The Early Films of Thaddeus O’Sullivan

Saturday July 2nd and Sunday July 3rd

A Focus on The Early Works Of One of Ireland’s Foremost Film Directors - Thaddeus O Sullivan.

The ICC is delighted to present a season of films by one of Ireland’s fore-most film directors and cinematographers, Thaddeus O’Sullivan.

Thaddeus has been a working filmmaker for five decades. Throughout the 1980s, he was a central figure in the first wave of Irish feature-film-making, as cinematographer on films such as Joe Comerford's ‘Traveller’, Pat Murphy's ‘Anne Devlin’ and Cathal Black's ‘Pigs’ and he was an early lobbyist for the development of an indigenous Irish cinema.

In this short season focussing on O’Sullivan’s early works, the ICC will be screening O’Sullivan’s drama-documentary, ‘On a Paving Stone Mounted’ (Sat July 2nd 7pm): His short film ‘A Pint of Plain’ plus his first drama ‘The Woman Who Married Clark Gable’ (Sun July 3rd 3pm): and his multi award winning feature film ‘December Bride’ (Sun July 3rd 7pm). 

Thaddeus O’Sullivan will be doing Q&A’s following each of the film screenings

About Thaddeus O’Sullivan

Thaddeus O’Sullivan was born in Dublin in 1947 and emigrated to London in 1966 where he remained to make his life and career. After working in various jobs, he studied at Ealing College of Art and then took an MA in Film at the Royal College of Art. His early films were experimental, “structuralist”, mixed mode films that often explored how the memory works, particularly amongst the emigrant Irish in Britain.

He has worked in the British and Irish film and TV industries since the late-1970s as an accomplished cinematographer, with many periods in the USA. His early films, from 1975 – 1985 include “Flanagan’,  ‘A Pint Of Plain’ ‘The Woman Who Married Clark Gable’ ‘On a Paving Stone Mounted’ and ‘Assembled Memories: Jack B Yeats’  Many notable feature films followed, including December Bride (1989), Nothing Personal (1995), Witness to the Mob (1999), Ordinary Decent Criminal (2000), The Heart of Me (2003), Into the Storm (2008) and Stella Days. He has also worked extensively in Television, as a director on dramas including ‘Call The Midwife’, ‘Silent Witness’, ‘Vera’, ‘The Crimson Field’ and ‘Shetland’. O'Sullivan has enjoyed success in America, making ‘Witness to the Mob’ (1998) with Robert De Niro's production company and the TV movie ‘Into the Storm’ (2009), which starred Brendan Gleeson as Winston Churchill. ‘Into The Storm’ was nominated for 14 Emmys.

Thaddeus has been an award winner at the European Film Awards, the IFTAs and numerous film festivals and his works have also been nominated for a BAFTA and an Emmy.

Saturday July 2nd 7pm.  Entry £8.00

“On a Paving Stone Mounted”

Directed by Thaddeus O’Sullivan (1978) Length 92mins (B/W). Followed by a Q&A with Thaddeus O’Sullivan

Thaddeus O’Sullivan’s impressionistic drama documentary, ‘On a Paving Stone Mounted’, looks at the experience of Irish immigrants in London and sets out to express their condition, often of confusion and anticipation. Once in London, the emigrants are seen creating situations that are reminders of ‘home’ and Irishness and their memories begin to alter. 

Sot in black and white, using experimental techniques and moving back and forth between locations in London, Croagh Patrick and Dublin, ‘On a Paving Stone Mountain’ is a uniquely original film and it’s considered a “holy grail” for committed Irish film viewers. It was a key film on the map of the emergence of Irish contemporary cinema and it was described by film scholar Luke Gibbons as an “experimental meditation on landscape, exile and memory.”

The film features early performances by Gabriel Byrne and Stephen Rea, and performances by the late, great Johnny Murphy and the late Peter Caffrey. There’s also cameo appearances from Miriam Margolyes and Christy Moore.

To make the film O’Sullivan drew upon his personal reflections of emigrating to London and his curiously mixed feelings of banishment and freedom.

“On a Paving Stone Mounted’ was funded by BFI’s Film Production Fund.

Sunday July 3rd: Starts 3pm Entry £8.00: Afternoon Double Bill Screening

‘A Pint Of Plain’ & ‘The Woman Who Married Clarke Gable’

Followed by a Q&A with Thaddeus O’Sullivan

‘A Pint of Plain’ Directed by Thaddeus O’Sullivan

(1975) Length 40mins (B/W) (Royal College Of Art.)

A Pint of Plain was O’Sullivan’s graduation film for his Masters Degree at the Royal College of Art in London. Taking it’s title from the ballad by Flann O’Brien about the supposed comfort to be found in drink, in this film, (just like in ‘On a Paving Stone Mounted’), O’Sullivan explores the Irish emigrant experience - never really belonging in the adopted country, always dreaming of going ‘home’ and  yet drifting further and further away from the ‘homeland’ they’ve left behind.

The film follows two Irishmen who come on what’s supposed to be a short visit to London. They encounter several characters, many of whom inhabit the seedy underworld of the city...  The film powerfully captures how the immigrant can so easily become displaced in the big city and so quickly fall into living desperate, transient and marginalised lives…  

‘A Pint of Plain’ was filmed on location in and around Shepherd’s Bush, here in West London. Because O’Sullivan enabled his actors to use improvisation and gave them no formal script, the film has a raw, gripping and truthful ‘drama – documentary’ feel about it. It features early performances by some powerful actors, including the great Tony Rohr, the late great Derek O’Connor and Tony Haygarth. 

“The Woman Who Married Clark Gable”

Directed by Thaddeus O’Sullivan: Screenplay Andrew Pattman

A Samson Film Production (1984) Length 35min (B/W).

 “The Woman Who Married Clarke Gable” is a period drama, set in Dublin in the late 1930’s and is based on a short story by Sean O’Faolain. It tells the tale of Mary, a catholic woman trapped in a stale marriage, who relieves her humdrum life of drudgery by fantasising that that her English Methodist husband is her favourite screen idol, the Hollywood movie star Clark Gable.
A crucial film for O’Sullivan, as this was his first credit as director of a drama. With excellent performances by Brendan Fricker, as Mary, and a young Bob Hoskins as the Methodist Englishman; there’s also an appearance of the late, great Irish actor and seanchaí (storyteller), Eamon Kelly, it explores the power of the catholic church as well as the power of cinema.

 Lovingly shot in Dublin, in black and white, with touches of irony and humour, O’Sullivan’s enjoyable film was justly nominated for a BAFTA . 

Sunday July 3rd 7.00pm Entry £8.00

“December Bride” (A ‘Film 4’ Production) Directed By Thaddeus O’Sullivan: (1990) Length 88mins

Followed by a Q&A with Thaddeus O’Sullivan

At the turn of the Centaury in Northern Ireland, Sarah, a proud, independent young woman in a tight-knit, rural Presbyterian community, causes uproar and scandal when she moves in as a housekeeper for two farming brothers, the Echlins. Fairly soon a ‘menage a trois’ begins and Sarah falls pregnant. When she refuses to name which of the brothers is the father and defiantly refuses to marry either of them, she stirs up outrage, shock and violence in the community.  

Based on the novel by the Northern Irish Writer Sam Hanna Bell and adapted for the screen by David Rudkin, “December Bride” is a powerful, provocative, compelling and passionate film which challenges stifling religious doctrines. 

Winner of 20 International Film Awards including a Special Jury Award at the 3rd Annual European Film Awards, “December Bride” features a stella cast of actors, which includes Ciarán Hinds, Donal McGann and Saskia  Reeves.

What The Press say about “December Bride..

 “Thaddeus O’Sullivan’s DECEMBER BRIDE explores national conflicts within the context of the remote Northern Irish community's intense divisions. 'The three curses of Ireland: England, religion and the drink' muses the elder brother as he strives to maintain equilibrium between the enraged locals and his defiant family. O'Sullivan's careful compositions and Bruno de Keyzer's exquisite cinematography lend the film a stark, simple grandeur, which in turn emphasises the harsh, physical nature of the characters' lives. The measured pace - beautifully sustained by the performances - ensures a film of sharp insight and striking clarity”. TIME OUT

“December Bride” was an important film in the development of contemporary Irish cinema, notable for its exploration of an aspect of Irish rural life far removed from the romantic whimsy of Hollywood”. SCREEN ONLINE

This season of Films have been curated by Thaddeus’s friend, the documentary Film Director Sé Merry Doyle and the ICC’s Cultural Director Rosalind Scanlon