JANUARY 2016

ROOM

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THE IRISHFILM INSTITUTE

EXHIBITPRESERVEEDUCATE

The Irish Film Institute is Ireland’s national cultural institution for film. It aims to exhibit the finest in independent, Irish and international cinema, preserve Ireland’s moving image heritage at the IFI Irish Film Archive, and encourage engagement with film through its various educational programmes.

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We kick off 2016’s Feast Your Eyes strand – pairing a new release with a delicious main course in the IFI Café Bar afterwards – with Tom Hooper’s (The King’s Speech) beautifully composed biopic of Danish artist Einar Wegener, played by Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything). See p5 for film notes. Join us at 18.30 on Tuesday, January 12th for this screening followed by a specially devised menu of main courses, for just €20.

Our French Film Club screening – where IFI and Alliance Française members pay just €7 a ticket – on January 5th at 18.30 is the re-issue of Jean-Luc Godard’s masterpiece, Le Mépris (1963) starring Brigitte Bardot and Michel Piccoli and based on the Italian novel, A Ghost at Noon by Alberto Moravia. See p6 for film notes. To join the IFI French Film Club, simply ask to sign up at the IFI Box Office. Please visit www.ifi.ie for further details.

FRENCH FILM CLUB

Love film? Love to write about film? The Pete Walsh Critical Writing Award will be given for an exceptional piece of critical writing on any one film theatrically screened in Ireland during 2015. The annual prize, inspired by the late, esteemed IFI programmer, Pete Walsh, focuses on film appreciation and criticism rather than academic analysis. The winner receives a year’s free entry to films at the IFI, will be announced in the IFI monthly programme, and their article published in full on the IFI website. Closing date for entry is February 29th 2016. Please see www.ifi.ie for more details.

FEAST YOUR EYES

The IFI will mark the 1916 Centenary with ‘Appraising the Uprising’, a broad-ranging series of film programmes at the IFI, throughout Ireland and abroad in 2016. We will present a range of film programmes that reflect the evolution of Ireland as an independent state since 1916, and will draw on contemporary and archival materials from the IFI Irish Film Archive and repatriated from overseas archives – indigenous and foreign, fictional and factual – to enhance audiences’ understanding of Ireland and the history that has shaped it. Please see www.ifi.ie for more details of the events.

AWARD 1916 CENTENARY

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DIRECTOR’S NOTE

JANUARYAT THE IFI

This January the IFI programme features some of the most hotly anticipated films of the year as we gear up for the annual awards season.

We have some exciting and ambitious plans for the IFI in 2016 with initiatives planned across our three core activities of exhibition, preservation and education. In the coming weeks, we will be announcing details of the IFI 2016 Programme with information on some of your favourite events and festivals, alongside some brand new programming initiatives and strands. We hope you’ll be as excited about our ideas as we are.

We’re delighted with the success of Irish film across the awards season this year with both Room and Brooklyn already having picked up numerous prizes and nominations. We’re particularly pleased that Lenny Abrahamson’s latest film Room (opening at IFI on January 15th) has been nominated for three Globe Awards including Best Motion Picture Drama, Best Actress for Brie Larson and Best Screenplay for Emma Donoghue. Saoirse Ronan has already been honoured with the Best Actress trophy at the British Independent Film Awards and the New Hollywood Award at the Hollywood Film Awards for her starring role in Brooklyn which we screened at IFI in November, and now she adds her second Golden Globe nomination for her breathtaking lead performance in this beautifully crafted and moving feature. Michael Fassbender has also picked up his third Golden Globe nomination, this time for the title role in Steve Jobs, which also screened here in late 2015. We’re keeping everything crossed for them all!

At the time of going to print, many of our other forthcoming titles have also been shortlisted for Golden Globes. The Revenant, Spotlight and Joy are all nominated for Best Motion Picture in the Drama or Comedy/Musical categories, while there are Best Director nods for both Tom McCarthy (Spotlight) and Alejandro González Iñárritu (for the second year running) for The Revenant. It’s also a month of spellbinding performances with acting nominations for

Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl), Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant), Jennifer Lawrence (Joy) and Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight). Be sure to catch their turns on the big screen at the IFI in January.

IFI Education will also have a busy year in 2016. January will see the launch of the next Schools’ Programme with screenings planned nationwide until the end of the academic year. Our educational activities don’t stop with schoolchildren however, and the Spring IFI Evening Course will be announced soon, due to commence in March.

We will also be running our annual competition for the Pete Walsh Critical Writing Award, in memory of our late esteemed colleague, Pete Walsh, who was IFI Programmer for 18 years and passed away in 2012. It will be awarded to the author of an outstanding piece of critical writing on any one film theatrically screened in Ireland during 2015. The winner receives a year’s free entry to films at the IFI, they will be mentioned as winner in the IFI monthly programme, and published in full on the IFI website. For more details, see www.ifi.ie

2016 is certainly shaping up to be a busy one for us here at IFI. I’d like to take this opportunity to wish all of our patrons and supporters a happy new year.

Ross Keane Director

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NEW RELEASES, IFI DOCS & IFI CLASSICS

SEASONS & EVENTS CALENDAR

For a breakdown of times and dates of IFI New Releases, IFI Docs & IFI Classics, check out our weekly schedule on www.ifi.ie/weekly-schedule or the IFI ads in The Irish Times on Fridays and Saturdays. You can also sign up to receive our weekly ezine by joining at www.ifi.ie/signup.

TIMES

Excited about this month’s programme? So are we! Tell your friends which film you’re planning to watch, share your movie reviews and show us your best pics on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook!Join the IFI Community online:

@IFI_Dub

@IrishFilmInstitute

@IrishFilmInstitute

GET SOCIAL!

THE DANISH GIRL OPENS JAN 2ND JOY OPENS JAN 2NDLE MÉPRIS OPENS JAN 2NDLAST HIJACK OPENS JAN 7THBOLSHOI BABYLON OPENS JAN 8THTHE HATEFUL EIGHT OPENS JAN 8THTHE REVENANT OPENS JAN 15THROOM OPENS JAN 15THTHE ASSASSIN OPENS JAN 22ND OUR BRAND IS CRISIS OPENS JAN 22NDSPOTLIGHT OPENS JAN 29TH YOUTH OPENS JAN 29TH

DATE SCREENING TIME

1ST FRI

CINEMAS CLOSED

2ND SAT

IFI & FIRST FORTNIGHT: GABRIEL + DISCUSSION 16.00

5TH TUES

IFI FRENCH FILM CLUB: LE MÉPRIS 18.30

6TH WED

FROM THE VAULTS: THE DEADIFI CAFÉ BAR PUB QUIZ (FREE EVENT)

18.3021.30

7THTHURS

LAST HIJACK (PREVIEW) + DIRECTOR Q&A 20:30

9TH SAT

IFI & FIRST FORTNIGHT: MEDICATED MILK 12.00

12TH TUES

FEAST YOUR EYES: THE DANISH GIRL 18.30

13TH WED

IRISH FOCUS: SHEM THE PENMAN SINGS AGAIN

18.30

18TH MON

THE BIGGER PICTURE: ALIEN 18.30

20TH WED

IFI & AEMI PROJECTIONS: SELECTIONS FROM THE FIVE YEAR DIARY – FILMS BY ANNE CHARLOTTE ROBERTSON

18.30

23RD SAT

IFI & IMMA: L'AGE D'OR AND UN CHANT D'AMOUR 13.30

24TH SUN

IFI & IMMA: UNDER THE SKIN 13.30

27TH WED

WILD STRAWBERRIES: THE LUNCHBOX 11.00

28TH THURS

NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE: LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES

18.45

29TH FRI

WILD STRAWBERRIES: THE LUNCHBOX 11.00

30TH SAT

IFI & TRADFEST 2016: THE FARM BELOW THE MOUNTAINROCK ‘N’ ROLL CINEMA: SLEAFORD MODS: INVISIBLE BRITAIN + DIRECTORS Q&A

14.00 20.30

31ST SUN

IFI FAMILY: BRAVETHE HANGOVER LOUNGE: RESERVOIR DOGS

11.0014.00

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JANUARY 2016

NEW RELEASE

Following Silver Linings Playbook (2012) and American Hustle (2013), Joy represents the third collaboration between director David O. Russell and actors Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper. Taking us through a few decades in the life of Joy Mangano (Lawrence), a single mother who got rich in the 1990s through inventing and flogging the revolutionary self-wringing Miracle Mop on the QVC shopping channel, it is a winningly chaotic, non-linear narrative replete with

digressions and amusing asides that would strain credibility if it weren’t all based on fact.

With Joy, O. Russell has created another multi-faceted, comedy drama delivered in the heightened, nervously kinetic register we have come to expect from this director. He is once again aided by a raft of committed performances from what is fast becoming his signature company of actors.

OPENS JAN 2ND

OPENS JAN 2ND

FILM INFO:120 minutes, U.S.A., 2015, DigitalNotes by David O'Mahony

Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything) stars as Einar Wegener, a Danish artist who was one of the first recipients of gender reassignment surgery in this delicate, beautifully composed biopic directed by another Oscar winner, Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech).

Married couple Einar and Gerda (Alicia Vikander) are artists in 1920s Copenhagen, both painters, he of landscapes and she of portraits.

One morning Gerda asks her husband to sit for a portrait of a ballerina, awakening in Einar a long repressed desire to explore his feminine side, which finds expression in the creation of Lili Elbe, his increasingly dominant alter ego. Gerda’s paintings of him as a woman start to get serious attention, but the distinction between Einar and Lili continues to blur to the point where Einar chooses to physically become Lili.

FILM INFO:120 minutes, U.K.-Germany, 2015, DigitalNotes by David O’Mahony

THE DANISH GIRL

NEW RELEASE

JOY

FEAST YOUR EYESJoin us on Jan 12th at 18.30 for our Feast Your Eyes screening of The Danish Girl with a meal afterwards, for just €20. Free list suspended. See page 2 for details.

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JANUARY 2016

Mohamed is one of Somalia’s most experienced pirates, but though he might be feared on the high seas, at home he is just another middle-aged man trying to make ends meet in dire economic circumstances.

Blending documentary, restaged sequences and evocative rotoscope-style animation, Last Hijack is an experimental ‘nonfiction narrative’ that gives insight into why pirating is viewed as a viable option for many Somali fishermen.

Through the animated sequences we gain access to Mohamed’s inner world, his hopes, fears and memories, and we come to understand the reasons why he chose this violent path. Co-director Pallotta employed the rotoscoping animation technique in Richard Linklater’s Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly, but here the effect is more akin to that achieved in Waltz with Bashir, where the animation gets to parts of the story documentary cannot reach.

PREVIEW JAN 7THOPENS JAN 8TH

FILM INFO:83 minutes, Netherlands-Germany-Ireland, 2014, DigitalNotes by David O’Mahony

OPENS JAN 2ND Jean-Luc Godard’s sixth feature, Le Mépris, or Contempt, sees him wrestling, not for the last time, with the dichotomy of art versus commerce, reflecting some of the circumstances of the film’s production, although it is never in doubt which side the director favours. Novelist and playwright Paul (Michel Piccoli) is hired by avaricious Hollywood producer Jerry (Jack Palance) to rework an adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey to be filmed by Fritz Lang (the great master playing himself) in order to give it more

commercial appeal. When the producer makes a pass at Paul’s wife Camille (Brigitte Bardot), what she deems Paul’s lack of sufficient outrage causes a rift between the two.

The experience of making a big budget film with big stars was soured for Godard by the producers’ demands, and the result is an uncompromising masterpiece seething with anger.

FILM INFO:102 minutes, France-Italy, 1963, Subtitled, DigitalNotes by Kevin Coyne

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FRENCH FILM CLUBOur French Film Club screening – where IFI and Alliance Française members pay just €7 a ticket – will be Le Mépris, on January 5th at 18.30. See page 2 for details.

DIRECTOR Q&AWe’re delighted to welcome co-director Tommy Pallotta for a post-screening Q&A following a preview of this film on January 7th at 20.30.

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Quentin Tarantino's latest foray into genre revisionism is another western, but, like Django Unchained (2012) before it, The Hateful Eight filters the tropes of the genre through its creator’s uniquely cinematic vision. The plot is a model of economy: in post-civil war Wyoming, a group of strangers, including bounty hunter John Ruth (Kurt Russell) and his quarry Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), are forced to take refuge from a blizzard and are soon embroiled in a tense game of treachery and deceit.

The Hateful Eight delivers on everything we expect from Tarantino – the characters are three-dimensional, the dialogue crackles, and the gunplay is exactly as it ought to be. The lengthy running time affords space for backstory and digressions that add depth and shade to the ensuing drama, strengthening our impression that nothing about these characters is quite as it appears.

THE HATEFUL EIGHT

NEW RELEASE

FILM INFO:167 minutes, U.S.A., 2015, Digital Notes by David O'Mahony

OPENS JAN 8TH

IFI DOC

OPENS JAN 8TH Moscow’s Bolshoi company is justly revered as one the world’s greatest cultural institutions; founded in 1776, the Bolshoi is more than a ballet company, it is one of Russia’s most powerful and exportable brands, a symbol of the country’s heritage. However, as this gripping backstage documentary reveals, it is a company fraught with internecine strife, which came to a head in 2013 with the unsettling case surrounding an acid attack on artistic director Sergei Filin,

leaving him with third degree burns and blind in one eye, a hit orchestrated by a dancer from his own company.

Through candid interviews with dancers, staff, loyal fans, and most crucially, incoming company director Vladimir Urin, co-directors Read and Franchetti artfully create a portrait of an organisation struggling to preserve its vision in the face of hostile forces.

BOLSHOI BABYLON

EXCLUSIVELY AT IFI†

FILM INFO:86 minutes, U.K., 2015, DigitalNotes by David O'Mahony

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JANUARY 2016

A bracing, existential tale of survival and revenge set in the U.S. Midwest in the 1890s, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s The Revenant is inspired by the true-life tale of Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio), part of a band of fur trappers on a hunting expedition who survives a vicious bear attack only to be abandoned and left in a shallow grave by his comrades. As the harsh winter closes in, Glass, in a deplorable physical condition, sets out across the desolate, unforgiving territory, which

is largely still the preserve of Native Americans, in search of the man who left him for dead.

Shot on location using natural light by the gifted cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, who masterminded the one-take magic of Iñárritu’s recent Birdman, The Revenant is an astonishing technical tour de force that marries cinematic prowess to raw, muscular storytelling.

OPENS JAN 15TH

FILM INFO:156 minutes, U.S.A., 2015, DigitalNotes by David O'Mahony

THE REVENANT

NEW

REL

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Adapted by Emma Donoghue from her own novel, Room tells the story of Ma (Brie Larson) and her five-year-old son Jack (Jacob Tremblay), who are being held captive by a man known only as Old Nick, who abducted Ma seven years previously. Jack is unaware that there is a real world outside the room in which he has spent his whole life, but now that he is growing older, Ma feels she must tell him the truth in order to enlist his help in escaping from Old Nick. When this endeavour

proves successful, the two must adapt to the confusing world outside.

Both leads are superb, with Larson subject to much awards-related speculation since the film won the coveted People’s Choice Award at Toronto, and this undeniably powerful and moving film could not succeed without their remarkable rapport.

OPENS JAN 15TH

FILM INFO:118 minutes, Ireland-Canada, 2015, DigitalNotes by Kevin Coyne

NEW

REL

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ROOM

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A revered figure in world cinema, Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien is acclaimed for his elliptical narratives and meticulously crafted aesthetic. In this, his first martial arts film, he blends his style with the genre’s intrinsic qualities, creating something that is at once familiar and distinct. Set in eighth-century China, The Assassin is based on a wuxia story about the invincible Yinniang, played here by a compelling, chiefly silent Shu Qi, who is instructed to kill the governor of

the Weibo province, a man to whom she was once engaged. Moving at a shifting pace that is impossible to second guess, the plot is often subsidiary to the film’s attention to detail and hypnotic mood, partly established by Mark Lee Ping Bin’s striking cinematography. Little surprise that this mysterious, beautiful film secured Hsiao-Hsien the award for Best Director at Cannes and was ranked as 2015’s best by Sight & Sound.

THE ASSASSIN

NEW RELEASE

Adapted from Rachel Boynton’s 2005 documentary of the same name, Our Brand is Crisis follows a group of American political strategists battling to win the 2002 Bolivian presidential election. Sandra Bullock stars as ‘Calamity’ Jane Bodine, persuaded out of retirement following a scandal by the prospect of beating her former nemesis Pat Candy (Billy Bob Thornton, who effortlessly steals every scene in which he appears). Believing that fear is the best weapon, she shifts the focus

of the campaign to the somewhat baseless idea that Bolivia is facing a crisis from which only her candidate can save the country.

Although the film works as straightforward entertainment, there is much more going on beneath the surface in its sheer disbelief and anger at the Machiavellian strategies so common in American politics, as well as a subtle indictment of American foreign policy.

FILM INFO:105 minutes, Taiwan-China- Hong Kong, 2015, Digital, Subtitled, Colour and Black and WhiteNotes by Alice Butler

OPENS JAN 22ND

OPENS JAN 22ND

FILM INFO:107 minutes, U.S.A., 2015, DigitalNotes by Kevin Coyne

NEW RELEASE

OUR BRAND IS CRISIS

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JANUARY 2016

Retired composer Fred Ballinger (Michael Caine) is in retreat from the world at a luxurious Swiss sanatorium, fending off requests to return to London for a Royal Command performance of his early masterpiece, Simple Songs. Ballinger may be in Switzerland for a health-check, but as he wryly comments, "at my age, getting in shape is a waste of time." Thankfully his daughter (Rachel Weisz) and old friend Mick (Harvey Keitel), a film director working on his swansong, are at hand

to distract him from his melancholy ruminations on lost loves and mistakes made.

Youth has all of the visual flair and invention we have come to expect from director Paolo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty) – the vibrancy of his camera work and composition remains a joy to experience – but it is the subtlety of the performances and poignant, elegiac tone that will linger in the memory.

OPENS JAN 29TH

OPENS JAN 29TH

FILM INFO:118 minutes, Italy-France-Switzerland-U.K., 2015, DigitalNotes by David O'Mahony

Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams and Mark Ruffalo, amongst others, excel in this gripping slow-burn procedural which observes the actions of the titular Boston Globe investigative reporting team, and its Pulitzer Prize winning campaign in 2002 to uncover widespread, systemic child abuse by Catholic priests in Massachusetts. When new broom editor Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber) takes the helm of the Globe, he quietly insists that Spotlight pick up the threads of an under-reported story of child abuses in

the Boston area, a story which could, if pursued, expose the newspaper to the considerable ire of the Catholic church.

Eschewing sensationalism, director Tom McCarthy (The Station Agent, The Visitor, Win Win) grounds the film through a focus on the grassroots determination of the crusading journalists, and how their steady accretion of facts and details gradually coalesce to reveal a shocking mosaic of corruption on a grand scale.

FILM INFO:128 minutes, U.S.A., 2015, DigitalNotes by David O'Mahony

SPOTLIGHT

YOUTH

NEW

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NEW

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IRISH FOCUSWILD STRAWBERRIES ARCHIVE AT LUNCHTIMEIFI FAMILYFROM THE VAULTSTHE BIGGER PICTUREIFI & TRADFESTIFI & FIRST FORTNIGHTNATIONAL THEATRE LIVEIFI & AEMI PROJECTIONSROCK ‘N’ ROLL CINEMAIFI & IMMATHE HANGOVER LOUNGE

IFI EVENTS

DIRECTOR:Pádraig Trehy

FILM INFO:80 mins, Ireland, 2015, Colour & Black and White, Digital

Join us for our focus on new Irish film and filmmakers.

On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of James Joyce’s death (on January 13th,1941) we present this energetic new work exploring the actual and

JAN 13TH (18.30)

IRISH FOCUSSHEM THE PENMAN SINGS AGAIN

Wild Strawberries is our bi-monthly film club for over 55s.

The wonderful Indian actor Irrfan Khan (Life of Pi) is claims official Saajan, facing into retirement as a fairly grumpy older man.

Across town, young wife Ila (Nimrat Kaur) is trying to reach her cold husband’s heart through his stomach, by preparing delicious lunches for him. However, the city’s intricate system of lunch couriers goes wrong, and the delivery goes to Saajan. When she realises her mistake, she puts a note in the next lunchbox. With humour and warmth, this tender tale will also tingle your tastebuds.

Tickets: €4.25 including regular tea/coffee before the event. Wild Strawberries is our film club for over 55s. If you are lucky enough to look younger please don’t take offence if we ask your age.

JAN 27TH & 29TH (11.00)

(DABBA)

DIRECTOR:Ritesh Batra

FILM INFO:104 mins, India-France-Germany-U.S.A., 2013, Hindi/English

WILD STRAWBERRIESTHE LUNCHBOX

much-fabled friendship between the writer and the extraordinary Irish tenor, John McCormack. McCormack inspires the character of Shaun the Post in Joyce’s famously ‘unreadable’ final novel Finnegans Wake, in which Joyce portrayed himself as Shaun’s lowly twin brother, Shem. Joyce’s twin obsessions, singing and literary experimentation, flow through the film as the friends’ encounters are reimagined in a variety of early cinematic styles and animated by a mix of archive recordings and imaginary radio broadcasts.

See page 13 for a screening of The Dead on January 6th.

Director Pádraig Trehy will be present for a post-screening Q&A.

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ARCHIVE AT LUNCHTIME

BRAVE JAN 31ST (11.00)

Princess Merida (Kelly Macdonald) of the Scottish Highlands is no ordinary princess. Tough and sparky, this redheaded girl sets out to become the kingdom’s best archer, and grows up believing she can be what she wants till her mother, Elinor (Emma Thompson), tells her she has to choose a husband. Not a chance, she hightails it to the forest where she begs a witch to change Elinor’s mind. When the spell goes wrong, Merida is given two adventure-filled days to reverse it.

Pixar paint a gorgeous Scotland and fill it with humour, music and traditions. Folksinger Julie Fowlis sings theme songs Touch the Sky and Into the Open Air.

DIRECTORS: Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman, Steve Purcell FILM INFO: 93 mins, U.S.A., 2012, Digital

Tickets €4.80 per person, €14.40 family tickets (2 adults + 2 children, 1 adult + 3 children).

In association with Temple Bar Tradfest 2016 (January 27th – 31st). See page 13 for details of our other Tradfest event, The Farm Below the Mountain, a ciné-concert, on January 30th.

IFI FAMILY

DUBLIN IN THE RARE OUL’ TIMES Join us for free lunchtime screenings of films from the IFI Irish Film Archive. Simply collect your tickets at the IFI Box Office. Please see www.ifi.ie for dates and times. PROGRAMME 1 WITH WILL ROGERS IN DUBLIN Well-loved American comedian Will Rogers visiting Dublin in 1927. FILM INFO: 3 mins, 1927, Black and White, Silent

DUBLIN OF THE WELCOMES An ad for Sweepstakes Tickets masquerading as a travelogue about Dublin. Includes a whistle-stop tour of significant locations in the city and in-depth look at Sweepstake operations in Dublin, providing a unique portrait of thousands of women involved in clerical work in Dublin in the 1930s. FILM INFO: 25 mins, 1936, Black and White

PROGRAMME 2 BRENDAN BEHAN’S DUBLIN Made some years after Behan’s death in 1964, with a script by Carolyn Swift inspired by Behan’s writing, the film introduces Dublin city and suburbs, Behan’s mother and father, his wife Beatrice and their daughter Blanaid. FILM INFO: 30 mins, 1967, Colour

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The film documents the honeymoon journey in the late 1950s of amateur filmmaker Ernest Tiernan and his young wife Kathleen (née Durkin) from Scotland to a small farm in Cornamuckla, Co. Leitrim, home of her Irish relations.

JAN 30TH (14.00)

A CINÉ-CONCERT

EVENT INFO:Duration approx. 70 mins, 1958

IFI & TRADFEST 2016 THE FARM BELOW THE MOUNTAIN

Fifty years later, musicians Patrick Carayannis, Rodney Lanchashire and Séamus Hernon create a musical complement to the film, interweaving live traditional Irish music with the voices of Ernest and Kathleen recorded shortly before they died.

The ciné-concert will be preceded by Gael Linn films about traditional Irish music, including newsreel of the Fleadh in Ennis in 1962 and Louis Marcus’ multi-award-winning documentary Fleá Ceoil made in Kilrush in 1967.

In association with Temple Bar Tradfest 2016 (January 27th – 31st).

Our monthly programme strand in which a key film is presented in the context of a notional film canon.

This month Dr. Harvey O'Brien will consider Alien, Ridley Scott’s sci-fi

horror classic. Having spawned a number of sequels and spin-offs, it’s hard to recall the shockwaves that went through cinemas when this ‘space opera’ first appeared. Sigourney Weaver’s action hero Ellen Ripley remains a marker for all subsequent female action/adventure leads. Scott’s achievement is to allow tension to build up slowly, involving the audience in the sense of mission, and letting the production design and sound excel to realise some genuinely shocking moments.

In space no-one will hear you scream? They will in the cinema.

THE BIGGER PICTUREALIEN

JAN 18TH (18.30)

DIRECTOR:Ridley Scott

FILM INFO:117 mins, U.S.A.-U.K., 1979

What better way to celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany than to immerse oneself in the household of the Misses Morkan as they prepare for their New Year’s gathering in John Huston’s pitch-perfect adaptation of James Joyce’s The Dead.

Set In Dublin in 1904 the mood of the evening is anguished as Gretta (Anjelica Huston) remembers a long-lost love, much to the incomprehension of her husband Gabriel (Donal McCann). John Huston’s subtle direction and Angelica Huston and Donal McCann’s delicately wrought performances perfectly capture the social atmosphere and emotional nuances of Joyce’s original text. For Huston, the film served as an elegant and melancholic farewell to Ireland and to life itself.

See page 11 for the first in our new Irish Focus strand, Shem the Penman Sings Again, screening on January 13th.

FROM THE VAULTS THE DEAD

DIRECTOR:John Huston

FILM INFO:83 mins, U.S.A.-U.K.-Ireland, 1987, 35mm

JAN 6TH (18.30)

See page 12 for details of our other Tradfest event, an IFI Family screening of Brave on January 31st.

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Josie Rourke’s revival of Christopher Hampton’s classic adaptation of Les Liaisons Dangereuses is this month’s presentation by National Theatre Live, a series of enthralling live performances from London’s

most prestigious theatres, broadcast onto cinema screens globally.

In 1782, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ novel of sex, intrigue and betrayal in pre-revolutionary France scandalised the world. This compelling adaptation charts the games of seduction and revenge played out by the merciless aristocrats Marquise de Merteuil and Vicomte de Valmont at the expense of the peerlessly virtuous and beautiful Madame de Tourvel, games that can only end in tragedy.

NATIONAL THEATRE LIVELES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES

JAN 28TH (18.45)

DIRECTOR:Josie Rourke

FILM INFO:210 mins, U.K., 2015, Digital

DIRECTOR:Lou Howe

FILM INFO:85 mins, U.S.A., 2014

DIRECTORS:Áine Stapleton in collaboration with José Miguel Jiménez

FILM INFO:60 mins, Ireland, 2015, Digital

PROGRAMME 1:GABRIELRory Culkin stars in Gabriel, a heartfelt portrait of a vulnerable teenager at his psychological breaking point, struggling to keep it together in the wake of his father’s suicide. Convinced that reuniting with an ex-girlfriend holds the answers to his troubles, Gabriel risks everything in a desperate pursuit that will take him to uncharted and unexpected places and test the limits of those closest to him.

Infused with authenticity and courage, Gabriel establishes first-time writer/director Lou Howe as a new filmmaking voice to be reckoned with.

The screening will be followed by a discussion.

GABRIELJAN 2ND (16.00)

MEDICATED MILK JAN 9TH (12.00)

PROGRAMME 2:MEDICATED MILK Lucia Joyce was a talented dancer, writer and musician. She spent her life under the control of her father, Ulysses author James, mother Nora and multiple doctors.

Lucia was incarcerated by herbrother Giorgio and forced to remain in psychiatric hospitals for 47 years until her death in 1982. Working from Lucia's writings, Medicated Milk is a film created by Áine Stapleton, made in collaboration with José Miguel Jiménez, and features original music by Somadrone.

Recommended age: 16+

IFI & FIRST FORTNIGHT

TICKETS€15. Free list suspended.

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For its inaugural screening, AEMI Projections presents the work of the exceptional, if little known, film artist Anne Charlotte Robertson in a programme curated and introduced by Benjamin Cook (Director of LUX), in association with Harvard Film Archive.

Begun in the early 1980s and eventually running to over 38 hours of material, Anne Charlotte Robertson’s Five Year Diary stands as one of the major works of diary filmmaking, an approach initiated by pioneers like Jonas Mekas. Over the course of her diary, Robertson unflinchingly documents her often precarious mental state. Though often painfully raw and emotional, Robertson's work also demonstrates a highly developed aesthetic

sensibility and her films are leavened with self-awareness and humour. For Robertson, cinema ultimately becomes a redemptive form of self-therapy, tracing “the story of a mind’s survival.”

After the screening at the IFI, a discussion with Benjamin Cooke addressing Robertson and her legacy will take place at Temple Bar Gallery+Studios, Studio 6. For further details see www.ifi.ie

AEMI is a creative platform dedicated to the support and exhibition of artists and experimental moving image.

FILM INFO:Five Year Diary, Reel 22: A Short Affair and Going Crazy, 27 mins, U.S.A., 1982, Super 8 on digital video, Colour

Five Year Diary, Reel 23: A Breakdown and After the Mental Hospital, 26 mins, U.S.A., 1982, Super 8 on digital video, Colour

Five Year Diary, Reel 80: Emily Died, 27 mins, U.S.A., 1994, Super 8 on digital video, Colour

JAN 20TH (18.30)

AEMI PROJECTIONS SELECTIONS FROM THE FIVE YEAR DIARY - FILMS BY ANNE CHARLOTTE ROBERTSON

Sleaford Mods: Invisible Britain shows the most exciting and uncompromising British band in years sticking two fingers up to the zeitgeist and articulating the rage and desperation of those without a voice in austerity Britain.

The film follows the Sleaford Mods on a tour of the U.K. in the run up to the 2015 General Election, visiting the neglected, broken-down and boarded-up parts of the country that many would prefer to ignore. Part band-doc, part look-at-the-state-of-the-nation, the documentary features individuals and communities attempting to find hope among the ruins, against a blistering soundtrack provided by the Sleaford Mods.

We are pleased to welcome Nathan Hannawin and Paul Sng for a Q&A following this screening.

JAN 30TH (20.30)

DIRECTORS:Nathan Hannawin, Paul Sng

FILM INFO:85 mins, U.K., 2015, Blu-ray

ROCK ‘N’ ROLL CINEMASLEAFORD MODS: INVISIBLE BRITAIN

This month’s Hangover Lounge – our monthly indulgent Sunday afternoon of brunch and a classic film – revisits Quentin Tarantino’s remarkable debut from 1992, a film with a justifiable claim to having altered the course of U.S. indie filmmaking.

A sharply dressed gang of hoodlums, known to each other and the audience by their pseudonyms, reconnoitres in a warehouse after a botched jewel heist. Convinced the police were tipped off, the thieves go to extreme lengths to expose the snitch in their midst. The tropes that would come to define Tarantino’s cinema appear fully realised in this explosive debut. Tarantino makes a virtue of the confined warehouse space, capitalising on the mounting claustrophobia and paranoia as his characters engage in mutually destructive psychological warfare.

JAN 31ST (14.00)

DIRECTOR:Quentin Tarantino

FILM INFO:99 mins, U.S.A., 1992, DigitalNotes by David O’Mahony

DIRECTOR: Louis Buñuel

FILM INFO: 63 mins, 1930, Black and White, 35mm

DIRECTOR: Jonathan Glazer

FILM INFO: 108 mins, 2013, Digital

DIRECTOR: Jean Genet

FILM INFO: 26 mins, 1950, Black and White, 35mm

PROGRAMME 1:L’AGE D’OR & UN CHANT D’AMOURIn a series of thematically linked vignettes, a couple’s attempts at consummating their relationship are continually thwarted by the bourgeois values and mores of their society. Collaborating with Salvador Dali, Louis Buñuel experimental feature, L'Age d'Or, is a classic of the surrealist movement.

A revolutionary vision of emancipation through sensuality, Genet’s only film, Un Chant d'amour, is a milestone in LGBT filmmaking.

A short talk introduces this film series in the context of the IMMA exhibition.

L’AGE D’OR JAN 23RD (13.30)

UNDER THE SKIN JAN 24TH (13.30)

UN CHANT D’AMOUR

PROGRAMME 2:UNDER THE SKIN An alien has landed in Glasgow. Taking the form of a woman, she drives around the city luring lonely or lecherous men to a grim fate. Social realism and science fiction meld to startling effect in Jonathan Glazer’s hugely inventive third feature, a mesmerising audio visual experience with Scarlett Johansson perfectly cast as the unknowable, predatory being.

IFI & IMMAWHAT WE CALL LOVE: FROM SURREALISM TO NOW

THE HANGOVER LOUNGERESERVOIR DOGS

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See www.ifi.ie/cafebar for ticket prices for the film and brunch.

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The IFI is delighted to partner with the Irish Museum of Modern Art on a programme of films selected to respond to the current exhibition, What We Call Love: From Surrealism to Now, which explores how the notion of love has evolved through the 20th century. The films chosen reflect how the surrealist tradition has incorporated themes of love into their experimental works, from the early days of cinema to the present. Please note that IMMA Members can avail of tickets at IFI Membership prices.

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Online film festival10 feature films - 10 short films - 10 languages Worldwide

UniFrance films presents

Volta presents the

2016 My French Film Festival

from Jan 18th-Feb 18th 2016

Feature films: €0.99.

Bundle all films together for €5.99

All Shorts Films free of charge.

www.volta.ieFacebook: VoltaVODTwitter: @Volta

Volta French Film Ad A5 2.indd 1 14/12/2015 15:55

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PUBLIC & CLUB SCREENINGSAround half of our films are classified by the Irish Film Classification Office, are open to the general public and do not require membership. Unclassified films require membership. You have two options: annual membership (€25 or €15 concessions) or daily membership (€1 per person each time you visit the cinema). For further details on membership, please go to www.ifi.ie or call our Box Office.

†The exclusivity status of films is correct at time of going to print

LOYALTY & MEMBERSHIPThe IFI Loyalty Card is free and allows you to earn points that you can later exchange for free cinema tickets. Membership gives you the chance to attend a free preview screening every single month and discounts when you spend at the IFI. Go to www.ifi.ie or call our Box Office for details. Please remember: no card, no points!

PARKINGOn presentation of your IFI cinema ticket, the Fleet Street Car Park will offer IFI patrons a special rate of €5.00 for 3 hours’ parking. Simply present the cinema ticket along with the parking ticket when you pay at the cash desk, prior to collecting your car.

BOX OFFICE & PRICESADMISSION FEESThese apply to regular IFI screenings and do not necessarily apply to special events or festivals. Reduced admission fees for annual members and their guests are detailed in brackets.

MONDAY – FRIDAY12.30pm to 6pm €7.60 (€7) Conc. €5.90 (€5.50)6pm to 10pm €9.00 (€8) Conc. €7.60 (€7)

SATURDAY – SUNDAY*12.30pm to 3pm €7.60 (€7) Conc. €5.90 (€5.50)3pm to 10pm €9.00 (€8) Conc. €7.60 (€7)

*including Bank Holidays

Credit card bookings can be taken between 12.30pm and 9.00pm on (01) 679 3477 or 24-hours at www.ifibooking.ie. Online and telephone bookings are subject to a booking fee of 50c per ticket to a maximum of €1 per transaction. There are no booking fees on any ticket purchase made in person at the IFI Box Office. Please be advised that tickets cannot be exchanged or refunded.

All cinema screens at the IFI are wheelchair accessible. If you are a wheelchair user, please let the IFI Box Office know at least 30 minutes in advance of a screening (01 679 5744 /boxoffice@irishfilm.ie). To enable us to determine your requirements and assist you fully, we regret that we are unable to offer wheelchair bookings online.

YOUR VISITTO THE IFI

Films start at the times stated in this programme. Latecomers may be refused admission after the start of the feature.

LATECOMERS POLICY

IFI BOARDPatron: Michael D. Higgins, President of Ireland Board Members: Lenny Abrahamson, Paddy Breathnach, Michael Collins, Maeve Connolly, Sheila de Courcy, Garry Hynes, Neil Jordan, Margaret Kelleher (Chairperson), Trish Long, Kevin Moriarty, Patsy Murphy, Dr. Harvey O’Brien, Terence O'Rourke, Dearbhla Walsh.

CONTACTIrish Film Institute, 6 Eustace Street,Temple Bar, Dublin 2

Box Office: (01) 679 3477, Web: www.ifi.ie

Facebook.com/irishfilminstitute Facebook.com/IFICafe

@IFI_Dub@IFI_Filmshop

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