Legend.
The Last of the High Kings. Had a few big names, this was during Leto's dream boat stage around the time of My so called life.
Last of the High Kings… a rare decent Irish accent from Jared Leto there.
When I saw that in the cinema these two excitable young ones seemed for a few seconds to think some guy taking his seat was him.
The Run of the Country (1995)
Originally saw it on VCR (remember those) back in the day - decent romantic drama starring Albert Finney and a young Victoria Smurfit.
Not A Bad Christmas (1999) is a short film that I remember got a lot of attention at the time it initially came out. Written and directed by Enda Walsh of Disco Pigs fame. It doesn't have an IMDB entry for some reason.
Blackbird (2018)
Not strictly an Irish movie, but Michael Flatley's self funded vanity project sank like a stone upon it's release. An absolute stinker of a movie with more hats on display than you'd see in a Milliner's shop window.
If I'm ever gifted a bottle of Flatley's whiskey - supposed to be drinkable enough - I must have a dram while watching that :)
The Matchmaker (1997) starring Janeane Garofalo. The usual "American meets thick Irish Paddies but ultimately finds them charming" fare.
Class film, Milo O’Shea is great as is David O’Hara. Almost as good as ‘The Closer You Get’ (2000).
The Sea (2013)
Stars Ciaran Hinds as a recently widowed man who returns home to the seaside town where he spent summer holidays as a child.
Sad and reflective film with beautiful cinematography - well worth a watch.
The novel it was based on by John Banville won the Booker Prize, the film didn't get much traction at the time, I enjoyed it when I watched it, very low key. But the link to the book should keep it ticking over as a curiosity if nothing else.
I can't remember if I mentioned it before, but Ciarán Hinds was also in The Eclipse, a film by Conor McPherson.
Christmas At Draculas (2015)
Its pretty bad.
Man About Dog doesn't seem to get very many mentions anymore. A film called Milk with Brendan Gleeson went under the radar too
Any one remember Eat The Peach . There was a fella riding a motorcycle on a wall of death .
Also The Run of the Country , a border film set I think in Cavan
Has this one made it into the thread yet, Captain Boycott from 1947.
Madame X (1981) - NBC remake of the old chestnut with Tuesday Weld. Has a ludicrous Universal backlot depiction of 60s Dublin, featuring a hotel with a child choir at Christmas, terrible accents and Jeremy Brett as a Dublin doctor. Features the black Lagoon set as rural Ireland, with the bridge from Sweet Charity.
Written by Graham Linehan, who distanced himself because he hated Milo O'Shea. Which shows how he was always not right.
I'll admit that the banshee scared me when I was young.
The Twillight Hour. Visions of ireland's haunted past. 2003. Suitable for Halloween about haunted Irish houses and castles.
I posted this elsewhere but it probably fits here as it premiered at the Cork Film Festival in 1986 and shortly after shown on RTE and Channel 4. The Dublin Suite, a short film accompanying a musical arrangement by Robert Lamb, theres no dialogue.
Edit: I missed the cast credits at the end, Enda Williams is the name Eana Macliam is credited under.
Between the Canals from 2011. Starting Peter Coonan (Fran from Love/Hate) and singer Damien Dempsey. It’s actually not too bad of a film, set on St Patrick’s Day in Dublin City Centre.
Catholics (1973) Curiously forgotten HTV/CBS coproduction set and shot in Cork and Tippeary, about a young American priest (Martin Sheen, when he was as Tarantino put it, 'the TV movie Pacino'), in a dystopian rural Catholic Irish island in the year 2000, in a world where the Church has been modernised, where priests dress like Action Men in smart-casual 70s gear (Raf Vallone's Father General dresses like a pimp) and the Church is much more hippyish, and Latin mass removed, except on this island. On this island, crowds from all over the world come to watch traditional Latin mass. Trevor Howard heads the monastery. Has a Guinness ad in the pub. Never seen Gambon so Irish and hairy, with his slightly de-Anglicised 'posh Irish actor' voice, as a priest who became a priest instead of joining the IRA.
Also with Cyril Cusack, Andrew Keir and a young Tom 'Charlie off Fair City' Jordan (looking fifty when he was 35). Geoffrey Golden, star of the notorious RTE school drama the Spike is the island publican. Brian Moore's novel features a BBC TV crew.
Milo was mad scientist Durand Durand in Barbarella. And that's how that band got their name.
Also https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/DangerDiabolik was made by the same people using some of the same sets. It was based on an Italian comic, and just as trippy.
Moll Flanders (1996) with Robin Wright, Morgan Freeman, Stockard Channing, John Lynch, Brenda Fricker…
Shot at Ardmore and in Dublin, Wicklow and Bantry.
Jeremy Brett's last thing. It feels very Irish. Aside from Brett, Geraldine James and the Irish-descent Cathy Murphy, everyone in this is an Irish hire. Everytihng has the stench of producer Morgan O'Sullivan. In other words, it looks like it could be a TVM for Hallmark/Disney Channel that we were churning out here at the time. Because of this, Freeman feels like he's slumming it, especially when paired with a Billie Barry-type Irish child actress. They're all in this. Jim Sheridan (yes, really), Maria Doyle Kennedy, Ger Ryan, Alan Stanford, Eileen Reid (yes, the showband/panto star), Chris 'Fr. Jim Johnson' Curran, Rynagh 'Mary' O'Grady, Mary McEvoy, Birdy Sweeney, Jonathan Ryan (of Bosco/Twink sidekick infamy), Brendan Cauldwell, Brian de Salvo (that English-accented radio voiceover all over East Coast FM), Tom 'Charlie' Jordan, Gina Moxley, Stanley Townsend, Joe Savino, Gary Whelan off EastEnders, and billed way down... Ardal O'Hanlon (who presumably made this before Ted came out, otherwise he wouldn't have been billed so low)…
To be honest, the dreadlocked, earring-clad, tricorn-clad Freeman looks far more comfortable in period costume than any of the Fair City, Ballykissangel, Father Ted and Glenroe vets he is surrounded by. He looks fly as ****. Harry Towb in a judge's wig enlivens things, even though he's doing his Peter Goodwright accent from The Day Today. So you expect him to swear his head off. Britta Smith appears, the actress who actually had an affair with Ray McAnally, not Brenda Fricker as my Grandad believed.
Looking through the credits for people I knew, I noticed very oddly, 'Consultant to Pen Densham - Nina Foch'. What was the 40s/50s Hollywood actress doing on this film? AND 'Music Researcher - Frank McNamara'. Yes, the Late Late Show musical director. I've been on a bus with McNamara. I didn't talk to him cos he seemed right stuffy, and clearly hated being on public transport. Then saw him on the motorway driving his van, again looking horrified to be driving his own transport.
The title of this thread would lead to you believe that there have been memorable irish movies.
Joe Savino lives down around Bantry. Dont know if he'd moved there before or after this. Came across him in a pub once, cocky loudmouth.
That's what I'd exactly expect the lad from Upwardly Mobile who wasn't Niall Buggy, David Kelly, the provo or the kids to be.
wut ?
Some of the movies on this thread were made on either a shoestring or razor thin budget. Or the fact that the film set in the the case of " Johnny Nobody " included a railway line which was going to be lifted anyway. My point is that some of these movies were made without the knowledge of the principle actors that the result would get critical acclaim from Hollywood or the British Media.
