An Cailin Ciuin

tamara25 · 02-01-2023 1:44am

The dad was very cold emotionally to the kids, that on its own can be very damaging.. it was a lovely film, will be watching it a second time.

Shuffl_in · 07-01-2023 1:44am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120049342#Comment_120049342

Lots of promotional help? A lot of us who caught it in the cinema heard of it by word of mouth. I went to see this early on and there was four people in the cinema! Most people seem to have heard about it too late to catch on the big screen.

The best reviewed movie on Rotten Tomatoes in 2022. Shortlisted for an Oscar. Longlisted for 3 BAFTAs. Rave reviews both here and abroad.

It's a success, a huge success. Not driven by promotion nor Irish language lovers - people love the film.

07-01-2023 10:52am

Yeah, there was about 12 people in the cinema when I saw it, and it was recommended to me by friends. I don't think I've seen a poster for it.

Furze99 · 07-01-2023 11:17am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120077135#Comment_120077135

Well, if you listen to RTE Radio at all then you can't have missed the regular glowing promos. And the subtext of these rightly or wrongly are along the lines that not only is this an Irish film but it's also a film as Gaeilge and therefore it's doubly 'good'.

I heard Colm & Cleona of Inscéal being interviewed on the film and they came across as decent, level headed and are clearly a small business that have put a great deal of work into it and deserve all credit for that.

The film though would hardly wash it's face in terms of paying it's way on it's own. The film industry generally benefits from public funding and taxation arrangements and due to the primary position of the Irish language, there are extra supports and sources of funding there. So they are not relying on payments from streaming services and cinema chains/ distributors.

As said, I enjoyed the film for what it is but ultimately was a bit underwhelmed.

Igotadose · 07-01-2023 11:45am

FWIW there were posters around during the "Dingle International Film Festival" in November, and it was screened there and a couple other places around the area.

johnny_ultimate · 07-01-2023 11:47am

The film has been an unprecedented success because it’s widely regarded as a great film. That it’s Irish language is of course something to be happy about (and is also a central element of the film’s identity), as Ireland has never had a cinematic success of this scale as Gaeilge. But we’ve had other pretty good films in Irish - such as the recent Arracht, another beneficiary of Cine4 funding - that have had nowhere near the same impact, despite good reviews. An Cailín Ciúin has struck a particular nerve, and its growing international acclaim and list of plaudits is testament to the fact that there’s more going on than just national pride and smart marketing. Its extremely elegant craft and understated performances are universal enough that they’re obviously striking a chord well beyond Irish people who may be more familiar with the specific details.

And arts funding is an essential feature of any good modern society. European countries in particular have a long, long record of funding truly great films of limited or worse commercial appeal, because they know that many, many great films would not exist if they were designed ‘for profit’. Cinema is better when many projects with limited commercial prospects are made. Ireland has a mixed track record when it comes to choosing which projects to fund, but Cine4 has been a pretty unambiguous success story. It has basically already doubled the number of Irish language features in existence, with more to come. It has funded a pretty diverse range of films - from light family comedy Róise & Frank to the dark famine thriller Arracht. There’s more to come too. They’ve already had one big breakout success in this film, which has done the improbable of being a tiny arthouse film that has won over audiences, critics and awards organisations alike. I for one would struggle to think of a more deserving film - this film is the real deal.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 07-01-2023 11:56am

Interesting to note too that this films success story began at Berlinale early last year. It won an award there and was widely praised by an audience that presumably didn't give a fupp where the film was from or what language it was.

Alex86Eire · 07-01-2023 12:01pm

I watched it last night through the IFI website and absolutely adored it! Question - was there any particular reason the bio dad didn't speak Irish?

sporina · 07-01-2023 12:29pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120077708#Comment_120077708

cos he wasn't a native Irish speaker..

i think it was also used as a device - if you know what I mean.. he was out of touch with reality..

sporina · 07-01-2023 12:32pm

everyone is entitled to their opinion..

for those of ye energetically defending the film, there really is no need.. IT IS PHENOMENAL and the stats prove it ☺️

LOVE The Arts

Igotadose · 07-01-2023 12:41pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120077795#Comment_120077795

IMO he's the villain in the movie, his wife a big accomplice.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 07-01-2023 12:47pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120077848#Comment_120077848

It's 1981 in Ireland, not sure exactly how much say the wife would have had in anything happening

Furze99 · 07-01-2023 2:36pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120077795#Comment_120077795

Reality? Reality in 1981 was the same as reality in 2023 as regards spoken Irish. In fact you'd have more chance now of having a conversation as Gaeilge than in 1981. I don't want to appear anti Irish language as I'm not, but to represent a reality of Ireland as being Irish speaking anytime since the early 19th century is in the same league as 'pigs in the parlour' or the 'drunken Irish' etc It's nonsense, we have spoken Hiberno English for the past two centuries, apart from regions mostly in the west but also a pocket along the Waterford coast.

This film should be seen as part of the ongoing reinvention and rehabilitation of Irish, not as any representation of reality.

cheese sandwich · 07-01-2023 2:45pm

I watched this movie over Christmas and absolutely loved it. It reminded me of Shoplifters by Kore-eda, particularly the ending. A beautiful little film that deserves all the praise it is getting

HeidiHeidi · 07-01-2023 2:54pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120078160#Comment_120078160

I don't think you were meant to take "reality" quite so literally!

sporina · 07-01-2023 2:56pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120078192#Comment_120078192

hey thats a pretty great comparison.... my fav movie to date till this was Shoplifters.. I will never forget the effect it had on me when I saw it in the cinema - wow - but this beat it

bodhrandude · 08-01-2023 7:37pm

What streaming platforms is this on?

08-01-2023 7:59pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120082899#Comment_120082899

It's not. You can rent it from Google iirc

spurious · 08-01-2023 8:09pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120077848#Comment_120077848

Wondering how you see his wife as an accomplice? She's a victim of his as much as any of the children. Him spending the hay money, gambling their possessions away, relatives having to try and sneak money to her for the kids....

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 08-01-2023 9:06pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120082899#Comment_120082899

Its avaliable to rent on Google, Rakuten, Sky Store, Apple, IFI Home, and Volta

sporina · 08-01-2023 10:33pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120082899#Comment_120082899

you need to see it in cinema imo.. (to fully enjoy it).. for the ambiance (lack of distraction), big screen etc..

twill probably be re-released come oscar season..

Weepsie · 08-01-2023 10:34pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120083617#Comment_120083617

No you don't. It's a good enough film to stand up on its own wherever it's watched.

sporina · 08-01-2023 10:51pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120083628#Comment_120083628

in your opinion..

bodhrandude · 09-01-2023 2:00am

Saw this and absolutely loved it. There is some great Irish speaking films out there, Black 47 and Finky, which I think has been showed in TG4 twice now.

09-01-2023 7:28pm

Just watched Aftersun…thought they were alike in many ways. Loved it . Guardian had this as no 1 film with quiet girl no 2

No Bills · 19-01-2023 3:29pm

2 BAFTA nominations today for An Cailín Ciúin / The Quiet Girl:

https://www.rte.ie/entertainment/2023/0119/1349536-irish-eyes-on-bafta-nominations-at-midday/

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 19-01-2023 4:51pm

A pleasant surprise to see it included in Adapted Screenplay.

sporina · 19-01-2023 6:27pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120130070#Comment_120130070

woo hoo - what are the chances?

HeidiHeidi · 19-01-2023 6:44pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120130070#Comment_120130070

I heard Colm Bairéad interviewed today, and he sounded extra proud of that nomination - takes it out of the slightly "token" foreign-language category. It's competing with mainstream there.

My niece should have asked for share options!!

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 19-01-2023 8:04pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120130511#Comment_120130511

You never know. If it's in it can win.

I always think that's a weird category anyway. You'd have to have read, or be familiar with, the source material to say whether a screenplay is a good adaptation or not. But that's clearly not what the award is for. It's more just best screenplay that is based on something else.

For example, by all accounts All Quiet On The Western Front isn't a great adaptation of the book, or the original film. But it's a good film in itself, which is probably what voters will base their decision on.

I belive Woman Talking was the Oscars frontrunner in this category, so the fact it's not nominated at the BAFTAs leaves it a little more open, I guess.

sporina · 19-01-2023 8:06pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120130600#Comment_120130600

your niece?

HeidiHeidi · 20-01-2023 12:11pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120130985#Comment_120130985

She played one of Cáit's sisters

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 20-01-2023 12:44pm

Looks like it's coming (back?) to all the Omniplex cinemas this week. If anyone still hasn't seen it, or wants to see it again.

pixelburp · 20-01-2023 12:47pm

With movies this small, you'd wonder how much they cost to make, against how much they did at the box office.

Feels like something that might have made a tidy profit, relatively speaking - but looks difficult to figure out at this altitude of cinema. boxofficemojo has it $1.4 million worldwide - though only lists 3 countries' box offices, and Ireland never figures in their stats anyway so we can only presume it has done "well" here.

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt15109082/

johnny_ultimate · 20-01-2023 12:59pm

Well, it quite prominently hit the €1 million combined box office mark in the UK/Ireland months ago, and you'd imagine the vast, vast majority of that came from Ireland. Given there have been a few months of still regular and often sold-out screenings since that announcement, I'd say that amount has increased a decent bit since then as well.

For comparison, that'd put it in the same sort of general box office range as Aftersun, which - as a British film - would've inevitably received a much bigger push in the UK (which of course has substantially more arthouse and specialist cinema screens) than An Cailín Ciúin did. That film is also considered a pretty big hit by independent film standards.

As I said earlier, we should be eternally grateful Ireland (and indeed the UK) has pretty good arts funding, albeit always with room for improvement. An Cailín Ciúin is a pretty unprecedented hit and a fantastic good news story for Irish independent film. But there are a lot of other interesting films out there that have to make do with maybe 1% of the box office of this film but are thankfully still getting out there.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 20-01-2023 1:03pm

I'm sure I read that the funding from Cine4, which is the TG4 version of Film4, was €500,000.

I'm pretty sure that was their main source of funding, so it probably didn't cost much more than that.

It's getting a US "wide" release in February too, which will push the numbers up a little.

pixelburp · 20-01-2023 1:18pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120133646#Comment_120133646

As I said earlier, we should be eternally grateful Ireland (and indeed the UK) has pretty good arts funding, albeit always with room for improvement.

100%. It came up a couple of times recently in (of all places) Red Letter Media on YouTube & the Blank Check podcast: where both parties remarked how amazing and shocking it was how often non-US films of note would have a prominent "Funded by ..." credit at the start, noting the government money that helped produce the movie; the point turning to a lament that in the US that simply doesn't exist. As you say, we should be grateful we live in a country where its government supports the arts.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120133663#Comment_120133663

Thats brilliant news about the US release. How "wide" are we talking?

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 20-01-2023 1:32pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120133736#Comment_120133736

No idea. They seem to use "wide" in relation to their limited release strategy. So with this film, it had a very limited run in a handful of cinemas in LA and NY late last year, obviously to qualify it for Oscars. In February it's getting a "wide" release, which could just mean it's showing in one art house cinema in 20 states, or it could mean it's in every cinema in the country. Although the latter seems highly unlikely.

fluke · 20-01-2023 2:37pm

Gonna catch this in an Omniplex on Sunday. Looking forward to it!

GBXI · 23-01-2023 3:33pm

Superb movie. Wasn't expecting it to be this good at all. Hope it wins the Oscar.

gmisk · 23-01-2023 3:38pm

Finally got to see this in the cinema.

What a wonderful film, it says so much with not saying a lot! The acting is genuinely wonderful, Catherine Clinch is utterly magnetic.

I never normally cry at films/TV but this one hit me.

pixelburp · 23-01-2023 3:49pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120146466#Comment_120146466

Little snippets from two separate letterboxd reviews I think really nailed what this film managed: the idea of cinema as an "... empathy generating machine", and this idea that when you're a child, there's an insecurity that everything's probably your fault.

Clinch's performance was 75% a wounded look of exactly that feeling; at the start, you could see the poor dote shrunken with this sense she was the cause of everything wrong around her. Watching her come out of her shell through a couple's lost source of love was fulfilling. Christ I feel a bit wibbly just recalling those details; so ain't no shame admitting to tears TBH - they were well earned.

No idea how many other viewers here are recent parents, but by god this film kicked the newly formed paternal part of my brain squarely in the feels. I can't remember the last film I've hovered about the thread so much, using any excuse to further gush.

I just love that, if nothing else, we now have a benchmark of homegrown cinema that looks cinematic, and not just a warmed-up RTÉ drama with endless shot Coverage.

Furze99 · 23-01-2023 3:54pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120146466#Comment_120146466

You're right it says a lot without much of a plot. It's a short film of a short story. Very nicely filmed and edited, well funded as an Irish language film but doesn't really live up to the hype imho.

sporina · 23-01-2023 10:18pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120146466#Comment_120146466

totally - the script is almost secondary to the movie..

though I do love what Sean said to Cait on the beach.. (but no spoilers)

Andrew76 · 24-01-2023 10:41am

Watched this last night with the OH after spotting this thread - reading just the first half dozen posts convinced me I needed to see it. What a beautiful film, great performances from the main three characters. I felt a sense of dread building up throughout it though as I was expecting a predictable tragic ending, what we got was even more moving I thought.

Passenger · 24-01-2023 2:44pm

It's just gotten an Oscar nomination.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 24-01-2023 2:52pm

Very good day for the Irish all round

johnny_ultimate · 24-01-2023 3:00pm

Easy to dismiss the Oscars for a plethora of reasons, but this extraordinarily well-deserved nomination is proof that sometimes the best films will prevail.

I for one am delighted for everyone involved in the making of the film. What an achievement for such a small film.

pixelburp · 24-01-2023 3:04pm

Sometimes the Academy gets it right: this is a well-deserved nomination. Even if it doesn't walk away with a gong the production team should already feel immensely prood.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 24-01-2023 3:05pm

When they read out EO, I thought we were done for. Decision To Leave was one of the favourites, for a nomination anyway.

I'm going to rewatch it to be sure, but I think there was a pretty big clap for it when it was read out.

An Cailin Ciuin

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