Aubrey Malone
Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Pansy in Hard Truths How important is art in films? Are we living in a world where money rules OK and everything else gets squashed into the background?
One of the first films I saw when I came to Dublin was Vittorio De Sica’s earthy Bicycle Thieves, a ‘cinema verité’ story of a man and his son living on the streets of Italy. It was a culture shock to me, a total antithesis of the Hollywood films I’d been weaned on since childhood.
I was living in Phibsboro at the time and saw it in my ‘local’, The State cinema, which featured many avant garde European films from the likes of De Sica, Fellini and Antonioni. It was later turned into an ice rink, which seemed to say it all for me about people’s priorities.
Mahdi Fleifel’s To a Land Unknown (15A), currently on release, has been compared to Bicycle Thieves, and also to Midnight Cowboy, another counter-cultural work. It was the first X-rated film to win an Oscar.
The first fictional feature from Fleifel, To a Land Unknown is the story of two Palestinian refugees whose efforts to pony up the cost of (fake) passports to get them out of Athens are derailed when one of them succumbs to drug addiction. They then resort to crime to raise the proceeds.
Fleifel uses De Sica’s minimalist directorial style to tell his tale. Sadly, it hasn’t been deemed a contender for the Best Foreign Film at the Oscar ceremonies this year. I was also surprised to see Edward Berger not being nominated for Conclave, though Ralph Fiennes is in with a shout as Best Actor for this.
Marianne Jean-Baptiste, who was so electrifying in Hard Truths, has also been left out of the running for Best Actress, as has Saoirse Ronan, who was widely tipped to be nominated for The Outrun. Ronan also missed out on a nomination in the Best Supporting Actress category for Steve McQueen’s World War II feature, Blitz. Angelina Jolie is another shock omission for her controversial turn as Maria Callas in Maria.
Nobody knows why the Academy makes its decisions. It has also bypassed Kneecap so Irish hopes at the event – which was due to be held this month but has been postponed due to the L.A. fires – rest on two nominations for The Apprentice (which was produced by our company Tailored Films) – Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong.
One cinematic event which has never compromised its artistic ambitions is the Dublin International Film Festival. It takes place this year from February 20 to March 2, opening with another Ralph Fiennes film, Uberto Pasolini’s The Return, based on the final sections of Homer’s Odyssey.
The most talked-about film of the festival is Jonathan Kent’s alchemised adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s Pulitzer-Prize winning scorching family drama Long Day’s Journey Into Night, starring Jessica Lange and Ed Harris, both of whom are expected to be in attendance. Hollywood royalty.