IN a year which saw Ireland's foremost director produce the most significant film of his career to date, it may seem perverse to choose two first-time films made for buttons as the most exciting experiences of 1996, but the confidence and skill of Enda Hughes's The Eliminator and John Carney and Tom Hall's November Afternoon were a breath of fresh air.
In recent years, very low budgets have become fetishised as a badge of "authenticity" and exploited as a marketing tool, so it may seem invidious to parcel these two together, as they have little in common apart from the circumstances of their making. But both films also share an understanding of, and engagement, with 1990s popular culture that has eluded many of the more mainstream Irish-themed productions.
The Eliminator is a real breakthrough - raw, full of wit and energy, at times shambolic, it's the first real trash movie to come out of this country. Hughes would probably deny any direct political intent in his movie, but the fact that The Eliminator is shot and set in Northern Ireland places it in a tradition of Northern refusenik youth culture that stretches back at least as far as the punk movement of the late 1970s - a link made explicit by the well- judged use of Stiff Little Fingers' Alternative Ulster over the hilarious closing scene.
A domestic melodrama set over a weekend in Dublin November Afternoon's storyline is less important than the fluidity and style achieved by Hall and Carney. The influence of American, dialogue-driven independent movies is apparent, and the film also recalls the psychological dramas made 20 years ago by the late Kieran Hickey - a kind of film-making that we haven't seen much of since.
While many Irish films demonstrate an awkwardness with the rhythms of contemporary vernacular speech, the performances in November Afternoon have a loose, natural style that recalls the work of John Cassavetes. The film-makers received some financial support from the Film Board for post-production costs, and spent it well Carney's jazzy score acts as a suitably ironic counterpoint throughout.
Neither of these films is likely to be coming to your local multiplex soon, but The Eliminator will probably get a limited national release in early 1997, and November Afternoon will be shown at the Dublin Film Festival in March. Anyone interested in the future potential of Irish cinema should try their darndest to see them.
