OPENING GALA

Friday, Jan 23

The Boys From County Clare (D: John Irvin, 2002)

GUEST SPEAKER: John Griffin, Film Critic, Montreal Gazette

Set in Ireland during the 1970s, the film follows the the fortunes of two estranged brothers. Both fiddle players, who after twenty-five years meet up again by chance at the All Ireland Ceili Band Competition where they are playing in rival bands. For both men, it is an opportunity to settle the past. An amusing story of music, love, sabotage and forgiveness.

FEATURING: Andrea Corr, Jim Broadbent, Colm Meaney, Patrick Bergin, Bernard Hill

'The Boys from County Clare is a sweet and sincere tribute to the age-old spirit of celtic music.' - Toronto International Film Festival

Night Train (D: John Lynch)

'... Michael has been released from prison after getting mixed up in fraud for a gangster. Trying to piece together his life, he winds up at a small boarding house, where he meets shy Alice, the daughter of the landlady. He introduces her to his hobby -- model trains -- and together the two dream of exotic travels. But when the gangsters catch up to Michael, he has to make his travel fantasies come true quicker than he imagined.'

FEATURING: John Hurt,Brenda Blethyn, Pauline Flanagan, Rynagh O'Grady, Peter Caffrey, Paul Roe, Lorcan Cranitch, Cathy White

The Fifth Province (D: Frank Stapleton, Producer: Catherine Tiernan, 1997)

'Synopsis: There are four provinces in Ireland that we know of. The fifth province is a land of magic and of possibility. Timmy is a shy guest-house keeper and an aspiring novelist who lives with is mother in a rainy part of the Irish midlands. His eccentric psychiatrist, Dr Drudy, is his only contact with the outside world and the person to whom he confides his infatuation with the president of Ireland--in this story, a bland looking woman. When a new motorway is constructed, it puts Timmy's guest house out of business. Mysteriously, a Spanish pilot named Marcel appears and creates havoc. Shortly thereafter, Timmy attends a writers conference where he meets and falls for Diana de Brie. Back at home, Marcel convinces Timmy to mentally "call" Diana, and, amazingly, she arrives at the isolated guest house, a circumstance that opens the way for a spoof of Hitchcock's "Psycho." '

The Ghost of Roger Casement (D: Alan Gilsenan, 2002)
Guest Speaker: Dr. Brian Lewis, Chair, McGill History Department

"[This Irish documentary] brings together two ingredients that usually produce fireworks: Sex and Politics," observes a historian about the infamous trial and execution of Roger Casement, a case that has inflamed Irish sentiments since his death in 1916. Casement was an unlikely rebel hero: an Irishman who served in the British Foreign Office, was knighted for uncovering colonial abuses in the Congo, and later negotiated with the German government during World War I in an attempt to overthrow British rule in Ireland. Following his arrest on charges of treason, the British government produced the notorious (and possibly forged) "Black Diaries," detailing Casement's homosexual love affairs.

Evening of Shorts - An audience favourite, Cine Gael Montreal will again be featuring an evening of award winning Irish shorts from the new generation of bright Irish talent.

Click here for detailed program and voter results!

'Bloomsday Centenary' Weekend

Friday, Apr 2nd, 7pm
'Bloomsday Cabaret'

Saturday, Apr 3rd, 4:30pm
'Bloom'

6:45pm
Reception
McKibbin's Irish Pub
Click here for photos!

8:00pm
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Cost:
Weekend passes
for Members $15.00

Weekend passes for
Non-members $20.00

Individual tickets: $10.00 - at the event, if available.

Tickets can be purchased at the door or in advance by sending a cheque to CineGael Montreal

Praise for 'Bloom':
'Stephen Rea perfectly portrays Leopold Bloom's baleful resignation and cultured vanity, and Angeline Ball [as Molly Bloom] is utterly venal, conniving and captivating, she is word become flesh again.' -The Observer

Friday, April 2, 7pm
Bloomsday Cabaret (D: Rosemary House)

Special guest: Leo Furey, Executive Director of the Newfoundland & Labrador Film Development Corporation

Guest Speaker: Prof. Micheal Brian, Concordia University, Joyce Scholar

Bloomsday Cabaret gives audiences everywhere unique access to the work of James Joyce, a colourful tour of legendary Dublin in the company of a group of intriguing, eclectic characters, a novel glimpse of the Canadian Joycean scene, and an exhilarating musical experience.

For more information visit the Telefilm website

Saturday, April 3, 4:30 pm (with reception to follow)
Bloom
(D: Sean Walsh, 2003)

Special Guest Speaker: Sean Walsh who will be present to introduce the film and answer questions.

6:45pm: Reception at McKibbin's Irish Pub

'Sean Walsh's [film] version of Ulysses is a triumphant reinterpretation of James Joyce's masterpiece. It is not the usual filming of actors mouthing Joyce's words, instead Walsh and his talented team approach Joyce using the visual vocabulary of the cinema in a manner I have no doubt Joyce himself would have approved.

"The film is brilliant, witty, innovative and imaginatively faithful to Joyce's work. Stephen Rea provides a masterly and brilliant evocation of Bloom managing to convey at the same time his Irishness, his Jewishness, his cosmopolitanism and his humanity while Angeline Ball is quite the best of all the myriad of Molly Blooms that I have seen." - Senator David Norris, Joycean Scholar
Visit the Bloom official website and here where you can view the trailer!

SPECIAL THURSDAY SCREENING:

INTERMISSION (2004) D: John Crowley

STARS: Colin Farrell, Colm Meaney, Cilian Murphy, Kelly Macdonald

This critically acclaimed ensemble comedy of 11 interwoven stories set in Dublin shows how the breakup of one relationship has repurcussions on the lives of the people around them. One of those people is Lehiff (Farrell), a thief trying to set his life straight by pulling off one last big heist before retiring, while Detective John Lynch (Colm Meaney) is trying to bring Lehiff down. There's also John (Murphy), who quits his job at a supermarket to join Lehiff in his plot as an effort to win back the love of Deirdre (MacDonald), who has recently moved in with a married bank manager, Sam (McElhatton), whose bank Lehiff is targeting, and whose wife, Noeleen (O'Kane) ends up being a crucial element in the heist.