LENNY Abrahamson's Adam & Paul, a critical and commercial success on Irish release last autumn, opened last Friday in the UK to the best British reviews for any Irish film in recent years.
"Adam & Paul is an Irish film to make most English ones look like quaint rot. It's the strongest, funniest, most despairing drug-themed movie since Danny Boyle's Trainspotting," commented the Daily Telegraph. Mark O'Halloran's screenplay has "a numb circularity that's just perfect" and "it's Tom Murphy's face - slow, vulnerable, painfully lovable - which really gets to you: this has got to be one of the performances of the year."
Time Out said: "What might have been an indulgent or evasive comedy about two likeable but damaged drug addicts is saved by its unflinching honesty." Uncut magazine described it as an "astoundingly assured and bleakly comic debut" and noted its "subtle genius". The Observer called it "funny, sad and touching". The Culture Show on BBC2 chose it as film highlight of the week and hailed it as "a real gem".
Adam & Paul is now on DVD release here.
They'll be the judge at Kerry
The Kerry Film Festival, which runs from October 24th to 30th, has lined up an impressive group of adjudicators for its short film prizes. Noah Cowan, director of the Toronto International Film Festival, will select the winner of the best director award. My colleague Donald Clarke will decide on the best Irish short film.
Mandy Keane, film programmer at Soho House and the Electric Cinema in London, is responsible for best animation. Film and theatre director Alan Gilsenan will choose the winner of best documentary. Rod Stoneman, director of the Huston School of Film and Digital Media in Galway, will decide on the entries for best international short. And Gabriel Soucheyre, director of VideoFormes at the Clermont-Ferrand shorts festival in France, will pick the winner of best experimental film. www.kerryfilmfestival.com
Here's to you, Anne Bancroft
Anne Bancroft, who died on Monday aged 73, will always be remembered for the iconic Mrs Robinson, the wonderfully acerbic seducer in The Graduate (1967). But there was much more to the actress, as she demonstrated with remarkable versatility over her 50-year career in theatre and film. She won two Tony awards, two Emmys, best actress at Cannes for The Pumpkin Eater (1964) and an Oscar on the first of her five nominations, for her powerfully intense performance in The Miracle Worker (1962).
Bancroft was a witty and candid interviewee when we met in 1987, as she was promoting 84 Charing Cross Road, which was produced by Mel Brooks, her husband for the past 41 years. Last year she started work on Spanglish, but withdrew due to illness. Her last completed role was as the embittered countess in The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone (2002), which earned her another Emmy nomination.
India blacks out smokers
Under a new law that takes effect from August 1st, India will prevent cinemas and TV stations from showing films or series in which people smoke. Scenes in films or serials that show characters chewing or smoking tobacco will be blacked out or pixilated on Indian screens. Films or serials made before the ban was imposed must be accompanied by prominent health warnings in scenes that show actors smoking, and the brand names or logos of tobacco products will have to be cropped or masked.
Some Indian filmmakers have objected to the new rulings. Director Mahesh Bhatt told the Times of India: "It's an absurd regulation. To ban smoking on screen is ridiculous. It's a joke taken too far."
Crystal competition for Cruise
Tom Cruise's recent appearance on Oprah Winfrey's show, when he made an extraordinarily passionate declaration of his love for Katie Holmes, has attracted masses of media coverage in the US. Billy Crystal could not resist referring to it when he accepted a Tony award in New York last Sunday night. "I have an announcement. I, too, am head over heels in love with Katie Holmes."
