THE Foyle Film Festival in Derry, under new director Shona McCarthy, celebrates its 10th birthday this year with a varied and very attractive programme of films and a most impressive guest list. Jane Campion's film of Henry James's The Portrait Of A Lady will have its Irish premiere on the festival's opening night, November 16th, which is the exact centenary date of the first ever cinema screening in Northern Ireland. The film stars Nicole Kidman, John Malkovich, Barbara Hershey and Martin Donovan.
Among the other movies receiving there Irish premieres at Foyle are Ken Loach's Carla's Song, starring Robert Carlyle as a Scot in Nicaragua; Michael Cimino's Sunchaser with Woody Harrelson and Jon Seda; Danny De Vito's film of Roald Dahl's Matilda Adrian Noble's A Midsummer Night's Dream, featuring Lindsay Duncan and Irish actor Barry Lynch; Nadia Tass's Australian hostage picture, Mr Reliable, starring Colin Friels and Jacqueline McKenzie, and to be introduced by its producer, Michael Hamlyn; and Barry Levinson's Sleepers, based on the current best selling novel by Lorenzo Carcaterra and featuring Brad Pitt, Robert De Niro Kevin Bacon, Dustin Hoffman and Jason Patric. The programme for Foyle Film Festival will he launched in Derry next Tuesday.
The festival's principal theme this year is Write In The Picture, looking at various adaptations of literary works for the screen. A forum at the Orchard cinema on November 23rd will explore the argument that film culture in Ireland has an unhealthy dependence on the country's literary heritage. On the panel will be writers Roddy Doyle and Ronan Bennett, director Margo Harkin, Bord Scannan na hEireann chairperson Lelia Doolan, BBC Northern Ireland film supremo Robert Cooper, and Andrew Eaton, producer of Family and Jude.
Foyle's screening of Jude will he introduced by Andrew Eaton and the film's star, Christopher Eccleston, while Ronan Bennett will also give a masterclass on screenwriting. Julie Christie will introduce a screening of the brilliant Don't Look Now and a special 15 minute preview reel of Kenneth Branagh's imminent Hamlet epic, in which she plays Gertrude. Mike Leigh will be in Derry for a screening of his memorable 1985 television film set in Belfast, Four Days In July. And producer Marina Hughes will introduce the new Irish film, The Boy From Mercury.
A programme of films and documentaries set in Northern Ireland includes Enda Hughes's wild and wacky The Eliminator; Neil Jordan's debut film, Angel; John T. Davis's new documentary, The Uncle Jack; Hugh Farley's Frontline special, by Eoghan Harris, Patrick Ruane's documentary, Supplementary Justice on the escaped Long Kesh prisoner, Jimmy Smyth; and the two new programmes of short films from the North, Six Pack and Northern Lights.
. For further information, contact Foyle Film Festival, Custom House, Derry. Tel: (01504) 373456. Callers from the Republic should add the prefix, 08.
THE first of two weekend film programmes, organised to coincide with the Event Horizon exhibitions at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, takes place at the IFC tomorrow and Sunday, with the second to follow in mid January. This weekend's programme, curated by film maker Pat Murphy, is devoted to the work of Michelangelo Antonioni and features the fascinating trilogy of L'Avventura, La Notte and L'Eclisse, along with The Oberieald Mystery, Il Grido, a documentary on Antonioni's most recent film Beyond The Clouds, and a discussion on Antonioni's work tomorrow at 3 p.m.
FIVE chillers for the Hallowe'en weekend are included in the Night Of Horrors marathon showing at Virgin Cinemas tonight. The line up kicks off at 4.45 p.m. with Tobe Hooper's Poltergeist, followed by Brian De Palma's sublime Carrie, John Carpenter's The Thing, William Friedkin's The Exorcist and shortly after midnight, a preview of Andrew Fleming's new US film, The Craft. All in tickets cost £16. The cinema section of the Africa Festival in Dublin will showcase the work of the Guinea Bissau director, Flora Gomes, next Wednesday evening with screenings at the IFC of his first two features the 1988 Mortu Nega and the 1992 The Blue Eyes Of Yonta.
THE young English actor, Mark Frankel, has been killed in a motorcycle accident in West London. Frankel, who shown a good flair for comedy in the leading role of Gary Sinyor and Vadim Jean's Leon the Pig Farmer, also starred in Sinyor's Solltaire for 2 and has featured in a number of recently completed US productions. Mark Frankel's final film was Paul Weiland's Rosanna's Grave in which he starred with Jean Reno and Mercedes Ruehl. He was 34.
. Paddy Agnew adds:
The "Colli Albani", the hills south of Rome, have for long been known primarily for two things - excellent white wine and the fact that the Pope has his summer residence there, at Castelgandolfo. You can now add animation to the list. Last Saturday the Colli Albani town of Genzano concluded its first ever Animation Festival by making a "Lifetime Achievement" award to the Dublin based, Japanese American director Jimmy Murakami. Three Murakami films - Breath, Good Friends and When The Wind Blows - were shown during the five day festival held, according to the programme notes, to dispel "that still persistent cliche which argues that animation is something only for children".
Murakami's current projects include an Irish US, co produced Biblical series called The StoryKeepers, an Irish series called Cop Waich (made with Aidan Hickey) and a possible documentary on four years spent as a child internee in Northern California during the second World War. His visit to Italy last week, however, has added to that list since it rekindled a desire to make an Italian "classic", perhaps with an operatic theme and ideally an international co production based in Italy.
. Some double tickets are still available for the Irish Times Readers' Preview of The First Wives' Club, featuring Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton, and showing on Sunday morning next at 11 a.m. in the Savoy cinema, Dublin. Tickets are available on a first come, first served basis from this morning at the Irish Times office in D'Olier Street, Dublin 2.
