This digest of the latest Gabriel News is a lot to digest! But it is all quite yummy. Movies and television, old and new, plus music, interviews, and a great stage discovery–lots of delicious goodies await.
So, grab your favorite beverage, get comfortable, and check out all that goes on in the very active life of our favorite peripatetic Irishman.
And Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you! mrgreen
Irish Film Festa
Your chance to enjoy two Gabriel films on the big screen–if you are in Rome this month!
Gabriel’s new documentary, My Astonishing Self: Gabriel Byrne on George Bernard Shaw, will screen at the festival. In addition, he is being honored with a showing of Into The West, the Irish Classic feature on the program, in recognition of his IFTA Lifetime Achievement Award.
Read more about this lovely festival of Irish film in Italy!
Gabriel Byrne and Rúaidhrí Conroy in a scene from Into The West
Vikings Exhibition in Bray, Ireland
You will have to hurry to see this exhibit of production photos from the series Vikings! The show runs until March 17. Our Earl had a short but very dramatic run and here’s a chance to revisit him and the ground-breaking series. #TeamEarlHaraldsonForever wink
Gothic on Blu-ray
Mad, bad, and dangerous to know. Look out, ladies. Lord Byron, as played by Gabriel Byrne, is back! Newly remastered for this sumptuous Blu-ray edition, you will find lots of extras in this package, including commentary with Lisi Russell, director Ken Russell’s wife and a lovely person to follow on Twitter, in conversation with film historian Matthew Melia.
From the review at Film School Rejects:
Knowing all of that adds an extra layer to the film, but even without the history lesson the movie is a gloriously inventive bucket of fun. Monstrous visuals share the screen with sumptuous delights, and the cast — including Gabriel Byrne, Julian Sands, Natasha Richardson, and Timothy Spall — is clearly having a ball. It’s disturbing at times even as it entertains, and while they’re clearly a bunch of weirdos their evening is undeniably appealing.
Buy Gothic on Blu-ray from Amazon.
Into The Night: Portraits of Life and Death on PBS
Gabriel is one of several participants in this new documentary by Helen Whitney. The film has been screened at a variety of documentary festivals and events and now it debuts on PBS in the United States on March 26.
Read more about this lovely new documentary and check out the trailer and two brief excerpts of Gabriel from the film, too!
Hereditary at Sundance and SXSW
The response to this first feature from director Ari Aster has been, shall we say, horrifying! Horrifying in the best way possible, of course. First at Sundance, and now at Austin’s festival, South by Southwest, film critics and film-goers alike are all abuzz–and having a hard time sleeping at night, apparently. But they don’t mind. Visit Twitter with hashtag #Hereditary and you will see that everyone is happily enjoying their nightmares.
The A. V. Club admonishes us to “believe the hype,” and so does Elijah Wood. After Mr. Byrne’s comment (“No, I won’t see it. I don’t do horror” (or words to that effect)), I am sure we are all going to run to the theater on June 8. Ok. Maybe not. My heart probably could not take a big screen version, but I will be waiting for my DVD, believe me!
Milly Shapiro, Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne, and Alex Wolff in a promotional image for Hereditary
New film: Death of a Ladies’ Man
Leonard Cohen. Canada. Music. Ireland. And Gabriel Byrne. We are there!
From CineEuropa:
Death of a Ladies’ Man is a new Canadian-Irish co-production set to be filmed in July 2018 and being helmed by Canadian director Matt Bissonnette. The movie borrows its title from Leonard Cohen‘s fifth studio album, released in 1977, and focuses on the story of Samuel O’Shea, a carousing, womanising Irish poetry professor (Gabriel Byrne) living in Canada, whose life takes a series of unexpected turns when he is diagnosed with a brain tumour and his marriage comes to an end. The shocking news brings the academic back to Ireland, where he is finally ready to write the novel he has been putting off for years. The story thoroughly explores the themes of love, poetry, illness, loss and father-son relations.
The film co-stars Antoine-Olivier Pilon and will shoot in Montreal and the west coast of Ireland (Dingle? Oh, that would be so wonderful!). Read more about this new Gabriel Project that will take him home for the summer.
In the absence of promotional materials, we improvise!
A Gabriel Wallpaper made long, long ago…
Backstage: A Moon for the Misbegotten
This short behind-the-scenes video offers a look at the 2000 Broadway rendition of Eugene O’Neill’s masterpiece and is a great find by our Byrneholics sleuth, Violetta, whom we thank with all our hearts! Excerpts of the stage production are surprising and beautifully captured. You get a real sense of what sitting in the theater might have been like!
Gabriel’s commentary on the characters and the making of the play is insightful and thought-provoking, as always. In this case, though, he goes beyond his usual perceptive analysis. Moon was a unique experience for him. You can see that the play affects him in ways much of his work does not. This time, it truly is personal. And very special. Enjoy the video and, when next you see Violetta, give her a kiss for me, ok? heart
I intended to send you to the Byrneholics article about this new video, but no. It is too good and I don’t want you to miss it, so here it is. Enjoy!
A screencap of Gabriel talking about A Moon for the Misbegotten
Maniac
This new series from Netflix, starring Jonah Hill, Emma Stone, Sally Field, and Justin Theroux, is on the way in 2018.
Rolling Stone has place it dead last on their list of 30 Most Anticipated Television Shows of 2018, but at least it made the list!
Cary Fukunaga – the man behind the first season of HBO’s True Detective and TNT’s big new show The Alienist – directs Jonah Hill and Emma Stone in this 10-episode series based on a 2014 Norwegian hit. Very little is known about this unique production other than a) it’s a comedy and b) the A-list stars play two mental-institution patients who have very vibrant fantasy worlds into which they regularly retreat. The dividing line between “film” and “TV” actors has been blurred for a while now, but it’s still a little surprising to see two names this big headline a Netflix show. And did we mention it co-stars Justin Theroux and Sally Field?
Gabriel was spotted on the set with Jonah Hill and director Cary Fukunaga back in October. And that’s all we know. Is he appearing in this series? We think so, but there has not been one word since then. So, we wait.
In the meantime, check out the on-set appearance and watch him deftly avoid spilling coffee on himself!
In other movie news, An L. A. Minute is in post-production and Hamlet Revenant is in pre-production, so stay tuned for more details about all of these film projects in the pipeline.
PS. Watch The Alienist! It is fantastic: true to the book, full of historical atmosphere and great acting, amazing visuals, and quite a thrilling story. Recommended.
Music from In The Cloud
Have you watched In The Cloud yet? I have not, but it is on my list! The music from the film is getting some attention.
In this article from the University of Plymouth, we learn:
Hollywood stars dazzle against a sonic backdrop made in Plymouth, in a new film scored by the University of Plymouth’s Dr John Matthias and Jay Auborn from dBs Music…
In the film, Byrne plays a neuroscientist who invents a way of digitising the human brain, allowing anyone to put on a ‘braincap’ and enter another person’s memories. The plot centres on a group of his acolytes, who use the technology to try to foil a serial bomber – (Daniel) Portman, who played Podrick Payne in Game of Thrones.
Dr Matthias, Associate Professor in Media Arts at the University, worked with (director) Wildes on a previous film, Poor Boy, in which the director used four tracks from his album Cortical Songs (with Nick Ryan, Nonclassical, 2009). And following the success of that collaboration Dr Matthias, along with colleague Jay Auborn, was asked to produce the whole score of In the Cloud…
Creating the soundtrack involved recording choral parts with the Exultate Singers in Bristol, as well as a visit to Sofia to work with members of Bulgarian National Radio Orchestra in the Vitosha Philharmonic Orchestra.
The result is a “very musically strong film”, according to Dr Matthias, which was a pleasure to score.
NOW we want to watch In The Cloud, right? And listen to it, too! The article examines the technologies used to create the music and is quite intriguing, so give it a read.
More music from Gabriel’s films can be found at Amazon now, always a nice way to relive a movie you really enjoyed:
During his visit to Dublin to receive the IFTA Lifetime Achievement Award, Gabriel was interviewed. A lot. You can catch most of them over at the Interviews Page. Here are two excerpts, one sweet and charming, the other not so charming or sweet, but wonderful in its own way.
On becoming a dad
Awww. Yes, fatherhood has struck again. Mr. Byrne is finding it bittersweet.
Irish actor Gabriel Byrne has referred to his experience of becoming a Dad once again at 67 as a “bittersweet experience.”
“It’s like, everything, you think ‘oh yeah, I did that thing in life’, but now this is a new journey again. Looking into the eyes of a creature that’s full of innocence and wonderment makes you reflect how out of touch we get with that feeling; the way we take everything for granted as we get older, while a child will sit and play with a shoelace for 10 minutes because they are amazed by it,” he said.
Read the article at Irish Central, which includes several nice pics from the IFTA Awards. I wish I had a picture of Gabriel and his beautiful little daughter to share with you, but I do not. If I ever do, you will see it here, of course!
On Harvey
In a great interview with Tanya Sweeney at the Irish Times, Gabriel touches on several topics as he prepares to receive the IFTA Lifetime Achievement Award in Dublin. His support for the #MeToo movement is particularly striking. And welcome.
“In relation to Weinstein and Spacey, someone has said, ‘The pendulum has swung too far’, but in my opinion, it hasn’t swung far enough,” he says. “Some say, ‘It’s too much, it’s about attacking men who just put their hands on your knee’. Yes there is collateral damage, but this is a major moment in social and cultural history. Anyone who says it’s a witch-hunt needs to remember that’s when they took women and set fire to them.”
Does he feel that many fellow actors have been hesitant to speak out for fear of saying the “wrong” or inadequate thing in the current climate?
“I think there’s an element of that,” he notes. “You can’t say, ‘I’m behind this, but I don’t really know why’. I think some actors got into trouble for that because they hadn’t thought through what they wanted to say and they got attacked for it. Even Matt Damon said, ‘Okay, it’s time for me to stop talking’. It was almost like people said, ‘We’ve had this for years. Unless you have something to say, shut up. Just be quiet and hear us’.”
Exactly. It’s a great thing, having Gabriel Byrne as an ally. heart
Sightings
When actor extraordinaire Gabriel Byrne tells you he’s a fan; 2018 can end now😂 Fantastic day hosting seminars @thegrainstore
incl the most uplifting talk on happiness by former Governor of Mountjoy Prison John Lonergan & psychotherapist Caroline Crotty. pic.twitter.com/PHp7yhr2Dl— Deric Ó hArtagáinTV3 (@deric_hartigan) February 26, 2018
You made it! Happy St. Patrick’s Day and I wish you all the good luck you can handle! wink
Thank you Stella for all this news. Looking forward to Hamlet Revenant and Death of a Ladies Man. Besides the album, Leonard Cohen also wrote a book which he entitled Death of a Lady’s Man.
From the New York Times review: “A collection of poetry and prose interspersed with lyrics, discursive passages, and diary extracts from the legendary Canadian songwriter-poet.
First published in 1978, the theme of this insightful and moving poetry collection is love with all its dilemmas. It is largely autobiographical in tone, offering the reader insights into Cohen’s private world. ”
We know the album influenced Matt Bissonnette who is directing. I wonder if the book did as well?
Angelle from Canada
Have the happiest of St. Pat`s all over the world – in NICE weather!!!
Elf
HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY!!! I Live in Genoa so I’ll try to go to Rome for the irish film festa
Thank you, Stella for this wonderful bunch of news about Mr.Byrne on this Special Day! With your articles we have opportunity to rewatch and learn more about his previous works, discover and anticipate his coming great projects. Wishing to Mr.Byrne to be full of energy and inspiration as always. His films and interviews encourage and support so many people. Happy St.Patrick’s Day! ☘❤