Irish Times: 50 best Irish films ever made
Tara Brady and Donald Clarke's pick of the 50 best Irish movies ever made, in order. Published 2 May 2020.
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/film/the-50-best-irish-films-ever-made-in-order-1.4238979
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/film/the-50-best-irish-films-ever-made-in-order-1.4238979
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50 titles
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsRyan O'NealMarisa BerensonPatrick MageeAn Irish rogue wins the heart of a rich widow and assumes her dead husband's aristocratic position in 18th-century England.
- DirectorJohn HustonStarsAnjelica HustonDonal McCannHelena CarrollGabriel Conroy and wife Gretta attend an early January dinner with friends at the home of his spinster aunts, an evening which results in an epiphany for both of them.
- DirectorPat MurphyStarsBrid BrennanBosco HoganDes McAleerThe story of Anne Devlin, who was caught up in the revolt of the Irish under Robert Emmett in 1803, told exclusively from the woman's point of view.
- DirectorRobert J. FlahertyStarsColman 'Tiger' KingMaggie DirraneMichael DirraneIn this blend of documentary and fictional narrative from pioneering filmmaker Robert Flaherty, the everyday trials of life on Ireland's unforgiving Aran Islands are captured with attention to naturalistic beauty and historical detail.
- DirectorSteve McQueenStarsMichael FassbenderLiam CunninghamStuart GrahamIrish republican Bobby Sands leads the inmates of a Northern Irish prison in a hunger strike.
- DirectorNeil JordanStarsStephen ReaJaye DavidsonForest WhitakerA British soldier kidnapped by the IRA soon befriends one of his captors, who then becomes drawn into the soldier's world.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsJohn WayneMaureen O'HaraBarry FitzgeraldA retired American boxer returns to the village of his birth in 1920s Ireland, where he falls for a spirited redhead whose brother is contemptuous of their union.
- DirectorLenny AbrahamsonStarsTom MurphyMark O'HalloranGavin Dowdall2 heroin addicts negotiate their way through Dublin's city centre, encountering friends and family as they search for their next fix.
- DirectorKen LoachStarsCillian MurphyPádraic DelaneyLiam CunninghamAgainst the backdrop of the Irish War of Independence, two brothers fight a guerrilla war against British forces.
- DirectorJim SheridanStarsDaniel Day-LewisBrenda FrickerAlison WhelanChristy Brown, born with cerebral palsy, learns to paint and write with his only controllable limb - his left foot.
- DirectorYorgos LanthimosStarsColin FarrellRachel WeiszJessica BardenIn a dystopian near future, according to the laws of The City, single people are taken to The Hotel, where they are obliged to find a romantic partner in 45 days or they're transformed into beasts and sent off into The Woods.
- DirectorJohn CrowleyStarsSaoirse RonanEmory CohenDomhnall GleesonAn Irish immigrant lands in 1950s Brooklyn, where she quickly falls into a romance with a local. When her past catches up with her, however, she must choose between two countries and the lives that exist within.
- DirectorGeorge MorrisonStarsLiam BudhlaeirPadraig O'RaghallaighMise Eire tells of events in Ireland leading up to, during, and immediately after the 1916 Easter Rising, extensively using original footage such as newsreels from the time.
- DirectorPat CollinsStarsColm SeoigheMichael O'ChonfhlaolaMacdara Ó FáthartaBorn in a remote village on Ireland's west coast, Joe Heaney conquered the shyness of his youth to become one of his country's most revered traditional vocalists, as chronicled in this lyrical biopic.
- DirectorIvan KavanaghStarsValene KaneEmma Eliza ReganHenry GarrettTo the outside world, Yvonne is a strong, happy and successful woman. But when she returns home to be with her sick mother, she is forced to make life-changing decisions and the facade that she has carefully constructed begins to collapse.
- DirectorJohn CarneyStarsGlen HansardMarkéta IrglováHugh WalshA modern-day musical about a busker and an immigrant and their eventful week in Dublin, as they write, rehearse and record songs that tell their love story.
- DirectorPeter MullanStarsEileen WalshDorothy DuffyNora-Jane NooneThree young Irish women struggle to maintain their spirits while they endure dehumanizing abuse as inmates of a Magdalene Sisters Asylum.
- DirectorPat CollinsStarsEoghan Mac Giolla BhrídeHilary O'ShaughnessyAndrew BennettEoghan is a sound recordist who is returning to Ireland for the first time in 15 years. His reason for returning is a job offer: to find and record places free from man-made sound. His quest takes him away from towns and villages into remote terrain. Throughout his journey, he is drawn into a series of encounters and conversations which gradually divert his attention towards a more intangible silence, one that is bound up with the sounds of the life he had left behind. Influenced by elements of folklore and archive, Silence unfolds with a quiet intensity, where poetic images reveal an absorbing meditation on themes relating to sound and silence, history, memory and exile.
- DirectorLisa Barros D'SaGlenn LeyburnStarsCathal MaguirePeter KellyCharlie BerkeleyA chronicle of Terri Hooley's life, a record-store owner instrumental in developing Belfast's punk-rock scene.
- DirectorEmer ReynoldsStarsFrank DrakeCarolyn PorcoJohn CasaniIt is one of humankind's greatest achievements. More than 12 billion miles away a tiny spaceship is leaving our Solar System and entering the void of deep space - the first human-made object ever to do so.
- DirectorPeter LennonStarsSean O'FaoláinConor Cruise O'BrienJohn HustonIrish-born journalist Peter Lennon exposed the truth of a repressed, suppressed and censored country, and the hypocrisy of church, politics and state, through a series of 'innocent' interviews.
- DirectorCarol ReedStarsJames MasonRobert NewtonCyril CusackA wounded Irish nationalist leader attempts to evade police following a failed robbery in Belfast.
- DirectorNeil JordanStarsStephen ReaFiona ShawEamonn OwensThe antisocial son of an alcoholic father and a bipolar mother grows up in 1960s Ireland.
- DirectorKen WardropStarsLeah HolohanGrace McGeeEimear PetersA documentary which chronicles a ninety-year-old love story, through the collective voice of seventy ladies.
- DirectorYorgos LanthimosStarsBarry G. BernsonHerb CaillouetBill CampSteven, a charismatic surgeon, is forced to make an unthinkable sacrifice after his life starts to fall apart, when the behavior of a teenage boy he has taken under his wing turns sinister.