'Living' is next Kilcullen Bridge Cinema screening

A reminder that Living is the next film showing at Kilcullen Bridge Cinema, on this coming Wednesday 8 November. It is sure to be a crowd pleaser. Based on the classic Japanese film Ikiru — beautifully adapted by director Oliver Hermanus and writer Kazuo Ishiguro — Living is a poignant, lovingly-told story about finding meaning when faced with one’s own mortality. 

Bill Nighy is perfectly cast here, providing one of the finest performances of his entire career and for which he was nominated for an Oscar. Nighy plays Mr Williams, a diligent but rather dour bureaucrat, working in a council in post-war London. One day, he’s given a devastating prognosis: he only has a few months left to live. Stunned by the news, he abandons his usual routine. Chance encounters with a rebellious writer and a youthful colleague help Mr Williams discover a whole new perspective on both his life and work.

Winner of awards at the Sundance Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, and Virginia Film Festival, Living has been described as 

“A gentle, exquisitely sad film” - The Guardian ★★★★★; “The cast is wonderful.  And every detail … is just perfect” - The Irish Times ★★★★★

Kilcullen Bridge Cinema is an initiative of Kilcullen Lions Club. Doors open 7.30pm, film starts at 8pm. Tickets €7 available from Woodbine Books.

Meantime, the December programme of showings will include a Family Cinema afternoon on Sunday 3 December with Home Alone, still a firm Christmas favourite since its release three decades ago. Admission €4 with the show starting at 2pm. And on Tuesday 18 December, at 8pm, Frank Capra's much-loved film of hope and inspiration, It's a Wonderful Life. Tickets €7. 

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Screening of movie on asylum seeking in Riverbank, Monday

A screening of Limbo, a film about Syrian refugees waiting for the results of their asylum claim, will be held in the Riverbank Arts Centre in Newbridge next Monday as part of the Dublin International Film Festival.

Riverbank has partnered with the Festival to hold this special screening about a young Syrian musician with the group, set on a fictional Scottish island.

Limbo is directed by Ben Sharrock and stars Amir El-Masry and is described as a witty and poignant film about wanting to belong. Sharrock said that it was prompted by his own time living in Damascus and his friendship with Syrian people who ultimately became asylum seekers.

The screening will be at 8pm, with a Q&A session afterwards. Bookings Monday-Friday 9:30am-5pm at the Box Office or book tickets online 24/7 on www.riverbank.ie. Tickets are €7 for Early Bird bookings or on the door at €9.

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Did you miss 'Guy'? Catch it

Photo: Screengrab from 'Guy'.

The Luna Collective's performance of 'Guy', which premiered on their Youtube channel last evening, is eight minutes of disturbing insight into today's nightclub scene, writes Brian Byrne.

There are just three characters, the central one 'Girl' played by Kilcullen's Rachel O'Sullivan, but in the short duration of the piece the viewer gets a real sense of the crowded anonymity of the club space.

Ryan O'Donnell in the writing also catches the snatches of intimacy that can lift momentarily above what is otherwise a clouded mix of hypnotic beat, heat, harassment and menace.

The filming technique is a variant on shadowgraph. Very effective in an apparent simplicity that is unexpectedly powerful, yet doesn't distract from the sparse, sometimes scary, and impactful dialogue.

All of which is a somewhat fussy way of saying everyone concerned did a really good job here. If you missed the premiere, the beauty of Youtube is that it's all there to watch still.

Standout unsettling moment? The foreboding in Girl's final words.

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An hour or so with 'The Breadwinner' is worth a trip to Kilkenny

Pic: Cartoon Saloon.

If your schoolchildren home during the holidays are of an artistic bent, then I'd recommend bringing them for a morning or afternoon this week to the Butler Gallery in Kilkenny, writes Brian Byrne.

There's an exhibition in the Gallery, in the basement of Kilkenny Castle, about 'The Breadwinner', the Oscar-nominated animated feature film produced by locally-based Cartoon Saloon.

The three-room exhibition explains the background to the animated adaptation of the 2000 book of the same name by Deborah Ellis, about young girl living in Afghanistan under Taliban rule, who has to disguise herself as a boy in order to be able to work to help feed her family.

The displays not only provide a very easy to understand explanation of the techniques of producing animated films with modern technology, but also give an excellent backgrounder to Afghanistan and the disruption to normal life which the Taliban inflicted on people who are, well, just like you and me and our children and grandchildren.

And there's an interactive element on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday afternoons with an artist-in-residence, where visiting youngsters can try their hand at elements of building storyboards and character and location designs.

The exhibition is free. But it ends next Sunday. Since it opened in May, more than 18,000 have visited.

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Judy Garland's clothes star in Newbridge Silverware

If you're an old-time movies buff, then a new exhibition at the Newbridge Silverware Museum of Style Icons will be like honey to a bear, writes Brian Byrne.

It's all about personal items, clothing and costumes once owned and worn by Judy Garland, who died when she was just 47 but left a wonderful silver screen legacy.

Her big child role was 'Dorothy' in the Wizard of Oz, but she is also remembered for stellar performances in Life Begins for Andy Hardy, Meet me in St Louis, Crazy Girl, and A Star is Born.

Clothing worn in some of those movies feature in the exhibition which runs until the end of September. The highlight exhibit for many will be the wedding dress she wore when she married her fourth husband Mark Heron in 1964.

Following the Newbridge exhibition, the collection is scheduled to be sold off by Julien Auctions in Los Angeles.

Our pictures show the actress at her wedding to Mark Heron, and as Betsy Booth in Life Begins for Andy Hardy.

'Midnight in Paris' tonight in Town Hall

The first Movie Night in Kilcullen's Town Hall Theatre in many decades takes place this evening, writes Brian Byrne. The showing is possible because of the new computerised screening system available in the Town Hall, which was recently installed through funding from the Kilcullen Development Association.

The showing, from which proceeds will go to a local charitable organisation, is of the Woody Allen written and directed 'Midnight in Paris', a 2011 romantic comedy fantasy film which follows Gil Pender, a screenwriter, who is forced to confront the shortcomings of his relationship with his materialistic fiancée and their divergent goals, which become increasingly exaggerated as he travels back in time each night at midnight. The movie explores themes of nostalgia and modernism.

Produced by Spanish group Mediapro and Allen's Gravier Productions, the film stars Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Léa Seydoux, Kathy Bates and Adrien Brody. It premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and was released in North America in May 2011.

It has commonly been cited as one of Allen's best films in recent years.