A TITANIC WEEKEND (A NIGHT TO REMEMBER)

Today is my birthday.

But given the weekend that's in it, it has inevitably become a bit of Titanic themed birthday.

It began on Friday with the visit by China's most senior politician, State Councilor Madame Liu Yandong to the University of Ulster at Jordanstown to officially launch Northern Ireland's only Confucius Institute.

During a colourful opening ceremony, there was a barnstorming performance of the Celine Dion song 'My Heart Will Go On', from James Cameron's 'Titanic' movie, sung by University of Ulster choir member Zoe Thomas in English and Mandarin Chinese.

Later, my wife Gail and I attended the penultimate night of Rosemary Jenkinson's play 'White Star of the North' at the Lyric Theatre, viewing the events of 1912 from the perspective of a damaged Unionist family.

An uneven, yet at times powerful play, Jenkinson's characters wrestle with the paranoia that gripped unionists in Belfast around Irish Home Rule and has a son and daughter packed off to America on the ill fated voyage.

One of them survives and the other perishes in a play which bravely questions some of the myths around the disaster.

Later, I will make a family pilgrimage today to the iconic Titanic Signature Building.

But sandwiched in between was a drive-in movie screening last night on the Castleward estate of Roy Ward Baker's 1958 classic movie about the tragedy, 'A Night to Remember'.

The drive-in movie experience is not new to Northern Ireland but is an American phenomenon, dating back to 1932.

Chemical magnate Richard M Hollingshead Jr is credited with coming up with the idea in the driveway of his home in Camden, New Jersey.

After a couple of experiments, he patented the idea and opened the first drive-in theatre in May 1933 in Pennsauken, New Jersey. The first film shown was Fred Niblo's romantic comedy 'Wives Beware' starring Pennsylvanian actor Adolphe Menjou, whose mother hailed from Galway.

Drive-ins became a staple in the United States, offering a moviegoing experience for families and lovestruck teenagers.

In their heyday, there were 5,000 drive-in theatres across the US, showing mostly B movies and while its popularity waned, a tenth remain to this day.

In this part of the world, however, drive-ins have always been a curio but full credit to the National Trust and the Iveagh Movies Studio in Banbridge for trying to revive the art form with a series of screenings this spring in the spectacular Castleward estate.

Last night, they created a magical movie night with a screening of the best movie ever to be made about Titanic, 'A Night to Remember'.

The movie, screened on BBC2 later today, stars Kenneth More as a Second Officer Charles Lightoller and remains to this day a remarkable docudrama.

Based on the book by Walter Lord, it was produced by Belfast man William MacQuitty, who witnessed as a child the Titanic being launched in Harland and Wolff Shipyard in May 1911.

Despite 'A Night to Remember's' modest budget, MacQuitty and Ward Baker drew on the expertise and experiences of Fourth Officer Joseph Boxall and the Commodore of the Cunard, Harry Grattidge.

It is this attention to detail which makes 'A Night to Remember' a classic of post-war British cinema.

There is no overblown 'Gone With the Wind' romance at the heart of Ward Baker's film unlike James Cameron's Oscar garlanded 1997 movie starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo di Caprio.

There is no ridiculous goodie versus baddie shootout like Cameron's film which pitches di Caprio's Jack Dawson against Billy Zane's pantomime villain Cal Hockley.

Rather you have a series of touching vignettes - the horror of Captain Edward J Smith (Laurence Naismith) and Thomas Andrews (Michael Goodliffe) as they realise the unsinkable vessel is going to sink, comic actor George Rose's chief baker drinking himself stupid, Helen Misener's Ida Strauss opting to drown on the ship with her husband, a newly married couple (Honor Blackman and John Merivale) being advised by Thomas Andrews on how to escape, a little boy in the desperate final moments searching for his mummy.

Ward Baker's movie also contains a lot of anger at a class system which pens some of the passengers away from the lifeboats.

And there is the hopelessness of the vessel, the Carpathian's desperate dash to rescue Titanic passengers while just 10 miles from the tragedy, the crew of the Californian fail to grasp what is going on.

And while it may not boast Cameron's groundbreaking visual effects, 'A Night to Remember' boasts some sharp cinematography by Geoffrey Unsworth and smart film editing by Sidney Hayers.

The movie not only features Honor Blackman but rising stars, David McCallum as an assistant wireless operator and in an uncredited role Sean Connery as a crewman.

And for those of sitting in our cars in the spectacular Castleward estate, there was the pleasure of watching one of Northern Ireland's greatest character actors Joseph Tomelty, who hailed from Portaferry across Strangford Lough, as Dr William O'Loughlin.

With Kenneth More's assured lead performance anchoring, if you pardon the expression, Ward Baker's movie, last night's screening exactly 100 years to the night the Titanic sank will not be forgotten by those who attended it.

And it has persuaded this film buff to give the drive-in another go.

(This review originally appeared on Eamonnmallie.com on April 15, 2012)