A while back, someone asked for movie titles with traditional Irish music in them. I copied down all the titles and borrowed each from the library. There were good and bad.
I’m not looking so much for the music as I am the history, culture and especially the humor of Ireland.
Movies that I have seen include:
Waking Ned Devine (By far THE best!)
Barry Lyndon (By far THE worst!!!)
Agnes Brown (Very funny)
Miller’s Crossing
Michael Collins (Good flick…skeptical of the accuracy)
Angela’s Ashes (Depressing, but telling)
The Secret of Roan Inish (Wonderful, magical…my kind of film)
The Nephew (Didn’t really see it…the film was broke)
The Matchmaker (This weekend)
The Quiet Man (One of my all time favorites!)
Others that were suggested are:
The Field
Black Sunday
The Van
So, what say ye? What other Irish films would you suggest? Doesn’t matter if there is IrTrad in them.
And if you haven’t seen Waking Ned Devine yet, this is a must see movie. One of the best endings to a movie ever!!!
Ryan’s Daughter is a good one. I don’t remember if there’s much music in it but it does depict the tension between country folk and the British “occupying army” around the time of WWI.
Mike
Circle of Friends is about young women coming of age in Ireland in about the '50s. Not my favorite movie in the world, although my ex loved it. It does pretty much fit the description of what you’re looking for, though (real life in Ireland, albeit not current real life).
The Commitments has music in it and there’s ‘Traveller’ [at least I think that was the title] whch has a very young Davy Spillane in it, with some piping and low whistle.
Evelyn, a surprisingly good film with Pierce Brosnan about an Irish father fighting for custody of his children. Some good music/pub scenes (I think Pierce even does his own singing).
The Magdalene Sisters Not much music, but a chilling look at an institution where Irish women who had “strayed off the path” were sent and abused for years by Catholic nuns. Not your light comedy, but excellent movie.
At risk of being branded a heretic, I’ll suggest my favorite movie, which is themed with beautiful Scottish style music, including some folk singing–Rob Roy.
This is My Father- James Caan, Aidan Quinn. Has a ceilidh dance scene (with a fist fight). Good movie. James Caan goes back to Ireland to find out who his father was and what mysterious tragedy occured. Aidan Quinn plays the father in flashbacks as neighbors tell the story to Caan.
Run of the Country- don’t remember any music, but liked the film. Young man, his father is the town constable in rural Ireland. He gets a girl pregnant and has to deal with her brothers and uncles, etc. (It’s not all grim, well, maybe not.)
The Playboys- about travelling actors in the 1930’s or so. Aidan Quinn again. Takes place in a small rural town.
The Snapper- comedy about a young woman who gets pregnant and won’t let her family know who the father is. Lots of cussing.
First recommendation if you look for anything is the BBC miniseries, The Irish RM (Royal Magistrate) about a gentle Englishman who gets assigned to be a judge in rural Ireland around the turn of the century (1900). Hilarious. It opens with the jig, Haste to the Wedding, a jig, played on fiddle. Written by two women from their first hand experiences of the time. Favorite line, by surly housekeeper, " I’ve a pain in me hip that’d bring down a horse." The characters are connivers and bootleggers and the judge always gets innocently drawn into their schemes and ends up looking like a culprit.
Somerville and Ross [the writers]. A bit heavy on the paddywhackery maybe. There’s actually more music in it, the odd bits and pieces of whislte and pipes and one show has a bunch of musicianers turning up, quite anachronistic the complete De Dannan turns up for it in period costume but with 1970s hair do. Jackie Daly recently told me they were sitting around all day to do their scene and were totally pissed out of their brain by the time they had to do their bit. It doesn’t show.
Since you put yourself out on a line, I’ll suggest “Far and Away”. Obviously, you couldn’t get less irish than Tom Cruise and Nicole Kiddman, but the music was pretty.
And “The Englishman who went Down a Hill, but Came Up a Montain” deserves a mention, too. The backdrop of the plot was Wales, but the music was Irtrad.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned “War of the Buttons”, especially since it even has WHISTLES in it. (It’s a cute movie about kids from two villages battling over buttons.)
and there’s ‘Traveller’ [at least I think that was the title] whch has a very young Davy Spillane in it, with some piping and low whistle.