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.  

From Ireland with love...

IFI International, with the support of Culture Ireland, is teaming up with cultural partners across the EU to mount a major programme of Irish film during Ireland’s EU Presidency, running from January to June 2013.

The first six months of 2013 mark the seventh time that Ireland has held the Presidency of the EU. It provides Ireland with a central role in the machinations of European politics, but it’s also an opportunity for our wind-swept island to attract the attention of our cosier mainland European neighbours. Yet for all the important business being done in our capital at present, the Presidency is perhaps quite opaque to most of the Union’s 500 million citizens, both here in Ireland and farther afield.

In January the Irish Government launched the Culture Connects programme to engage Irish artists in Europe, and European artists in Ireland. It serves up a smorgasbord (or depending where in Europe you are, a mezze platter or tapas selection) of Irish arts and artists to audiences across the EU and beyond. There’s a wide diversity of art forms being showcased, and between now and June the IFI is packing its bags and bringing Irish film on tour.

This weekend the 1926 silent film Irish Destiny is making its way to celebrate St Patrick’s Day in Brussels. The first fiction film dealing with the Irish War of Independence, it delivers all the thrills and spills an audience would expect of a romance narrative with a dashing hero – but it also combines rare actual newsreel of wartime events, making it also to an astonishing historical record. Now almost 90 years later, it’s brought even more to life with a rousing score by Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, to be performed live in concert by the 22-player Orchestra of Wallonie. 

Irish Destiny is just one of three ciné-concerts that the IFI is touring for the EU Presidency. Guests of the Nation is destined for London’s Barbican next month, with Niall Byrne’s score set to soar under the baton of David Brophy. In June, Willy Reilly and His Colleen Bawn takes to the road with composer Bernard Reilly and a group of 12 musicians, for screenings and concerts in Berlin, Paris and Madrid.

Combining film and live music in overseas venues is not a straightforward process. How can it be dark enough for projection but bright enough for musicians? How can we fit two languages worth of translated subtitles into the same frame as the original intertitle cards? What if the harp gets in the way of the screen?! For the duration of the Presidency I am in daily contact with our venue partners throughout Europe, and working through the challenges and rewards and languages and cultures that a project like this presents. But these are fascinating programmes to work on, presenting a very rich intersection between two arts forms and combining old and new, showcasing not only some of the best of Ireland’s film heritage but also some of its most talented contemporary musicians. It breathes a whole new life into the enjoyment and appreciation of these films; both in the creation of a completely new score to enrich and enlighten the film narrative, but also in bringing the thrill of live performance into each screening. 

Lucy Healy-Kelly
International EU Presidency Coordinator

Read more about IFI International and our EU Presidency Programme in 2013.