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IRISH FILM INSTITUTE, DUBLIN ANNOUNCES A NEW SEASON THIS JULY
IN CELEBRATION OF THE EXCLUSIVE 70MM RELEASE OF CHRISTOPHER NOLAN’S THE ODYSSEY AT THE IFI
Wednesday, June 17th: The Irish Film Institute (IFI) is delighted to announce a new season running July 1st-29th, Odysseys. The season accompanies the IFI’s exclusive 70mm presentation of Christopher Nolan’s highly anticipated The Odyssey, tracing the many ways in which the core themes of journey, exile, homecoming, and survival continue to resonate throughout cinema. The season foregrounds the enduring influence of Homer’s epic poem through a selection of filmic journeys spanning genres, continents and decades.
While there are a handful of epics that predate Homer’s poem, itself written almost three millennia ago, it is considered the oldest example in European literature of a story in which a hero is forced to overcome many travails across their peregrinations before gratefully, finally arriving home. The influence of its structure and content has endured to the present day in a diverse range of work, from Tolkien’s The Lord Of The Rings to television’s Battlestar Galactica and of course, James Joyce’s Ulysses. The Odyssey has also proved fertile ground for filmmakers, the scope and scale of the story inspiring any number of road movies and depictions of the impact of prolonged absence not just on those who leave, but on those who remain.
Speaking on the season, IFI Cinema Programmer Kevin Coyne said:
“Emma Thomas, producer of The Odyssey, calls Homer’s epic ‘foundational.’ So much of its structure and ideas have become fundamental to the nature of a wide range of storytelling, as shown by the films in this season. At its heart however, and at the heart of these films, is the yearning for the elusive place called home.”
The season opens on Wednesday, July 1st with a special edition of The Bigger Picture featuring Franco Piavoli’s rarely screened Nostos: The Return, a lyrical and philosophical adaptation of Homer, which largely dispenses with dialogue in favour of spectacular visual storytelling. The screening will be introduced by Helen Meany, Festival Director of Classics Now.
The programme then ranges from playful reinterpretations to profound meditations on homecoming and displacement. The Coen Brothers’ classic O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Sun 5 July, 16.10) repositions Homer’s work in Depression-era America, with an all-star cast and a Grammy-winning soundtrack, while Monte Hellman’s road movie Two-Lane Blacktop (Tue 7 July, 18.30) follows a subculture of aimless, car-racing anti-heroes, to whom the road itself is a way of life.
As Odysseus is driven off course, the season also offers two iconic entries in which the journey draws the hero into an unpredictable descent, as famed for their chaotic productions as the films themselves. Werner Herzog’s feverish Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Sat 11 July, 16.00) follows a conquistador’s doomed quest into the Peruvian jungle, and Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now: The Final Cut (Sun 12 July, 15.00) transforms a perilous assassination mission during the Vietnam War into a landmark examination of the madness of war itself. Indeed, unexpected diversion is further explored in the haunting Swedish sci-fi film Aniara (Wed 15 July, 18.20), in which a spacecraft carrying refugees from Earth is knocked off its path.
The impact of the hero’s journey on intimate relationships is explored, with parallels to Odysseus, his son Telemachus and his wife Penelope being drawn in the next section of the season. Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas (Sat 18 July, 15.30) presents a career-defining performance from Harry Dean Stanton as a man who attempts to reunite his family after a prolonged absence in this modern odyssey of loss and redemption. Andrey Zvyagintsev’s acclaimed drama The Return (Sun 19 July, 15.45) expands on these themes from the perspective of children who’s father reappears after abandoning them. Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s romantic epic A Very Long Engagement (Mon 20 July, 18.00) sees him reunite with Audrey Tautou after the global success of Amélie, in this story of a woman who refuses to give up on her husband’s return from war, even when it seems that all hope is gone.
The final week of the season focuses on what awaits after the journey ends. William Wyler’s classic post-war drama The Best Years of Our Lives (Sat 25 July, 15.00) like Homer’s epic, begins with World War II already over. The film notably offered something much more honest and accurate in its focus on the psychological challenges faced by returning veterans, setting the template for many of the films that followed. Michael Cimino’s highly-acclaimed The Deer Hunter (Sun 26 July, 16.15) traces the devastating impact of the Vietnam War on a close-knit group of friends. The season concludes with John Ford’s masterpiece The Searchers (Wed 29 July, 18.00), a defining American epic often celebrated as one of the best films of all time, that questions whether those shaped by wartime experiences can ever truly find their way home.
This carefully curated season of films offers a multi-faceted journey through the historic cultural influence of Homer’s incredibly rich work, from its portrayal of a weary traveller’s desire for home and family to the impact of violence on the psyche of a soldier wishing for home. From Christopher Nolan’s direct adaptation to its countless retellings, all of these films stand as testament to the legacy of a writer about whom little is known, but whose work has endured across thousands of years to become part of the DNA of storytelling.
SEASON SCHEDULE The Bigger Picture: Nostos: The Return – Wed, July 1st (18.30) O Brother, Where Art Thou? – Sun, July 5th (16.10) Two-Lane Blacktop – Tue, July 7th (18.30) Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes) – Sat, July 11th (16.00) Apocalypse Now: The Final Cut – Sun, July 12th (15.00) Aniara – Wed, July 15th (18.20) Paris, Texas – Sat, July 18th (15.30) The Return (Vozvrashcheniye) – Sun, July 19th (15.45) A Very Long Engagement (Un long dimanche de fiançailles) – Mon, July 20th (18.00) The Best Years of Our Lives – Sat, July 25th (15.00) The Deer Hunter – Sun, July 26th (16.15) The Searchers – Wed, July 29th (18.00)
FILM NOTES Season notes by Kevin Coyne.
THE BIGGER PICTURE NOSTOS: THE RETURN FRANCO PIAVOLI JULY 1ST (18.30) 85 mins, Italy, 1989, Digital, Subtitled.
Franco Piavoli’s lyrical retelling of Homer largely dispenses with dialogue in favour of visual storytelling. Its emphasis is on Odysseus’s struggle with his memory, from the childhood memories and recollections of love that were formative to the experiences of war that are now part of him too. As he tries to hold on to who he is rather than submitting to his recent traumas, the film is less a recounting of the poem’s events than a philosophical depiction of its hero’s longing for a place called ‘home’. The screening will be introduced by Helen Meany, Festival Director of Classics Now.
O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? JOEL COEN, ETHAN COEN JULY 5TH (16.10) 107 mins, UK-France-USA, 2000, Digital. IFCO 12A.
Taking its title from Preston Sturges’s comedy Sullivan’s Travels (1941), in which a director takes to the road in Depression-era America, O Brother, Where Art Thou? sees the Coen Brothers put their own slant on Homer. Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney) escapes from prison with fellow convicts Pete (John Turturro) and Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson) on the pretext of finding buried treasure, but McGill’s aim is really to stop his wife Penny (Holly Hunter) remarrying. As the trio encounter obstacles including sirens and a cyclops (John Goodman), the Homeric influence is clear in one of the Coens’ most entertaining comedies.
TWO-LANE BLACKTOP MONTE HELLMAN JULY 7TH (18.30) 102 mins, USA, 1971. Digital.
Monte Hellman’s Two-Lane Blacktop has more in common with Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper, 1969) in its examination of the America in which its vaguely melancholic and alienated anti-heroes roam, their destination far less important than the journey. In contrast to Odysseus’s heroic, purposeful wanderings, The Driver (James Taylor) and The Mechanic (Dennis Wilson) tour America aimlessly, supporting themselves by racing random hotshots. Tensions arise when the two vie for the attentions of a hitchhiker (Laurie Bird) and are challenged by G.T.O. (Warren Oates). Hellman’s film is a unique vision of the road as a way of life.
AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD (AGUIRRE, DER ZORN GOTTES) WERNER HERZOG JULY 11TH (16.00) 95 mins, West Germany, 1972, Digital, Subtitled.
While Odysseus is motivated by his desire for home, Aguirre, as portrayed unforgettably by Klaus Kinski, is spurred on his voyage by dreams of wealth and conquest. Kinski plays the titular conquistador whose search for El Dorado, the legendary city of gold, brings him instead into the heart of madness. Travelling deeper into Peru, Aguirre and his band, including his daughter Flores (Cecilia Rivera), face obstacles including treacherous river currents, the indigenous people, and their own internecine conflicts that lead Aguirre to mutiny rather than retreat, resulting in a fate depicted in an astonishing final scene.
APOCALYPSE NOW: THE FINAL CUT FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA JULY 12TH (15.00) 183 mins, USA, 1979, Digital. IFCO 16.
Despite one of the most chaotic productions in film history, one that could qualify as an odyssey of its own as depicted in Eleanor Coppola’s documentary Hearts Of Darkness, Francis Ford Coppola’s monomaniacal excesses resulted in one of American cinema’s towering achievements. Updating a Joseph Conrad novella to the Vietnam War, it follows Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) on a mission into the jungle to assassinate the rogue Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando). The increasing psychological darkness of Willard’s purpose and environment offers Coppola space to reflect on the price paid by warriors for the lives they lead.
ANIARA PELLA KÅGERMAN, HUGO LILJA JULY 15TH (18.20) 106 mins, Sweden, 2018, Digital, Subtitled. IFCO 18.
Adapted from Swedish Nobel laureate Harry Martinson’s epic poem, first published in 1956, Aniara sees a ship searching for home knocked off course, just as Odysseus was. However, unlike their fellow voyager, the souls aboard the titular spaceship, abandoning a ruined Earth for life on Mars, are diverted without chance of return towards a cold, unforgiving universe after the ship is damaged. With even the onboard artificial intelligence succumbing to despair as the years pass, Aniara is a mesmerising, sometimes chilling depiction of a society coming apart at the seams when all hope of ‘home’ is taken away.
PARIS, TEXAS WIM WENDERS JULY 18TH (15.30) 145 mins, West Germany-France-UK, 1984, Digital. IFCO 16
Travis Henderson (Harry Dean Stanton) emerges from the desert and is reunited with the son he had left behind four years earlier. The boy has been in the care of Travis’s brother (Dean Stockwell) since his disappearance and the subsequent abandonment of the boy by mother Jane (Nastassja Kinski). Travis’s attempts to reunite his family after a prolonged absence force him to face the consequences of his actions. Although the film is largely indebted to the mythology of the Western, Travis’s quest for home and family, while rooted firmly in the contemporary era, also places him in the Odyssean tradition.
THE RETURN (Возвращение / VOZVRASHCHENIYE) ANDREY ZVYAGINTSEV JULY 19TH (15.45) 105 mins, Russia, 2003, Digital, Subtitled. IFCO 12A
Like Paris, Texas, The Return deals with the consequences of the sudden reappearance of a father, this time taking the perspective of the abandoned children. To fifteen-year-old Andrey (Vladimir Garin) and his younger brother Ivan (Ivan Dobronravov), their father (Konstantin Lavronenko) is a mythic figure known only through the stories of others. He brings the children on a fishing trip to a remote island, but while Andrey delights in the reunion, Ivan remains wary of their father’s awkward and combative attempts at connection. As the man’s disciplinarian tendencies come to the fore, a rift forms between the brothers.
A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT (UN LONG DIMANCHE DE FIANÇAILLES) JEAN-PIERRE JEUNET JULY 20TH (18.00) 133 minutes. France-USA, 2004, Subtitled, Digital.
Following the global success of Amélie, director Jean-Pierre Jeunet and star Audrey Tautou reunited for this story of a woman who, like Penelope, refuses to give up on her husband’s return from war, even when it seems that all hope is gone. Mathilde (Tautou) is notified that husband Manech (Gaspard Ulliel) has been killed in the trenches of World War I. With the help of private detective Ticky Holgado (Germain Pire), she sets out to prove the French military wrong and to be reunited with her husband in this gorgeously-told story.
THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES WILLIAM WYLER JULY 25TH (15.00) 172 mins, USA, 1946, Digital, Black & White.
While previous war films had largely tended to treat coming home from battle as a triumphant coda, William Wyler’s The Best Years Of Our Lives, like Homer’s epic, begins with the war already over and offers something recognisably much more honest and accurate that set the template for much that followed. Fred (Dana Andrews), from the wrong side of the tracks, struggles with PTSD and an unsympathetic wife. Al (Fredric March), a bank executive, turns to alcohol. Homer (Harold Russell), a star high school athlete with a girl waiting at home, comes back with hooks where once he had hands.
THE DEER HUNTER MICHAEL CIMINO JULY 26TH (16.15) 184 mins. UK-USA, 1978. Digital. IFCO 18.
While The Best Years Of Our Lives focuses on its characters’ return from a war considered just, The Deer Hunter follows three friends before, during, and after their experiences in an unpopular war. The tripartite structure begins with Steven’s (John Savage) wedding shortly before he, Nick (Christopher Walken), and Michael (Robert De Niro) ship out to Vietnam. The next section finds the three held as prisoners of war, forced to play Russian Roulette for the amusement of their captors before escaping. Finally, now home, Michael tracks down his fellow veterans and discovers the terrible aftermath of their time at war.
THE SEARCHERS JOHN FORD JULY 29TH (18.00) 119 mins. USA, 1956, Digital. IFCO PG.
John Ford’s Western offers a bleak assessment of the possibility of ever truly returning home following wartime experiences. After years of fighting, Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) arrives at his brother’s farm ready for peace. When Comanches attack and kill his brother and family, Edwards takes up arms again and sets off in pursuit of his kidnapped nieces. After years of searching, he finds his surviving niece, who initially refuses to be rescued. Edwards persists and returns her home, but finds there is no place for him there in one of the most devastating and iconic closing images in cinema history.
NOW BOOKING Book now for cinema screenings via https://ifi.ie/odysseys/ or via IFI Box Office in-person or over the phone via 01 679 5744. Season bundles are available for IFI Members only:
These packages can only be booked by IFI Members in-person or by calling the IFI Box Office on 01 679 5744. See https://ifi.ie/support for full details on IFI Membership and to sign up.
The films in this season are available for 25 & Under cardholder pricing. Sign-up is free for the 25 & Under card for those aged 16-25. See https://ifi.ie/25under for full details.
SUPPORT The IFI acknowledges the support of the Arts Council.
About the IFI The Irish Film Institute (IFI) is Ireland’s national cultural institution for film. It provides audiences throughout Ireland with access to the finest independent, Irish and international cinema, including online via its streaming platform IFI@Home; it preserves and promotes Ireland’s moving image heritage through the IFI Irish Film Archive, and provides opportunities for audiences of all ages and backgrounds to learn and critically engage with film. As the only cinema with a 70mm projector, the IFI is the home of film in Ireland with a commitment to analogue exhibition.
ENDS.
For further media information please contact: Sorcha FitzGerald, IFI Marketing & Publicity Manager +353 1 612 9429
ARCHIVE AT LUNCHTIME: LET’S DANCE! (PROGRAMME 1) 13.00
BACKROOMS 15.40
BOOGIE NIGHTS (4K RESTORATION) 20.05
DISCLOSURE DAY (70mm) 14.00, 17.10, 20.20
OBSESSION 15.30
PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE (4K RE-RELEASE) 13.00
POWER BALLAD 18.00
SPIELBERG SCI-FI: A.I. ARTIFICAL INTELLIGENCE 20.10
STRICTLY BALLROOM (4K RESTORATION) 18.00
THE MISFITS (4K RESTORATION) 12.50
The IFI is supported by The Arts Council
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