A Japanese comedy about ballroom dancers, Shall We Dance?, which has been an arthouse hit in the US, has been selected to open the Murphy's 42nd Cork Film Festival on October 12th, the festival's director, Mr Mick Hannigan, announced at the event's programme launch in Dublin last night.
The festival will close on October 18th with Ang Lee's exploration of disillusionment among suburban liberals at the time of the Watergate crisis, The Ice Storm, which stars Sigourney Weaver and Kevin Kline.
The festival will present the world premieres of Irish director Alan Gilsenan's first feature film, All Souls' Day, and the documentary, The McCourts of Limerick, directed by Conor McCourt, whose uncle, Frank, wrote the award-winning Angela's Ashes.
It deals with the four surviving children of Angela and Malachy McCourt - Frank, Malachy, Alphie and Michael - and features footage of Angela herself, smiling and singing with her sons.
Recent Irish productions on the Cork programme will include Tom Collins's Bogwoman, Mark Staunton's Separation Anxiety and Graham Jones's How to Cheat in the Leaving Certificate, along with the documentaries, Mac Liammoir's Children, in which Gary Sheehan deals with the experiences of immigrants in Ireland, and Liam Wiley's Harvest Emergency.
David Cronenberg's controversial Crash features on the international programme at Cork, along with Brian Gilbert's Wilde, with Stephen Fry as Oscar Wilde; Curtis Hanson's thriller, LA Confidential, featuring Kevin Spacey, Guy Pearce and Kim Basinger; John Woo's Face/Off, starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage; and two films starring Gabriel Byrne, The End of Violence and Smilla's Feeling For Snow. Cork will mount a tribute programme to Orson Welles and will focus on the radical Canadian film-maker, Mike Hoolboom. Special events will includes seminars, workshops, book launches, silent movies with piano accompaniment, a cinema and dance celebration, and an expanded education programme.