Friday, February 16th, 2007

Dublin International Film Festival opening film Jindabyne

The Dublin International Film Festival opened with Jindabyne a film starring Gabriel Byrne and the Dubliner was there in person to introduce the film and open the festival. On the way in I spotted actor Patrick Bergin waiting in the lobby and although I'd be willing to bet there were a few other notable people in the crowd but he was the only other famous face I recognised.

The festival organisers made their obligatory thanks, then an attractive blonde spokeswoman from Jameson introduced the three winners of their short film competition, the top three can be seen on the JamesonFilm website. Michael Dwyer introduced Gabriel Bryne and he gave short introduction to the film, and the difficulty of getting it made as with so many independant films, explaining how funding had been dropped on three seperate occasions before the film eventually went ahead.
The film is based on a short story by American author Raymond Carver called "so much water, so close to home". The story is a serious drama, dealing with a tragic death and the failing marriage of Stewart and Claire Kane played by Gabriel Byrne and Laura Linney. Mr. Bryne noted this was their third onscreen marriage, two of which were unhappy. Laura Linney was seen unhappily married in The Squid and the Whale the Surprise Film of the festival last year and it was noted that she had been a guest at the first Dublin International Film Festival. The story moves along at a leisurely pace setting up the characters and scene with care and attention. Stewart Kane and his friends go on a fishing trip only to find a dead body floating by the river. Shocked and stunned by the discovery they are at a loss as what should be done. They decide to leave the body in the water knowing it would deteriorate rapidly in the heat if they brought it ashore, and they use fishing line to tie down the body and prevent it from drifting away. Rather than head back report their find immediately they attempt to get back to normal and continue fishing as planned. On their return to town they receive little sympathy and are surprised by the harsh reaction they receive for not reporting the dead body immediately. The situation only adds to the strain already on Stewart and Claires marriage.

The story is dramatic and serious tragedy but with enough moments of light comendy not to be too oppressive. The acting is strong and subtle, the film has already having won several acting awards. After the film Gabriel Bryne was presented with a lifetime achievement award, the first of a new series of awards called Voltas (in honour of the first Irish cinema) given out by the festival.


April films official website for Jindabyne
http://www.april.com.au/jindabyne/
Wikipedia Page for the film Jindabyne
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jindabyne_(film)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382765/maindetails


P.S. The quality of photographs taken by camera phones is poor enough to begin with so if any experts know how to prevent Nokia phones from down-scaling photo's before sending I would really like to disable this intentionally crippled functionality or learn of other ways to get better quality pictures out of a camera phone. If I can figure out some way to do this you can expect more pictures to go with my writings.
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Thursday, December 22nd, 2005

Cynical, moi?

Homosexual civil partnerships - or call them gay weddings if you want to annoy Christian conservatives - have been recognised in the UK and Northern Ireland. Lots of news footage of couples managing setting off the stereotype alarm, and Elton John getting married. If you believe in Family Values and consider stable monogamous relationships good for society then it is hard to object. Ireland does not currently have any civil partnership laws but it seems inevitable

It is at times like these I'm reminded of the phrase:
Marriage isn't a word,
it is a sentence.

Now homosexual couples can be just as miserable as heterosexual couples. How long until the first Homosexual divorce, that is what I want to know! It will also be interesting to see how long it takes before someone follows the lead of two Canadian smart asses who formed a partnership to take advantage of the favourable tax status.

When it comes to the prospect of ever getting married myself I tend to think of Groucho Marx:
I don't want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member.

Maybe someday I'll meet a women who is the right balance of crazy, crazy enough to want to marry me but not crazy in scary way like the woman from Fatal Attraction or the girl from Audition.
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Tuesday, September 20th, 2005

Lucky Hobbit

Lucky Hobbit Dominic Monaghan is dating his Lost co-star Evangeline Lilly. Well you know what they say about Hobbits with big feet! (They wear big shoes ;)
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Monday, August 8th, 2005

Fake Plastic Jessica Simpson


A Wax model of Jessica Simpson promoting the film Dukes of Hazzard. Hollywood plunders yet another television series in an act of crass commercialism with no respect for original. Doing what Ben Stiller did to Starsky and Hutch may have been profitable but you will never get a sequel out of it. Seriously, if you are going to desecrate the dead at least show some respect for what made the series popular in the first place. I'll be giving this one a miss.
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