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The Greatest Irish Films

  • 18-06-2019 12:56pm
    #1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 62 ✭✭Small Wonder


    I would like to hear people's recommendations of the greatest Irish films.

    Feel free to add anything but I'm particularly interested in films that aren't spoken about so much. We've all watched The Snapper, but are there old silent movies or other forgotten bits and pieces that are worth exploring?

    They can be set in Ireland, actually made in Ireland or have some other link to the country. 'Irish' themed, basically.

    Personally, I'm not interested in films like The Killing of a Sacred Deer or I am Not a Serial Killer, but again, it's up to you if you want to extend the category to include the work of Irish directors and production companies.

    I'll start things off with Return to Glennascaul, the 1951 short written and directed by Hilton Edwards and produced by Micheál Mac Liammóir (the two founders of the Gate Theatre). It's a ghost story starring Orson Welles, playing himself, and was shot while Welles was on a break from shooting Othello, which of course starred Mac Liammóir as Iago.

    I'm already breaking my own thread because it's not a 'great' film, but it's certainly a notable one given Welles' stature within the medium and his own storied past with Ireland and the Gate Theatre. It's one of the bonus supplements on Criterion's Othello release but I'm sure it's available online somewhere.


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Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 1,570 ✭✭✭vriesmays


    There are no great Irish films. Most are average and look like cheap TV movies.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,149 ✭✭✭Tammy!


    I really liked Breakfast on Pluto.


  • Registered Users Posts: 727 ✭✭✭xlogo


    Adam and Paul.


  • Registered Users Posts: 212 ✭✭leonffrench


    The Crying Game and The Halo Effect are the only 2 "great" ones I think and the rest are "good"


  • Registered Users Posts: 32,136 ✭✭✭✭is_that_so


    While I'm not in the same negative category as some above, we don't really have world-recognised great films but all of these come in the category of extremely watchable.

    The Quiet Man
    Man of Arran
    Barry Lyndon
    The Commitments
    The Crying Game
    Michael Collins
    Ryan's Daughter
    Brooklyn


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  • Registered Users Posts: 479 ✭✭Dutchy


    *snip*


    Eat the Peach


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 62 ✭✭Small Wonder


    vriesmays wrote: »
    There are no great Irish films. Most are average and look like cheap TV movies.

    None?

    I think My Left Foot is one of the great pieces of world cinema.


  • Registered Users Posts: 32,136 ✭✭✭✭is_that_so


    None?

    I think My Left Foot is one of the great pieces of world cinema.
    Well Daniel Day Lewis is. The film is OK but his performance is superb.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 62 ✭✭Small Wonder


    is_that_so wrote: »
    Well Daniel Day Lewis is. The film is OK but his performance is superb.

    I think the movie is too often overlooked for just his performance, which is understandable of course. Anyway...


  • Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 30,833 Mod ✭✭✭✭Insect Overlord


    Black 47 was absolutely class.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,570 ✭✭✭vriesmays


    None?

    I think My Left Foot is one of the great pieces of world cinema.

    There's a book called Film Review 1989 and My Left Foot was one of their turkeys of the year.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,125 ✭✭✭mistersifter


    Lenny Abrahamson has made some good films.

    Adam and Paul , as mentioned.

    What Richard Did is also very good as is Garage.

    Wind That Shakes the Barley was very well received too.


  • Registered Users Posts: 81 ✭✭westcork67


    Young Offenders


  • Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 30,833 Mod ✭✭✭✭Insect Overlord


    A Date For Mad Mary seemed to slip under the radar for a lot of people, lost in the hype between Sing Street and Young Offenders. That was a great year for Irish movies!


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,667 CMod ✭✭✭✭Sad Professor


    I love Sensation, probably my favourite Irish film.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 62 ✭✭Small Wonder


    vriesmays wrote: »
    There's a book called Film Review 1989 and My Left Foot was one of their turkeys of the year.

    My own personal feelings for the film must be wrong then if Film Review 1989 didn't think it worthy of praise.


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Computer Games Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 29,031 CMod ✭✭✭✭johnny_ultimate


    A couple of Irish documentary filmmakers recently have been knocking it out of the park and making works that are confidently up there with the some of the best non-fiction work out there - they don't need to be praised just on 'Irish film standards'. My personal favourite was last year's The Image You Missed - director Donal Foreman tackles the Troubles through a uniquely personal and fiercely cinematic approach. Emer Reynolds made one of the great space documentaries with The Farthest. Pat Collins has been doing tremendous, formally audacious work with his films that cross the fiction/documentary border with quite giddy abandon. Was also very fond of Tadhg O'Sullivan's The Great Wall, which is mesmerising slow cinema.

    If we're counting Derry (although let's not get into all of that :P) Chris Kelly's A Cambodian Spring is also a superb, furious documentary about broken politics and injustice.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 69 ✭✭rhubarbcustard


    Intermission gets my vote!


  • Registered Users Posts: 403 ✭✭E mac


    I Went Down.


  • Subscribers Posts: 40,734 ✭✭✭✭sydthebeat


    Loved date for mad Mary as well....

    But my top Irish film is disco pigs.

    Dark and funny, and translated to screen extremely well from the play.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 887 ✭✭✭Abel Ruiz


    vriesmays wrote: »
    There's a book called Film Review 1989 and My Left Foot was one of their turkeys of the year.

    Well the book was wrong.
    One of the greatest films ever


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 35,737 CMod ✭✭✭✭pixelburp


    Intermission gets my vote!

    That was a film that really, really wanted to be a Tarantino feature. Hasn't aged too well IMO.

    I have to say I'm impressed nobody has mentioned Fatal Deviation yet ;)

    Find "Irish cinema" a tough beast to get into TBH. For me, cinema is often about escapism, so given how often Irish Film goes for gritty, domestic dramas above all else I simply stay clear of its output. If I do dabble, it's with genre outliers like Black 47, Siege of Jadotville or uh, Grabbers :D


  • Registered Users Posts: 31,753 ✭✭✭✭gmisk


    There are some excellent Irish films IMO

    Sing street
    The farthest
    Brooklyn
    In the name of the father

    I don't think our output is too bad for a small country.




  • Ken Loach's War Of Independence Movie with "The Wind that shakes the Barley", Killian Murphy is fantastic

    The Van

    Intermission


  • Registered Users Posts: 11,286 ✭✭✭✭Collie D


    Hotel Rwanda


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,056 ✭✭✭tvercetti


    My favorites would be
    The Guard - I like it more and more with each viewing, there was alot of hype when it came out so maybe I had built it up too much on first viewing. Love it now.

    Angelas Ashes is superb

    The General and Veronica Guerin - 2 engaging stories that make for very good movies

    I enjoy Intermission, Butcher Boy and Adam and Paul but find them a bit overrated by alot.

    Six Shooter - only a short movie but worth a watch
    Accelerator - so bad but I like it


  • Registered Users Posts: 14,938 ✭✭✭✭Fr Tod Umptious


    I think Kings is the best Irish film of all time.


  • Registered Users Posts: 16,344 ✭✭✭✭banie01


    I have to take exception to Black 47 being on a best of Irish List.
    Unless that list relates specifically to Irish Language films.
    It is a disjointed Peckinpah style revenge western that is not at all special in any other way IMO.

    For best movies, I suppose as "Irish" movies go...
    You can go with those movies that spark nostalgia or you can go with those few movies that really stand against the best of other countries.
    With that in mind, my list is a mixed bag of both.

    Lamb,
    I went down,
    The Guard,
    The crying game,
    The Magdalene Sisters
    The Snapper (whole barrytown trilogy really)
    Calvary
    Michael Collins
    The Field ( Amazing casting and powerhouse performances)
    Philomena,
    In the name of the Father
    My left foot
    Waking Ned
    Into the west
    Angel

    So many other great Irish movies without even touching on animation ;)
    We really do punch above our weight artistically IMHO.


    Special mention too for the war of the buttons!
    Ye tosspots!!!


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,918 ✭✭✭Conall Cernach


    The Butcher Boy
    Odd Man Out
    Shake Hands With the Devil


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  • Registered Users Posts: 5,693 ✭✭✭donegal_man


    "It Came From Connemara" the 2014 documentary about Roger Corman's Concorde Anois studios.


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