Blue Jasmine: Cate Blanchett stars in Woody Allen’s latest film.

The trailer for Woody Allen’s forthcoming film Blue Jasmine has just been released. It stars Cate Blanchett as Jasmine a New Yorker who loses all her money after her husband Danny is exposed as a criminal and she is forced to move to San Francisco to stay with her sister who is played by Sally Hawkins. Alec Baldwin stars as Danny, his second film in a row for Allen following To Rome With Love. It also stars Bobby Cannavale, Peter Sarsgaard as well as the comedians Louis C.K. and Andrew Dice Clay. As ever Allen’s films also feature a new rising star and this film also features Alden Ehrenreich who recently starred in  Chan-Wook Park’s excellent film Stoker as well as Richard LaGravenes’s’ Beautiful Creatures.

There have been several comments on social media that the storyline of Blue Jasmine contains elements to the Tennessee Williams play and Elia Kazan film A Streetcar Named Desire with Blanchett playing a neurotic Blanch character with Hawkins also coded as her sister Stella and Cannavale to a much lesser degree as Stanley. Allen’s films that have featured argumentative but loving relationships between family members have always been some of his greatest works and this looks very promising.

Blue Jasmine is released in cinemas on July 26th in New York and Los Angeles and also on 20th September in the UK.

My Brothers

My Brothers is directed by Paul Fraser and is released in selected Irish cinemas on August 17th. My Brothers is set over Halloween weekend in Ireland in 1987. It tells the story of three brothers; Noel, Paudie and Scwally who set out on a road trip to replace a watch for their dying father. Along the way, in the great tradition of road movies, the three brothers meet various characters and they both bond and fight. 

It is the first feature length film directed by Paul Fraser who has previously written the screenplays for acclaimed films such as Somers Town and A Room for Romeo Brass. He was also writer on Heartlands, a film from 2002 which was directed by Damian O’Donnell and was one that I remember really liking a lot when it was in the cinema. It starred Michael Sheen and Celia Imrie. 

My Brothers will screen at the Screen on D’Olier St, the Lighthouse Cinema and at Movies @Dundrum which are all in Dublin and will also screen at the Gate and the Triskel in Cork. Hopefully it will be shown in other cinemas too. The soundtrack also features original music by Jacknife Lee and Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol.

The Twitter page for updates on the film is @MyBrothersMovie and the film’s Facebook page is Facebook.com/myBrothersMovie

Film Noir at the Lighthouse Cinema in Dublin

One of the great things about living in Dublin over the past few years has been the creative programming in our city centre cinemas. For years cinemas such as the Irish Film Institute, Cineworld, The Screen on D’Olier Street and The Lighthouse Cinema have added once off screenings of classic Hollywood and world cinema to their weekly listings. The Lighthouse Cinema was originally based in Abbey Street in Dublin. It re-opened a few years ago in Smithfield but closed down. It has since re-opened and has re-established itself as one of the most important and exciting cinemas in Ireland. This weekend I went to see several films at the Gaze film festival and the atmosphere was so brilliant.

Later this month and into September there is a short Film Noir season with screenings of five classics of the Golden Age of cinema history. Admission to each of the films is €9 or €7.50 concessions or you can go to all 5 films for €30. Booking can be made in advance at the cinema’s box office or by calling 01-8728006. If you are a film student or simply a fan of the best of that genre of American cinema this is a great opportunity to see these landmark films on screen. 

The five films in the programme are: 

– Gilda (August 15th)

– The Big Heat (August 22nd)

– The Big Sleep (August 29th)

– Mildred Pierce (September 5th)

– Laura (September 12th)

The Twitter page for the Lighthouse Cinema is @LighthouseD7 The poster featured above was designed by @MickMinogue and Paddy Dunne @Bawpsherep

Here is also the trailers for all five films.

The first is Gilda (1946) which was directed by Charles Vidor and stars Glenn Ford and most famously Rita Hayworth in her signature role.

The second film which screens on August 22nd is The Big Heat (1953) which was directed by Fritz Lang and starred Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame and Lee Marvin. The video clip below also features a montage of movie posters of The Big Heat.

The third film screens on August 29th and is The Big Sleep (1946) directed by Howard Hawks and starring Humphrey Bogart and Laureen Bacall. The beginning of the trailer is wonderful. You wish marketing for movies was still like that. 

The fourth film is Mildred Pierce (1945) which screens on September 5th is one that was remade as a TV mini series for HBO in 2011. It is one of the ultimate Joan Crawford films. Mildred Pierce was directed by Michael Curtiz whose most famous film is Casablanca.

and the fifth film in the season which screens on September 12th is Laura (1944) and was directed by Otto Preminger and starred Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews and Clifton Webb.