Wednesday 27 April 2022

Belfast (2021 Kenneth Branagh & scr)

Ken's tender and tough treatment of his own childhood in the turbulent Belfast of the 1970s. The boy playing him is Jude Hill. (A sequel, how they get on in England, would also be interesting.) Caitriona Balfe, Jamie Dornan, Judi Dench, Ciaran Hinds, Michael Maloney, Colin Morgan.

Good use of sound, Simon Chase and James Mather (e.g. in opening mob attack). Music throughout from Van Morrison. Photographed in high contrast by Haris Zambarloukos. Editor Una Ni Dhonghaile (Misbehaviour, Stan and Ollie, Death on the Nile) is interviewed here. She was the BFE Cut Above award for this.

There's a good feel for the smallness of houses, that characters occupy the same frame though aren't necessarily in the same scene.

Dedicated to John Sessions, who has a small role as an actor. And we see Turlough Convery (Sanditon) again as the minister.



"Go."

Won Oscar for best screenplay and BAFTA for best British Film. Very successful.

"There were no roads to Shangri-La from our part of Belfast."

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