“Sublime” and “astonishing” are just some of the superlatives that have been used by critics to describe The Dead. An adaptation of the last story from James Joyce’s Dubliners directed in 1987 by John Huston, it is a film that has often been labelled “a masterpiece”. All this week The Lighthouse Cinema in Smithfield are screening The Dead. Having heard so much about it over the years without having seen it and with some time to kill yesterday afternoon I thought I’d head along to see what the fuss was all about. The setting for The Dead is an annual New Years Eve party taking place in a grand house in 1904 Dublin. There is much drinking, dancing, carousing, gossiping, and goose carving. Eventually Gretta Conroy, after hearing an old and sad ballad sung by one of the guests, confesses to her husband Gabriel of a long ago love affair … There’s more →