LAST night, at the end of 10 hectic, heady days which took us around the world through the cinematic images of 50 countries, the ACCBank 11th Dublin Film Festival closed, leaving its horde of hardcore enthusiasts reeling out into the night exhausted but satiated. Despite some inevitable problems in exhibiting such a packed programme - late arrival of prints, late starting of films - the event was a considerable success in terms of organisation, variety and, crucially, content.
Many of the finest films in the festival - I think in particular of Le Confessional, Angel Baby, Nelly et M. Arnaud, The Celluloid Closet, Stonewall and Safe - have already been covered here from other festivals such as Cannes and Toronto and will be reviewed in more detail when they open, as will highlights such as Richard HI and Dead Man Walking. Unfortunately, many other films in the festival - such as Bombay, of which more shortly - are unlikely to be seen in this country again, in the cinema or on television or video.
Of the movies I saw in the festival's final days, the two most arresting productions were Bombay and The Hollow Reed. Director Angela Pope turns on the tension from the very beginning of The Hollow Reed and does not release it until the final scene of this harrowing and moving contemporary drama. Pope's second cinema film after Captives, The Hollow Reed tackles a complex case: a doctor (Martin Donovan) has left his wife (Joely Richardson) for another man (Ian Hart), and he learns that his wife's new lover (Jason Flemyng) is physically abusing their young son (Sam Bould).
The Hollow Reed evokes both in theme and approach Aline Isserman's sensitive French film, Shadow Of Doubt (shown at the festival a few years ago). in which a man was sexually abusing his own daughter with the mother's silent complicity. The further complication of The Hollow Reed is the prejudice which could easily prevent a gay couple winning a custody battle for the abused boy. Paula Milne's screenplay was inspired by a real life gay custody case.
The road to resolution is difficult but ultimately convincingly negotiated in this riveting drama which precisely catches the silent fear of the helpless young victim and the sly cunning used by the abuser to excuse himself. The drama is acted out by an exemplary cast, with Martin Donovan, a regular actor in Hal Hartley's films, deftly disguising his American accent, and young Sam Bould (the son of Chris Bould, director of another festival entry, My Friend, Joe) remarkably expressive as the boy. And Joely Richardson's performance survives the distraction of her striking resemblance to the Princess of Wales.
The fate of innocent young twin boys caught up in the tumult of the sectarian rights that caused hundreds of deaths in Bombay in late 1992 and early 1993 provides some of the most emotional moments in Mani Ratnam's powerful melodrama, Bombay. The first half of the movie is traditional all singing, all dancing Indian cinema replete with swooning romanticism as a Hindu journalism student falls head over heels for a young Muslim woman. They defy their parents, marry and move to the city where Ratnam smoothly shifts the mood and tone of the film as the riots break out and Bombay burns. Director Ratnam expertly orchestrates the action amidst this chaos and confusion and his film, a passionate plea for tolerance, is accompanied by a terrific score heightened by sound effects and driving percussion.
Nominated for a best foreign language film Oscar this year, the Dutch film Antonia's Line is an elegiac picture of the eponymous Antonia's life, told in flashback from her deathbed and spanning half a century from the aftermath of the second World War to the present as the staunchly independent Antonia returns to the village where she was born and becomes a mother, grandmother and great grand mother. She is surrounded by an assortment of characters in this glowingly lit film which is untypically mellow and less anti male than usual for its director, Marleen Gorris.
The American director Steven Soderbergh reunites with Peter Gallagher, the star of his first film, sex, lies & videotape, for The Underneath, a contemporary remake of Robert Siodmak's 1949 film noir, Criss Cross. Cutting in and out of three different time frames, Soderbergh's version features Gallagher in the Burt Lancaster role, as a habitual gambler plotting a heist. Visually striking and quite engrossing, the film also features Elisabeth Shue, Paul Dooley, Anjanette Comer, and resembling a younger Christopher Walken in both looks and acting style, the impressive William Fichtner.
The festival closed last night with the world premiere of a new Irish film, The Boy From Mercury, the first feature written and directed by former film editor Martin Duffy. Set in Dublin in 1960, it features the engaging young James Hickey as the eight year old Harry, whose fantastic imagination leads him to believe he's an extra terrestrial from Mercury. As his high coiffed older brother, Hugh O'Conor steals the movie so regularly that we miss him when he is off screen. Rita Tushingham and Tom Courtenay also feature in this appealing and lovingly made movie, although its narrative may prove too slender to engage adults as much as children.
The Boy From Mercury was preceded by another Irish debut, The Condom, with which the Dublin festival's programme director, Martin Mahon, turns film director. Described by him as "a hygiene and morality tale for the Nineties", this is a witty, well sustained vignette involving a young man and woman who have just met; any hope of sexual activity is thwarted by the male's various problems with condoms. Martin Mahon's admiration for Woody Allen is evident throughout the film.
David McLoughlin, who has been involved with the festival since its inception and its manager for the past five years, donned his producer's hat earlier in the week with the screening of Fishing The Sloe Black Riven. The bad news last night was that he has resigned from the festival. His gift for organising, his unflappability under the heaviest of pressure and his consistent good humour will make him very difficult indeed to replace.
