ANGELS AND DEMONS (THE FILMS OF NEIL JORDAN)
A couple of weeks ago, there were newspaper reports that Oscar winning writer and director Neil Jordan was hobbling on crutches in Dublin city centre when he was floored by a bus.
By all accounts, he had a close brush with death and was lucky to be alive.
Had he not survived, Irish cinema would have been robbed of one of its most consistently challenging and critically successful filmmakers.
Death has stalked much of the work of the Sligo born novelist and director from his debut 'Angel' right through to his new vampire flick, 'Byzantium'.
As a result critics have tended to categorise him as a gothic filmmaker, with sexual obsession, religion and the double lives people adopt featuring heavily in his movies during a career that has straddled the Hollywood, British and European film traditions.
There have been many highs over a body of work comprising of 17 feature films and there have been a few lows but, like all great filmmakers, Jordan has rarely left cinemagoers feeling passive about his movies - even his weakest ones.
With his latest vampire flick 'Byzantium', starring Gemma Arterton, Saoirse Ronan and Tom Hollander, about to hit the screens, it is time to reflect over two articles on a filmmaker who recently turned to television with 'The Borgias' and who has never quite fully settled into the cinematic mainstream.
By all accounts, he had a close brush with death and was lucky to be alive.
Had he not survived, Irish cinema would have been robbed of one of its most consistently challenging and critically successful filmmakers.
Death has stalked much of the work of the Sligo born novelist and director from his debut 'Angel' right through to his new vampire flick, 'Byzantium'.
As a result critics have tended to categorise him as a gothic filmmaker, with sexual obsession, religion and the double lives people adopt featuring heavily in his movies during a career that has straddled the Hollywood, British and European film traditions.
There have been many highs over a body of work comprising of 17 feature films and there have been a few lows but, like all great filmmakers, Jordan has rarely left cinemagoers feeling passive about his movies - even his weakest ones.
With his latest vampire flick 'Byzantium', starring Gemma Arterton, Saoirse Ronan and Tom Hollander, about to hit the screens, it is time to reflect over two articles on a filmmaker who recently turned to television with 'The Borgias' and who has never quite fully settled into the cinematic mainstream.
ANGEL (1982)
After cutting his moviemaking teeth as a script consultant and second unit director on John Boorman's Arthurian epic 'Excalibur', Neil Jordan was one of the first filmmakers to make their feature debut under Channel 4's 'Film On Four' banner.
The result was the Boorman produced Troubles revenge drama, 'Angel' - one of the finest and most atmospheric Irish movies ever made.
A mesmerising Stephen Rea plays Danny, a saxophonist with a showband, who is deeply traumatised when he witnesses the slaying by paramilitaries of a border dancehall manager and a mute girl who wanders into the killing.
Jordan's debut boasts strong performances from Ray McAnally as a detective, Donal McCann, Alan Devlin and Honor Heffernan as Deirdre, the singer in the showband, whose relationship with Danny disintegrates as he substitutes his saxophone for a machine gun and obsessively tries to piece together who carried out the atrocity and why.
After cutting his moviemaking teeth as a script consultant and second unit director on John Boorman's Arthurian epic 'Excalibur', Neil Jordan was one of the first filmmakers to make their feature debut under Channel 4's 'Film On Four' banner.
The result was the Boorman produced Troubles revenge drama, 'Angel' - one of the finest and most atmospheric Irish movies ever made.
A mesmerising Stephen Rea plays Danny, a saxophonist with a showband, who is deeply traumatised when he witnesses the slaying by paramilitaries of a border dancehall manager and a mute girl who wanders into the killing.
Jordan's debut boasts strong performances from Ray McAnally as a detective, Donal McCann, Alan Devlin and Honor Heffernan as Deirdre, the singer in the showband, whose relationship with Danny disintegrates as he substitutes his saxophone for a machine gun and obsessively tries to piece together who carried out the atrocity and why.
In the wrong hands, this could have been pitched as a Northern Irish 'Death Wish' movie but Jordan is too subtle a filmmaker.
As debut features go, this was hugely impressive one with Jordan conjuring up memorable sights and sounds with the help of accomplished cinematographer Chris Menges - from the orthopaedic shoe of one of the killers to blood smeared on bed sheets on a washing line.
As Northern Ireland still struggles to come to terms with the barrage of violence that took place during the Troubles, 'Angel' still has not lost its power 31 years later.
As Northern Ireland still struggles to come to terms with the barrage of violence that took place during the Troubles, 'Angel' still has not lost its power 31 years later.
THE COMPANY OF WOLVES (1984)
Jordan's follow-up was a Gothic horror movie for Film On Four, whose gestation began with a short story about a werewolf from his fellow screenwriter Angela Carter.
Based mostly on the Little Red Riding Hood fairytale, Sarah Patterson plays Rosaleen who dreams that she is living in a forest with her parents (David Warner and Tusse Silberg) when they are plunged into grief following the killing of her sister by wolves.
She is packed off to live with her grandmother (Angela Landsbury in one of her best screen performances) who warns her to be wary of men whose eyebrows meet but she soon gets into trouble when she is pursued by an amorous huntsman (Micha Bergese).
Mixing fairytale imagery with a British Hammer Horror sensibility, the narrative is interspersed with tales told by Rosaleen's Grandmother - including one featuring Stephen Rea as a husband who disappears on his wedding night only to return years later as a werewolf and Terence Stamp in a Faustian story as the Devil.
Rich in symbolism, Jordan and Carter explore themes that would feature constantly in the director's work (especially the complex and challenging 'In Dreams') about the double lives people adopt and sexual obsession.
Jordan's follow-up was a Gothic horror movie for Film On Four, whose gestation began with a short story about a werewolf from his fellow screenwriter Angela Carter.
Based mostly on the Little Red Riding Hood fairytale, Sarah Patterson plays Rosaleen who dreams that she is living in a forest with her parents (David Warner and Tusse Silberg) when they are plunged into grief following the killing of her sister by wolves.
She is packed off to live with her grandmother (Angela Landsbury in one of her best screen performances) who warns her to be wary of men whose eyebrows meet but she soon gets into trouble when she is pursued by an amorous huntsman (Micha Bergese).
Mixing fairytale imagery with a British Hammer Horror sensibility, the narrative is interspersed with tales told by Rosaleen's Grandmother - including one featuring Stephen Rea as a husband who disappears on his wedding night only to return years later as a werewolf and Terence Stamp in a Faustian story as the Devil.
Rich in symbolism, Jordan and Carter explore themes that would feature constantly in the director's work (especially the complex and challenging 'In Dreams') about the double lives people adopt and sexual obsession.
The film also impressively overcomes its budget limitations, thanks to its BAFTA winning costumes, make up, art design and special effects and Bryan Loftus's cinematography.
It also marked the start of an effective creative partnership with producer Stephen Woolley.
MONA LISA (1986)
Jordan and Woolley returned two years later with this stunning exploration of London's seedy underworld with a particular focus on the sex trade in a movie that at times recalled Martin Scorsese's cult classic, 'Taxi Driver'.
Bob Hoskins plays George, recently released from jail and estranged from his wife and teenage daughter, who through his underworld connections lands a job as a chauffeur for Cathy Tyson's high class escort, Simone.
As George and Simone get to know each other, he becomes increasingly disturbed by the trade she is involved in and protective of her which brings him inevitably into conflict with Michael Caine's menacing and manipulative Soho nightclub owner, Denny Mortwell.
London and Brighton have never seemed so creepy, thanks to Jordan's tough yet compassionate screenplay, Roger Pratt's deft cinematography and Lesley Walker's clever editing.
Bob Hoskins was deservedly Oscar nominated for his hugely appealing performance as George (losing out to Paul Newman for Scorsese's 'The Color of Money') but Cathy Tyson is also hugely impressive in what is a challenging role. Michael Caine has rarely been more disturbing in a brilliantly judged supporting performance.
The shadows of Alfred Hitchcock's tale of obsession, 'Vertigo' and the Boulting Brothers' 'Brighton Rock' loom large in this film which also featured a delightful performance by Robbie Coltrane as George's best mate and strong but unsettling performances by Sammi Davis and Kate Hardie as prostitutes snared in the sex trade.
It is, quite simply, one of the best British films of the 1980s.
HIGH SPIRITS (1988)
The director's follow-up to 'Mona Lisa' was a disaster, as he tried to switch tone with this zany farce set in a decrepit Co Limerick castle.
Working for Tri Star Pictures on what was then a decent $15.5 million budget, Jordan's first proper Hollywood film stars Peter O'Toole as Peter Plunkett who turns the castle into a bed and breakfast that the local villagers are heavily reliant on for employment.
In a ruse to attract more visitors, he markets the castle as "the most haunted castle in Europe ", only to discover, when American guests arrive, that it actually is.
Things become really complicated when two rowing ghosts (Liam Neeson sporting a dodgy hairdo and Daryl Hannah sporting a dodgy accent) fall in love with two of the guests (Beverly D'Angelo and Steve Guttenburg).
With a cast that also includes Donal McCann, Peter Gallagher, Jennifer Tilly, Connie Booth, Liz Smith, Ray McAnally and the singer Mary Coughlan, the film tries hard and fails spectacularly to wring laughs out of a really lame script.
'High Spirits' tanked at the box office, earned Hannah a Razzie nomination for Worst Supporting Actress and was a big fat blot on Jordan's copybook.
WE'RE NO ANGELS (1989)
Neil Jordan stuck to comedy with this $20 million remake for Paramount Pictures of the 1955 caper movie about escaped convicts starring Humphrey Bogart, Aldo Ray and Peter Ustinov.
In Jordan's version, Robert de Niro's Ned and Sean Penn's Jim are both small time crooks with thick New York accents who inadvertently get caught up in a breakout from a tough prison run by Ray McAnally's sadistic warden.
The escaped convicts end up in a town near the Canadian border, where they are mistaken for Catholic theologians after they steal priests' clothes from a washing line to hide their identity.
Ned is attracted to Demi Moore's hard bitten single mother, Molly while Jim enjoys his new spiritual role but with the warden closing in and James Russo's vicious escaped convict Bobby threatening to blow their cover unless they smuggle him over the border, their double lives threaten to crash all around them.
With a screenplay by the acclaimed playwright David Mamet and wonderful cinematography by Philippe Rousselot, Jordan's uneven Great Depression comedy does have some powerful set pieces in it including a prison escape that recalls the Warner Brothers gangster flicks of the 1940s and a stunning climax set around a religious procession.
Penn impresses as Jim and there are fine comic turns by John C Reilly as a naive and starstruck Monk, Wallace Shawn as a cranky translator for an Eastern European bishop who suspects Ned and Jim are not what they seem, as well as strong performances by Moore, McAnally and Russo.
De Niro, however, is the real let down, with a mannered performance that consists of relentless mugging to the camera - unfortunately it was the shape of things to come in a career that has been marred by a series of lazy turns in big screen comedies like ‘Meet The Parents’, ‘The Intern’ and ‘Dirty Grandpa’ and by the book thrillers.
While it only just managed at the box office to recoup half of its budget, 'We're No Angels' was by no means a creative dud nor was it an artistic success. But there are enough elements in it, however, to keep you interested, including how Jordan weaves in and works out his obsession with secret identities and religion.
THE MIRACLE (1991)
After their first foray in the Hollywood studio system, Jordan and Woolley returned to home turf with this coming of age tale set in his adopted home town of Bray.
Newcomers Niall Byrne and Lorraine Pilkington play two bored teenage friends, Jimmy and Rose who pass the time, making up stories about strangers they see passing through the seaside town.
One day, they spot Beverly D'Angelo's stylish Renee Baker, an American who turns up in Bray and stands out from the norm, and they begin to follow her until she catches them.
In yet another knowing nod to James Stewart's character in Hitchcock's 'Vertigo', Jimmy, a talented saxophonist, in particular, becomes infatuated with her much to the annoyance of Rose. But all is not what it seems.
Written by Jordan, this modest movie tackles big themes (sex, identity and religion) and is enlivened by some strong performances - most notably Pilkington, D'Angelo and Donal McCann as Jimmy's alcoholic musician father, even if Niall Byrne's performance is a little awkward.
Very much in the tradition of European cinema (the great Italian filmmakers Bernardo Bertolucci and Federico Fellini, in particular) and heavily laden with symbolism, there are some nice leftfield touches like a circus contortionist picking up a rose with her teeth, her legs framing Jimmy as he plays his saxophone in the background and the camera rotating as Jimmy wakes up in a church only to find an elephant in the aisle.
This is one of Neil Jordan's most underrated films but it is sadly not available in this country on DVD.
THE CRYING GAME (1992)
Jordan and Woolley struck critical and commercial gold with the director's next venture, 'The Crying Game' and won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for one of the most talked about movies of the 1990s.
Stephen Rea returns as Fergus, a disillusioned gunman who is part of an IRA gang that kidnaps Forest Whittaker's British soldier, Jody. They forge a close bond while Fergus keeps him captive but when Jody loses his life during an Army raid on the farmhouse where he is being kept prisoner, Rea's character flees to London and assumes a new identity in order to honour a promise to the soldier to protect his "girlfriend", Jaye Davidson's Dil.
There are shades of 'Vertigo' yet again as Fergus ingratiates himself into Dil's life, only to discover that Jody's lover is not what it seems. Fergus also has to struggle with his own dual identity when his IRA comrades - Miranda Richardson's tough Jude and Adrian Dunbar's leader Maguire, track him down and force him to take part in a plot to assassinate a prominent judge.
Stunningly original and narratively daring, Jordan's movie deservedly landed Rea and Davidson Academy Award nominations but featured a gaggle of strong supporting performances from Dunbar, Richardson, Jim Broadbent, Tony Slattery, Ralph Brown and Whittaker (despite his wobbly London accent).
It also benefits from Ian Wilson's smart cinematography, Kant Pan's intelligent editing and a narrative twist that made it the sensation it was at the box office.
Jordan and Woolley returned two years later with this stunning exploration of London's seedy underworld with a particular focus on the sex trade in a movie that at times recalled Martin Scorsese's cult classic, 'Taxi Driver'.
Bob Hoskins plays George, recently released from jail and estranged from his wife and teenage daughter, who through his underworld connections lands a job as a chauffeur for Cathy Tyson's high class escort, Simone.
As George and Simone get to know each other, he becomes increasingly disturbed by the trade she is involved in and protective of her which brings him inevitably into conflict with Michael Caine's menacing and manipulative Soho nightclub owner, Denny Mortwell.
London and Brighton have never seemed so creepy, thanks to Jordan's tough yet compassionate screenplay, Roger Pratt's deft cinematography and Lesley Walker's clever editing.
Bob Hoskins was deservedly Oscar nominated for his hugely appealing performance as George (losing out to Paul Newman for Scorsese's 'The Color of Money') but Cathy Tyson is also hugely impressive in what is a challenging role. Michael Caine has rarely been more disturbing in a brilliantly judged supporting performance.
The shadows of Alfred Hitchcock's tale of obsession, 'Vertigo' and the Boulting Brothers' 'Brighton Rock' loom large in this film which also featured a delightful performance by Robbie Coltrane as George's best mate and strong but unsettling performances by Sammi Davis and Kate Hardie as prostitutes snared in the sex trade.
It is, quite simply, one of the best British films of the 1980s.
The director's follow-up to 'Mona Lisa' was a disaster, as he tried to switch tone with this zany farce set in a decrepit Co Limerick castle.
Working for Tri Star Pictures on what was then a decent $15.5 million budget, Jordan's first proper Hollywood film stars Peter O'Toole as Peter Plunkett who turns the castle into a bed and breakfast that the local villagers are heavily reliant on for employment.
In a ruse to attract more visitors, he markets the castle as "the most haunted castle in Europe ", only to discover, when American guests arrive, that it actually is.
Things become really complicated when two rowing ghosts (Liam Neeson sporting a dodgy hairdo and Daryl Hannah sporting a dodgy accent) fall in love with two of the guests (Beverly D'Angelo and Steve Guttenburg).
With a cast that also includes Donal McCann, Peter Gallagher, Jennifer Tilly, Connie Booth, Liz Smith, Ray McAnally and the singer Mary Coughlan, the film tries hard and fails spectacularly to wring laughs out of a really lame script.
'High Spirits' tanked at the box office, earned Hannah a Razzie nomination for Worst Supporting Actress and was a big fat blot on Jordan's copybook.
Neil Jordan stuck to comedy with this $20 million remake for Paramount Pictures of the 1955 caper movie about escaped convicts starring Humphrey Bogart, Aldo Ray and Peter Ustinov.
In Jordan's version, Robert de Niro's Ned and Sean Penn's Jim are both small time crooks with thick New York accents who inadvertently get caught up in a breakout from a tough prison run by Ray McAnally's sadistic warden.
The escaped convicts end up in a town near the Canadian border, where they are mistaken for Catholic theologians after they steal priests' clothes from a washing line to hide their identity.
Ned is attracted to Demi Moore's hard bitten single mother, Molly while Jim enjoys his new spiritual role but with the warden closing in and James Russo's vicious escaped convict Bobby threatening to blow their cover unless they smuggle him over the border, their double lives threaten to crash all around them.
With a screenplay by the acclaimed playwright David Mamet and wonderful cinematography by Philippe Rousselot, Jordan's uneven Great Depression comedy does have some powerful set pieces in it including a prison escape that recalls the Warner Brothers gangster flicks of the 1940s and a stunning climax set around a religious procession.
Penn impresses as Jim and there are fine comic turns by John C Reilly as a naive and starstruck Monk, Wallace Shawn as a cranky translator for an Eastern European bishop who suspects Ned and Jim are not what they seem, as well as strong performances by Moore, McAnally and Russo.
De Niro, however, is the real let down, with a mannered performance that consists of relentless mugging to the camera - unfortunately it was the shape of things to come in a career that has been marred by a series of lazy turns in big screen comedies like ‘Meet The Parents’, ‘The Intern’ and ‘Dirty Grandpa’ and by the book thrillers.
While it only just managed at the box office to recoup half of its budget, 'We're No Angels' was by no means a creative dud nor was it an artistic success. But there are enough elements in it, however, to keep you interested, including how Jordan weaves in and works out his obsession with secret identities and religion.
After their first foray in the Hollywood studio system, Jordan and Woolley returned to home turf with this coming of age tale set in his adopted home town of Bray.
Newcomers Niall Byrne and Lorraine Pilkington play two bored teenage friends, Jimmy and Rose who pass the time, making up stories about strangers they see passing through the seaside town.
One day, they spot Beverly D'Angelo's stylish Renee Baker, an American who turns up in Bray and stands out from the norm, and they begin to follow her until she catches them.
In yet another knowing nod to James Stewart's character in Hitchcock's 'Vertigo', Jimmy, a talented saxophonist, in particular, becomes infatuated with her much to the annoyance of Rose. But all is not what it seems.
Written by Jordan, this modest movie tackles big themes (sex, identity and religion) and is enlivened by some strong performances - most notably Pilkington, D'Angelo and Donal McCann as Jimmy's alcoholic musician father, even if Niall Byrne's performance is a little awkward.
Very much in the tradition of European cinema (the great Italian filmmakers Bernardo Bertolucci and Federico Fellini, in particular) and heavily laden with symbolism, there are some nice leftfield touches like a circus contortionist picking up a rose with her teeth, her legs framing Jimmy as he plays his saxophone in the background and the camera rotating as Jimmy wakes up in a church only to find an elephant in the aisle.
This is one of Neil Jordan's most underrated films but it is sadly not available in this country on DVD.
Jordan and Woolley struck critical and commercial gold with the director's next venture, 'The Crying Game' and won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for one of the most talked about movies of the 1990s.
Stephen Rea returns as Fergus, a disillusioned gunman who is part of an IRA gang that kidnaps Forest Whittaker's British soldier, Jody. They forge a close bond while Fergus keeps him captive but when Jody loses his life during an Army raid on the farmhouse where he is being kept prisoner, Rea's character flees to London and assumes a new identity in order to honour a promise to the soldier to protect his "girlfriend", Jaye Davidson's Dil.
There are shades of 'Vertigo' yet again as Fergus ingratiates himself into Dil's life, only to discover that Jody's lover is not what it seems. Fergus also has to struggle with his own dual identity when his IRA comrades - Miranda Richardson's tough Jude and Adrian Dunbar's leader Maguire, track him down and force him to take part in a plot to assassinate a prominent judge.
Stunningly original and narratively daring, Jordan's movie deservedly landed Rea and Davidson Academy Award nominations but featured a gaggle of strong supporting performances from Dunbar, Richardson, Jim Broadbent, Tony Slattery, Ralph Brown and Whittaker (despite his wobbly London accent).
It also benefits from Ian Wilson's smart cinematography, Kant Pan's intelligent editing and a narrative twist that made it the sensation it was at the box office.
Despite tanking on its release in the UK (where Jordan believes its Troubles setting was off putting), this $3 million movie became an arthouse hit in the US and other international markets and made $60 million, rekindling Hollywood interest in the director once again.
INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE (1994)
Jordan and Woolley teamed up with veteran record producer David Geffen for a movie adaptation of Anne Rice's cult homo-erotic vampire novel.
The movie had a troubled history with Julian Sands being elbowed aside for a more bankable Hollywood name for the role of the charismatic New Orleans vampire Lestat and River Phoenix having to be replaced by Christian Slater as the reporter Daniel Molloy, after he died from a drug overdose outside The Viper Room nightclub in Los Angeles just four weeks before shooting was due to commence.
One of Hollywood's biggest stars, Tom Cruise was cast as Lestat who turns Brad Pitt's Louis into a vampire. Together they raise a girl they have also turned into a vampire, Kirsten Dundst's Claudia.
When Louis and Claudia fall out with Lestat over the fact that she will never grow up to be a vampire woman, they attempt to escape him by murdering him in a fire. Louis and Claudia flee to Paris where they encounter a sinister vampire subculture headed by Antonio Banderas's Armand and Stephen Rea's Santiago.
'Interview with the Vampire' was Jordan's biggest commercial success, returning $233 million in box office receipts on a budget of $60 million.
With its lavish sets and costumes and Philippe Rousselot's gorgeous cinematography, it is a feast for the eyes which evokes imagery from classic films like FW Murnau's 'Sunrise' and 'Nosferatu' but curiously it is one of the slightest movies in Jordan's canon.
Its huge box office success, however, paved the way for one of Neil Jordan's most treasured projects, the biopic 'Michael Collins'.
MICHAEL COLLINS (1996)
In the wake of the IRA and loyalist ceasefires, David Geffen and Warner Brothers gave the green light to Jordan's ambitious historical epic about the 1920s IRA leader, Michael Collins.
In the wake of the IRA and loyalist ceasefires, David Geffen and Warner Brothers gave the green light to Jordan's ambitious historical epic about the 1920s IRA leader, Michael Collins.
Hollywood had for a long time toyed with the idea of Collins' biopic, with Eoghan Harris working on a screenplay with Michael Cimmino of 'The Deer Hunter' for Gabriel Byrne and Kevin Costner also interested at one stage and even scouting locations.
However, emboldened by his recent box office successes, Jordan cast Liam Neeson as Collins (fresh from his success with Steven Spielberg's 'Schinder's List'), Alan Rickman as Eamon de Valera, Julia Roberts as the hero's love interest Kitty Kiernan, Aidan Quinn as Harry Boland and Stephen Rea as Ned Broy, an IRA intelligence gatherer working in Dublin Castle.
Inevitably, with emotions still raw about the Troubles in Northern Ireland, Jordan's screenplay did come under fire in some quarters for taking liberties with historical fact but the fact is it is a handsome biopic that is beautifully filmed by Chris Menges and astutely edited by Tony Lawson and J Patrick Duffner.
Liam Neeson is magnetic in the lead role and is complemented by Stephen Rea's intelligent performance as Broy, Ian Hart as Joe O'Reilly, Gerard McSorley as Cathal Brugha, Aidan Quinn as Boland, Brendan Gleeson as Liam Tobin, Sean McGinley and Gary Whelan as RIC detectives, Charles Dance as the British intelligence head Soames, newcomer Jonathan Rhys Myers turn as an anti-Treaty gunman and Alan Rickman's mannered turn as Dev.
The story is expertly handled with some memorable set pieces - the IRA's execution of the Cairo Gang as Collins and Kitty Kiernan languish in a hotel suite is powerfully portrayed with a montage of killings reminiscent of Coppola's 'The Godfather'. The pursuit of Harry Boland through the Dublin sewers when Civil War breaks out is heartbreaking and the final sequences of Collins’ fateful trip to West Cork are hugely affecting.
Jordan makes no bones that his sympathies lie with Collins and not Dev but despite winning a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival as well as Best Actor, his film failed to ignite at the box office or garner Oscar nominations and only made slightly more than its $25 million budget.
THE BUTCHER BOY (1997)
The director's next venture was a bold adaptation of Patrick McCabe's disturbing but riproaringly funny Booker Prize shortlisted novel 'The Butcher Boy'.
The director's next venture was a bold adaptation of Patrick McCabe's disturbing but riproaringly funny Booker Prize shortlisted novel 'The Butcher Boy'.
Newcomer Eamonn Owens is sensational as the delinquent Clones boy, Francie Brady in early 1960s Ireland, whose imagination runs wild with thoughts of aliens, Communists and nuclear explosions.
Unfortunately, Francie's parents have a turbulent marriage with his trumpet playing father Benny, played by Stephen Rea, resorting to the bottle and bouts of violence while his mother, played by Aisling O'Sullivan, is prone to obsessive compulsive behaviour and bouts of depression.
Against this mix, Francie becomes obsessed with Fiona Shaw's respectable Mrs Nugent, waging a personal vendetta against her and her high achieving son Philip (Andrew Fullerton) - an obsession that constantly lands him in trouble.
Arguably Jordan's strongest movie, it scooped the Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin Film Festival but had difficulty finding an audience outside arthouse cinemas despite some magnificent writing by Jordan and McCabe, ingenious editing by Tony Lawson and wonderful cinematography by Adrian Biddle.
The film lands some telling blows on pillars of small town Irish society - most notably the Catholic Church - and is very much in the tradition of great European films about growing pains. it recalls, in particular, Francois Truffaut's masterful Les Quatre Cent Coups (The 400 Blows).
As well as Owens' spellbinding lead performance as Francie, Rea and O'Sullivan are heartbreaking as his parents and there are wonderful supporting turns from Alan Boyle as Francie's close friend Joe Purcell, Ian Hart as Uncle Alo, Brendan Gleeson as Father Bubbles, Sinead O'Connor as the Virgin Mary, Sean McGinley as the local Garda Sergeant, a creepy Milo O'Shea as a paedophile priest and a wonderfully irreverent turn from Tom Hickey as a gardener.
Like the novel, Jordan's movie oscillates between laugh out loud sequences and moments of genuine horror as he delves into a very disturbed mind.
Against this mix, Francie becomes obsessed with Fiona Shaw's respectable Mrs Nugent, waging a personal vendetta against her and her high achieving son Philip (Andrew Fullerton) - an obsession that constantly lands him in trouble.
Arguably Jordan's strongest movie, it scooped the Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin Film Festival but had difficulty finding an audience outside arthouse cinemas despite some magnificent writing by Jordan and McCabe, ingenious editing by Tony Lawson and wonderful cinematography by Adrian Biddle.
The film lands some telling blows on pillars of small town Irish society - most notably the Catholic Church - and is very much in the tradition of great European films about growing pains. it recalls, in particular, Francois Truffaut's masterful Les Quatre Cent Coups (The 400 Blows).
As well as Owens' spellbinding lead performance as Francie, Rea and O'Sullivan are heartbreaking as his parents and there are wonderful supporting turns from Alan Boyle as Francie's close friend Joe Purcell, Ian Hart as Uncle Alo, Brendan Gleeson as Father Bubbles, Sinead O'Connor as the Virgin Mary, Sean McGinley as the local Garda Sergeant, a creepy Milo O'Shea as a paedophile priest and a wonderfully irreverent turn from Tom Hickey as a gardener.
Like the novel, Jordan's movie oscillates between laugh out loud sequences and moments of genuine horror as he delves into a very disturbed mind.
THE END OF THE AFFAIR (1999)
It was back to London for Neil Jordan for this exquisite adaptation of Graham Greene's classic 1951 novel about an adulterous Wartime affair.
Told in flashback, we see Ralph Fiennes' novelist Maurice Bendrix embark on a relationship during World War II with Julianne Moore's Sarah Miles who is married to Stephen Rea's buttoned up civil servant Henry.
Confiding in Bendrix that he believes Sarah is having an affair with someone, Henry asks Ian Hart's bumbling private detective Parkis to investigate.
It was back to London for Neil Jordan for this exquisite adaptation of Graham Greene's classic 1951 novel about an adulterous Wartime affair.
Told in flashback, we see Ralph Fiennes' novelist Maurice Bendrix embark on a relationship during World War II with Julianne Moore's Sarah Miles who is married to Stephen Rea's buttoned up civil servant Henry.
Confiding in Bendrix that he believes Sarah is having an affair with someone, Henry asks Ian Hart's bumbling private detective Parkis to investigate.
However Bendrix is rattled when he discovers that Sarah has also been secretly meeting a Catholic priest, Jason Isaac's Father Richard Smythe.
Gorgeously shot by cinematographer Roger Pratt who was Oscar nominated for his work, the film features a stirring musical score by Michael Nyman and again is intelligently edited by Tony Lawson.
Fiennes is suitably intense as Bendrix and Moore was deservedly Oscar nominated for her performance as the troubled Sarah.
Gorgeously shot by cinematographer Roger Pratt who was Oscar nominated for his work, the film features a stirring musical score by Michael Nyman and again is intelligently edited by Tony Lawson.
Fiennes is suitably intense as Bendrix and Moore was deservedly Oscar nominated for her performance as the troubled Sarah.
Rea also steikes the right note as Henry but there are pitch perfect performances too from Jason Isaacs, Ian Hart, James Bolam and Sam Bould as Parkis's birthmarked son, Lance.
Returning to his favourite themes of religion, sexual obsession and secret lives, Jordan picked up a BAFTA for Best Adapted Screenplay but was surprisingly overlooked in the Academy Award nominations in the Best Director and Adapted Screenplay categories.
The film, released by Columbia Pictures, deserved a better fate at the box office - not even managing to recoup half of its $25 million budget.
IN DREAMS (1999)
Jordan released a second film that year for Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment and Dreamworks Pictures - a disturbing psycho-thriller with echoes of 'Little Red Riding Hood' and the themes he first explored in 'The Company of Wolves'.
Annette Bening and Aidan Quinn play a couple who move to New England after difficulties in their marriage but their lives are turned upside own when their daughter is kidnapped during a school pageant and murdered.
Bening's character Claire is haunted a by premonitions about a serial killer, Robert Downey Jr's Vivian Thompson but as her behaviour grows increasingly frantic and erratic, she is committed to a psychiatric institution.
She escapes the institution after having more premonitions about Thompson's next victim and she goes to hunt him down before it is too late.
Working from a complex script penned with 'Withnail & I' director Bruce Robinson, Neil Jordan's movie is a head spinning cocktail of references to 'Little Red Riding Hood', ingredients from several Hitchcock movies ('Rebecca', 'Psycho', 'Marnie' all feature), horror movies (like 'The Omen' and 'The Eyes of Laura Mars') and Jordan's previous works ('Company of Wolves', 'The Crying Game', 'We're No Angels' and 'The Butcher Boy').
Rich in symbolism, there's the constant appearance of red apples throughout the movie which is beautifully filmed in autumnal colours by Iranian cinematographer Darius Khondji.
By no means perfect, the film is boosted by Bening's powerful central performance and she is ably supported by Aidan Quinn, Stephen Rea and Dennis Boutsikaris as psychiatric doctors and Paul Guilfoyle as a detective.
However, the film's biggest weakness is Robert Downey Jr's undisciplined, over the top performance as Vivian Thompson which unhinges what is otherwise a challenging and interesting dark film.
Jordan released a second film that year for Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment and Dreamworks Pictures - a disturbing psycho-thriller with echoes of 'Little Red Riding Hood' and the themes he first explored in 'The Company of Wolves'.
Annette Bening and Aidan Quinn play a couple who move to New England after difficulties in their marriage but their lives are turned upside own when their daughter is kidnapped during a school pageant and murdered.
Bening's character Claire is haunted a by premonitions about a serial killer, Robert Downey Jr's Vivian Thompson but as her behaviour grows increasingly frantic and erratic, she is committed to a psychiatric institution.
She escapes the institution after having more premonitions about Thompson's next victim and she goes to hunt him down before it is too late.
Working from a complex script penned with 'Withnail & I' director Bruce Robinson, Neil Jordan's movie is a head spinning cocktail of references to 'Little Red Riding Hood', ingredients from several Hitchcock movies ('Rebecca', 'Psycho', 'Marnie' all feature), horror movies (like 'The Omen' and 'The Eyes of Laura Mars') and Jordan's previous works ('Company of Wolves', 'The Crying Game', 'We're No Angels' and 'The Butcher Boy').
Rich in symbolism, there's the constant appearance of red apples throughout the movie which is beautifully filmed in autumnal colours by Iranian cinematographer Darius Khondji.
By no means perfect, the film is boosted by Bening's powerful central performance and she is ably supported by Aidan Quinn, Stephen Rea and Dennis Boutsikaris as psychiatric doctors and Paul Guilfoyle as a detective.
However, the film's biggest weakness is Robert Downey Jr's undisciplined, over the top performance as Vivian Thompson which unhinges what is otherwise a challenging and interesting dark film.
Made for $30 million, 'In Dreams' struggled critically and commercially - taking just $12 million at the box office.
THE GOOD THIEF (2002)
Jordan relocated to the South of France for his next movie for a remake of Jean Pierre Melville's 1951 cult gangster film 'Bob Le Flambeur' (which also influenced Steven Soderbergh's 'Ocean's Eleven' series of movies).
Nick Nolte is perfectly cast as a heroin addicted down at heel gambler with a good heart who is involved in a plot to rob paintings from a casino that involves two heists - one real and one not.
He assembles a team comprising of Serb director Emir Kusturica's Vladimir, Said Taghmaoui's Paolo and Gerard Darmon's Raoul, Ouassini Embarek's former drug dealer Said, Nutsa Kukhianidze's former prostitute Anne and Mark and Michael Polish's identical twins, Albert and Bertram.
He plans the heist under the nose of Tcheky Karyo's detective Roger who likes Bob and would rather prevent the robbery than arrest him.
Ralph Fiennes also turns up as a menacing art dealer in a feature that is stylishly shot by Chris Menges, beautifully adapted by Jordan with a witty script and delightfully acted by its international cast.
Jordan relocated to the South of France for his next movie for a remake of Jean Pierre Melville's 1951 cult gangster film 'Bob Le Flambeur' (which also influenced Steven Soderbergh's 'Ocean's Eleven' series of movies).
Nick Nolte is perfectly cast as a heroin addicted down at heel gambler with a good heart who is involved in a plot to rob paintings from a casino that involves two heists - one real and one not.
He assembles a team comprising of Serb director Emir Kusturica's Vladimir, Said Taghmaoui's Paolo and Gerard Darmon's Raoul, Ouassini Embarek's former drug dealer Said, Nutsa Kukhianidze's former prostitute Anne and Mark and Michael Polish's identical twins, Albert and Bertram.
He plans the heist under the nose of Tcheky Karyo's detective Roger who likes Bob and would rather prevent the robbery than arrest him.
Ralph Fiennes also turns up as a menacing art dealer in a feature that is stylishly shot by Chris Menges, beautifully adapted by Jordan with a witty script and delightfully acted by its international cast.
Nolte courted controversy by claiming that he took heroin before going to work on set.
But despite being critically well received, the $30 million film continued Jordan's downward spiral commercially - falling short of returning even a fifth of its investment.
BREAKFAST ON PLUTO (2005)
It was back on home turf for Jordan and Woolley's next collaboration, with an adaptation of Patrick McCabe's darkly comic Booker Prize 1998 shortlisted novel.
It's not hard to understand why Neil Jordan was drawn to teaming up again with McCabe on a screen adaptation of 'Breakfast On Pluto' - it had the same irreverent tone towards smalltown Irish values and the Catholic Church as 'The Butcher Boy' and Jordan's 'The Miracle' and it touched on the themes of sexual identity and the Troubles that were in 'The Crying Game' as well as the sex trade that featured in 'Mona Lisa'.
In a Golden Globe nominated performance, Cillian Murphy is terrific as the transgender Patrick 'Kitten' Braden from a borderland town who was abandoned as a baby by his/her mother on the steps of the parochial house of a priest who may be his/her father (played by Liam Neeson).
Raised by an unloving foster mother, Kitten gets into trouble at school for speculating that he/she may have been the result of an affair between Father Liam and his young housekeeper, Elly Bergin (played by Eva Birthistle). Kitten runs away with a glam rock band, fronted by Gavin Friday's Billy Hatchet, who is a gunrunner for the IRA which some of Kitten's childhood friends are now involved with.
When Kitten falls foul of the IRA for disposing of a weapons cache, he/she flees to London embarking on a fruitless search for his/her mother - initially getting a job as a Womble, as a magician's assistant but then sliding into prostitution.
It was back on home turf for Jordan and Woolley's next collaboration, with an adaptation of Patrick McCabe's darkly comic Booker Prize 1998 shortlisted novel.
It's not hard to understand why Neil Jordan was drawn to teaming up again with McCabe on a screen adaptation of 'Breakfast On Pluto' - it had the same irreverent tone towards smalltown Irish values and the Catholic Church as 'The Butcher Boy' and Jordan's 'The Miracle' and it touched on the themes of sexual identity and the Troubles that were in 'The Crying Game' as well as the sex trade that featured in 'Mona Lisa'.
In a Golden Globe nominated performance, Cillian Murphy is terrific as the transgender Patrick 'Kitten' Braden from a borderland town who was abandoned as a baby by his/her mother on the steps of the parochial house of a priest who may be his/her father (played by Liam Neeson).
Raised by an unloving foster mother, Kitten gets into trouble at school for speculating that he/she may have been the result of an affair between Father Liam and his young housekeeper, Elly Bergin (played by Eva Birthistle). Kitten runs away with a glam rock band, fronted by Gavin Friday's Billy Hatchet, who is a gunrunner for the IRA which some of Kitten's childhood friends are now involved with.
When Kitten falls foul of the IRA for disposing of a weapons cache, he/she flees to London embarking on a fruitless search for his/her mother - initially getting a job as a Womble, as a magician's assistant but then sliding into prostitution.
The film is packed with wonderful performances from Neeson's good priest to Brendan Gleeson's big hearted ex-pat, John-Joe, Stephen Rea's magician Bertie to Gavin Friday's rock star Billy, Eva Birthistle's Elly to Ruth Negga and Laurence Kinlan as his childhood friends, Charlie and Irwin, Ruth McCabe as Ma Braden, Liam Cunningham as a biker, Dominic Cooper as a squaddie and Ian Hart as a detective.
Shot in Dublin and Belfast (where the Frames snooker club is used to double for a London nightclub), 'Breakfast On Pluto' was well received by critics but was always going to be too complex and challenging to be a box office hit.
THE BRAVE ONE (2007)
Jordan and Woolley parted ways as the director teamed up with action producer Joel Silver and Susan Downey for this stylish thriller about a New Yorker who is traumatised when she and her fiancé are attacked while walking their dog near Central Park.
Jodie Foster plays talk radio host Erica Bain who purchases a gun after her fiancé David, played by Naveen Andrews, dies.
Jordan and Woolley parted ways as the director teamed up with action producer Joel Silver and Susan Downey for this stylish thriller about a New Yorker who is traumatised when she and her fiancé are attacked while walking their dog near Central Park.
Jodie Foster plays talk radio host Erica Bain who purchases a gun after her fiancé David, played by Naveen Andrews, dies.
Erica soon finds herself confronting and killing the perpetrators of violent incidents she stumbles across in the city while at the same time trying to hunt down those that killed her fiancé and avenge his murder.
Working from a decent script by Cynthia Mort, Roderick and Bruce A Taylor, the movie and Foster's Erica in particular echo the trauma suffered and the compulsion for vengeance previously seen in Jordan's debut movie 'Angel'.
The film is also reminiscent of Travis Bickle in Scorsese's 'Taxi Driver', which featured Foster as underage prostitute, with Erica in one sequence rescuing a prostitute from a violent pimp - a moment which has shades of 'Mona Lisa' as well.
Foster's performance dominates the movie but is nicely counterbalanced by Terrence Howard as Detective Mercer who is assigned to the investigation into the mugging that killed David and who befriends her.
Working from a decent script by Cynthia Mort, Roderick and Bruce A Taylor, the movie and Foster's Erica in particular echo the trauma suffered and the compulsion for vengeance previously seen in Jordan's debut movie 'Angel'.
The film is also reminiscent of Travis Bickle in Scorsese's 'Taxi Driver', which featured Foster as underage prostitute, with Erica in one sequence rescuing a prostitute from a violent pimp - a moment which has shades of 'Mona Lisa' as well.
Foster's performance dominates the movie but is nicely counterbalanced by Terrence Howard as Detective Mercer who is assigned to the investigation into the mugging that killed David and who befriends her.
The director keeps us on the edge of our seats as to how Erica will be able to reconcile her double life and also her feelings about the mounting body count she leaves in her wake.
The film performed creditably at the box office, making back its $70 million budget but it attracted mixed reviews despite Foster picking up a Golden Globe nomination for her performance.
The film performed creditably at the box office, making back its $70 million budget but it attracted mixed reviews despite Foster picking up a Golden Globe nomination for her performance.
ONDINE (2009)
Jordan's follow-up was back in his homeland, with Colin Farrell on board as Syracuse, a recovering alcoholic and down on his luck fisherman in Co Cork, whose daughter Annie (played by newcomer Alison Barry) is confined to a wheelchair and suffers from kidney failure.
Separated from his wife Maura, played by Dervla Kirwan, Syracuse one day encounters in his fishing net a disorientated young Romanian girl, Alicja Bachleda's Ondine who appears to have been working as a drug mule.
Initially Ondine brings him good luck at sea and the two become romantically drawn to each other but Annie believes she may be a selkie, a mythical seal who turns into a human.
Online and Syracuse's happiness, however, is put at risk by a sinister man who she was working for who hangs around the docks.
Written by Jordan and exquisitely shot in dark, lush colours by Christopher Doyle, 'Ondine' is a beguiling adult fairytale powered by Farrell and Bachleda's spirited and engaging performances and there is a delightful interplay between the lead actor and Alison Barry as Annie.
In his 11th screen collaboration with the director, Stephen Rea shows a deft comic touch in his scenes as the local parish priest with Farrell and there are decent turns too from Kirwan, Don Wycherley and Emil Hostina as Vladic.
With a soundtrack featuring Icelandic band Sigur Ross and Lisa Hannigan, 'Ondine' is a modest, whimsical film that draws on Jordan's fascination with dual identities and mythology but turns into a darker thriller in its final third, evoking the same sense of threat to its protagonists as those in 'Mona Lisa' and 'The Crying Game'.
Jordan's follow-up was back in his homeland, with Colin Farrell on board as Syracuse, a recovering alcoholic and down on his luck fisherman in Co Cork, whose daughter Annie (played by newcomer Alison Barry) is confined to a wheelchair and suffers from kidney failure.
Separated from his wife Maura, played by Dervla Kirwan, Syracuse one day encounters in his fishing net a disorientated young Romanian girl, Alicja Bachleda's Ondine who appears to have been working as a drug mule.
Initially Ondine brings him good luck at sea and the two become romantically drawn to each other but Annie believes she may be a selkie, a mythical seal who turns into a human.
Online and Syracuse's happiness, however, is put at risk by a sinister man who she was working for who hangs around the docks.
Written by Jordan and exquisitely shot in dark, lush colours by Christopher Doyle, 'Ondine' is a beguiling adult fairytale powered by Farrell and Bachleda's spirited and engaging performances and there is a delightful interplay between the lead actor and Alison Barry as Annie.
In his 11th screen collaboration with the director, Stephen Rea shows a deft comic touch in his scenes as the local parish priest with Farrell and there are decent turns too from Kirwan, Don Wycherley and Emil Hostina as Vladic.
With a soundtrack featuring Icelandic band Sigur Ross and Lisa Hannigan, 'Ondine' is a modest, whimsical film that draws on Jordan's fascination with dual identities and mythology but turns into a darker thriller in its final third, evoking the same sense of threat to its protagonists as those in 'Mona Lisa' and 'The Crying Game'.
(This retrospective of the work of Neil Jordan originally appeared on Eamonnmallie.com on May 30, 2013)
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