On a recent really really windy day, I went to Cobh. It is famous enough place because it has ties to two famous ships - the Titanic (last port of call was Cobh) and the Lusitania (where the bodies were brought ashore after it was torpedoed by a German U-boat).
The town has a certain kind of charm. I though it looked nice, lots of colour - the houses are all painted different colours. But it was a bit of a ghost town too. It has lots of empty shops in the centre due to the whole economic meltdown thing. On the whole though I liked it, with the hills and houses on one side and the sea on the other its unlike most Irish towns.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Nouvelle Vague cinema - talk in UCC
The 55th Cork International Film Festival took place recently, well in early March actually! As well as cinema screenings there was a talk on in UCC about the Nouvelle Vague era of French cinema by Pierre-Henri Deleau. It was really very interesting. It clarified so much about that era and cleared up all I thought I knew about that time in history.
The term 'Nouvelle Vague' was coined by Françoise Giroud, who wrote for the magazine L'Express. She wanted to describe the 30 or so new film makers that came on the scene in the period 1958-1959.
'Les Cahiers du cinéma' was the focal point from which this new type of cinema came about. The late 50's in France was a pretty good time, de Gaulle was back in power so there was political stability and the economy was flourishing. But young people, especially artistically minded young people saw loads of problems. At that time about 100 films were made each year. The directors were all mostly old. They were not really looking at real life and most of the filming was done in studios, not in the open air.
So young people decided to start making their own films. They didn't have much money so they employed their friends as the actors in the film. They couldn't afford to rent a studio, so they filmed on the street. Suddenly everyone says: we can do that too. So it catches on and loads of people are making their own films.
The sound they used in their films was revolutionary. It was direct sound, so if someone turned away from the microphone you could not hear what they were saying. But apparently, you didn't need to hear everything to understand what they were saying. The French language is organised like this - in a sentence you have a subject (eg. I), a verb (eg. go) and an object (home) in that order. So when an actor spoke, to understand them, you only really needed to hear the start of their sentence and the missing parts were not required.
The era known as Nouvelle Vague really only lasted for three years, from 1959-1962. After that there was a return to traditional cinema. But they did make a big impact on cinema in general. Maybe as big as Rossellini in 1945 with his neorealist films.
The directors of the NV brought up new subjects that the older directors would not deal with such as politics (Algerian war) and rural France (not just Paris, as usual). NV influenced similar movements all over the world, places like Poland, Czechoslovakia, Brazil, Canada, Italy, USA, Germany and Chili made their own type of NV films.
As I said, this talk really clarified the basics of the subject for me. I hope it helped you too.
The term 'Nouvelle Vague' was coined by Françoise Giroud, who wrote for the magazine L'Express. She wanted to describe the 30 or so new film makers that came on the scene in the period 1958-1959.
'Les Cahiers du cinéma' was the focal point from which this new type of cinema came about. The late 50's in France was a pretty good time, de Gaulle was back in power so there was political stability and the economy was flourishing. But young people, especially artistically minded young people saw loads of problems. At that time about 100 films were made each year. The directors were all mostly old. They were not really looking at real life and most of the filming was done in studios, not in the open air.
So young people decided to start making their own films. They didn't have much money so they employed their friends as the actors in the film. They couldn't afford to rent a studio, so they filmed on the street. Suddenly everyone says: we can do that too. So it catches on and loads of people are making their own films.
The sound they used in their films was revolutionary. It was direct sound, so if someone turned away from the microphone you could not hear what they were saying. But apparently, you didn't need to hear everything to understand what they were saying. The French language is organised like this - in a sentence you have a subject (eg. I), a verb (eg. go) and an object (home) in that order. So when an actor spoke, to understand them, you only really needed to hear the start of their sentence and the missing parts were not required.
The era known as Nouvelle Vague really only lasted for three years, from 1959-1962. After that there was a return to traditional cinema. But they did make a big impact on cinema in general. Maybe as big as Rossellini in 1945 with his neorealist films.
The directors of the NV brought up new subjects that the older directors would not deal with such as politics (Algerian war) and rural France (not just Paris, as usual). NV influenced similar movements all over the world, places like Poland, Czechoslovakia, Brazil, Canada, Italy, USA, Germany and Chili made their own type of NV films.
As I said, this talk really clarified the basics of the subject for me. I hope it helped you too.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Day in Dublin
Cork
I took these photos in the early morning on the way to Cork train station to catch the train to Dublin. It was a lovely morning and when I got to Dublin, the sun was really shining, even though it was a bit chilly. Brrrrr.
Dublin
I took these photos in the early morning on the way to Cork train station to catch the train to Dublin. It was a lovely morning and when I got to Dublin, the sun was really shining, even though it was a bit chilly. Brrrrr.
Dublin
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Few trips to Dublin
Over the last few weeks I took the train to Dublin (from Cork) a couple of times. The trains are all new and the trip is quick(ish) and very comfortable. It only costs € 10 each way, which is great. If I was to drive, and spend that amount on fuel, that would only bring me half the way!
I had different reasons for going to Dublin on the different dates. Once I was going to say goodbye to one of my brothers who has just left his job and apartment and is currently travelling around the world. He started in South America, will travel to North America and then, well I'm not sure if he even has it figured out after that. He's kind of playing it by ear so to speak.
Another time I went to Dublin was to have a look at some books in the National Library for some essays I'm writing for my course. More on that later!
Ireland is having some economic problems at the moment - I can't explain it any better because I don't really understand it. Basically we are pumping loads of money (billions of euros €€€) into our banks who gave out some really bad loans in recent years. The government has made loads of cuts in spending to pay for this bank bailout (as it's called).
Anyway, it hit home recently when I saw loads of Irish citizens in queues outside the passport office in Dublin to collect passports. The problem was that the staff at the office were on strike to protest at the government spending cuts that have affected their pay.
Last Saturday 27 March 2010 I went to the National Library to view a book I needed to see for some references, but I couldn't get in because the place was shut due to striking staff. It's not until it affects you personally that you begin to question these things and see what's really going on.
I just want to include some photos of my one of my trips to Dublin. The first is a mountain that I passed on the train, with a dusting of snow on top of it. The second is a picture of the river Liffey. In it you can see a ferry on the river, the Liffey Boardwalk and the Spire on O'Connell Street.
I had different reasons for going to Dublin on the different dates. Once I was going to say goodbye to one of my brothers who has just left his job and apartment and is currently travelling around the world. He started in South America, will travel to North America and then, well I'm not sure if he even has it figured out after that. He's kind of playing it by ear so to speak.
Another time I went to Dublin was to have a look at some books in the National Library for some essays I'm writing for my course. More on that later!
Ireland is having some economic problems at the moment - I can't explain it any better because I don't really understand it. Basically we are pumping loads of money (billions of euros €€€) into our banks who gave out some really bad loans in recent years. The government has made loads of cuts in spending to pay for this bank bailout (as it's called).
Anyway, it hit home recently when I saw loads of Irish citizens in queues outside the passport office in Dublin to collect passports. The problem was that the staff at the office were on strike to protest at the government spending cuts that have affected their pay.
Last Saturday 27 March 2010 I went to the National Library to view a book I needed to see for some references, but I couldn't get in because the place was shut due to striking staff. It's not until it affects you personally that you begin to question these things and see what's really going on.
I just want to include some photos of my one of my trips to Dublin. The first is a mountain that I passed on the train, with a dusting of snow on top of it. The second is a picture of the river Liffey. In it you can see a ferry on the river, the Liffey Boardwalk and the Spire on O'Connell Street.
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