Irish Film Institute -IFI & ADAPTATION: THE LONELY PASSION OF JUDITH HEARNE

IFI & ADAPTATION: THE LONELY PASSION OF JUDITH HEARNE

Director: Jack Clayton

116 mins, Ireland, 1987, Digital


In a Dublin boarding house, refined gentlewoman (Maggie Smith) catches the eye of vulgarian James Madden (Bob Hoskins). His plans for her to fund his business venture are dashed when he discovers she is a piano teacher of modest means. She works hard to conceal her feelings from their fellow residents but her loneliness and yearning for love are revealed through every gesture.

A fine line-up of 1980s actors – Hoskins, Alan Devlin, Marie Kean and a young Aiden Gillen are led by Maggie Smith in a remarkable portrait of quiet despair. The story is relocated from the claustrophobia of Belfast (where Brian Moore’s novel was originally set) to Dublin but loses none of the sense of repression informed by the morés of the Catholic Church of 1950s Ireland.

Presented in collaboration with the Leitrim Adaptation Festival: Celebrating Brian Moore.

Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn

Book Tickets

Tuesday 6th

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