In a largely dismal year for Irish film production, two indigenous films proved they could compete at the box-office - one at home and one in the US. Michael Dwyerreviews the year in film.
THE Irish film success of 2007 was Once, John Carney's disarmingly charming Dublin musical, even though it was significantly more successful abroad than in Ireland. Made on a small budget in the region of €150,000, Once won the audience award in January at the most important US film festival, Sundance. That triggered a bidding battle for the US distribution rights, won by Fox Searchlight, the specialty division of 20th Century Fox.
Once opened on limited US release in May, and gradually expanded across the country. Fuelled by rave reviews and strong word-of-mouth, it made more than $9.4 million at the US box office - more than the combined US earnings of Sleuth, Control, The Jane Austen Book Club, Goya's Ghosts and The Assassination of Jesse James, each of which cost much more and featured much better known actors.
Once took the audience award at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival in February, but its Irish box-office takings fell far short of the US earnings and it's likely to reach a more substantial audience here on DVD. Even more surprisingly, Once received just one nomination at the Irish Film and Television Awards in February. (Shortlisted for best music, it lost out to The Tiger's Tale.)
On the international film festival circuit, Lenny Abrahamson's Garage, which features a revelatory performance from Pat Shortt, has been collecting awards since its world premiere at Cannes. However, none of the Irish productions released on home ground during the year came remotely close to the success of The Wind That Shakes the Barley, the No 3 film at the Irish box-office in 2006.
It was a thin year for film production in Ireland, boosted by incoming TV programmes, chiefly the second 10-part series of The Tudors. The annual audiovisual report from the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (Ibec) noted that Irish feature film production was worth €29.8 million in 2006, but fell to €11 million this year. The principal reasons cited are competition from new UK tax incentives and from countries in eastern Europe where facilities and wages cost substantially less.
Irish cinemas, on the other, had a very good year, as admissions soared during the awful summer weather. Franchise films dominated, with animated movies ranked first and second on the box-office top 10 for the year to date. They are:
1 The Simpsons
2 Shrek the Third
3 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
4 Spider-Man 3
5 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
6 The Bourne Ultimatum
7 Transformers
8 Ratatouille
9 Die Hard 4.0
Knocked Up
The Departed, which was in the Irish box-office top 10 for 2006, finally earned Martin Scorsese his long-overdue Oscar as best director in February, when the two main acting awards went to Helen Mirren for The Queen and Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland.
Hollywood finally focused attention on themes related to the Iraq war in a number of movies that had been mooted as likely Oscar contenders next spring: The Kingdom, Rendition, Lions for Lambs and, already released in the US, Redacted and In the Valley of Elah. All tanked at the box-office, even though most featured name stars. This prompted some commentators to claim that audiences were not interested in paying to see political pictures. It is much more likely that people stayed away simply because the films were so disappointing.
The theme of unplanned pregnancies proved to be a much stronger magnet for international audiences and critics in Juno, Waitress, Knocked Up and 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days. All should fare well in the awards season, and Waitress could receive a posthumous Oscar nomination for writer-director Adrienne Shelly, who was murdered a year ago.
World cinema lost two of its greatest directors when Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni died with 24 hours of each other in July. And Irish cinema and theatre lost two distinctive acting talents with the deaths of Joan O'Hara and Tom Murphy.
The year also marked the passing of actors Ulrich Mühe, Deborah Kerr, Jane Wyman, Betty Hutton, Ian Richardson, Jean-Claude Brialy, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Michel Serrault, Gareth Hunt, Charles Lane, Yvonne De Carlo and Lois Maxwell; directors Delbert Mann, Edward Yang, Ousmane Sembene, Curtis Harrington, Stuart Rosenberg and Bob Clark; cinematographer and director Freddie Francis; and producers Carlo Ponti and Verity Lambert.
