Dancing at Lughnasa - (Ireland Into Film) by Joan Fitzpatrick Dean (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

* Lucid and accessible style makes the series appealing to the general reader

* Liberally illustrated throughout with stills from the film under discussion.

* Collaboration between Cork University Press and the Film Institute of Ireland.



Between the premiere of Brian Friel's stage play "Dancing at Lughnasa" in 1990 and Pat O'Connor's cinematic adaptation in 1998, Ireland experienced seismic economic and social changes, as well as "Riverdance", "Angela's Ashes" and an international vogue for all things Irish. Set in 1936, "Dancing at Lughnasa", as both film and play, imagines an anachronistic past in which the loss of joyous communal ritual is symptomatic of the cultural malaise so often associated with Ireland in the 1930s. Drawing upon unpublished material from the Friel archive at the National Library of Ireland, Joan FitzPatrick Dean contrasts the expressly theatrical elements of Friel's play and their cinematic counterparts

Review Quotes

Review of the Ireland into Film series:
"Each writer has also done an impressive amount of new archive research, which greatly enhances the series' value as fim history and film research. The volumes give full production details and where possible, contain good background interviews with writers and directors....Each volume is lavishly illustrated so that as well as providing good detailed information on the films and an engaged debate about adaptation in general, the series is also an excellent value for the collector."--Cineaste

Review of the Ireland into Film series:
"Each writer has also done an impressive amount of new archive research, which greatly enhances the series' value as fim history and film research. The volumes give full production details and where possible, contain good background interviews with writers and directors....Each volume is lavishly illustrated so that as well as providing good detailed information on the films and an engaged debate about adaptation in general, the series is also an excellent value for the collector."--Cineaste