin I Live In.

Audrey Tautou in Beautiful Lies

There’s also an exciting trio of new French films that include Kristin Scott Thomas in Sarah’s Key; Audrey Tautou in Beautiful Lies; and this month’s French Film Club selection, Eric Lartigau’s The Big Picture. We also honour one of France’s master filmmakers, Alain Resnais, to complement the re-release of Last Year in Marienbad. The season includes early masterpieces such as Muriel and Hiroshima mon amour as well as later films that consolidated his position as one of cinema’s most mesmerising and innovative storytellers.

Sarah Glennie

Director

Cars, rats and cupcakes... IFI Family Festival 2011

Sunday afternoon at IFI, Dee Quinlan is reading subtitles of  Short Tales, our Family Festival short film programme, to an eager and appreciative audience aged between 4 and 8 in the cinema. Outside on Meeting House Square, 20 young artists are waiting for the grand ‘opening’ of their mural,  created under the guidance of expert visual artists Re-Ink-Our-Nation and inspired by Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams. As Diana Bunici, tRTE presenter and our hugely energetic and willing festival patron steps up to cut the imaginary ribbon, cameras click and admiring parents clap at the work their youngsters have put in to transform the construction hoarding. And what a transformation – a quick walk around the hoarding reveals their ideas on viking lives, future lives and what is important to them today. Realised as part of Temple Bar Cultural Trust’s Made in Temple Bar Festival, it’s been a great collaboration.

 

Young street artists and visual duo from Re-Ink-Our-Nation

 

Back inside, we’re just about recovering from having let a few beasts loose around Temple Bar, looking for The Lonely Beast, the character of Chris Judge’s children’s story and animation. Face-painting rules, with river rat whiskers sprouting on three-year-old faces. Said rats had made their first appearance on the banks of the Liffey with Diana, tRTE’s Stephen Byrne, and a handful of young film fans, posing and smiling behind beautiful painted boards featuring the Light of the River characters. The boards, painted by artist Li Aiken were a huge hit – with parents, kids and all posing behind them for photos over the weekend. Li turned her talents to the foyer too and, with volunteer Deirbhle, decorated the place with road markings, bollards and stop signs in preparation for Saturday’s Cars 2 rally - starring members of the audience in their own cut-out cars and waved off by Stephen in full rally mode. 

 

At the preview of Cars 2 

Volunteers truly got into the Festival spirit, and we really couldn’t have managed without the help and enthusiasm of them all –‘old’ hands Lauren, Gabrielle, Scott, Colm, Chloe were back for a 2nd year as well as newcomers: Odhran, who made the steps; Marina, Faye, Hazel, Eoghan, Kay, Michelle, Siofra, Rachel, Breffni, Veronica, Michael, Nicole, all of whom got stuck in blowing up balloons, facepainting, leafleting, minding workshops, running errands, tearing tickets and generally lending a hand - they were an amazing asset to the Festival. The street art was a huge project to manage, and this was made possible by the willingness and professionalism of our volunteer Sarah, who was invaluable throughout the whole event.

 

IFI Family Festival 2011 - one of the workshops

Back to the films, full houses for The Gruffalo and Cars 2, with appreciative and keen audiences for Light of the River, On the Sly and The Crocodiles Strike Back. We’d audiences from Donegal and Skibbereen, who travelled specially for the event, as well as new faces and IFI regulars, bringing young family and friends to experience some of the best family cinema from around the world. ‘Best day ever’ said Beibhin after attending Fergal’s music workshop. ‘Brillant’ and ‘Deadly’ were claymations with Estrella, ‘I’ll give it five and a half stars’ said one discerning viewer after the opening film. And for those who didn’t want a big screen, we set up a Secret Cinema too, with room for four viewers who could sit in the darkened room, with fairylight decor and cushions at their feet. As the lights go down on our closing film from France, On the Sly, stepping outside into the light and frequently bursting balloons, it’s hard not to think that alternative cinema has a great future here, if the openness and enthusiasm of this young audience is anything to go by. 

See more photos from the IFI Family Festival 2011 [here].  

Alicia McGivern
Head of Education

IFI Family Festival 2011 is on!

Summer holidays too long? Then take your family to see some water rats, crocodiles, mice, bears and gruffalos this summer! No, not a long hot day at the zoo but a visit to IFI Family Festival where our programme of films from around the world tell stories about some wild and wonderful creatures – and humans too!

Light of the River

                                                 

Starting with Light of the River, a Japanese animation in the Studio Ghibli style, with an eco-message too. It’s a funny and heart warming story about a family of river rats who are forced to swim upriver to find a new home. Many laughs in little Chi Chi’s adventures and the wise father’s endeavours to save him from sewer rat enemies...

In the Attic: Who has a Birthday Today?

From Ireland, A Shine of Rainbows stars Aidan Quinn and Connie Nielson as a couple who bring  young Tomas into their coastal home. Great performances from young John Bell as Tomas and Dubliner Jack Gleeson as one of the local boys.

When wizardly adaptations have been eagerly awaited in cinemas here, in Germany huge audiences look forward to the adaptations of a very popular book series about a gang of friends who call themselves the Crocodiles. In this latest film, The Crocodiles Strike Back, the friends look like going their separate ways owing to job losses for some of the parents. So they set out to do all they can to stick together, even if that means breaking into the local factory to find out what exactly is going on. ..

RTE presenters Diana Bunici & Stephen Byrne

with young film fans at the launch of the Festival

Oh yes, several of the films are subtitled. But that’s not a problem as we have experienced readers who will read to the audience. And you’ll be surprised when you see how effective this is. Some people describe it as having a story read aloud. Kids love it. Speaking of stories, one of our guests - author and illustrator, Chris Judge - will present his own story, The Lonely Beast, on Sunday morning – before that very popular beast, The Gruffalo, hits the screen. And if that’s not enough beastly business, we’ll be letting a crowd of beast hunters loose in Temple Bar just after the film, led by our Festival Patron, tRTE’s Diana Bunici. Diana will be popping in and out of several Festival sceenings, workshops and events, introducing her favourite film and talking to audiences.

Young films fans at the launch of the Festival

What makes a film festival for young people really different is that it offers a glimpse into lifestyles and cultures from all over the world. None more so than in this year’s very special screening of Wind and Fog by Iranian filmmaker, Mohammed Ali-Talebi, in which ten-year-old Sahand is growing up in wartime. A wonderful film, beautiful in places and truly insightful into a very different life experience. From the other side of the world, Minnie and Junior features in one of our shorts programme, about two Aboriginal children. Minnie just can’t understand why Junior is more interested in fishing than her!

On the Sly / A Pas de Loup 

                                                                              
Our Festival starts with the natural world and finishes there too: On the Sly (A Pas de Loup), showing on Sunday, brings viewers right into a French forest where six-year-old Cathy goes to hide from her parents and finds that living on berries, avoiding wolves and sleeping under the stars is quite an adventure! Fabulous performance from the young actor; a story about being brave, and knowing when it’s ok not to be.

We’d love to see you and your young film fans at the IFI Family Festival.

See some photos from the Opening Night on our Facebook Page.

Alicia McGivern
Head of Education