World cinema - Articles - Zimbio

Ble mae'r Sinema Cymraeg? Gaelic Language Makes Big Comeback in New Scottish Feature Film 'Searchd'

Fri, 16 Jun 2007 08:52:00 GMT

posted by marklesliewoods

Seachd: The Inaccessible Pinnacle is the first feature film in Scottish Gaelic.

It is a film from the Scottish Gaelic community starring local Gaelic-speaking actors from the Highlands and Isles and was filmed entirely on the Isle of Skye (An t-Eilean Sgitheanach) off the West Coast of Scotland.

Seachd is not a Hollywood film. The film was shot across just 25 days on a tiny budget, but it is a film with a big heart and it represents the lives of people living in a part of the world that has yet to be shown on the big screen.

The soundtrack to Seachd features some of Gaeldom's greatest living vocalists and musicians - and ancient Gaelic instruments such as the Carnyx (Celtic battle horn), the metal strung Clàrsach (Gaelic harp) and the triplepipes (the predecessor of the bagpipes).

As it's said in Gaelic: Làn fhìrinn na sgeòil -- The truth is in the story. When a young man, Angus, visits his dying Grandfather in hospital he cannot hold back his boyhood quest for the truth - the truth behind the death of his parents and the truth behind his Grandfather's ancient, incredible, fearful stories.

Stories from the whole swathe of Gaelic history of poisoned lovers, bloody revenge, water-horses and Spanish gold.

His Grandfather hijacks Angus' life for one last time leading him to one of Scotland's most treacherous mountains, The Inaccessible Pinnacle on the Isle of Skye, and an ancient truth he never expected to find.

Làn fhìrinn na sgeòil. Tha Aonghas air a bhith air tòir na fìrinn o òige, miann a tha a' teannachadh na inntinn 's na chorp nuair a thuigeas e gu bheil am bàs gu laighe air a Sheanar.

Tha fios aig Aonghas gu bheil an t-àm dha eòlas a chur air an fhìrinn mu bhàs a phàrantan 's cuideachd mu sgeulachdan a Sheanair. Sgeulachdan iongantach, eagalach a thug air cuairt tro eachdraidh nan Gaidheal iad le gaol, sabaid, eich-uisge agus òr Spàinnteach nam measg.

Tha Aonghas 's a Sheanair a' gabhail aon chuairt eile còmhla, cuairt a tha gan toirt gu mullach Sgùrr Dearg 's gu fìrinn ris nach robh dùil sam bith.

Simon Miller's Searchd Official Website

Gyda bob hwyl i bawb, Mark

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

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Gaelic Language Makes Big Comeback in New Scottish Feature Film 'Searchd'

Wed, 14 Jun 2007 06:08:00 GMT

Simon Miller's Searchd Official Website

Gyda bob hwyl i bawb, Mark

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

Why Do Many Small Nations 'Specialize' in Film Adaptations?

Mon, 31 Jul 2007 14:08:58 GMT

posted by marklesliewoods

It has been estimated that an overwhelming percentage of Welsh films and television dramas are intentionally based upon other literary sources.

This overwhelming dependence upon literary adaptation is primarily from important Welsh literary or cultural sources. This suggests an attempt to ‘recall and recollect’ and to re-‘write the nation’, after a period of suppressed or neglected representations of Welsh-ness.

While Dave Berry’s book and other studies have attributed this Welsh dependence upon literary adaptation as ‘laziness’ (Berry 1994: 234), we see it as being related to issues of post-colonial ‘re-telling’ of a national story, or more related to the economics of production.

For example, Stephen Bayly directed Joni Jones (1982) as a well-received television series for S4C, an adaptation based upon the well-known children’s stories by R. Garallt Jones entitled Gwared y Gwirion or ‘Redemption of the Innocents’.

It is often the case in Wales, that directors will create a series which is actually suited to be converted into a feature film at a later date, should the funding and political will be present to effect the re-formatting.

Additionally, one of Wales's most famous sons is Andrew Davies, who is known around the world as the 'Prince of Adaptation'.

Andrew Wynford Davies (born September 20, 1936 in Rhiwbina, Cardiff, Wales) is a British screenwriter.

He is the creator of the children's Marmalade Atkins television series and A Very Peculiar Practice, and is also well known for his adaptations of classic works of literature, including the 1995 television adaptation of Pride and Prejudice starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle and the 1998 adaptation of Vanity Fair.

Literary and stage adaptations have added clout with film production investors, who assume that a successful novel or stage play will naturally make a successful film.

Some screenwriters have been known to 'invent' a novel AFTER writing a film script, for purposes of marketing the film, and for raising venture capital.

In small nations, broadcasting drama department Commissioning Editors often opt for an adaptation. This satisfies several remits: nationalistic and cultural agendas are fulfilled, while it's assumed that an established audience exists for the new film or TV series.

My favorite book on film and literature in general is Tom Corrigan's 'Film & Literature' (1999, Prentic Hall Inc / Simon & Schuster).

Here's a pleasant Youtube tribute to Colin Firth in Pride & Prejudice:

'Adaptation: Studying Film and Literature' (Paperback) by John Desmond (Author), Peter Hawkes (Author) is concise and readable new text for courses in Film Adaptation or Film and Literature introduces students to the art of adapting works of literature for film.

'Adaptation' describes the interwoven histories of literature and film, presents key analytical approaches to adaptation, and provides an in-depth overview of adaptations of novels, short stories, plays, nonfiction, and animation.

The book concludes with an analysis of why adaptations sometimes fail.

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

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Who's Your favorite Welsh filmmaker?

Sat, 17 Jun 2007 07:50:00 GMT

posted by marklesliewoods

Who's Your favorite Welsh filmmaker?

Is it Justin Kerrigan, director of Human Traffic (1999)?

[Summary: Bad boys in Cardiff get loaded and the kids have irreverent, outrageous fun. Sex is important to the plot.]

Is it Kevin Allen, director of Twin Town (1997)?

[Summary: Bad boys in Swansea get loaded and the kids have irreverent, outrageous fun. Sex is important to the plot.]

Do you like to get together 'dros y penwthynos' with your mates, tip a few pints, while you watch, for the 200th time, director John Hefin's film about Welsh Rubgy, Grand Slam (1978)?

[Summary: Bad boys from West Wales get loaded, go to Paris, and make some irreverent, outrageous fun. Sex is important to the plot.]

Or do you like the darker side of life? Perhaps you prefer Julian Richards horror film Darklands (1996)?

[Summary; Bad boys from Barry get Satanic-religious loaded, and have some bloody, good old time pagan fun. Rowena King makes sex important here, too.]

Or maybe you prefer a more 'historical film', which exploits the Welsh Valley's dysfunctional heritage of post-industrial malaise, casual incest, petty crime, pit violence, and putting your Welsh Mam in the nuthouse? Marc Evans's House of America (1997) ticks every box for the modern Cymreig cinephile.

[Summary: Bad boys from Merthyr get loaded, get beat up, ride motorcycles, and tell the world to bugger off. Sex is important here, especially sex with your sister.]

Tell our readers your favorite Welsh film of all time, or your favorite Welsh 'auteur' filmmaker, okay?

Gyda bob hwyl i bawb, Mark

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

American film scholar Launches Welsh Film, Music, and Book Review Symposium

Fri, 9 Jun 2007 18:07:00 GMT

posted by marklesliewoods
Celtic Cult Cinema Blog expands to new Welsh Film Symposium site:

Mark Woods says:

"Croeso i drafodaeth 'da fi ar y we, gyda newyddion cerddoriaeth, ffilmiau, barddoniaeth, ffuglen, dramau, a storiau byr y Gymru."

"Welcome to my online symposium, your one source for news and reviews about new and old, Welsh Music, Film, Poetry, Fiction, Dramas, and Short Stories."

In June 2007 I completed my Ph.D. in Film Studies at the University of Glamorgan in Wales, and for the past five years I have watched and reviewed over 100 Welsh films and television products, as part of my research.

While there is extensive research in the field of Welsh national cinema by Berry, Blandford, Ffrancon and others, there is also a paucity of qualified scholarship in important areas of this field.

Welsh national cinema is a national cinema, which has struggled to survive, has struggled to overcome systemic and historic obstacles to scholarship, as well as funding, production, exhibition and distribution of its products, related organizations, agents and services.

Consequently, the National cinema of Wales will only benefit from further scholarship, and the implied enhancement of exposure to new and different audiences, from both and industrial and cultural perspective.

Each month I hope to share my findings and reviews with you, and I hope you'll tell me about your favorite films, as well!

Gyda bob hwyl i bawb,

Mark

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.