Conference bookie::movies

    You might be thinking about the film ROMPER STOMPER, which has gotten a
    lot of rave reviews.  It is a film about Nazi skinheads in Germany, I
    believe.  I have not rented it yet, but I have seen it in the video
    store and plan to watch it some time.
    
    Keith

    No, this is a movie about an Irish family, done (I think) by the same
    guy that did THE COMMITMENTS.
    
    E Grace
    
    

Roddy Doyle wrote The Commitments and Alan Parker directed it.

Also Roddy Doyle wrote another book about an Irish family called The Snapper
which was turned into a moive also.

Great film full of Dublin wit and four letter words.  

    "The Snapper" was directed by Stephen Frears.  Very good movie.
    
    -Stephen

    AH!  *THAT'S* IT!
    
    I'll change the name of the topic now.
    
    Any way, any idea where it can be seen in the Boston to Central Mass
    area?
    
    
    E Grace

No not really as i live in Ireland 


But it is a great film.

Gavin

    Gee *thanks* Gavin!  (*8
    
    
    E grace

    For the Boston area:  it looks like it ends tonight at the Harvard Sq.
    Theater and starts tomorrow at Copley Place and at the Arlington
    Capitol.  It's also playing at the West Newton Cinema
    
    				- Paul

    Is this a newly released movie in the theaters or on video?
    
    Patricia

    Here in Ottawa it has been playing at the Capitol Square for a few
    weeks.
    
    -Stephen

    I saw it a few weeks ago in Havard Sq. and liked it a lot.  It's a real
    slice of life movie.  None of the actors look like typical Hollywood
    stars, and the acting is very good, and the situations very believable. 
    I especially enjoyed the performance by the actor who played the
    father.  It's very funny in places, too.
    
    Lorna
    

    Thanks for the locations!
    
    
    E Grace

    
    
    i actually found this film rather disturbing. i mean, it's all
    very funny and warm and all that, but these are really horrible
    people living in a really horrible situation that is most likely
    only going to become more horrible.
    
    

    Re-1
    Thats how life is for a lot of people. 
    
    Ths is a good film though, I don't know if anyone has plans to film The
    Van, the third part of the trilogy.  They had to change the name of the
    family in The Snapper because Alan Parker held the right to the name
    from The Commitments, and wouldn't let them use it.
    
    Didn't the guy who played the father also play the same role in The
    Commitments?
    
     Mikef

RE : Didn't the guy who played the father also play the same role in The
    Commitments?


Yes it is the same actor, he also stars in Star Trek the Next Generation as the
engineer or somebody not quite sure.


Gavin

>Yes it is the same actor, he also stars in Star Trek the Next Generation as the
>engineer or somebody not quite sure.

Colm Meany, better known (or so I would have thought) as Chief Miles O'Brien
formerly of the Federation starship Enterprise, now chief of operations
on space statin Deep Space 9.

- tom]

    A question about tha movie, and perhaps how it's
    being received in Ireland...
    
    I don't know if my question would be considered a
    "spoiler", so I'll ask it behind a <FF> for now.
    
    
    
    There is nowhere in the movie a discussion by anyone
    of the religious implications of the pregnancy.  No
    scenes with a church figure, no neighborhood talk or
    gossip that's religion-based, etc.  The conversation
    seems almost totally slanted to "family planning" and
    alternative actions.  No one's religion is ever brought
    up, as I recall.  Would this really be true in such an
    Irish neighborhood?  Does the complete ABSENCE of a
    religious view (Protestant, Catholic, etc.) part of
    the statement being made?  Because it doesn't take a
    stand, is it considered (in Ireland) to be "anti-" any
    particular religion?
    
    I was just trying to place the film in broader slice of
    what might be the same lives, and see what else the
    writer, director, et al. may hve been trying to say.
    
    			dick
    

Re: -1

I'm only visiting Ireland, though I grew up in an Irish Catholic community in
London. I also haven't seen all of the film, though I've seen clips and read the
book. So here's my 2c worth, with caveats.

The Irish local press and to a lesser exent television and radio still talk as
though Catholic religion and ethics were all-important. But even in rural areas,
only some older people really hold to this view. Most middle class people across
Ireland, although usually raised as Catholics, are broadly liberal in the
American style (to the extent that the only prominent Irish conservative I can
think of is Sheila Lawlor, who lives in England and has acquired an English
accent.) And in Dublin, both middle-class and working-class people like those in
the film are more preoccupied with social life and staying alive. 

Some of this is due to liberal Irish campaigners, like the President Mary
Robinson. But a lot of the reason must be that (particularly) middle-class Irish
people often study and work in England or America where they fit easily into the
educated and liberal middle classes.

So I'd say that the film rings true for north Dublin. But the general attitude
to women, and in particular the father's tendency to put his daughter on a
perverse pedestal, may be more signifcant than explicit religious influences in
the film.

Helen

    re .13, Joe, I didn't think they were horrible people.  In fact, I
    thought the father was sort of a wonderful person really.
    
    Lorna
    

I think I saw this film was on the 1993 "Best TV" list 
in the _Times_ (London), so I presume it was made for 
television and originally aired on the box.  Is this
correct?  If so, there is hope for made-for-TV movies. 

    re-1 - yes, it was made by the BBC for TV, but shown at the movies.  It
    has been shown on TV in the UK, sometime last summer I think.  There
    have been quite a few BBC TV movies given a cinema release (recently
    The Hawk, with Helen Mirren).
    
    Mikef

The film grated on me a bit.  First, I expected a better sound track.
And for all the praises it sang to the joys of family life and
doting parents, and for the damning of dirty old men, I would have
expected some thoughtful point of view on what the film was all about -
teen pregnancy.  Excuse me for pulling a Dan Quayle here.  But if you're
going to roll alcohol abuse and teen promiscuity into a bale of cuteness, you'd
better be darned funny about it.  Not funny enough, IMHO.

Brian

    I didn't think it was *supposed* to be a "thoughtful movie about teen
    pregnancy".  I was under the impression that it was supposed to be a
    movie about one family, and how they handle "something".
    
    E Grace

    
    re:.22
    
    i agree
    

    I didn't think either the drunkennness or the pregnancy was made to
    seem "cute."  The movie wasn't explicitly judgmental about the
    characters' behaviour, but I don't think it (the behaviour) was implicitly 
    endorsed either.  I enjoyed the movie's relative candour as well as its 
    colour and humour.  
    
    And I thought it was very well done.
    
    -Stephen

    
    i agree that it was neither judgmental nor endorsing, but i'm not
    sure whether that's good filmmaking (as in, let the viewer reach
    their own conclusions) or irresponsible filmmaking (as in, not
    taking a stand on an important social issue).
    
    certainly a well made and well worth watching film, however.
    

    Well, I finally saw it.
    
    And *loved* it!
    
    E

    re .27, E, I think the father in The Snapper was my favorite character
    from any movie in 1993.  I liked the movie a lot, too.
    
    Lorna
    

    is this on video yet ?
    
    I saw a bit of it on the comedy channel the other day...
    (I guess a spoiler)
    
    
    when he gos in to the bar to announce the birth...and the old guy at
    the bar ask what was 7lbs 12oz...a turkey ? and the father replies no
    its a baby...and the old guy says oh thats a good size baby, but a
    small turkey !
    
    Chris

    I love the father, but the *mother* was a HOOT!  Could she have been
    any more laid back!
    
    She is actually the reason I even heard of the film; I was told *I*
    was in it.  (*8
    
    E

    The movie "The Snapper" is playing at the Wilton Town Hall theatre,
    Wilton, NH - right now.   I'm hoping to see it in the next few days.
    
    carol

    
    
    FYI....This film was part of the Boston Film Festival Sept ?? 93...I
    thought it was pretty good myself.
    
    -D

    Does anyone know who performed the music used for the start and end
    credits of the film?  Sounded like an Irish band, with a female lead
    singer, singing "I Can't Help Falling In Love With You"
    
    nick

    
     Last: 
          I think it was sung by a band called 'Lick the tins'
    
                       Maybe.
    
    

    Lick the Tins sang a version of tis song for the ending credits of 
    Some Kind of Wonderful. It's got to be the same version. Prominent 
    flute or recorder, light, fun. According to the box, the soundtrack 
    is available through Hughes Music.

    Lisa