RTE will present a documentary about Irish acting legend and IFTA Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Stephen Rea titled Stephen Rea: The Fire in Me Now. The documentary follows Rea as he rehearses Beckett’s renowned play Krapp’s Last Tape in Dublin playing opposite his younger self with audio tapes he recorded over a decade ago.
Oscar-nominated actor Stephen Rea was honoured with the Irish Academy Award for his Lifetime Achievement, and for his outstanding contribution to the Irish and international screen industry at the 21st Anniversary IFTA Awards Ceremony. Rea has been the winner of 3 IFTA Awards, with 9 overall nominations. This intimate documentary explores the development of his outlook through the actor’s life and work.
Stephen Rea: The Fire in Me Now follows Rea from where he grew up in north Belfast, to his family home north of Dublin, to London’s Maida Vale where he spent time as an actor and to his much loved Donegal.
The documentary film depicts intimate conversations with friends and collaborators of Rea’s, including actor Sinéad Cusack, director Neil Jordan and Civil Rights activist Eamon McCann.
Speaking about the documentary, Stephen Rea said: “I was initially reluctant to do the documentary in lots of ways because I am a deeply private person, and I’ve always believed that the work has to be bigger than your ego. But I did want to pay homage to the friendship and generosity of the collaborators I was lucky to find, like Nancy Meckler and Neil Jordan, who helped me personally and in my career. I am a proud North Belfast man, and I hope the film shows younger people in the business that no matter where you’re from, there’s not one set path to being an actor. It’s about being true to yourself.
The documentary showcases archive extracts from Stephen Rea’s most prolific performances over the course of more than fifty years which spans from his rarely seen student sketches at Queen’s University Belfast in the 1960s, to his collaborations in recent years with Vicky Featherstone, former Artistic Director of the Royal Court Theatre, London. Stephen Rea: The Fire in Me Now highlights his commanding presence on stage and screen.
The title The Fire in Me Now is a homage to the final lines of Krapp’s Last Tape, the documentary demonstrates that Stephen Rea’s enduring passion and commitment to theatre has remained steadfast as enters his seventh decade as a professional actor.
Stephen Rea: The Fire in Me Now airs on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player Thursday April 10, 10:15pm
Neil Jordan’s The Company of Wolves turns a classic bedtime story into a haunting and unforgettable cinematic experience.
By Ria Pathak
From Snow White to Cinderella, the cinematic world has seen many retellings of these fairy tales over the years. Many of these tales, like Sleeping Beauty and Hansel and Gretel, crossed themselves to the horror genre with a mix of fantasy. One such film from the 80s doesn’t just retell the tale of Little Red Riding Hood but turns the classic bedtime story into a dark, haunting and unforgettable cinematic experience. Neil Jordan’sThe Company of Wolves, rather than showing a colorful, happy fairytale, confronts the darker aspects of desire and fear. The film plunges the audience into its subconscious, revealing the unsettling truths hidden beneath the surface. Even 41 years later, this British fantasy film stands as one of the greatest gothic tales ever told in cinema.
The Company of Wolves is a screen adaptation of British author Angela Carter’s 1979 short story of the same name. Carter, who also co-wrote the screenplay along with Irish director Neil Jordan, experienced a troubled childhood. She spent most of her childhood with her maternal grandmother and suffered from anorexia, an eating disorder that causes people, especially young women, to obsess over their body image and weight. Hence, Carter used the theme of adolescence and the fears related to it to craft dreamlike to transform the forest into a breeding ground for primal fears. With one of the most iconic and genre-bending werewolf transformations ever portrayed in cinema, The Company of Wolves is a testament to the power of gothic horror.
The Voice Squad “The Parting Glass” (from Waking Ned Devine, d. Kirk Jones, 1999)
The Hothouse Flowers frontman Liam Ó Maonlaí performed this classic in 1999’s Waking Ned Devine but I best love the recording sung a capella by The Voice Squad. Said music critic Rick Anderson, “By taking the traditional Irish repertoire and harmonizing it in a generally British style, the three members of the Voice Squad have created something new and absolutely wonderful. “
The Corrs “Time Enough for Tears” (from In America, d. Jim Sheridan, 2002)
This song plays over the final credits in Jim Sheridan’s heartbreaking autobiographical film In America (2002). Written by U2’s Bono with occasional collaborator Gavin Friday. I’ve long believed the fashion mag good-looks of Dublin’s Corrs sisters’ worked against them as artists. They’re amazing musicians and vocalists. The Corrs are Andrea (lead vocals, tin whistle, mandolin, ukulele), Sharon (violin, keyboards, vocals), Caroline (drums, percussion, piano, bodhrán, vocals) and Jim … well who gives a feck about Jim. This song was said to have been recorded in just one take. It’s Andrea who whispers at the song’s conclusion “I know…it’s ok.” ‘Tis indeed.
Marcus Mumford “Farewell” (“The Leaving of Liverpool”) From Inside Llewyn Davis ( d. Joel & Ethan Coen, 2013)
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem had a top 10 hit with “The Leaving of Liverpool” in Ireland in 1964. Liam Clancy was chumming with then-unknown Bob Dylan is his early days in Greenwich Village. Dylan swiped the song from Liam, renamed it, and recorded it as “Farewell”. The song has also been swiped, renamed, and/or adapted by several other artists, most notably The Dubliners and The Pogues. This track is from the outstanding concert film made with the Llewyn Davis creative team, Another Day, Another Time: Celebrating the Music of Inside Llewyn Davis and features the singing of Marcus Mumford with support from the Punch Brothers. Listen on Spotify:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbNtUygmsSU
The Hothouse Flowers “Sweet Marie I’m Alive” (from Joe Picket, 2021)
I purchased my first Hothouse Flowers LP in a Dublin record shop in the late1980s and I’ve been a fan ever since. Liam Ó Maonlaí is the most soulful Irish singer since Van Morrison. The Flowers have recorded several great songs (“Forgiven”, “Emotional Time”, “Don’t Go”) but my favorite is the beautiful break-up song, “Sweet Marie.” The song played during the season one finale of Paramount’s critically acclaimed series Joe Picket.
The unusual title for this Gaelic song derives from its use in the 1982 TV series “Harry’s Game,” a Brit TV series about a special agent who infiltrates the IRA to find an assassin. In 1992, the song was again used in the Harrison Ford movie Patriot Games making the title all the more confusing.
Clanned is the name of the band comprised of Donegal’s Brennan family. The song, featuring Moya’s haunting multi-tracked Gaelic vocals, was not only used in TV and films, but famously used in a Volkswagen commercial. Jason Flom, the RCA exec who negotiated the deal with Volkswagen, recalled in a Forbes interview: “It was lucky the lyrics were in Gaelic because it was actually a funeral dirge, and I don’t think if I was Volkswagen, I would be playing a funeral dirge in my ad for cars. But, we never told them.” The Brennan family have a younger sister not in the band but who sings by the name of Enya who is said to have more money than God or even Volkswagon. Listen on Spotify at: https://open.spotify.com/track/7CTSDg60OC15XUJusBLPuo?si=d7663f04830a4b50
Petula Clark “How Are Things in Glocca Mora?” (Finian’s Rainbow, d. Francis Ford Coppolla, 1968)
Lyrics by the legendary songsmith Yip Harburg. Pet Clark once revealed in an interview that there was much smoking of weed during the filming of “Finians Rainbow” and that includes Fred Astaire. How are things in Glocca Morra?. Apparently, things are pretty baked at 4:20 pm.
Kate Bush “Mná na hÉireann” (Women of Ireland) from Barry Lyndon (d. Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
Lyrics written by Ulster poet Peadar Ó Doirnín (1700–1769), with the musical “air” composed by Seán Ó Riada (1931–1971) ”Women of Ireland” was made famous as arranged and played by Paddy Moloney and The Chieftains in Stanley Kubrick’s film Barry Lyndon. This version sung by Kate Bush (mom was Irish), and was arranged by trad-Irish uberman Donal Lunny. Beautiful.
Lovely song from 2007’s the low-budget Indie gem Once. Written by Irish singer/songwriter Glen Hansard (who also co-stars in the film alongside Czech-Icelandic singer-songwriter Maketa Irglova). “Falling Slowly” won the Oscar for Best Song beating out three nominated songs from Disney Studios, no less!The 2012 Broadway stage adaption of Once won eight Tony awards and the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. Listen on Spotify at: https://open.spotify.com/track/6EIVLz5xM1xE29r0OmIkWt?si=fc034f7cd27c437a
Dave Berry “The Crying Game” (d. Neil Jordan,1991)
This song isn’t Irish, nor was the singer Dave Berry who had a chart hit in England with the original in 1964. The 1991 film, also titled The Crying Game was written and directed by Irishman Neil Jordan. His film explores themes of race, sex, nationality, and sexuality against the backdrop of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Jaysus, what’s more Irish than that? Boy George performs “The Crying Game” in the film. I really love the original by Dave Berry whose real name was not “Crying Boy Berry” but actually “David Holgate Grundy.”
Sinead O’Connor “The Butcher Boy”(d. Neil Jordan,1997)
The late Sinead O’Connor (who portrayed an apparition of the Virgin Mary in the film) sings a lovely version of the titular traditional folk song. Neil Jordan’s film is a disturbing retelling of the Patrick McCabe brilliant novel. Lovers of the song must also hear the legendary Tommy Makem perform it. The ballad’s tune was also regrettably used in the 1966 hit “The Ballad of the Green Berets” by Barry Sadler. An even deeper dive is in the film Caddyshack, when Bill Murray mumbles the “Green Berets” song under his breath while he is connecting the wires to the plunger as he prepares for his final battle with his gopher nemesis.
Seamus Egan ”Weep Not For the Memories / I Will Remember You” (from The Brothers McMullen, 1995)
This song became a pretty big pop hit for Sarah McLaughlin who added the lyrics. but it was originally written and recorded as an instrumental by Seamus Egan, leader of the Irish-American supergroup “Solas.” Edward Burns wrote the screenplay and starred in the film.
The UK’s best-known film critic, Mark Kermode offers up 50 personal viewing recommendations, from great classics to overlooked gems.
The Arbor (2010)
Director Clio Barnard
Artist Clio Barnard’s moving film about the late Bradford playwright Andrea Dunbar (Rita, Sue and Bob Too) is no ordinary documentary. Mixing interviews with Dunbar’s family and friends (seen lip-synched by actors), scenes from her plays performed on the estate where she lived, and TV footage of her in the 1980s, the film makes intriguing, inventive play with fact, fiction and reminiscence.
Mark Kermode says: “Somehow the disparate elements form a strikingly cohesive whole, conjuring a portrait of the artist and her offspring that is both emotionally engaging, stylistically radical and utterly unforgettable.”
Seen in flashback through the prism of a woman’s attempted suicide, this fragmented portrait of a love affair expands into a labyrinthine enquiry into memory and guilt. One of director Nic Roeg’s finest films, starring Art Garfunkel, Theresa Russell and Harvey Keitel.
Mark Kermode says: “Roeg himself reported that a friend refused to talk to him for three years after seeing the film. Today, Bad Timing still divides audiences: monstrosity or masterpiece? Well, watch it and decide for yourself.”
With its enchanted castle, home to fantastic living statuary, and director Jean Cocteau’s lover Jean Marais starring as a Beast who is at once brutal and gentle, rapacious and vulnerable, shamed and repelled by his own bloodlust, this remains a high point of the cinematic gothic imagination.
Mark Kermode says: “Personally I think Mexican filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro, the maestro of the modern screen fairytale, said it best when he declared La Belle et la Bête simply to be the most perfect cinematic fable ever told.”
The documentary showcases archive extracts from Stephen Rea’s most prolific performances over the course of more than fifty years which spans from his rarely seen student sketches at Queen’s University Belfast in the 1960s, to his collaborations in recent years with Vicky Featherstone, former Artistic Director of the Royal Court Theatre, London. Stephen Rea: The Fire in Me Now highlights his commanding presence on stage and screen.
