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Paul Whitington

Irish typecasting: Maureen O'Hara and John Wayne in The Quiet Man

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Heavily romanticised and full of caricatures - how Hollywood sees the Irish

In the 1930s and 40s, Dublin City was movie mad. Picture houses dotted the streets, and I remember my mother telling me that between the Five Lamps and Fairview, there were seven cinemas she and her cousin constantly visited. They sometimes showed the same films for months on end, but cinephiles would go see these glittering Hollywood productions again and again to bask in a glamorous, sexually charged world so very different from the drab and repressed country they inhabited.

Hollywood royalty: Murphy in Coming 2 America

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The second coming of Eddie Murphy

Eddie Murphy turns 60 next month, but it seems like he’s been around much longer than that. A TV star at 20, a movie star at 21, he became a hit comedy act during the 1980s and scored massive successes with films such as 48 Hours, Beverly Hills Cop and Coming to America. He is still going strong and has just released a sequel to that last one, cunningly titled Coming 2 America: it’s getting bad reviews, but that may not stop it doing well financially.
Akira Kurosawa’s classic action drama Seven Samurai

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Samurai master: the genius of Akira Kurosawa

The Irish Film Institute’s ifi@home streaming service has been a godsend for cinephiles during the lockdowns, providing access to high-quality international films. On their roster in the coming month is ‘Japanese Story’, a tastefully curated collection of classics from that nation’s rich and distinctive cinematic tradition. Among the treats on offer are films by Ozu, Naruse, Matsumoto, Shindo, Kitano and Kore-eda, but one title thunders loudly above the rest.
Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci in Supernova

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Dublin International Film Festival: ‘We were always going to go ahead - and be brilliant’

In recent years the Dublin International Film Festival has endured the trials of Job. In 2018, Storm Emma swept in off the Atlantic to dump a heavy blanket of snow on the city, playing havoc with the festival’s schedule. Last year, the event just about got in under the wire before the first lockdown, but audiences were already nervous about the new disease then running rampant in northern Italy.
James Nesbitt and Charlene McKenna in Bloodlands

Paul Whitington’s TV pick of the week: Bloodlands

When you consider Northern Ireland’s colourful past, it’s odd that so few television dramas have been set there, especially crime ones. Jed Mercurio rights that wrong with Bloodlands, a gritty new show starring James Nesbitt as a grizzled Belfast Detective Inspector with more than a few skeletons in his past. As he’s proved on the likes of Line of Duty and Bodyguard, Mercurio has a kind of genius for creating multi-layered characters you can never quite make up your mind about, and DI Tom Brannick may well be a case in point.
RTÉ's 'Home of the Year'

Paul Whitington’s TV pick of the week: Home of the Year

As most of us are sick of the sight of our own houses, how about a few vicarious visits to other people’s? Home of the Year returns for a new run with 21 spanking dwellings to be considered and a new look on the judging panel. Gone are Deirdre Whelan and Patrick Bradley; in are architect Amanda Bone and interior designer Suzie McAdam. Hugh Wallace is, of course, the great constant in the show and tonight will be casting a critical eye over dream homes in Westmeath, Cork and Clare.
Barman Ethan Miles from First Dates Ireland

Paul Whitington’s TV pick of the week: First Dates Ireland

Back in late-1970s Ireland, teenagers at Irish college céilís were separated by sex and lined up on either side of an austere dance floor. If a girl wanted to dance with a boy, she would do so under the watchful eye of the múinteoir, the jiggers turning bright red as they were jeered from either side of the room. At convent-school dances, female associates recall nuns placing books in the laps of boys before girls sat on them, to avoid unfortunate levitations. That was then, but old-style puritanism is back on the latest series of First Dates Ireland!

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