Thursday, August 17, 2006

Any chance of a sequel?

As the New York Times notes, Peter Lennon's caustic 1968 documentary about life in a then-supposedly-more-liberal Dublin, Rocky Road to Dublin, is getting a showing in Manhattan. The film had a bizarre life; undergoing a de facto boycott in Ireland and then the Cannes festival at which it earned some acclaim was derailed by the student revolts. Lennon recalled a few years (subs. req'd) ago his interactions with the Irish establishment in trying to get it released:

Could I get this work past the censor? Observing no procedures, I arrived at the censor's office with the film under my arm and insisted on sitting in while he, a journalist I knew, did his job. After the viewing he said, memorably: "Since there is no sex in the film, Peter, there is nothing I can do against you." But there was something they could do: they could stop it being screened in cinemas or on RTÉ.

Sometimes the strategy to make sure the film was ignored was more subtle:

So Cork [Film Festival] gave us a screening. It was at lunchtime, on the day they had invited all the media out of town to a free oyster-and-Guinness lunch in Kenmore, 70 miles away. So we hired a hall the next day, causing more scandal. With the financial potential a scandal offers, one Dublin cinema took the film and ran it for seven weeks to gleeful audiences.

But other than this brief flurry, the film lay out of sight for 3 decades.

No comments: