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Director
Thaddeus O'Sullivan
Credits
Producers: David Collins, Sally Hope. Writers: Sean O'Faoláin, Andrew Pattman
Principal Cast
Bob Hoskins, Brenda Fricker
Category
Short
A pivotal film for O’Sullivan, Clark Gable was his first credit as the director of a screen drama. Based on a script by Andrew Pattman, adapted from a short story by Sean O’Faolain, it is set in Dublin and it tells of domestic union between a Catholic woman (Brenda Fricker) and a Methodist Englishman(Bob Hoskins) that has gone stale. It is temporarily revived through her screen-infatuation with Clark Gable, from the film San Francisco (1938) that the couple see at their local cinema. Lovingly shot on location in black-and-white 35mm, the film’s central conceit is to explore the power of the Church and of cinema, a theme picked up again in Stella Days (2012). The stark contrasts of monochrome imply the clear-cut moral dimension imposed on social behaviour and gender roles, and the cultural aesthetic enshrined in Ireland’s 1937 Constitution. The dilemma at the heart of the film is the woman’s childless marriage. Her underlying compulsion to try to convert her husband from his dissenting faith is transferred, albeit temporarily, to her Hollywood obsession. There is a wry humour and a lightness of touch to the direction that fully deserved its BAFTA nomination.
Notes by Lance Pettitt.
29 minutes, Ireland, 1985, B&W
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI: TASTE OF CHERRY 18.00
ALL YOU NEED IS DEATH 13:10, 18:30
ARCHIVE AT LUNCHTIME: SPRING FORWARD (DOUBLE BILL) 12.50
BALTIMORE 16:20
IFI & ONE DUBLIN ONE BOOK: EDUCATING RITA 15.30
IFI TALKS: KIAROSTAMI PANEL DISCUSSION 14.00
IO CAPITANO 13:40
JEANNE DU BARRY 15:40, 18:10
PERFECT DAYS 11:00, 20:40
THE TEACHERS’ LOUNGE 11:00, 20:20
THE ZONE OF INTEREST 20:50
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