University of St. Thomas (Center for Irish Studies)

Contemporary Irish Cinema: From the Quiet Man to Dancing at Lughnasa by James MacKillopReview by: Natasha CaseyNew Hibernia Review / Iris Éireannach Nua, Vol. 5, No. 3 (Autumn, 2001), pp. 147-148Published by: University of St. Thomas (Center for Irish Studies)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20557755 .

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L?irmheasanna: Reviews

the present day. Although Mitchel's imputation of deliberate genocide has not

been sustained, recent scholarship does, in effect, charge the British government

with culpable negligence in their blind adherence to fatally misguided policies. In concluding his masterful synthesis of recent scholarship on the Famine,

James Donnelly calls upon historians to maintain the sense of moral outrage

long felt by nationalists, and urges them to continue the ongoing task of re

membering the tragedy experienced by the Irish people during the 1840s. With

The Great Irish Potato Famine, Donnelly has himself contributed greatly to pre

serving the memory of those who perished.

^ FRANK A. BILETZ

Contemporary Irish Cinema: From The Quiet Man to Dancing at Lughnasa, edited by James MacKillop? pp. 290. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 1999. $24.95.

Contemporary Irish Cinema: From The Quiet Man to Dancing at Lughnasa pre sents seventeen eclectic chapters ranging in topic from the poetic documen

taries of John Davis to John Ford's 1952 variously reviled and revered The Quiet Man. Chapters on My LeftFooU Pigs* The Field, In the Name of the Father, Synge,

Joyce, John Huston, and Neil Jordan among others, are all located between these

two poles. The final chapter, a selected filmography of Irish and Irish-related

feature films compiled by Anthony Kirby and MacKillop, provides an extremely useful starting point for those interested in investigating this topic further.

Two chapters in particular emerge as strong examples of film criticism. Both

are written by well-established names in the field, Brian Mcllroy and John Hill

(who co-authored, with Kevin Rockett and Luke Gibbons, the influential Cin

ema and Ireland in 1988). Hill's chapter discusses the 1990 film Fools of Fortune,

directed by Pat O'Connor, and its complicated and often ambiguous relation

ship with what has become known as the "heritage" film genre exemplified by such films as Chariots ofFirey A Passage to India, A Room with a View, and

Howards End. Hill explains that heritage films are "often read as a response to

the economic and political failures, social tensions and troubled sense of na

tional identity that have been a feature of British society since the 1970s" With

its Irish subject matter, Fools of Fortune complicates this "British thesis." Hill

succinctly examines the ambiguities of O'Connor's film as it simultaneously

and paradoxically transgresses heritage film conventions on the one hand and

champions the fundamental ideological tenets of the genre on the other.

Mcllroy allocates much of his chapter to dealing with the criticisms that

emerged upon the release of Neil Jordan's Michael Collins in 1996 and the prob

m

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L?irmheasanna: Reviews

lems inherent when these criticisms insist on comparing "specious" accounts of

history on film with "true" history, Mcllroy, paraphrasing historian Robert

Rosenstone, notes that "films do present a historical truth, one reading of the

past that must be assessed alongside, not against, accounts using other media.

That truth may alter, omit, invent, condense, and exaggerate more than profes

sional historians would prefer, but films are nonetheless thinking and histori

cal works." Mcllroy's argument also points to larger issues in the literature and

history-dominated environment of Irish Studies where film and popular cul

ture continues to struggle for an appreciated position.

Mcllroy goes on to ask "what historical, social, and cultural work does Jor

dan's film ultimately do?" This seemingly obvious question, reflecting a social

film history approach to film analysis, is noteworthy for its methodological con

trast with other works in the book, Most chapters in this book present close aes

thetic readings, auteur theory, or "masterpiece" approaches to film analysis. Ed

ward Buscombe notes that these latter types of analyses have a "tendency to

hold aesthetic aspects of the cinema apart from all others, particularly eco

nomic" The more recent successes of Irish cinema, both in Ireland and abroad, have to be situated in an economic paradigm, at the risk of using exhausted

phrases, within the context of the Celtic Tiger?a phenomenon only fleetingly referenced here.

One curious gap: despite its subtitle, the collection offers no discussion on

the 1998 film Dancing at Lughnasa, A more troubling omission, though, is that

the question of what actually constitutes contemporary Irish cinema?a ques tion that continues to provoke widespread debate within Irish Studies and by film scholars - is not addressed here* Does this category include films set in Ire

land? Made in Ireland? That feature Irish actors, producers, or directors? Must it have identifiable Irish themes (whatever those might be)? Or is it a combina

tion of these and other elements? Though tibe various contributors, often by their very inclusion, provide some comment on the topic, this central issue is

sidestepped.

Writing on Irish cinema, irrespective of how that term is defined, has pro gressed dramatically over the last two decades. In addition to Cinetm and Ire

land, works by Anthony Slide, Joseph MXurran and Kevin Rockeffs more re cent endeavor with Eugene Finn Still ?risk A Century of the Irish in Film (1995) all point to continued renewal and resurgence in the area. Cmttmtp?mry Irish Cinema: From The Quiet Man to Dancing at Lughnamm?? undoubtedly induce additional discussion and fresh work in this still emerging field*

?x? NATASHA CASEY

:i#

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