BAFTA Scotland Winner Boyle Segues From Shallow Grave (1994) to Trainspotting (1996) to Twin Town to Fox's Futuristic Sci-Fi Satire 'Sunshine' (2007)

According to

DAVID GERMAIN, AP Movie Writer Sun Jul 22, 1:39 PM ET:

"In limited release, Fox Searchlight's sci-fi tale "Sunshine" opened to big numbers, pulling in $235,477 in 10 theaters."

"Directed by Danny Boyle ("Trainspotting," "28 Days Later"), the film stars Cillian Murphy and Michelle Yeoh as members of a space crew trying to re-ignite the dying sun 50 years from now."

"'Sunshine' expands to about 400 theaters Friday."

Plot Synopsis: The Sun is being destroyed from inside out by a type of highly stable form of matter that renders nuclear fusion impossible, by turning common matter on its own kind.

The only hope is to send a team of astronauts to detonate a massive, highly energetic bomb, able to destroy this strange matter and restore Sun's natural state.

British director Boyle is known for his films which agressively feature Scotland, as he has often uses places, characters, actors or references to and relating to Scotland.

He often casts Scottish actor Ewan McGregor in lead roles.

Boyle's grim futuristic horror flic 28 Days Later (2002) was produced by the British Film Council ands had a U.S. theatrical distribution contract with Fox Searchlight Pictures.

In 1997 he joined Andrew Mac Donald again to executive produce Welsh director Kevin Allen's Twin Town (1997), filming at various locations in and around Swansea, Wales / Abertawe, Cymru.

For more data on film releases and summer Box Office statistics, please check out:

Media By Numbers

Danny Boyle's newest feature film Sunshine (2007) Trailer:


For more information about famous Scottish movies, or about shooting your next film in Scotland, please see:

Scottish Screen

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

© 2007 Mark Leslie Woods

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Queer Advantage, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

© 2007 Mark Leslie Woods

Please visit my newest blog for Gay Democratic Men:

American Twilight: Politics, Sex and TV Dinners

Czech Karlovy Vary A-List Film Festival's World Premiere of RTE Drama 'Damage' (2007) by 'Song for a Raggy Boy' (2003)'s Irish Director Aisling Walsh

Pictured above: Steaming geysers nourish the lush red rose hedges along the icy mountain river in the center of Karlovy Vary's castle-lined boulevards, where once a year Hollywood goes 'Bohemian' at the world's most fabulous A-List Film Fest.

And this year, it's party time for the Irish in Bohemia!

42nd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

Irish Director Aisling Walsh's new film Damage (2007) has its World Premiere at the 42nd Karlovy Vary Film Fest in the Czech Republic, which is among the top ten A-List Film Fests around the globe each year.

The Karlovy Vary IFF is one of the oldest film festivals of all time (the first year took place in 1946). For more than 40 years the festival was organized under the pressure of the political situation in socialist Czechoslovakia.

Aisling Walsh entered the public stage with her short films (such as Hostage, which was shot while she was studying at the National Film School and which won her awards at the Chicago Film Festival and the Tours Film festival).

She successfully made her way in television (with the serial Trial and Retribution, (1997), the homosexual love story Forgive and Forget, (2000), the story of emancipated mothers in the 1960’s, Sinners, (2002), and the drama Fingersmith, (2005), nominated for the BAFTA award, among others).

The talented director found success off the small-screen with the movie Joyriders (1989) and in particular with the dramatic tale of the fortunes of an idealistic teacher in a boy’s reform school set in 1930s Ireland, Song for a Raggy Boy (2002), in which the lead role was played by Aidan Quinn, and which was screened in competition at Karlovy Vary in 2003.

Colour, 35 mm
Ireland, 2007, 95 min
WP – World premiere
Section: Horizons

Director: Aisling Walsh
Screenplay: Aisling Walsh
Dir. of Photography: Simon Kossoff
Music: Niall Byrne
Designer: John Hand
Editor: Stephen O’Connell
Producer: Tristan Lynch, Dominic Wright
Production: Subotica Entertainment Ltd.
Contact: Subotica Entertainment Ltd.

Cast: Nathalie Press, Olivia Williams, Brendan Coyle, David O’Hara

Irish Director Aisling Walsh Damage (2007) Trailer (download from KVFF site):



Damage (1 x 90 mins or 2 x 1 hour) - produced for RTE - is a tense and pacy drama directed by Aisling Walsh (BAFTA-nominated Fingersmith, Trial & Retribution) in which a family's seemingly perfect life is shattered when the daughter, Emma, is raped by a family friend at her 21st birthday party.

With the key suspect released on bail, and dark family secrets coming to the fore, Emma's life begins to freefall until a chance meeting with her rapist convinces her that she needs to go to court and confront him before she can move on with her life.

Synopsis:

The Cahills would pass for a normal, happy, and all around successful family. Emma continues in the lifestyle of her father Aidan and mother Michelle, and begins trying to make it as a model.

Hardly anyone suspects that the husband and wife live separate lives, the most important people in which are actually Aidan’s secretary and their family friend John Ward, the father of their daughter’s friend Laurel.

The outward image of the socially well-positioned family changes however when the Cahills hold a party to celebrate their daughter’s 21st birthday in their home in an elegant Dublin suburb, and Emma is raped.

The girl refuses to silently reconcile herself with her traumatic experience. What chance does she have against her antagonist and his lawyers?

How will she find a way to come to terms with what happened to her? And will her friends and family be capable of banding together to help her?

This psychological drama by director Aisling Walsh tells of the dark shadows cast on the private and public image of one successful family.

Written and directed by Aisling Walsh, "Damage" stars Nathalie Press, Olivia WIlliams, David O'Hara and Brendan Coyle. International Sales are through Minotaur.

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

© 2007 Mark Leslie Woods

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Queer Advantage, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

© 2007 Mark Leslie Woods

Please visit my newest blog for Gay Democratic Men:

American Twilight: Politics, Sex and TV Dinners

Looking for Worldwide Celtic Music News and Discussions?

There's a fabulous place to meet others interested in Celtic Music and Celtic Dance:

Yahoo! Celtic Cafe Group Forum

"The purpose of this list is to connect Irish dance and Celtic music fans all over the world, keeping list members informed about various events, musical groups, and Irish dance shows like Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance, Feet of Flames, and Celtic Tiger, Riverdance, Dancing on Dangerous Ground, Gaelforce Dance, Spirit of the Dance, Rhythm of the Dance, To Dance on the Moon, etc.



We encourage discussion of books as well, and in fact, anything that involves "Celtic culture" is welcome for discussion on the list."



You may also wish to bookmark the Celtic Cafe website at:

The Celtic Cafe

For a listing of many of our other Celtic Cafe mail lists, go to: http://www.celticcafe.com/Guides/onelist.htm

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

© 2007 Mark Leslie Woods

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Yn Mapio Ffilmiau Cymreig fel ‘an Irish Shangra-La’ / Mapping Cinematic Wales as ‘an Irish Shangra-La’

Pictured above: New Welsh Film Book by Dr. Gwenno Ffrancon Jenkins, Swansea University

In her recent book, 'Cyfaredd y Cysgodion - Delweddu Cymru a'i Phobl ar Ffilm, 1935 – 1951', film scholar Gwenno Ffrancon Jenkins points to the ‘othering’ of the Welsh by director John Ford in the film How Green was My Valley (1941).

Ford adapted an indigenous Welsh novel by author Richard Llewellyn, but directed and cast the script in such a way to create not a Welsh story, but an Irish story in a Welsh motif, what Berry has called ‘an Irish Shangra-La’ (Berry 1994: 17).

Ffrancon Jenkins reflects this in her statement:

'mai ffilm am Gymru drwy lygaid a lleisiau Gwyddelig a gynhyrchwyd yn y diwedd . . . A dyma un o'i diffygion pennaf.'

'It is a film on Wales through the Irish eyes and voices and direction right to the end.' (Ffrancon-Jenkins 2003: 18) [all Welsh to English translations by the author of this study, unless otherwise noted].

So in Ffrancon Jenkins’ opinion, Ford has rendered the Welsh as ‘contributors’ to his Irish fable, similarly to the ‘primitive’ but proper Welshwomen-known-as-Englishwomen in ‘Outsider’ François Truffaut’s film 'Les Deux Anglaises et le Continent' (1971), and she writes about ‘Welsh Cinematic Outsider’ Ford’s characterization of the Welsh people:

"Y canlyniad yw ‘darluniau afreal’ o'r Cymry fel ‘simple, primitive people’."

"Consequently it is an ‘unreal portrayal’ of the Welsh as ‘simple, primitive people.’" (Ffrancon-Jenkins 2003: 19)

Ford based his film upon Llewellyn’s novel. Llewellyn was a Welshman born into the London Welsh Diaspora, and he did sufficient ‘cultural tourism’ while visiting his grandfather in the South Wales mining community of Gilfach-goch, to base his novel on this village.

So while Ford and Llewellyn are both ‘Outsiders’ to varying degrees, Llewellyn is an important type of ‘Insider’ who went away from Wales and became an ‘Outsider’ (as a scriptwriter for the American studio, MGM), which permitted him to peddle his narrative wares to the global, cinematic imperial powers in Hollywood, in this case the iconic John Ford, best known for his Hollywood Westerns.

'Cyfaredd y Cysgodion - Delweddu Cymru a'i Phobl ar Ffilm, 1935 – 1951' is a thorough and highly readable social and cultural study of the influence of the cinema on the lives of Welsh people between 1935 and 1951, and how Wales and her people have been portrayed by film makers. 25 black-and-white illustrations.

Mae 'Cyfaredd y Cysgodion - Delweddu Cymru a'i Phobl ar Ffilm, 1935 – 1951' astudiaeth gymdeithasol a diwylliannol drylwyr a hynod ddarllenadwy o ddylanwad y sinema ar fywyd pobl Cymru rhwng 1935 a 1951, ac ar y modd y delweddwyd Cymru a'i phobl gan wneuthurwyr ffilm. 25 llun du-a-gwyn.

‘Robustly historical view of Welsh cinematic heritage . . . the first social and industrial study of the formative years of the genre in Wales . . . Gwenno Ffrancon has used every archive available to her, and she treats the ‘unknown’ with a great deal of empathy and understanding . . . this volume certainly succeeds in rediscovering the beginnings of the ‘forgetting chambers’ in Wales.’ (New Welsh Review)

Y mae Gwenno Ffrancon, brodor o Flaen-plwyf ger Aberystwyth, yn ddarlithydd ffilm yn Adran Cyfathrebu a’r Cyfryngau, Prifysgol Cymru, Bangor.

Gan Gwales: 'All neb ddadlau â honiad y broliant fod hon yn 'gyfrol arloesol'. Mae'r ymdriniaeth drylwyr, ddychmygus, amlonglog hon â detholiad o ffilmiau o Gymru ac am Gymru rhwng 1935 a 1951 yn gamp gyflawn ynddi'i hun, ond y mae hefyd yn agor maes enfawr a chyfoethog i eraill ymchwilio ynddo . . .'

'Mae hi'n gyfrol a fydd o ddiddordeb i rychwant llydan o ddarllenwyr, ond yr hyn sy'n rhoi rhuddin iddi yw ysgolheictod gadarn ac ymchwil fanwl ei hawdur.'

'Mae'r rhestr ffynonellau ar ddau gyfandir yn tystio i barodrwydd Gwenno Ffrancon i fynd yr ail a'r drydedd filltir er mwyn medru llunio darlun mor gynhwysfawr, mor gyflawn ei gyd-destunau â phosibl o'i phwnc. Mae ei gallu i wisgo het y beirniad ffilm a het yr hanesydd diwylliannol gyda'r un argyhoeddiad yn ei galluogi i wneud cyfiawnder â'i thestun.’

www.gwales.com

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

© 2007 Mark Leslie Woods

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!