Packing a real punch
THE 56th Corona Cork Film Festival provided an eclectic and entertaining mix of features, short films and documentaries. Triskel Christchurch, a new and highly atmospheric venue, was a welcome addition to the Gate cinema and Cork Opera House for the festival’s screenings.
The Opening Gala at Cork Opera House, Like Crazy, won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival this year. A slow burning, intense film — and just a little too fond of itself — it charted the convoluted love affair between a young English student and her American classmate. While the performance from lead actress Felicity Jones won the plaudits, the few witty lines in the film were delivered by her perpetually bemused, whiskey-drinking father, played with understated charm by English character actor Oliver Muirhead.
Other galas included a particularly French take on the nature of politics in The Minister / L’Exercice De L’État, and The Whistleblower, a conspiracy drama featuring Rachel Weisz as an American police officer working in post-war Bosnia who uncovers a sex trafficking scandal. The City Below is a German film which centres on an illicit affair between an older German banker and the young wife of one of his employees. While modern Ireland may be largely inured to sexual scandal, the background depiction of the immoral, malevolent and clinical world of German banking is likely to send shivers down the spine, given our current financial woes.
The festival closed with the bleak but captivating Toomelah, set in a remote indigenous community in Australia, which examines its uncertain future through the character of 10-year-old Daniel, who dreams of becoming a gangster.
Short films continue to be a hugely important part of the festival, and often provide some of the most powerful and arresting images and stories. They also provide an opportunity for aspiring young Irish film makers to display their talents. This year there were four programmes of Irish short films with a variety of plots and themes, including last minute plans for a bank robbery in The Heist, a celebration of the Irish climate in Downpour and an investigation by Séamus Heaney of mysterious goings on in Leitrim in Leitronium.
The Best Irish Short Film award went to Even Gods, directed by Phil Harrington, which examines the power of reconciliation as an ex-alcoholic meets the daughter he deserted many years before. Even Gods is a simple yet extremely powerful film. The Claire Lynch Award for Best First-Time Irish Director of a Short Film went to the humorous animated film The Art Of Making Friends, directed by Paul McNulty, and there was a special mention for Quarantine, which looks at the experience of a woman undergoing radiation treatment.
In the Best International Short Film category, the winner was the French film Aglaée, directed by Rudi Rosenberg. The Cork Short Film Nominee for the European Film Awards was Two Hearts from Irish director Darren Thornton. Other films to stand out include Polish offering A Piece of Summer (Kawalek Lata) a careful, atmospheric film set in a remote forest which depicts the relationship between an old charcoal burner and his grandson.
In the humorous Bad Night For The Blues a young man must take his snobby and, as it turns out, heavy drinking aunt to her local Conservative Club Christmas party.
In the documentary section, Unfinished Italy presented a lighthearted look at the most popular Italian architectural style since World War 2, represented by the various stadiums, bridges and buildings which were started for political reasons and then abandoned.
In The Kingdom of Survival, filmmaker MA Little loosely tied together the thoughts of a variety of radical thinkers, including Noam Chomsky and cabin builder Mike Oehler, on different ways of living in the modern world.
On a less cerebral note, Crooked Man is a recording of Tommy Tiernan’s live show earlier this year at City Limits in Cork. Comedy is of course a matter of taste, but the film certainly illustrates Tiernan’s vitality and charm, and was well received by a young crowd.
Outliving Dracula: Le Fanu’s Carmilla looked at Irish writer JS Le Fanu’s creation, the female vampire Carmilla. While an interesting subject, the film was too long, too disjointed and too heavy handed to be engaging.
Finally, and harking back to Ireland’s first forays into film making, The Dawn is Tom Cooper’s classic film set during the War of Independence and filmed in Kerry using an amateur cast in 1936. While some of the acting may be a touch wooden, the lively film touches on love affairs, spies, double agents, bravery and loyalty to a cause, and is great fun.
The film served as a reminder that a good plot never goes out of fashion.
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