Neil jordan retrospective at ballina film club

BALLINA Film Club presents... returns with a look at the career of one of modern Irish cinema’s most distinctive talents.

Since the early 1980s, Neil Jordan has emerged as one of Irish cinema’s most original artists. His debut feature, Angel, in 1982, announced a serious talent and since then he has gone to create a considerable body of work ranging from mainstream hits to more personal, low-budget arthouse works.

Through much of his work he has forged an aesthetic which could be described as 'Irish Gothic'. He won an Academy Award for his script of The Crying Game and has won many other prestigious awards at festivals around the world.

Throughout July and August, Ballina Film Club will present a selection of Jordan’s films which showcase the originality, verve and beauty of his work.

The season will kick off on Tuesday, July 14, with Angel, and will be followed by screenings of The Company of Wolves, Mona Lisa, The Crying Game, The Butcher Boy, Breakfast on Pluto and Ondine. The season will conclude on Wednesday, August 5, with a viewers’ choice between two Jordan vampire movies: Interview with a Vampire (Jordan’s adaptation of Anne Rice’s book exploring the relationships between a group of bloodthirsty vampires, starring Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Antonio Banderas and Christian Slater) or Byzantium (Jordan’s mature take on a modern Gothic vampire story). People can make their choice on the Ballina Film Club Facebook page. The film with the most votes will be the one which will close the season.

Ballina Film Club presents... is an annual film event at Ballina Arts Centre. Each year, a key film artist is subject of a retrospective programme of their films. Past events have included Wim Wenders, Akira Kurosawa, Jean Luc Godard, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Andrei Tarkovski, Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch.

All screenings will start at 8 p.m. and tickets are €5. For more information, see www.ballinaartscentre.com.