New Irish Short Films…

The Irish Film Board have seen the future and it contains the words You and Tube. At the Darklight Festival last weekend the IFB unveiled its latest batch of short films. The scheme entitled Virtual Cinema features 9 short films, all of which were designed for those of us in the internet audience with attention deficit disorder. The shorts typically have a running time of 2 to 3 minutes with simple, manageable themes. Although the films were all conceived and executed for computer screens they held up well on the much larger Lighthouse cinema screen, for the most part. Particular highlights include the excellently realised and very witty “Bono & My Ex“, the original yet simple Polish / Irish narrative of “Smuggle” and the enthusiastic “What Makes You Happy“, a film that’ll bring a smile to the coldest of cynics. Ranging from documentary to drama, from simple gags to deeper … There’s more

D’Dead…

“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