Irish Movie "Hunger" Plays Through Weds./June 3
Note from Ed Blank
Brothers,
Like fellow Hibernian Rob Tierney, who saw the harrowing Irish movie “Hunger” in Ireland, I have screened it and found it worth your while and that of all fellow Hibernians and their spouses and friends.
I’m hoping you’ll help me disseminate the word.
“Hunger” will be shown at the Harris Theater (formerly the Art Cinema), 809 Liberty Ave., Downtown, for 13 days from Friday, May 22, through Wednesday, June 3.
It will be shown at 8 p.m. Fridays (May 22 & 29), 6 and 8 p.m. Saturdays (May 23 & 30), 3 p.m. Sundays (May 24 & 31), 7:30 p.m. Mondays (May 25 & June 1), 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays (May 26 & June 2), 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays (May 27 & June 3) and at 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. on the only Thursday (May 28).
The regular admission price at all times at the Harris is $8 ($7 for students with ID and seniors).
However, Rob Tierney, of Division 32 and the Ireland Institute, has arranged for a special $5 admission price for the 7:30 p.m. performance Wednesday, May 27. All you need do is tell the cashier you’re there for the Ireland Institute performance.
Rob will be in the lobby May 27. Regrettably, a speaking engagement will prevent me from being there also – at least before the show.
“Hunger” is a fully acted film drama, set in 1981, that runs 96 minutes and unfolds in three distinct movements, like a three-act play, nearly all of it in Belfast’s Maze prison.
The scripting and staging are stylized as if the three movements were individually conceived and enacted by different filmmakers.
In the first movement, introspective Maze prison guard Ray Lohan (Stuart Graham) leaves his home and family apprehensively, wondering if this is the day his auto will explode. One has the sense of him ritualistically awaiting the last moment of his life.
At the prison, new inmate Davey Gillen (Brian Milligan) shares a cell with ongoing resident Gerry Campbell (Liam McMahon), both of the IRA. They partake in “the blanket protest,” which leads to grueling abuse.
The second movement is remarkable and reminiscent of “My Dinner With Andre” (1981), the landmark American independent film depicting a single restaurant conversation between two men.
In this “Hunger” segment, a scene running nearly half an hour unfolds in a pair of uninterrupted camera shots, one lasting 18 minutes.
It’s an absorbing conversation between insurgent Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender), who is intent upon starving himself, and Catholic priest Father Dominic Moran (Liam Cunningham), who tries to dissuade him.
The minimalistic cinematic technique places nearly all of the emphasis on the words and ideas.
What makes the prison debate so strong is that each man speaks with absolute conviction from his own perspective. It’s a self-contained morality minuet.
Our heartfelt allegiance splinters as each man reasons from his own experience.
The final movement depicts Sands’ self-imposed hunger strike.
Whereas Robert De Niro packed on several dozen pounds for the final scenes of “Raging Bull,” Fassbender here seems to have starved himself into emaciation for his art.
“Hunger” was directed by Steve McQueen – not the late American actor, of course, but a black Englishman whose sympathies, after the opening contextual scene, veer toward the prisoners.
The film’s focus is exceptionally narrow, but the picture becomes increasingly potent.
Although the distributor, anticipating limited distribution in the U.S., did not submit “Hunger” for an MPAA rating, which is a fee-generating service, the movie is R in nature because of brutality, language, implied sexuality and clinical nudity.
Brothers,
Like fellow Hibernian Rob Tierney, who saw the harrowing Irish movie “Hunger” in Ireland, I have screened it and found it worth your while and that of all fellow Hibernians and their spouses and friends.
I’m hoping you’ll help me disseminate the word.
“Hunger” will be shown at the Harris Theater (formerly the Art Cinema), 809 Liberty Ave., Downtown, for 13 days from Friday, May 22, through Wednesday, June 3.
It will be shown at 8 p.m. Fridays (May 22 & 29), 6 and 8 p.m. Saturdays (May 23 & 30), 3 p.m. Sundays (May 24 & 31), 7:30 p.m. Mondays (May 25 & June 1), 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays (May 26 & June 2), 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays (May 27 & June 3) and at 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. on the only Thursday (May 28).
The regular admission price at all times at the Harris is $8 ($7 for students with ID and seniors).
However, Rob Tierney, of Division 32 and the Ireland Institute, has arranged for a special $5 admission price for the 7:30 p.m. performance Wednesday, May 27. All you need do is tell the cashier you’re there for the Ireland Institute performance.
Rob will be in the lobby May 27. Regrettably, a speaking engagement will prevent me from being there also – at least before the show.
“Hunger” is a fully acted film drama, set in 1981, that runs 96 minutes and unfolds in three distinct movements, like a three-act play, nearly all of it in Belfast’s Maze prison.
The scripting and staging are stylized as if the three movements were individually conceived and enacted by different filmmakers.
In the first movement, introspective Maze prison guard Ray Lohan (Stuart Graham) leaves his home and family apprehensively, wondering if this is the day his auto will explode. One has the sense of him ritualistically awaiting the last moment of his life.
At the prison, new inmate Davey Gillen (Brian Milligan) shares a cell with ongoing resident Gerry Campbell (Liam McMahon), both of the IRA. They partake in “the blanket protest,” which leads to grueling abuse.
The second movement is remarkable and reminiscent of “My Dinner With Andre” (1981), the landmark American independent film depicting a single restaurant conversation between two men.
In this “Hunger” segment, a scene running nearly half an hour unfolds in a pair of uninterrupted camera shots, one lasting 18 minutes.
It’s an absorbing conversation between insurgent Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender), who is intent upon starving himself, and Catholic priest Father Dominic Moran (Liam Cunningham), who tries to dissuade him.
The minimalistic cinematic technique places nearly all of the emphasis on the words and ideas.
What makes the prison debate so strong is that each man speaks with absolute conviction from his own perspective. It’s a self-contained morality minuet.
Our heartfelt allegiance splinters as each man reasons from his own experience.
The final movement depicts Sands’ self-imposed hunger strike.
Whereas Robert De Niro packed on several dozen pounds for the final scenes of “Raging Bull,” Fassbender here seems to have starved himself into emaciation for his art.
“Hunger” was directed by Steve McQueen – not the late American actor, of course, but a black Englishman whose sympathies, after the opening contextual scene, veer toward the prisoners.
The film’s focus is exceptionally narrow, but the picture becomes increasingly potent.
Although the distributor, anticipating limited distribution in the U.S., did not submit “Hunger” for an MPAA rating, which is a fee-generating service, the movie is R in nature because of brutality, language, implied sexuality and clinical nudity.
Labels: movie
posted by Ed Blank at
1:59 PM
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