I Could Read the Sky
UK/Ireland/France 1999
Reviewed by Charlotte O'Sullivan
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
An old Irish man lives out his days in the cottage where he was born. As his mind ranges over various topics, the memories become more troubled: his brothers and sisters leave Ireland for England and America; then he takes the boat to England, where he's offered various low-paid jobs. He remembers seeing his brother Joe in a factory and meeting up with him. Visiting his brother's flat a month later, he found it empty.
We move back and forth between the present and the past. The young man's father dies and he returns to Ireland. The man travels to England, only to be recalled to Ireland for his mother's funeral. Back in London once more, he undergoes a breakdown but meets Maggie, an Irish woman, in a pub. They get married but she dies suddenly. The man returns to his home in Ireland, where he lives alone. He realises he is ready for death.
Review
I Could Read the Sky, as the title suggests, is about the past in relation to the present, a notoriously tricky country to capture on film. Director/screenwriter Nichola Bruce does her best to make us feel twice removed. She uses superimposition, brings photographs to life, causes carpets to morph into bare floors and generally allows images of the past and present to lap up against each other in waves. But initially at least these seem like attempts to distract us from the fact that her highly literary script - featuring an old man reminiscing about his life, a big part of which was spent in England, away from his native Ireland - would actually make for a better radio or stage play: a one-man show that any able actor (including the beautifully shaggy, strawberry-and-cream skinned Dermot Healy) could make riveting.
Furthermore, the picture painted of Ireland - as a big-skied land awash with drink, livestock, music and ear-catching chatter - is hardly original. Many of the phrases used by the hero are lovely (after his father's funeral, he comments, "I can see it - the absence of others, draining the world"). But they seem just that - phrases perfect for an English-speaking audience accustomed to Angela's Ashes' gloom. Even the fierce anti-English sentiments (the whole race, apparently, are cold and culture-free) seem formulaic.
It's when our nameless narrator is discussing a far less emotive topic - the collapse and recreation of his textual identity - that something more potent kicks in. He and his labouring friends make up names for their bosses. Our hero often assumes the title J. Brady, from a name tag he found in a coat; others call themselves "Lost, after Joe", or Michael Collins, "just for the crack". And as he's telling us this the images on screen - churning cement, bricks and mortar - gain an extraordinary momentum. These materials - so rarely looked at up close - are beautiful-ugly in their anonymity, just like him. And for the first time the camera's restlessness seems justified.
Our hero's life is not all work, but once we've gained this insight into his personality, the feel of his reminiscences changes. If this man can lie to his bosses, might he not be lying to us? The grim, half-registered stories come back to haunt us (brother Joe disappearing from his flat; the dead body of his mother's brother, left to rot for three months). And each time we catch a glimpse of the public places this man has been a part of, the liquid of private life trickles into view; the very bricks, or so it would seem, spilling their blood on behalf of the elusive men who laid them. While such unholy ejaculations have taken place before in novels (think of Peter Ackroyd's Hawksmoor), Bruce's contribution feels genuinely cinematic, alive.
Given I Could Read the Sky's slow, unconvincing start, the wonder is that when Dermot Healy's old man realises he's ready to die, we don't want to let go; and that the very music that seemed so much a part of the traditional Irish package brings us, as it rolls over the credits, almost to tears.
Credits
- Director
- Nichola Bruce
- Producer
- Janine Marmot
- Screenplay
- Nichola Bruce
- Based on a book by
- Timothy O'Grady
- Steve Pyke
- Directors of Photography
- Seamus Mcgarvey
- Owen McPolin
- Editor
- Catherine Creed
- Production Designer
- Jane Bruce
- Music/Music Producer
- Iarla O'Lionáird
- ©Hot Property Sky Ltd.
- Production Companies
- The Arts Council of England/Bord Scannán na héireann - Irish Film
- Board/Channel 4/The British Film Institute/ Real World Records presents in association with Gemini Films and Spider Pictures a Hot Property Film in association with Liquid Films
- Supported by the National Lottery through the Arts Council of England
- Produced with the assistance of Bord Scannán ha néireann - Irish Film Board
- Executive Producers
- Irish Film Board:
- Rod Stoneman
- BFI:
- Roger Shannon
- Gemini Films:
- Paulo Branco
- Spider Pictures:
- Ben Gibson
- Co-producer
- Nicholas O'Neill
- Executives in Charge of Production
- Irish Film Board:
- Leslie Kelly
- BFI:
- Angela Topping
- Production Co-ordinators
- Ireland:
- Ciara McGowan
- England:
- Emma Fowler
- Production Managers
- Christopher Collins
- Melanie Gore-Grimes
- England Location Manager
- Casper Mill
- Assistant Directors
- England:
- Ben Gill
- Diane Wood
- Toby Hosking
- England Script Supervisor
- Rowena Ladbury
- Casting Director
- Maureen Hughes
- Special Visual Effects
- M2 Television
- Art Directors
- Ireland:
- Jessica Coyle
- England:
- Janna Craze
- Costume Designer
- Helen Kane
- Make-up
- Ireland, Designer:
- Louise Myler
- England, Designer:
- Karen Turner
- England, Artist:
- Jules Yorke Moore
- Titles
- Frameline
- Featured Musicians
- Denis Cahill
- Caroline Dale
- Martin Hayes
- Noel Hill
- Tommy McManamon
- James McNally
- Sinéad O'Connor
- Iarla O'Lionáird
- Liam O'Maonlai
- Rí Rá
- Music Supervisors
- Amanda Jones
- Mike Large
- Music Co-ordination
- Real World Records
- Mixer
- Jacquie Turner
- Soundtrack
- "Singing Bird"
- Sound Design
- Joakim Sundström
- Sound Recordists
- Ireland:
- Dan Birch
- England:
- Cameron Hills
- Additional Sound Recording
- Ireland:
- Maírin Ní Ríordáin
- England:
- Rashad Omar
- Dubbing Mixer
- Mike Prestwood-Smith
- ADR Mixer
- Chris Phinikas
- Foley
- Artist:
- Jack Stew
- Mixer:
- Graeme Stoten
- Editor:
- Tim Barker
- Cast
- Dermot Healy
- the old man
- Stephen Rea
- P.J.
- Brendan Coyle
- Francie
- Maria Doyle Kennedy
- Maggie
- Jake Williams
- young boy
- Roy Larkin
- young Joe
- Lisa O'Reilly
- Kate Creevy
- Sezso
- Uncle Rosco
- Rachael Pilkington
- young Eileen
- Aidan O'Toole
- Dermot
- Colm O'Maonlai
- Martin
- Jimmy McGreevy
- Da
- Pat McGrath
- Farmer Casey
- Liam O'Maonlai
- Joe
- Noel O'Donovan
- tailor
- Francis Burke
- Ma
- Geraldine Fitzgerald
- Eileen
- Iarla O'Lionáird
- singer at wedding
- Bobby Casey
- Dermot Grogan
- Noel Hill
- Jim Philbin
- musicians at wedding
- Mick Lally
- Paddy Breathnach
- Frank Murray
- Gerry O'Boyle
- Pat McCabe
- Danny Morrison
- Timothy O'Grady
- Steve Pyke
- Joanne Burton
- Kerry Burton
- Albert Griffin
- Eamonn Atkinson
- Emma Lowe
- Claire Walsh
- Sinead Murphy
- Richard Holbrood
- Donnchadha O'Fátharta
- Peadar O'Fátharta
- Jack Kelly
- Patrick Tucker
- Domnik Band
- Denis Deasy
- Frank Ward
- Steve McCabe
- Phil Fitzpatrick
- Martin Ellis
- Joe Duffy
- Liz Finch
- Orla McElroy
- Saran McElroy
- Maggie Chambers
- Maria Ruiz
- Beatriz O'Grady
- Tristram Wymark
- Certificate
- tbc
- Distributor
- Artificial Eye Film Company
- tbc feet
- tbc minutes
- Dolby SR
- In Colour