I hope you are enjoying St. Patrick’s Day 2021!
Here is an Irish Film/Movie trivia quiz I made for my family during Lockdown 1!
Hope you enjoy!
Thanks for playing!
Follow me on twitter @beanmimo if you like!
Posted in Film, Film History, Film Trivia
Tagged film, irish, movie, St Patrick's Day, Trivia
Care of my monthly newsletters from MovieExtras.ie test your random Irish Film Trivia here…
Which Irish writer born on February 2nd was the subject of a biopic in 2000 starring Ewan McGregor?
Which Irish Actor plays Jim Moriarty in the current BBC series Sherlock?
The character Mrs. Brown, famously portrayed by Brendan O’Carroll, has also been played by which actress?
Which 2003 Irish film is as follows… “A hapless civil servant gets more than he bargained for when he moves into an apartment with a gay fashion student and finds himself on the catwalk.”
Which multi-award winning actor is quoted as saying “Interviews are God’s great joke on me.”?
Which Irish Actor had purchased the rights to Gerry Conlon’s book “Proved Innocent” and had intended to play Gerry himself but decided to let Daniel Day-Lewis play the part and just serve as executive producer instead?
My debut was in The Commitments, I have appeared in Father Ted, Dexter, The Tudors Albert Nobbs, Byzantium and more. Which Irish Actress am I?
Which 2014 movie release was shot in Ireland, Afghanistan and Morocco?
The First and Second series of which recent BBC television show employed 5,000 Irish cast, extras and crew and contributed €20m in total to the Irish economy?
Which Irish actor has played Guy Fawkes, a German POW, a character with an interest in Lawrence of Arabia, Carl Jung and a mutant?
The Answers
James Joyce was played by Ewan McGregor
Andrew Scott played Moriarty
Angelica Houston also played the character of Mrs. Browne
Cowboys & Angels was the 2003 film
Daniel Day-Lewis has that attitude to interviews.
Gabriel Byrne was first going to play Gerry Conlon
Maria Doyle Kennedy (the Commitments etc.)
A Thousand Times Goodnight (shot in Afghanistan & Morocco).
Ripper Street contributed 20million to the irish Economy.
Michael Fassbender has played Guy Fawkes etc.
Follow me on Twitter @Beanmimo
Thank you for reading!
If you enjoyed those here are more rounds…
Thanks to Eclipse Pictures for the advanced screening
The true story of Christina Noble, who suffered neglect, abuse and rape through her formative years in Ireland and England only to make a better life for herself and others in Vietnam.
Sitting comfortably between Philomena and Angela’s Ashes, “Noble” is the true story of poverty stricken, Catholic dominated Ireland where a young girl grows into womanhood despite the neglect of her family and the nefarious influence of Nuns.
While the narrative is not completely linear it does begin with her childhood. Director Stephen Bradley (Sweety Barrett, Boy Eats Girl) then inter-cuts the rest of the film switching between adult Christina’s story of her first trip to Vietnam in the 1989 with the rest of her teens and twenties.
The youngest Christina is played, in a stunning debut, by Gloria Cramer Curtis displaying cockiness and compassion in equal measure as her life takes unfortunate turns. Liam Cunningham is totally convincing as her wasteful and drunken father. Sarah Greene deftly takes up Christina’s late-teenage years where the film charts how alone she is in the world with the exception of one friend Joan (the always dependable Ruth Negga). Irish actress and comedian Deirdre O’Kane plays the brash and driven adult Christina as she pursues a vague dream that brings her to Vietnam in 1989.
When O’Kane first appeared in the story it was hard for me to separate her from her funny stand-up career and her comedic turns on Irish television and film. She reminded me too much of simply a more serious version of herself. But after a few inter-cuts with scenes from her youth we are shown what made Christina Noble the adult she becomes in O’Kane’s performance. Perhaps a more linear narrative might have helped.
Poverty stricken Dublin looks suitably filthy: all kudos to the production designers here as their recreations of destitute Dublin, working class London and meltingly hot and seedy Vietnam give the film a wonderful atmosphere (the film was actually shot in The UK and Vietnam). Though is a gap in the story at the end of Sarah Greene’s London section of the film. We do not see Christina through the years when she reared her children into adulthood and I feel even a glimpse of this would have helped the narrative. Also a little more of the delightful Curtis, the youngest Christina, would have made more of an impact on the story.
The scenes of awful abuse that Christina endured from her teens in Dublin trough to her twenties in London, mostly in Greene’s section of her life, are in no way ambiguous and still they are handled with a skill which leaves the audience with an emotional residue of her ordeals without being exposed to any explicitly violent visuals. As Bradley seems more interested in getting on with Christina’s story it feels like the Greene was not given the space to indulge the emotional damage that other filmmakers might have capitalised upon.
Throughout her harrowing experiences Christina holds on tightly to her unwavering belief in God. I can see this film being shown for years to older classes in Catholic run and influenced schools.
The time in Vietnam is perhaps the slowest part of the film as not much happens in the first few scenes and perhaps a more linear approach would have helped us to understand what her character had gone through before she arrived in Asia. The pace builds up as Christina slowly carves her own niche and becomes a defender of street children in whom she sees so much of her own upbringing.
Still this is a well-made and ultimately moving tale of the tough life and tenacity of Christina Noble. A lesson that no matter what is thrown at them some people they will keep on fighting. She is a woman whose story deserved to be told. We need more like her.
7/10
Noble is on Irish cinemas on 19th September
Posted in Film Reviews
Tagged christina, deirdre o'kane, film, movie, Noble, review, sarah greene
Care of my monthly newsletters from MovieExtras.ie test your random Irish Film Trivia here…
The Questions
Before working with her which Irish actor described Meryl Streep as “that gorgeous blonde I fancied terribly in Drama School.”
How many Irish filming locations were used during the shoot of The Tudors?
Born to an Irish mother and English father, she grew up in USA, Germany and Switzerland. She was named one of Screen Internationals Stars of Tomorrow in 2011, and was awarded the Berlinale Shooting Star award in 2012. Who is she?
In The Commitments one character mockingly sings the theme tune to another of director Alan Parker’s Films, which film is it?
Roddy Doyle has 9 writing credits on IMDB, how many are adaptations of his novels?
Which 2000 Irish film contains this line? “Eamon… women are like microwave ovens. You need them to heat up your noodles, but you have no idea how they work.”
Who played Noel Curley in The General, Maguire in the Crying Game, and Peter in My Left Foot?
How many of director Alan Parker’s films have been set (and shot) in Ireland?
While doing research for what Irish movie did Michael McElhatton find that real prisoners often quoted one of his characters?
My first role was a soldier in Mystic Knights of Tir na Nog, since them I have appeared in Paths to Freedom, Ballykissangel, Batchelor’s Walk, Intermission, This Must be The Place, The Fall, Moone Boy etc. who am I?
Answers
Pierce Brosnan (he worked with Meryl Streep in Mammia Mia!)
The Tudors used 9 Irish Locations
Ardmore Studios, Herbert Road, Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland
Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Christ Church Cathedral, Christchurch, Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland
Drimnagh Castle, Drimnagh, Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland
Dublin Castle, Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland
Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland
Kilmainham Jail, Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland
Kilruddery House, Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland
(season 4)
People’s Gardens, Phoenix Park, Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland
Powerscourt Estate, Enniskerry, County Wicklow, Ireland
Antonia Campbell-Hughes was the actor in question.
The theme tune mocked in the Committments was Fame
Rodday Doyle had adapted three of his books for the screen, The Commitments, The Snapper and the Van.
The quote was from The Most Fertile Man In Ireland
Adrian Dunbar played those parts in The General, The Crying Gane and My Left Foot.
2 of Alan Parker’s films were shot and based in Ireland The Commitments and Angela’s Ashes.
Michael McElhatton was researching for Spin The Bottle in an Irish Prison when he found out that inmates often quoted his lines. (The character was Rats who had first appeared in the RTE Series Paths To Freedom.)
Simon Delaney is the actor in question.
Thanks for reading,
If you enjoyed those here are a few more rounds…
Care of my monthly newsletters from MovieExtras.ie test your random Irish Film Trivia here…
Which production was shot in Dublin over 34 days in 2011 and starred a leading Hollywood actress who adapted it from a one ‘man’ show?
Which Irish filmed television series was the first small screen appearance for Eva Green?
What connection does the organ like instrument featured in This Must Be The Place have to David Byrne in reality?
Which outspoken Irish actor said this about Ardmore Studios “It’s proximity to Dublin, a myriad of diverse locations, facilities and first rate crews, make it Grade A. It’s track record over the years speaks for itself. Unhesitatingly, I would recommend it as a first class studio”?
Which 1978 Irish filmed movie starred Sean Connery, Donald Sutherland and Leslie-Ann Downe?
How did Director John Wright help actors Richard Coyle and Ruth Bradley prepare for the filming of ‘Grabbers’?
While Hurricane Hugo was causing extensive damage in Puerto Rico on 18th September 1989 what program did RTE air for the first time?
What is the Costume connection between Northanger Abbey and Becoming Jane?
Name the movie: shot in 2000, in Dublin, cast includes Kate Hudson & Tommy Tiernan?
Name the programme that Dermot Morgan and Pauline McGlynn worked on before Father Ted?
Albert Nobbs was filmed in Dublin (with Glenn Close).
Camelot was where Eva Green made her first screen appearance.
It is based on an installation David Byrne created, where he hooked an organ to old pipes in a a factory allowing people to ‘play the building’.
Gabriel Byrne spoke those words about Ardmore.
The Great Train Robbery starred Sean Connery, Donald Sutherland and Leslie-Ann Downe.
He got them drunk and then filmed them so that they know how they would have to act drunk in “Grabbers”.
Fair City started on the same day Hurricane Hugo was raging.
The white overdress with pink and green stripes Carey Mulligan (Isabella Thorpe) is wearing when she first meets Catherine Morland in “Northanger Abbey” is the same costume worn by Jessica Ashworth’ (Lucy Lefroy) to the Laverton Fair in “Becoming Jane”.
Hudson & Tiernan appeared in “About Adam”
Morgan & McGlynn worked together on Scrap Saturday (radio)
Thanks for reading,
If you enjoyed those here are a few more rounds…
Care of my movie newsletters from MovieExtras.ie 2012, test your random Irish Film Trivia here…
To whom did J.K. Rowling write these words, “Don’t be too hard on Termonfeckin; it does have a brilliant name! And I come from a very sleepy place.”?
Despite having scenes of brutal violence which film was rated PG in Irish cinemas due to it’s historical context?
Why were many scenes in My Left Foot shot through a mirror?
Which Irish actor debuted in Notting Hill and will appear in the upcoming Martin McDonagh feature Calvary?
Peter O’Toole appeared in seven episodes of The Tudors. How long did he spend filming these?
Which Irish Actor has played a Futuristic Luddite, an Amnesiac, a Self-Defence Teacher, a Priest, Winston Churchill and a hit man?
For which Harry Potter role did Saoirse Ronan complete an audition?
Born in the U.K. of Irish parents he has played a diminutive roman soldier, a movie director, a roman god and a radio DJ?
Sinead O’Connor’s songs have been heard in 54 movies but she has acted in only 4. Can you name them?
Aidan Gillen chose his mother’s second name to register with Actor’s Guild because somebody else has already registered with his given surname. Do you know his original surname?
And the answers are
J K Rowling sent those words to Harry Potter fan Evanna Lynch (who eventually starred in the Harry Potter films as Luna Lovegood)
Michael Collins
Because Daniel Day-Lewis could only manipulate his right foot to perform the actions you see in the movie.
Dylan Moran made his screen debut in Notting Hill
Peter O’Toole spent a week filming The Tudors.
Brendan Gleeson (A.I., Wild About Harry, Harry Potter Franchise, The Butcher Boy, Into The Storm, In Bruges)
Saoirse Ronan auditioned for Luna Lovegood, she did not get the part because she was too young.
Steve Coogan (Night At The Museum & 2, Tropic Thunder, The Lightening Thief, Alan Partridge)
Sinead O’Connor has acted in The Butcher Boy (Our Lady/Colleen), Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte (uncredited)), The Ghosts of Oxford Street (TV movie) (Ann of Oxford Street), Hush-a-Bye Baby (Sinead)
Aidan Gillen’s given surname is Murphy
Care of my movie newsletters from MovieExtras.ie 2012, test your random Irish Film Trivia here…
1) How many of the Asterix books made up the Irish-shot film Astérix and Obélix: God Save Britannia?
2) I am from Portlaoise, Co. Laois. I am the youngest of three children. American Beauty is one of my all time favourite movies. I have been in Song for a Raggy Boy, The Clinic and The Tudors but I am known better for other roles. Who am I?
3) Even though it was set in County Durham and filmed in Ireland, do you know where Alan Hunter originally set his books about Inspector George Gently?
4) “When your past is a lie… and your future is not your own” is the tagline for which movie?
5) In Which 1959 movie do we see Sean Connery singing?
6) Which Francis Ford Coppola children’s movie is partly about the splicing of tobacco with the mint plant so a town can grow menthol cigarettes?
7) The late Pete Postlewaite played Daniel Day Lewis’ Dad Giuseppe in In The Name Of the Father but in real life how many years separated them?
8) In which film did Gabriel Byrne speak this line “There’s no way they’d line five felons in the same room, no way.”
9) Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson were nominated at the Golden Globes for In Bruges, who won?
10) In The Guard Brendan Gleeson refers to “The Fat Man”, which classic movie and character is he talking about?
Here come the answers
Wait for it
1) Asterix In Britain and Asterix and the Normans.
2) Robert Sheehan
3) East Anglia
4) A Tiger’s Tale
5) Darby O’Gill and the Little People
6) Finian’s Rainbow
7) 11
8) The Usual Suspects
9) Colin Farrell
10) “The Fat Man” refers to Sydney Greenstreet who played Signor Ferrari, opposite Humphrey Bogart, as a bar owning competitor in Casablanca
It is a book, a stage musical, an album, a tenth/2th anniversary edition, video, DVD, a tee shirt, a mug and now, finally, it is a film.
The story by Victor Hugo, considered one of the greatest novels has been boiled down by Cameron MacKintosh into archetypal representations of redeemption, blind loyalty, young love, sacrifice, nationalism… oh, in short it has it all.
Inpector Javeret (Russell Crowe) looses parole breaker Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) so many times you wonder if is he not the ancestor of bmbling Jacques Clouseau. One act of kindness turns Valjean from a convict into a selfless and upstanding pillar of the community who would have rivalled Jesus Christ. Poor Fantine (Anne Hathaway) suffers more than a series of unfortunate events. On the upside her daughter Cosette (Amanda Seyfried) has a little more luck with the wishy-washy Marius (Eddie Redmayne) who is not sure whether he is more in love with France or this girl he saw in a crowd for a little more than a second. Then there are the nasty inn-keepers (Sacha Baron Cohen & Helena Bonham Carter) who are so rotten to the core I was surprised their limbs were not falling off and their daughter Eponine (Samantha Banks) who steadfastly know where her loyatlies lie.
At some stages I wanted to be back in 1992 when I atended the stage version but at other stages I was happy to be watching the film. You cannot beat the immediacy of the stage musical but the production values of the film are incredible.
The acting nearly comes in fourth place to the music, story and production simply because these characters are archtypes, though Anne Hathaway gives the best performance managing to act through the archetype and the songs and Hugh Jackman is a close second. This doesn’t mean the others did nor give good performances, they fit the epic musical style perfectly.
This is what happens when you boil a classic into a musical.
Nevertheless, it is a stirring, moving, spirit raising, tear jerking, and quite long musical. If you have seen the stage version you’ll love it. If you haven’t seen the stage version and you like musicals you will probably enjoy it. But please get back to me and let me know!
Edit: January 15 have woken up with a different Les Misérables song playing in my head for the last four days.
Posted in Film, Film Reviews
Tagged Anne Hathaway, film, Hugh Jackman, les Miserables, movie, Russell Crowe
Firstly thank you for reading my blogs in 2012 and welcome to 2013!!
When flicking through TV channels I often stumble across a number of films and despite some of them being in my library, I find it almost impossible not to get whisked into their worlds!
Here are the first four which spring too mind.
Twelve Monkeys, Ed Wood, I, Robot, & The Hudsucker Proxy
John Cole (Bruce Willis) struggles with reality, is he a time travelling psychopath or a delusional psychotic? In his quest to find out the truth he ropes in psychiatrist Kathryn Railly (Madeline Stowe) and emotionally damaged rich kid (Brad Pitt) as they search for the elusive “Army of the Twelve Monkeys”.
Why I love it.
If you read my previous blog “Time Travels Through My Week” you will know that I have a soft spot for fiction which deals with the simplified versions of quantum physics. Twelve Monkeys was the first work that dealt with the effects of possible time travel real or imaginary on an emotional level. Bruce Willis give one of his career best performances, constantly on the edge of a nervous breakdown, Brad Pitt once again proving that he is a better supporting actor than he will ever be a leading man. Madeline Stowe is always consistent. All under the manic orchestration of Terry Gilliam’s (“Time Bandits” & “The Fisher King”) plot bending baton.
In Hollywood during the 1950’s the struggling and misunderstood filmmaker Ed Wood (Johnny Depp) collects a band of misfits around him including the ageing Bela Lugosi (Martin Landau) as he seems to want to prove that a desire to make movies is enough reason to be in the film business.
Why I love it?
Tim Burton celebrates the king of the Zed movies, Ed Wood, in his own darkly comic style. Johnny Depp’s over the top performance mirroring Ed Wood’s own movies. Martin Landau’s Oscar winning performance as the tragic washed up Lugosi. Bill Murray camps it as a wanna-be transsexual actor. The many surreal touches that give this film its wonderful peculiarity e.g. Tor, the Norwegian wrestler, bumps into the scenery and making it wobble it is suggested that they redo the take but Wood replies “No, it’s fine. It’s real. You know, in actuality, Lobo would have to struggle with this problem every day.”. Vincent D’Onofrio provides an almost unrecognisable cameo as Orson Welles. This movie should not be taken as a documentary!
In the distant future Detective Spooner (Will Smith) has an innate distrust of the semi humanoid service robots despite the fact that the three laws of robotics forbids them from harming humans. So when a colleague dies in an apparent suicide, Spooner is called to the scene only to be confronted by a ‘malfunctioning’ robot.
Why I love it?
Author Isaac Asimov may easily have hated it. The first time round Will Smith’s cheeky personality grated but what eventually won me over was the clean and slick view of the future. The design of the robots are endearing with humanoid faces and obviously mechanical bodies. The action and chase scenes are dizzyingly engrossing. But most of all it was the treatment of the first step in the development of how robots might evolve into sentient beings which is what took my imagination for a spin on the futuristic merry-go-round.
Norville Barnes (Tim Robbins) enters Hudsucker Industries, armed with a degree and blind optimism in the hope of making his fortune. Unknowing to him the company is in trouble. After the suicide of their Managing Director (Charles Durning), a scheming board member Sidney Mussberger (Paul Newman) makes the lowly post room boy the new Managing Director. Then the fun begins.
Why I love it?
It may not be one of the Coen brothers better known films but it is a lovely exercise in re-creating a cartoon-like caricature of 1950’s U.S. movies. Newman chomps on his cigar and the scenery, Robbins plays the idealistic naïve to a tee but the performance that really makes it is Jennifer Jason Leigh as Amy Archer, the rapid-fire-Pulitzer-Prize winning reporter who smells a rat. The Coen’s love of Film noir, more than a touch of fantasy, and just general playfulness with story/character makes this a treat.
Which films keep you watching again and again?
Tagged Ed Wood, favourite, film, I Robot, movie, reviews, The Hudsucker Proxy, Twelve Monkeys
This started off as my reply to a tweet from @wcbushman and then I wrote it as a Facebook post but it was too long.
So instead I decided that it would make a short blog!
I just has an idea for a sequel to the Jurassic Park franchise: if you like it is a sort of Gremlins 2 meets Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes.
Ingen create completely tame, domestic pet-size dinosaurs, called Jurps (no offence to JURP intended).
People are now keeping them at home, taking them for walks etc. They eat a lot of our waste and so are very environmentally friendly, their own waste is used as fertiliser in city window boxes and parks.
The City Waste and Fertiliser Unions together with Government backing sue Ingen for loss of current & future earnings and win. Ingen is crippled. They have one last batch of Jurps which at least they can sell at a high price.
They are sold but very soon afterwards the owners realise there is something different about these last batch of Jurps, they are more intelligent and seem to have developed a sense of humour eg. hiding keys, making prank police phone calls, downloading porn from the internet and generally getting their owners in trouble. What starts off as cute begins to be inconvenient. The owners suddenly realise that unlike previous generations these Jurps are also growing in size.
A disgruntled geneticist from Ingen had injected them with an extra brain cells and less growth inhibitors.
Before the error can be rectified they all escape from their homes and disappear to Canada for a year only to return fully grown with their off spring to take New York.
Please can somebody make this, I’m too busy right now.
beanmimo 