"It's been a happy experience," says John Kelleher. "The French loved west Cork, the food, the people, even the rain. He was talking about The Last Word, a film which has just been completed in Schull
John Kelleher was a producer for RTE for many years, but in his new incarnation is the motivating power behind Fastnet Films. His company, together with a French counterpart, Cineteve, will be bringing this 90-minute television movie to the screen early next year, most likely in February or March.
The interesting thing is that the commissioning broadcasters are France 2 and Teilifis na Gaeilge. The Irish Film Board is also an investor in this £1 million production. The prospect has been an exciting one for TnaG, being its first foray into the world of international co-productions.
Chance is a wonderful thing. About four years ago the French writer, Anne Valton, saw a documentary on French TV about a young boy with a severe stutter. It was the story of a youngster who went from being unable to speak to achieving fluency, having attended a specialised residential course.
That sparked off the idea, and a few years later, over a long lunch on a sunny day at the Cannes Film Festival, French and Irish producers got together and talked the project through. "It developed from there. TnaG liked it, RTE said `No' but now, after 17 days shooting in Paris and seven in Schull, it has all come together."
The Irish and French crews mingled well and enjoyed the experience, although there was some initial trepidation about how the whole thing might jell. It did, and this gentle story will come to our television screens with sub-titles. That shouldn't put anyone off, John Kelleher says, given that its first screening in France is expected to attract an audience of up to seven million.
Here is how he describes the film: "It is a charming and light comedy featuring an adolescent romance between two outsiders, a sensitive young Irish girl, Cynthia, and a French boy, Nicholas, who strike up a relationship through the Internet.
"Nicholas, who suffers from a severe stutter, the result of a childhood accident, believes quite incorrectly that Cynthia will reject him if she discovers his speech impediment. He goes to great lengths to avoid taking her phone calls.
"Cynthia, who is at odds with her deeply conservative parents, who are opposed to her Internet obsession with `a foreigner,' steals money from them and decides on impulse to go to Paris to meet Nicholas. However, he has left Paris to enrol on an intensive four-day residential course which is very successful in curing serious stutters.
"Cynthia arrives unexpectedly in Paris and is greeted by Nicholas's older brother, the loutish Bertrand, who impersonates Nicholas with a view to seducing Cynthia. She is confused, especially when Bertrand reads her a poem that Nicholas wrote specially for her and is heading back to Ireland, very upset, when everything ends very happily." As befits such a joint venture, there was a hands-on approach to the making of this film. It got the local community involved. "Most of the population of Schull were enlisted as extras, and those that were not supplied beds, food, booze or taxis. Almost every one of the French crew - there were about 20 - wanted to settle in the Mizen Peninsula," John Kelleher says.
The cast were not well known, although the noted French actress, Annie Girardot, is one of the leading players. Vincent Aherne, a former principal of Schull Community College, made his screen debut during the filming, and many townspeople who participated are now looking forward to its release.