Archives for category: Film

James Hickey is New CEO of Irish Film Board

February 10, 11 //

James Hickey, a media lawyer, will be the new CEO of the Irish Film Board, according to reports from the Irish Times . He will replace Simon Perry, who previously served a five-year term.

“Mr Hickey brings a wealth of experience to the role,” writes Times correspondent Donald Clarke. “As head of the media and entertainment law group of Matheson Ormsby Prentice, Ireland’s largest law firm, he has long represented leading actors, writers, directors and production companies.”

Hickey made a statement to press, saying: “I hope, in taking up this position, that I will be able to make a contribution to the promotion of the culture of film making and the development of the industry of film production in Ireland in my new position.”

He has previously worked on movies such as “Breakfast on Pluto” and “In the Name of the Father,” and international TV shows like “The Tudors”.

Liam Neeson will Play Irish Tatoo Artist in “The Hangover 2″

February 9, 11 //

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Liam Neeson talks to U.S. Magazine OK about playing an Irish tattoo-artist in the upcoming film “The Hangover 2.” The part was previously written for Mel Gibson, who was since fired.

Despite not making it to Bangkok for filming, Neeson had a great time: “Oh, it was [fun], it was. It was pretty intense. I was only there for one day — a Sunday, as far as I remember. But it was good to be with Bradley Cooper — he’s a buddy — and the other two gentlemen, I’d never met them before, but I love what they do,” he said of Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis. “The three of them are just, they reinvent the Three Stooges in a very funny way.”

While the actor would not confirm which of the three stooges gets the tattoo treatment, he did talk about his own character’s body art.

“Well, I do. I get covered in tattoos,” he said. “Shamrocks, ‘I love Ireland,’ all stamped all over me.”

The actor is currently on the publicity trail for his most recent film “Unknown.”

The Aesthetics of Maurice Pialat’s ‘L’Enfance Nue.’

April 27, 10 //

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‘L’Enfance Nue’ is striking in the blandness of its imagery. There is nothing aesthetically to distinguish the reality of this film from the reality of one’s everyday life. As the film opens on a dreary day on a street lined with concrete buildings, one shivers at the truthfulness of Pialat’s world. Life would never look so real were it reflected in a mirror.
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In Review: Alice in Wonderland

March 16, 10 //

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Alice wears a breastplate: it’s a rather flattering breastplate, as breastplates go. Her long strawberry blond curls cascade on to its metal surface, framing her pale white cheeks and reminding us that she’s still pretty despite her new warrior image. The heroine of Tim Burton’s newest film- a remake of the Lewis Carroll story ‘Alice in Wonderland’- is thirteen years older but no more cynical. In fact, she sometimes believes six impossible things before she even has her morning frappuccino.
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In Review: Fish Tank

February 15, 10 //

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Towards the end of Fish Tank, Andrea Arnold’s most recent contribution to the film world and winner of the Jury’s award at the Cannes film festival, the heroine whips down her oversized tracksuit bottoms and urinates all over the carpet. Hurtling along at an unrelenting pace, the film has been building to this moment of release. It is an image so poignant that the viewer recoils and yet does not lose the thread of action even for a moment. We are held forcibly in this inner city concrete backwater for better or worse.
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Performativity and ‘Boys Don’t Cry’

March 20, 09 //

In addressing the concept of ‘performativity’ in relation to Kimberly Peirce’s 1999 film Boys Don’t Cry, I think it essential to first discuss Judith Butler’s ideas about gender performativity and particularly how they relate to discourses surrounding ‘Queer’ theory. The idea of gender being essentially performative emerges from Michel Foucault’s assertion that the ‘self’ is not pre-existing but rather is constructed only through our relations with others and through structures of power and knowledge. In other words we embody and are constituted by the discourses that make up our culture. Leading on from Foucault’s idea that there is no essential ‘truth’, Butler proposes that gender is not a ‘natural’ element of ourselves or inherently linked to our biological sex, but is entirely performative.
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Oops, sorry Angelina!

January 14, 09 //

The Golden Globe award winners, just incase you lost the plot half way through Kate Winslet’s speech. A glamorous and weepy night was had by all.
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‘Seven Pounds’: Three in a row for our favourite superhero

December 24, 08 //

Is it just me or does the Fresh Prince seems hell-bent on heroism these days? Let’s see- ‘The Pursuit of Happyness, ‘Hancock’, and now most recently ‘Seven Pounds’ all feauture our favourite man in black as the ultimate do-gooder, a man that suffers for the sake of others, an isolated other-wordly being that saves us all from the clutches of fate. Well that’s lovely Will but how about some old fashioned Christmas cheer during the- all be it recession blasted- season to be jolly?
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Theatre and Film: The Showdown

November 7, 08 //

Watch closely the next time you see someone enjoying a cup of coffee in a film. Most of the time, the cup will actually be empty and certainly very rarely will you see someone actually drink from it. This is because of the nature of filmmaking. An actor might be required to do the same take eight or nine times -to actually take a sip of coffee each time would put a strain on the strongest bladders. How many of these takes are done depends on the director -Clint Eastwood has been said to be to satisfied with any shot in which the camera did not actually fall over while the notoriously difficult filmmaker Stanley Kubrick sometimes forced his actors to do the same take a hundred or more times over.

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The Irish Critic’s Ode to ’25th Hour’

October 12, 08 //

Forever the Irish Critic’s top film, ‘25^th Hour’ is set in New York City- in fact it could be said that it is in and of New York City, the backdrop of its post 9/11 angst acting almost as an additional character as opposed to merely a setting. The plot surrounds ex- drug dealer Montgomery Brogan (played by an ever fantastic Edward Norton), charting his last twenty-four hours of freedom before being sent to prison for seven years.