Ce genre de petites choses

Only a glimpse of the harsh reality that is the Magdalene laundries of Ireland.

Bill is a working class Irish man. He is married to Eileen and they gave 5 girls at home. Bill works on a coal yard and delivers it to various people. Bill heads to a convent where he becomes unsettled and after more deliveries he becomes more concerned with the happenings of the nuns. Bills dread follows him into Christmas as we get glimpses of his past as we piece together why he is so upset.

I think the movie is an important watch, I did think it would have leaned more into the convent side of things and the atrocities that took place but this was Bills story.

The whole movie I felt a pain in my chest, wanting him to say something to do something but also knowing the repercussions he and his whole family would face if they dare question the church.

The fact that these Hell holes were open til 1998 is a disgrace and embarrassment to this country, and the church, seeing the power nuns and priests believed they were entitled to is infuriating.

A good watch, beautiful performances, 7/10.

I could watch Murphy stare at a wall watching paint dry for 2 hours and I'd still buy a ticket.

Here, as Bill Furlong, he conveys a sadness that is rarely seen or understood by the people close to him. But we (the audience) can see it's there.

I won't go into the story that much. Honestly, there's not much there. But that doesn't mean it's a bad movie. It just means that it's a simple story. But one that is very well written, beautifully shot (The whole time, I believed I was in Ireland during the eighties) and incredibly well acted.

The Magdelene laundries were a real thing up until 1996, when the last one closed. Unmarried, pregnant teens were sent to monasteries to give birth and lose their child to forced adoption. All the while, they were abused as cheap labor by the nuns who were running the laundries. Sometimes, they were also physically abused and mistreated. It has left a mark on the soul of the country.

Eileen Walsh, who plays Ms. Furlong, also starred in the Magdalene sister, a movie from 2003. Coincidence or not: I suggest that you check it out because it's a perfect bookend to this gem of a movie.

This sombre insightful drama takes us back to an earlier Ireland, a long way from the young vibrant and open society of today, an Ireland (well, to be accurate, Irish republic) where the Catholic Church dominated life culture and even politics, as it had done since the 1920s. Ordinary folk were either brainwashed into submission or intimidated into repressed poverty stricken acceptance of the status quo. It really does seem that it largely was like that.

We've seen other films, in particular The Magdalene Laundry, about the practice of sending young women who became pregnant 'out of wedlock' to convents where their babies were taken away at birth, and the women 'enslaved' into the Laundry, ostracised by all. Cruel and vindictive, this went on until 1998!

Cillian Murphy plays an ordinary family man with five daughters in country Ireland who runs a coal supply firm, its 1985. He sees without really understanding all that's wrong around him and how young women are treated. When delivering to a convent he chances upon its cruelties and he recalls his own difficult early life, and tries to take action in what is a severely compliant almost closed society.

It's sombre, low key, and it took me time to understand, but this slow burn approach pays off as I gradually understood how through the central character we experience his world and realise just how wrong so much of it all seems. It's heart rending stuff, truthful, and dark, particularly the malevolent portrayal of the nuns, with a great turn by Emily Watson. The film will not cheer you up, but it's an important historical reflection on a world thankfully has now disappeared.

Cillian Murphy is always a celebration for the large and small screen. This time he travels several decades back, to the eighties in Dublin. He is a coal seller, that keeps his house warm and sells coal for other houses and places to keep them warm in Ireland's cold winter. His five daughters and wife are the apple of his eyes and he would do anything for them.

Until...one day he stumbles into a situation in a monastery, which hosts young catholic girls, sometime against their will, that keeps his confused and torn between his will of normality and his conscience. The catholic church is being criticized here in a way that one can easily be reminded with the classis "The Magdalene Sisters".

During several segments of the movie the past keeps reminding Bill with his childhood traumas. He is described as a generous and simple guy, that wants only to earn money to keep his family on track with food in their bellies, fire in the fireplace and off course proper education, but he still has great virtues and gentle heart, as far as it goes to other people, that their daily suffering doesn't go unnoticed.

It's a slow burner, that is directed with a fine and gentle hand and mindset. It has a lot of criticism, as mentioned, of the church and cynical use of religion to oppress the common folks. On the other side it has a lot of humanity, love and care in it. It feels long, but it is a straight forward film, that catches the essence of the era and state of mind of these days.

I haven't felt always the strong connection between the flashbacks to current plot developments, but all helped to better build the protagonist character and to better understands him and his motivation. Murphy's character has been built well, from a script perspective and also thanks to an enormous performance from Murphy himself.

It's unbelievable to know that this story takes place in 1985 and went on until 1997. Cillian Murphy's breathtaking performance takes you through the struggles from his past and the struggles in his present until the character of Bill Furlong can't take it any more. Filmed up close and very personal. You can hear every breath and feel his pain. Beautifully portrait by Tim Mielants. He is so close to all the characters, you can almost feel their hearts beat.

The story is one of the many sad examples of the influence of the churches in Europe until recently. Seeing this film at the Film Fest Gent gave it an extra dimension with Cillian Murphy introducing the film and wishing everyone a pleasant screening in Dutch. From the screen, due to his work on PB7 as we speak.