Irish Film Institute -International Film Directory – Film Listing

The Ballroom of Romance

    • Director

      Pat O'Connor

    • Credits

      Producer: Kenith Trodd. Writers: Pat O'Connor, William Trevor

  • Category

    Feature
    Literature

This perfectly rendered naturalist feature, adapted from writer William Trevor’s short story The Ballroom of Romance, explores the deadening atmosphere of 1950s Ireland through the figure of the unmarried Bridie (Brenda Fricker).  “Spinster” Bridie goes to the country ballroom, where as a young woman she danced and dreamed of a happy marriage, to desperately try one last time to find a husband. Respectable men prove to be thin on the ground and loneliness threatens to drive Bridie into the arms of drunken, foolish Bowser Egan (John Kavanagh). Trevor supplied the script for this adaptation himself, with Pat O’Connor crafting it into a courageous look into the paralysed heart of rural Ireland.

Awards:
Best Single Drama Award at the 36th BAFTA Awards 1983.

65 minutes, Ireland, 1982, Colour


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