The days are getting shorter, and with Academy Awards speculation season under way, the movies are getting longer.
Oscar voters have always had a penchant for giving the best picture statuette to movies that near or pass the three-hour mark - including Gone with the Wind (238 minutes), Lawrence of Arabia (216), Titanic (203), The Return of the King (201), Schindler's List (195) and Dances with Wolves (183) - while there have been a few rare exceptions, such as Annie Hall (93).
If size matters, Andrew Dominik's The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford leads this autumn's race - it not only has the longest title, but it runs for 160 minutes. The film is such a fascinating, classically formed western that I, for one, welcomed the time it spent developing the themes and characters.
Clocking in close behind are Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood (158 minutes), Ang Lee's Lust, Caution (157), Ridley Scott's American Gangster (156) and Sean Penn's Into the Wild (148). No timings yet for the Robert Zemeckis epic Beowulf, Chris Weitz's The Golden Compass, or the re-edited version of Richard Kelly's Southland Tales, which ran for an exhausting 160 minutes when screened at Cannes in 2006.
Frears and Landis in Dún Laoghaire
Directors John Landis and Stephen Frears and costume designer Deborah Nadoolman are the first guests of the new lectures season at the National Film School at IADT, Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin.
Nadoolman, who designed the costumes for Raiders of the Lost Ark and has written A Century of Hollywood Costume, will give her lecture next Tuesday. Landis, whose many credits include An American Werewolf in London, Trading Places, The Blues Brothers and Michael Jackson's Thriller video, will participate in a public interview, which I will conduct, on Wednesday.
On October 23rd, Frears will discuss his work, which includes Dangerous Liaisons, The Grifters, The Snapper, The Van and The Queen. Call 01-2144655 for times and tickets.
Ardal's Irish history
Screening at the Corona Cork Film Festival next Thursday, Blind Eye is the first of 10 short films in producers Mary Rose Doorly and Paul Myler's proposed series, A History of Ireland in Ten Minutes.
The series is conceived as "a filmic interpretation of Irish history, told in key, iconic moments through the eyes of well known Irish writers in collaboration with Irish directors". Edna O'Brien, Colm Tóibín, Nuala O'Faolain and Pat McCabe have committed to contributing to the series.
Blind Eye, set in Dublin in 1939 and directed by Damien De Burca, relates a true story and features Ardal O'Hanlon in a serious role, as an Irish immigration official assigned to deport a young woman back to Nazi Germany. The screenplay is by author Hugo Hamilton, and the score is by Robin-John Gibb, son of Bee Gees vocalist Robin Gibb. www.corkfilmfest.org
'Once' scores again
Having won audience awards at the Sundance and Dublin festivals, John Carney's Dublin musical Once collected the top prize this week at the Raindance Film Festival in London, where it was voted best international feature film. Once, which has taken more than $9 million at the US box-office, opens in the UK and Northern Ireland next Friday.
The Bergmans play with RTÉCO
The husband-and-wife team of composers Alan and Marilyn Bergman are the special guests of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra at INEC Killarney on Wednesday and the Helix in Dublin next Friday.
The Bergmans have received 16 Oscar nominations and won three - for The Windmills of Your Mind (from The Thomas Crown Affair, 1968), the title track from The Way We Were (1973) and the score of Yentl (1983).
Brian Byrne is the arranger and conductor at the concerts, which also will include music from Casablanca, Chinatown, The Incredibles and The Man with the Golden Arm. www.rte.ie/performing groups
Away with the Faeries
The winner of the 2007 Diversions Short Film Award is Ciaran Foy for The Faeries of Blackheath Woods. It was chosen from the 12 films shown during the Diversions summer programme of outdoor movies in Meeting House Square, Dublin. The award carries a cash prize of €5,000 from the event organisers, Temple Bar Cultural Trust, and studio time at Filmbase.
"I'm truly delighted to win," Foy said. "Now I can afford another print!"
