for the love of one's country's a terrible thing

[jazzfish]

On (roughly) the centennial of the Easter Rising, it's clearly time to link again to A History of Ireland in 100 Excuses.

The Cinematheque is running an Irish film festival for the occasion. On Sunday uilos and I went to see a documentary on the Rising, followed by Liam Neeson Versus The Bastard English And Also His Fellow Shortsighted Irishmen.

The documentary ... didn't impress me. The occasional newsreel footage didn't make up for the annoying Ken-Burns-esque closeup image-panning, and the shots of contemporary Dublin added very little after the first couple of images of the Post Office. I spent most of the time wishing it had been a book.

Michael Collins, well, it's still Michael Collins, it's a fictionalised and dramatised look at a freedom fighter / terrorist in the early twentieth century. Most of what I wrote last time I saw it holds true. Needed more Stephen Rea. (This is true of most movies. Stephen Rea has made a career out of appearing slightly rumpled and compelling.) It's a good movie and one of the few biopics, possibly the only one, that I'd recommend.

I brought back a round of con-crud from Niagara, of course. At least it seems to have *not* turned into full-blown pneumonia, which it did in one or two other people who were there. Stupid sinuses.

Comments

[novel_machinist]

OH BOY CON CRUD :/ feel better soon

[jazzfish]

Yeah, I was kind of surprised; the last couple of years there hasn't been any, I guess because Gathering attendees are pretty good about taking care of themselves. But the weather hasn't been as crummy as it was this year, either.

Thankfully it seems to have mostly passed.