Friday, February 15
The festival kicked off with a bang at the Opening Night Gala in the Savoy Cinema. The film was Martin McDonagh’s hitman thriller/comedy “In Bruges.” The fans and press were out in record numbers, which is still relatively small when you consider the massive red carpet affairs in the states. Still, there was a certain flavor to the whole ordeal, somewhat akin to the silence before the bell at a racecourse. The racers in question were the night’s red carpet guests: director and writer Martin McDonagh, and the Irish actors and stars of the film, Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell. The latter was an event in his own right. As soon as his foot hit the red carpet, the girls flew into action, throwing their hands at him and screaming for him to glance their way. He did, of course – being famous is Farrell’s specialty. He beamed while giving high fives and taking pictures with the fans, soaking in the atmosphere.
Needless to say, Farrell caught my attention with his vibrant smiling eyes and prince charming hair, but my thoughts quickly moved on to the part of the night for which I had been waiting for weeks – seeing the Academy Award winning writer/director and Tony and Olivier winning playwright, Mr. Martin McDonagh. “In Bruges” is McDonagh’s first attempt at a full-length motion picture. Better known for his plays, including “The Pillowman” (2004 Olivier Award for Best New Play) and “The Beauty Queen of Leenane” (Tony Award Nomination for Best Play) McDonagh struck into the film business in 2006 with his dark short film “Six Shooter,” starring Brendan Gleeson. He was rewarded for this effort with the Academy Award for Best Short Film Live Action.
McDonagh is my favorite playwright, so being the theatre geek I am, I was shaking with the thought of seeing the man who has inspired all of my work. Unfortunately, I only caught a glimpse of him on the red carpet before he was rushed away to the press corner. I did not stay for the other guests; I wanted to get into my seat before the Farrell gaggle had a chance to break ranks.
The Savoy is a grand venue. The 780 seats are a plush red and a small stage sits just in front of the massive screen. I sat in the second to last row, happy with my location, which was better suited to see the large screen. A few minutes before the start of the film, I noticed a large gathering of people behind me. It turned out that the Gleeson family and Farrell were seated in the row behind me, Brendan Gleeson being the seat directly behind my own. I was delighted and didn’t dare turn around, less I display me glee at every knock of Mr. Gleeson’s shoe against the back of my chair. Brendan Gleeson has acted in some of my favorite films: “Six Shooter,” the “Harry Potter” franchise, and “28 Days Later,” among others. I was thrilled to see the performance he would put forth in this film.
Shortly everyone began taking their seats and the lights started to dim. There were no film previews, only advertisements by the festival sponsors – one featuring director’s chairs at different locations around the globe all traveling to a marquee labeled “Jameson” in green neon, another with a man running around Dublin in a naked-in-front-of-the-class type dream to advertise a morning radio program, and my personal favorite, an ad entitled “If advertisements were more like the movies,” featuring a spokesman holding a bottle of fictional “Blammo” surface cleaner spouting lines such as “Ever try Blammo? (Points the bottle at the screen like a gun) Why not mo**er fu**er!?” and “I’m sorry. It’s just that there’s so much filth in the world (Suddenly intense) Someone’s gotta clean it up.” (These ads were to run before every festival film for the next week) “In Bruges” then began and, in typical McDonagh fashion, the audience was disgusted and immediately in stitched almost immediately. For a full review of the film, look for an edit at the end of this post sometime within the next week.
After the film, the cast and director were greeted with boisterous applause and Brendan Gleeson was presented with a lifetime achievement award (a wonder, as Farrell jokingly noted, since he only started acting when he was thirty-four) As everyone filed out of the theater, I had the chance to briefly chat with Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell, both lovely men. I had all but given up hope of seeing Martin McDonagh that night and had already stowed my sharpie and “The Pillowman” script when, as I was exiting the theater, McDonagh walked out behind me. There was no one around him and he did not seem in much of a hurry, so I gathered myself and went to talk to him. After congratulating him on his film and reciting the “You have been such an inspiration to me” speech I had worked on in my mind in the previous weeks, I asked him to sign my script. He seemed cheerfully surprised when I brought out “The Pillowman” and he signed it for me. As I walked to the bus and flipped on my phone to make the call to my best friend, I was shaking. And I am pretty sure my smile did not fade for the rest of the week.
Saturday, February 16
Saturday morning, all thoughts about the previous night’s excitement had to be stored, because I was in for some serious administrative volunteering. I arrived at the production office, a room at the top of three long flights of stairs in a building in Temple Bar, also home to Temple Lane Studios. This particular building reminded me of the lofts you might find in SoHo, with a bohemian/business vibe while collaborating film, theatre, music, and dance all in the same place. My supervisor for the day was Kate, assistant volunteers manager, and my coworker was Eoghan (which is now on my “favorite names ever” list.)
Work had already begun by the time I arrived, so I jumped in to contribute. Our job for the day was to go through the volunteer applications and take down t-shirt sizes and then match ID badges for everyone who was working a shift that day. It seems like it would be quite easy, however not only was this the opening weekend of the festival, that night was the red carpet gala of “There Will Be Blood” with red carpet guest (and this Sunday’s Academy Award Winner for Best Actor) Daniel Day-Lewis. This meant more volunteers working to make sure everything went smoothly. Amid the chaos of dropped shifts and missing badges, Eoghan and I were also sent out as runners, a job with which I would be very accustomed by the end of the festival. I made several trips to the Savoy, bringing large coats, audience award cards, t-shirts, and ID badges. By my last run, my shift was over by a half hour and the gala was in full swing. I must have had my on-the-go blinders on because I walked into the cinema without so much as a glance toward the Oscar winner on the red carpet and would have missed him entirely had it not been for me clumsily bumping into him on my way out. I must have this thing with almost injuring celebrities: first stepping on John Krasinski’s foot last year, now almost knocking over Daniel Day-Lewis. I said “excuse me” and he smiled and my brief encounter with the beautiful actor was over. I headed back home with aching feet, a sore back, but yet another beaming smile.
Tuesday, February 19
I was back into work of Tuesday, again in the production office. It seems that running is something I’m good at, because it’s all I did that day. I ran to the Screen Cinema a few times to deliver t-shirts and badges and then I copied 550 audience award templates – a valuable experience because now I know how to use the copy center in town. This is the part where I got the administrative experience I needed. Every shift in the production office allowed me to see what is behind the scenes of a big event like the film festival. There is a lot of paperwork and footwork that I just didn’t expect to see, but upon working with it, I found out how vital it is and how overlooking some of the small details could throw the rest of the machine into chaos.
After my shift I was able to see a film. This one was entitled “Irina Palm” and starred pop/folk singer Marianne Faithfull. The movie was interesting (I’ll put in a review near the end of the week) and there was a Q&A afterwards. Faithfull was lively and seemed to really enjoy her film’s spot at this particular festival, but her confidence came off as more pompous than anything else. She did not want to answer any of the interviewer’s questions and the answers she did give were clipped, ensuring that the Q&A was filled to the brim with uncomfortable pauses.
Wednesday, February 20
Wednesday’s shift was a nice change of pace from the production office running. I did my shift at the Screen Cinema, a three-screen theater right outside of Trinity College. I was working at the door, so I just checked to make sure everyone was at the correct screen. This was the first time I got a chance to meet several new people, so I took full advantage and tried to make some friends. The people I worked with fun and vibrant and included my venue captain Britta, a student at the NYU campus in Temple Bar, and another volunteer fascinated by the idea of driving over time zones in the United States (master of time, as he called it.) The films playing were all foreign language films, “Katyn” (Poland), “The Empties” (Czech Republic), “Tres Bien, Merci” (France), and “Jellyfish” (Israel.) I did not get to see any of the films, but the response seemed to be very lively.
Saturday, February 23
On Saturday I was set to work at the venue IFI, the Irish Film Institute. The IFI is in an old market square in Temple Bar that is roofed over with a glass ceiling. The effect is a grand atrium surrounded by facades of old buildings, whose doors lead to theatres, a ticket office, and a restaurant. The latter is a bistro which is housed in one of the surrounding buildings but provides table service to the atrium and a biergarten outside. The food is what one might call gourmet pub grub and seems to be very popular with the IFI patrons. The atmosphere among the festival volunteers was relaxed – everyone was having fun and excited about the films.
There was some conjecture going around with regards to Sunday evening’s “Surprise Film.” Without a doubt one of the most popular events at the festival each year, the “Surprise Film” keeps the rumors flying and the audience in the dark until the curtain parts and the opening credits roll. Some of the guesses on Saturday included classics, like “Casablanca,” “The Blue Angel,” and “The Graduate.” Others put their money on not yet released films, following the footsteps of last year’s “300.” The guesses included “Speed Racer,” “10, 000 BC,” and “Prince Caspian.” None of the guesses were remotely close, but I’ll get to that later.
Sunday, February 24
Sunday morning I worked my final shift. It began with Kate bringing a fellow volunteer and myself to breakfast at a café next to the office. It was nice to relax and have a chat about the week and our impressions of the festival. I shared that I really enjoyed my time volunteering – so much so that I want to search for festivals in the United States and maybe work my way up to Sundance. The festival was not only a great way to meet people, it helped my with the arts administration experience I was so desperately lacking. I have seen the behind the scenes organization, paper work, and conversations that go into making a major production – be it film or theatre – happen. We finished breakfast and it was off to work.
My first task was the usual – running. It was time to clean out all the venues, so I made a run to the most modern Cineplex in Dublin, Cineworld. I collected audience awards and ticket stubs and took a quick look at the guessing board for the “Surprise Film” – another “Speed Racer,” “Iron Man,” and “The Dark Knight” – nope - and then off again to the production office. We spent the rest of the time counting the awards for each film (the audience could give each film a one, two, three, or four star rating) and the percentage of four stars each film earned. They were all impressively high and made me wish I’d been able to see more of the films. The two most intriguing piles I went through were “The Other Boleyn Girl” and “Happy-Go-Lucky.” After a quick run to the Savoy with programs (don’t worry, this time we took a cab) my last shift was over and I had the “Surprise Film” and wrap party to look forward to.
The “Surprise Film” was quite an event. The audience gathered in the lobby of the Savoy beforehand to cast their votes for what they thought the film would be, in hopes of winning a season ticket to next year’s festival. My guess is that no one won the ticket. That’s because, at least in my book, the “Surprise Film” was a big surprise. It was Brain Cox’s “The Escapist,” a prison escape film that has had very little publicity thus far. I’ll add an edit later with my thoughts on the film.
After that, there was only one thing left to do – Party. The wrap party was held in the Sugar Club – a swanky hideaway just off of St. Stephen’s Green. Tables in the club are arranged in rows, with each row being on a platform higher than the one before it. The seats face a modest stage at the front of the house with a full bar opposite. At the party Phil, IFI venue captain and DJ, occupied the stage but you could see how it would be an excellent concert or comedy venue. Because the festival’s main sponsor was Jameson Irish Whiskey, the volunteers were treated to white and red wine and, of course, Jameson mixed drinks.
When I arrived, I wasn’t quite sure what to do with myself. I had worked five shifts, but the majority of them were in the production office, where I had limited contact with other volunteers. I was scared of imposing myself on those people I did know, but I was soon to see how stupid that thought was. Almost immediately Ritchie, a volunteer I had worked with at the IFI, pulled me into his group of friends and I spent much of the night getting to know these people, with whom I had a surprising amount in common. After a bit, I felt safe to mingle. I drifted from conversation to conversation and for the first time since I started my Irish experience, I felt welcome, not only in the country, but amongst the people who live here. I’ve made friends – a priceless experience I wouldn’t give up for the world. I went home happier than I have in a long time and as I tucked myself into bed, I let my mind drift off to me next adventure . . .
