NOVEMBER AT THE IFI
IFI NEW RELEASES, DOCS & CLASSICS
ANORA FROM FRI 1ST
GILDA 4K FROM FRI 1ST
SMALL THINGS
LIKE THESE FROM FRI 1ST
BIRD FROM FRI 8TH
BLITZ FROM FRI 8TH
NO OTHER LAND FROM FRI 8TH
SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D’ETAT FROM FRI 15TH
HOUSEWIFE OF THE YEAR FROM FRI 22ND
ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT FROM
CONCLAVE FROM
C CINEMA ONLY H IFI@HOME ONLY & CINEMA & IFI@HOME
CONTENTS
IFI SPECIAL EVENTS PAGE 4
IFI NEW RELEASES, DOCS & CLASSICS PAGE 12
IFI ARCHIVE / IFI@HOME PAGE 18
Open Captioned screening
Audio Described screenings available on selected titles, ask at Box Office for details
BOOKING FEES
Online and telephone bookings are subject to a booking fee of €1.00 per transaction. There are no booking fees on any ticket purchase made in person at the IFI Box Office.
POINTS
Members and Loyalty Card holders accrue points which can be exchanged for complimentary tickets.
For bookings and film information, please see our website, www.ifi.ie, or contact the IFI Box Office on 01-6793477 (open 12.30 to 21.00 daily) or at 6 Eustace Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2.
ADMISSION PRICES* Standard Price (Concession Price) *regular IFI screenings, excluding special events ** plus €1.50 Daily Membership Fee
Screening Pricing:
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The F-rating is a classification reserved for any film which is directed and/or written by a woman.
Films not classified by IFCO, including festival, one-off, and special screenings, are exhibited under Club rules and are restricted to persons 18 years and over. If you are not an IFI member, a daily membership (€1.50) is required for unclassified films, and this will be added to your transaction.
The exclusivity of films is correct at the time of print. All films exclusive to the IFI are kindly supported by the Arts Council.
SEASONS & EVENTS AT A GLANCE
Songs of Blood and Destiny
IFI SPECIAL EVENTS NOVEMBER 2024
ARCHIVE AT LUNCHTIME
FRENCH CONNECTIONS
Join us for FREE lunchtime screenings of films from the IFI Irish Film Archive. Simply collect your tickets online (with a small booking fee) or at IFI Box Office.
Whetting appetites for the IFI French Film Festival, we present some French perspectives on Ireland.
PROGRAMME ONE TRIBULATIONS IRLANDAISES
This French newsreel presents a whirlwind tour of 1960s Ireland.
5 mins, France, 1965, Digital, Black & White LE RÊVE CELTIQUE
Made by Frédérick Rossif for French television, Le Rêve Celtique presents Ireland as a country of mystical landscapes, inspiring generations of traditional Irish musicians.
25 mins, France, 1978, Digital PROGRAMME TWO STREETS OF BELFAST – 1897
The first films made on the streets of Belfast produced by the film pioneers Les frères Lumière.
3 mins, France, 1897, Digital, Black & White
81
Filming one hundred years after les frères Lumière, director Stephen Burke imagines a French film crew visiting Belfast to cover events surrounding the Hunger Strikes in 1981, interviewing Catholic and Protestant families living within feet of each other and similar in every way but in their politics.
28 mins, Ireland, 1997, Digital
IFI & DUBLIN BOOK FESTIVAL 2024
I AM BELFAST
MARK COUSINS
THUR 7TH (20.30)
Part documentary, part reverie, I Am Belfast is Mark Cousins’s film exploration of the city he calls home. Incorporating contemporary dream-like sequences, archival film, and a haunting score by David Holmes, the film portrays the city in an ethereal light not usually associated with Belfast. No stranger to the documentary essay form, Cousins wanted to present the city in a way it hadn’t been seen before. He has created an unashamedly abstract and visually beautiful tapestry, but one which is politically engaged, where Belfast is embodied as a 10,000-year-old woman who has witnessed the Troubles but whose streets are now enlivened by the voices of the garrulous inhabitants.
This screening will be introduced by Mark Cousins.
In partnership with Dublin Book Festival, Mark Cousins in conversation with Grainne Humphreys to discuss his book Dear Orson Welles & Other Essays. Tickets available on their website.
84 mins, 2016, UK, Digital Notes by Sunniva O Flynn Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn
CLAUDE BARRAS
BO BURNHAM
25TH (18.00) SUN 24TH (11.00)
From Claude Barras, the director of the memorable, award-winning stop motion Ma Vie de Courgette, comes this gorgeous environmental-themed fable, set in the rain forest of Borneo, a lush, fertile land, where nature and the life of the indigenous Penan people are under threat. When 11-year-old Keria rescues an abandoned baby orangutan, she is spurred to save the animal and campaign against the destruction of the forest, along with her forestry worker dad and her cousin, Selaï, who has sought refuge in their home.
With a simple dialogue, exquisite set, and models, Barras’s film focuses on conveying its message without being heavy handed, creating a hugely enjoyable film with an essential theme.
To facilitate younger audiences, the screening on Sunday 24th will have a subtitles reader.
After the screening, join us in the IFI Foyer for a fun environmental-themed craft workshop.
IFI Age Recommendation: 8+
Pimples, sweat, and excruciating YouTube videos, Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade is a depiction of an entire generation’s agonising early adolescence. Following thirteen-year-old Kayla (Elsie Fisher) in her final week of middle school, we navigate through the politics of social media, the pain of conversing with the cutest boy at school, and the embarrassment of having parents. Join the IFI Youth Panel for the bittersweet realism and painful comedy of Eighth Grade!
The IFI Youth Panel is formed of 22 & Under cardholders. The 22 & Under card offers those aged between 16 – 22 €5.00 cinema tickets. Find out more www.ifi.ie/22under
FROM THE VAULTS
SONGS OF BLOOD AND DESTINY
TRISH MCADAM
TUES 26TH (18.30)
Infused with Beckettian humour and honesty, an acclaimed playwright casts a cold eye on Homo Sapiens - past, present and future – and considers humankind’s collective bequest to the universe in the light of our likely future extinction. Evoking imagined inner voices of giants of the narrative form - Antigone, Joan of Arc, Oedipus, and the last of the Neanderthals - the film is a playful intellectual feast. Using live footage, animation, and music to create a cinematic immersion, the film pulsates with vivid performances from doyens Eileen Walsh, Brian Gleeson, Cathy Belton, and Brian Quinn, and from newcomers Holly Sturton and Ella Lily Hyland.
Marina Carr’s epic poem iGirl has been reimagined into this genre-defying feature film by veteran filmmaker and artist Trish McAdam.
Followed by a Conversation with Trish McAdam and Marina Carr, hosted by Alice Butler (aemi) .
KIERAN HICKEY EXPOSURE
WED 27TH (18.30)
Exposure is a courageous assault on the smothering cultural conservatism prevalent in Ireland in the 1980s. Three ordinance surveyors – married men Dan (T.P. McKenna) and Eugene (Bosco Hogan), and bachelor Oliver (Niall O’Brien) – are stationed at a remote west of Ireland hotel on a work assignment. Spending the weekend drinking and untethered from domestic obligation, the trio’s seeming equilibrium is shaken by the arrival of enigmatic French divorcée Caroline (Catherine Schell), a photographer, whose presence exposes the men’s often immature, stunted attitudes towards women and adult relationships.
Writer Philip Davison will be joined by IFI French Film Festival curator Marie-Pierre Richard to consider the European sensibility of Kieran Hickey’s work and the exploration for the first time in Irish cinema of sexuality, infidelity, and middle-class angst.
See also IFI French Film Festival on pg. 10.
98 mins, Ireland, 2023, Digital Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn
48 mins, Ireland, 1981, Digital Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn
WILD STRAWBERRIES
THE BIG HEAT
FRITZ LANG
WED 27TH & FRI 29TH (11.00)
To mark 100 years of legendary Hollywood Studio, Columbia Pictures, Sony have reissued some of their classic collection including this masterful film noir from Fritz Lang, starring Glenn Ford and Gloria Grahame. Ford plays straight cop Bannion, fed up with the gangsters’ hold on the town and the police in their pay. Despite brutal and violent warnings to ease off his investigation, he perseveres, getting embroiled in the seedy underworld of Vince Stone (a surly Lee Marvin) and boss Lagana.
Adapted from a serial-turned-novel by William P. McGivern, Lang maintains tension throughout, unafraid to show the tragic results of Bannion’s pursuit of justice. Grahame is memorable, her performance veering from playful to vengeful, making plain too the society’s misogyny. Chosen for the Library of Congress Collection, despite its atmosphere of unease it’s a gripping thriller and fine example of noir.
MYSTERY MATINEE
MYSTERY MATINEE
SUN, DEC 1ST (13.00)
Join us for our next screening at 13.00 on Sunday, December 1st. The film chosen could be anything from throughout the history of cinema, from a silent classic to a preview of a hotly anticipated upcoming release.
Whether it’s a title that one might expect to see at the IFI, or a film more at home in the multiplexes, the secret, closely guarded even from IFI staff, will be kept until the title appears onscreen. Expect the unexpected and take a chance, with tickets costing just €6.50 for IFI Members, and €7.00 for non-members.
A full list of previous screenings is available from www.ifi.ie/mystery-matinee-archive
89 mins, USA, 1953, Digital, Black & White Notes by Alicia McGivern
COMING TO THE IFI THIS DECEMBER
As we prepare to bid farewell to 2024, it’s time to take stock of the year in Irish cinema, with reprise screenings of some of the year’s best. Kinopolis, the IFI’s annual celebration of new Polish cinema, returns from Thursday, December 5th to Sunday, December 8th with what is, at the time of writing, shaping up to be one of its strongest editions, featuring a number of Irish premieres of a selection of the strongest titles to emerge from one of the powerhouses of European cinema over the last twelve months. In what is now a firmly established IFI tradition, James Stewart and Donna Reed will once again grace our screens in It’s A Wonderful Life, warming even the coldest of hearts in the Christmas season. The month will also feature the best new releases, a Bigger Picture screening of Paul Schrader’s Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, and a rare December outing for our Mystery Matinee.
Notes by Kevin Coyne.
IFI FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL
WED 13TH – SUN 24TH
The IFI French Film Festival returns from Wednesday, November 13th to Sunday, November 24th, once again bringing the very best of new French cinema to IFI audiences. Renowned director Stéphane Brizé will present his new romantic drama, Out of Season, with an audience Q&A, and will delve into his career in an In Conversation event hosted by Paul Whittington. Highlights in the programme include Being Maria, which explores Maria Schneider’s experience making Bertolucci’s controversial Last Tango in Paris with Marlon Brando (played here by Matt Dillon); the thrilling and surprising The Successor, from Xavier Legrand, director of Custody ; and the topical and deeply moving Souleymane’s Story. Keep an eye out too for the restored Agnès Varda shorts that will screen before several features throughout the festival!
Notes by David O'Mahony
Les Entrées
Bisque de crevettes
Prawn Bisque Soup
Bruschetta accompagnée de mortadelle, oignons caramélisés, fromage de chèvre, chou kale croustillant et réduction de balsamique
Bruschetta with Mortadella, Caramelised Onion, Goats Cheese, Crispy
Kale and a Balsamic Reduction
Moules marinières accompagnées d’une sauce à la crème, à l’ail et au persil
Moules marinière with Cream, Garlic and Parsley
Les Plats Principaux
Magret de canard avec purée de carottes et d’orange, haricots verts, accompagné de sa sauce au vin rouge
Magret De Canard with a Carrot Orange Puree, French Beans and a Red Wine Jus
Bœuf bourguignon accompagné de purée de pommes de terre onctueuse
Beef Bourguignon with Creamy Mash Potatoes
Steak de chou-fleur avec houmous, chimichurri et pignons de pin
Cauliflower Steak with Hummus, Chimichurri and Pinenuts
Les Desserts
Chocolat noir avec figues au porto Dark Chocolate with Port Figs
Crème Brûlée
2 Plats €34.95 / 2 Courses €34.95
3 Plats €42.50 / 3 Courses €42.50
IFI NEW RELEASES DOCS & CLASSICS
GILDA 4K ANORA
SEAN BAKER
FROM FRI 1ST
Mikey Madison is a revelation as charismatic sex worker Anora in Sean Baker’s wildly entertaining, frenetically paced comedy. Ani, as she prefers to be called, meets Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), the son of a Russian oligarch, in a New York strip club when he requests a dancer who can speak Russian (she is of Uzbek descent); the young man is immediately smitten, asking her to be his girlfriend for a week of raucous, no-expense-spared partying, that culminates in an impromptu wedding in Las Vegas.
The honeymoon period comes to an abrupt end when Ivan’s father sends his harassed fixer, Toros (Karren Karagulian), and his henchmen to effect an annulment by whatever means necessary. When Ivan splits, a madcap chase across the city ensues with Baker ratcheting up the mayhem to near Safdie levels of nervous tension and hilarity.
There will be Open Captioned screenings at 13.00 on Monday 4th, and 20.20 on Wednesday 6th.
Join us at the IFI for the first night of Anora! We will be hosting a special screening to celebrate the opening of one of the hottest new movies of the year! Afterwards, join us for complimentary Coole Swan cocktails and over ice serves, thanks to our friends at Coole Swan.
CHARLES VIDOR
FROM FRI 1ST
Although Charles Vidor’s film noir made a superstar of Rita Hayworth, it was initially in Europe that the film received its greatest acclaim. Elements including its subtle interplay of gender roles and sexuality, its elegant subversion of films such as Michael Curtiz’s Casablanca (1942), and its lush style have since been given their due, and the film acknowledged as a classic, paid tribute in films as diverse as Notting Hill (Roger Michell, 1999) and Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001).
Johnny (Glenn Ford), a gambler less adept at cheating than he thinks, manages to inveigle a position as casino manager for Mundson (George Macready). There is an immediate antipathy between Johnny and Mundson’s wife Gilda (Hayworth) when they meet, though the two deny ever having met before. As the two are drawn into Mundson’s illicit activities, the complicated truth comes out.
110 mins, USA, 1946, 4K Digital, Black & White Notes by Kevin Coyne
139 mins, USA, 2024, Digital Notes by David O’Mahony
SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE
TIM MIELANTS
FROM FRI 1ST
An unassuming man in 1980s Ireland must grapple with his conscience in the face of an overwhelming moment of insight in Tim Mielants's supremely confident adaptation of Claire Keegan’s Booker Prize-nominated 2021 novella.
The setting is New Ross, Wexford, in the run up to Christmas, where coal merchant Bill Furlong (Cillian Murphy) is working hard to keep his clients supplied before a hard winter sets in; a quiet, introspective man, he has a tender relationship with his wife Eileen (Eileen Walsh), and is devoted to their five daughters. Early one morning, while making a delivery to the local convent, presided over by the imperious Sister Mary, the Mother Superior (Emily Watson), he makes a discovery that forces him to confront his past and the complicit silence of a town controlled by the Catholic Church.
There will be Open Captioned screenings at 18.20 on Tuesday 5th, and 16.20 on Thursday 7th.
BIRD
ANDREA ARNOLD
FROM FRI 8TH
Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank, American Honey) brings her trademark visual energy and uncanny ability to elicit stunning performances from young actors to this typically bustling coming-of-age story that sees the director introduce a touch of magic realism to her gritty aesthetic.
Twelve-year-old Bailey (Nykiya Adams) lives in a chaotic apartment in Kent with older brother Hunter, and impetuous dad Bug (Barry Keoghan), who is about to marry his pregnant girlfriend. Bailey has learned to look after herself and it is while alone one day in a meadow near a motorway that she meets Bird (Franz Rogowski), an enigmatic, charming drifter in search of his family home. A tentative friendship develops as the initially suspicious Bailey warms to Bird’s eccentricity and willingness to help with her home environment.
There will be Open Captioned screenings at 13.10 on Friday 8th, and 18.10 on Tuesday 12th.
96 mins, Ireland-Belgium-USA, 2024, Digital
119 mins, UK-USA-France-Germany, 2024, Digital
Notes by David O’Mahony
Notes by David O’Mahony
BLITZ
STEVE MCQUEEN
FROM FRI 8TH
As London is bombarded nightly by the German blitzkrieg during World War II, working-class single mother Rita (Saoirse Ronan), on the advice of her father, Gerald (Paul Weller), makes the heartbreaking decision to send her 9-year-old son George (Elliott Heffernan) to the countryside, along with hundreds of other children seeking safety from the deadly air raids. Shortly into his journey, however, George impulsively jumps from the train, determined to find his way back home to Stepney Green. Working on a vast scale, McQueen, whose multicultural depiction of London in the ‘40s is a welcome corrective, weaves his captivating tale from the parallel perspectives of George, whose quest is fraught with danger, and Rita, who must endure in a city under siege. His impeccable cast includes Stephen Graham, Harris Dickinson, and the great Kathy Burke.
There will be Open Captioned screenings at 18.15 on Monday 11th, and 15.30 on Wednesday 13th.
NO OTHER LAND
BASEL ADRA, HAMDEN BALLAL, RACHEL SZOR, YUVAL ABRAHAM
FROM FRI 8TH
Basel Adra, a Palestinian activist, films as his community of Masafer Yatta is gradually eradicated by the destruction and forced displacements of the Israeli occupation. Adra builds an unlikely alliance with Yuval, an Israeli journalist who reports on what his own government is doing to the West Bank communities. Substantially made before the Hamas attacks of October 2024, and Israel’s subsequent assault on Gaza, this extraordinary piece of reportage by a PalestinianIsraeli collective offers an insider view of a West Bank community resisting a programme of demolition by the Israeli army.
Winner of the Best Documentary prize and Audience award in the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama section, No Other Land is an urgent plea for empathy and understanding.
115 mins, UK-USA, 2024, Digital Notes by
95 mins, Occupied Palestinian Territory-Norway, 2024, Digital, Subtitled. Notes by David O’Mahony
David O’Mahony
SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D'ETAT
FROM FRI 15TH
Against the backdrop of the Cold War, the US State Department sends ‘jazz ambassadors’ Louis Armstrong, Nina Simone, and Duke Ellington to Congo, a newly independent, resource-rich African nation, to deflect attention from the CIA-backed coup that would lead to the assassination of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba. In the months that follow, drummer Max Roach leads Maya Angelou in a protest at the United Nations.
Belgian director Johan Grimonprez’s bravura cinematic essay, drawn from a wealth of archival footage, newsreels, testimonials, and newly uncovered home movies, won the Special Jury Award for Cinematic Innovation at the Sundance Film Festival.
HOUSEWIFE OF THE YEAR
FROM FRI 22ND
Between 1969 and 1995, women all over Ireland competed to win the Housewife of the Year, a competition celebrating “cookery, nurturing, and basic household management skills”. Broadcast on RTÉ from 1982, the programmes featured not just the competition itself but also footage of the contestants at home – creating a vivid, nationwide tapestry of ordinary lives.
Here, former contestants share our bewilderment at their acceptance of societal strictures and recount their experiences of marriage bars, contraception, Magdalene institutions, financial vulnerability, marital breakdown, and shame. The film is a poignant, often hilarious, and uplifting story of a generation of resilient women and a country in transition.
150 mins, France-Belgium, 2024, Digital, Subtitled Notes by David O‘Mahony
77 mins, Ireland, 2024, Digital Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn
JOHAN GRIMONPREZ
CIARAN CASSIDY
ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT
PAYAL KAPADIA
FROM FRI 29TH
A delicate ode to female friendship, Payal Kapadia’s narrative debut brilliantly captures the pace, colours, and atmosphere of life in modern Mumbai. Nurse Prabha’s routine is upset when she receives an unexpected gift from her estranged husband. Her younger, more rebellious roommate, Anu, tries in vain to find a spot in the city to be intimate with her secret boyfriend. Their colleague Parvaty fights to stay in her home without the requisite paperwork from her late husband. A trip to a beach town allows them each to find a space for their desires to manifest. All We Imagine as Light was the first Indian film to be selected in Official Competition at Cannes in three decades. Kapadia also made history as the first female Indian filmmaker to have a film in this prestigious section of the festival.
There will be Open Captioned screenings at 13.30 on Saturday 30th, and 18.10 on Monday, December 2nd.
CONCLAVE EDWARD BERGER
FROM FRI 29TH
When the Pope unexpectedly dies, Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes), Dean of the College of Cardinals, is tasked with presiding over the conclave, the time-honoured and highly secretive process for electing his successor. From all over the world prospective Cardinals descend upon the Vatican where they are sequestered in isolation from all outside interference. The contest will come down to a battle between the reactionary Cardinal Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto), the progressive Cardinal Bellini (Stanley Tucci), and the calculating Cardinal Tremblay (John Lithgow). Sister Agnes (Isabella Rossellini), a nun exhausted from a lifetime in service to an all-male power structure, casts a baleful eye from the sidelines. The stakes grow higher as rumours circulate, secrets emerge, and acts of sabotage are undertaken. Edward Berger’s enthralling adaptation of Robert Harris’s novel crackles with intrigue and suspense.
There will be Open Captioned screenings at 13.20 on Friday 29th, and 18.00 on Sunday, December 1st.
110
France-India-Netherlands-Italy, 2024, Digital,
120
mins, UK-USA, 2024, Digital Notes by David O Mahony
mins,
Subtitled. Notes by David O’Mahony
BENJAMIN GAULT COLLECTION
We celebrate an important international archival collaboration with the launch on the IFI Archive Player of The Benjamin Gault Collection.
Benjamin Gault, an American naturalist, visited Cork and Kerry in 1925 and 1926 to record on film Ireland’s coastal seabirds and other wildlife. He also captured the people of the Blasket Islands and Dunquin as they went about their daily lives, farming, church-going, and dancing in the streets. On his return home to the US, Gault filed the film away and it was left untouched until it was rediscovered in 2011 in a US archive following a search by Mícheál Ó Mainnín of Ballyferriter.
The nineteen film rolls were restored from 35mm nitrate in a collaboration between the IFI Irish Film Archive, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, and Chicago’s Academy of Sciences.
With exquisite musical accompaniment by Dingle natives Aoife Granville (fiddle, flute) and Deirdre Granville (harp).
IN RESTLESS DREAMS: THE MUSIC OF PAUL SIMON AGENT OF HAPPINESS
ARUN BHATTARAI, DOROTTYA ZURBÓ
STREAMING FROM WED 30TH
In Restless Dreams is the definitive musical biography of Paul Simon, one of the greatest songwriters in the history of rock ‘n roll. Director Alex Gibney, granted unprecedented access, juxtaposes the process of the making of Simon’s new album against archival material tracing the artist’s career and creative journey, including revelatory, previously unseen footage from such historic moments as the recording of Bridge Over Troubled Water and Graceland, Simon & Garfunkel’s unforgettable reunion concert in Central Park, and, 10 years later, Simon’s solo concert there performed before 750,000 people. In Restless Dreams is a meeting of two masters of their craft, a deep look into the miracle and wonder of songwriting, and an exploration of a life of singular creativity that has lost none of its curiosity, ambition, and mystery.
STREAMING FROM WED 20TH
In the late 1970s, the 4th King of Bhutan, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, announced that “gross national happiness is more important than gross domestic product”. This idea, which sadly seems even more radical now, proposed that a state should take a more holistic view of its citizens’s wellbeing and the betterment of society rather than defining all such matters in financial terms. A cohort of surveyors now travels the country of Bhutan, posing their extensive and detailed list of questions in an attempt to assess the mood of the country and its people. ‘Happiness agent’ Amber, a 40-year-old single man, is one such civil servant, who, ironically, seeks greater happiness in his own life. As the film follows him on his rounds, it becomes a shrewd and sympathetic examination of the nature of happiness and its meaning from one person to the next.
220 mins, USA, 2024, Digital
93 mins, Bhutan-Hungary, 2024, Digital, Subtitled
ALEX GIBNEY
