Piccole cose come queste

It took me a couple of days to process this movie. To all who asked me "did you like it?" I could not give an answer. I didn't like it and I didn't not like it for a simple reason, it's so absorbing, such a meditative experience that I just internalised it. There were times I realised I did not breath for a few seconds during scenes, other moments were I found myself smiling, some moments when I could feel the heaviness on my chest. It's the Ireland of the dark ages, when you start watching this movie you might feel you are in the 50s but really you are in the mid 80s, people were lucky if they had a job and warm place to sleep in, the Catholic Church ran the show and was so infiltrated in the institutions that they controlled education and therefore shaped the culture of the time. So we have this story, which unfortunately is a real one, that takes place in New Ross, Ireland. It's a small village, the movie makes a fantastic job in getting you into the oppressive atmosphere, even by showing the main character Bill Furlong doing very repetitive working tasks at the beginning, it's all part of getting you into the mood. Small village, close minded, everyone knows everything and anyone. Perception is crucial, show your best side, keep the bad hidden, omologate, don't think out of the box. And repeat. We meet Bill Furlong in the middle of a nervous breakdown, he was the fatherless child of a young mother, who was lucky enough to be raised by the woman his mother worked for. He has a hard childhood because despite being raised by a woman of money he does not belong to that world and the times are not kind to a fatherless child. He is trying to reckon with his past when one day delivering coal at the convent of the village he find a girl in the cold shed left there overnight. His struggle between personal interests and doing the right thing is powerful, he has 5 girls and the nuns control education and therefore the future prospects of his talented girls that he loves and worked his whole life to provide for, and doing the right thing, moral and ethic also putting on top of that that his mother could have been one of those girls if she wasn't as lucky to be taken in by a kind person. He is forced to look the other way, ignore other people suffering for the good of his own family, but when looking the other way is someone that understands pain, someone that has been there and knows what it means, looking the other way becomes so much harder. It's beautifully shot to highlight dark and gloomy to match the heavy tone of the story, I found the use of the blurring lenses incredible and key to the storyline, when you see something you do not want to see, that you want to block out. Scene with Eileen in the living room is such an incredible example: she is listening but ignoring, really she doesn't want to know. Eileen Walsh is absolutely phenomenal in portraying this woman who for a while you kind of think she's a coward but then you understand she is scared, she is doing that for the good of her family, how to blame her. Emily Watson is terrifying, she emanates power every word she utters without even making a move, she's towering even to a strong man, a great metaphor for the Catholic Church that managed to put into submission entire countries for centuries. Cillian Murphy, for one hour and thirty minutes, reminds you why he was given an Oscar six months ago. He was born with a gift and thankfully he decided to share it with the rest of us. I realised only after watching it that he probably has 10 minutes of talking time in the movie but it feels like he has 3 hours, because what he communicates with silence, with his face, with his pauses is absolutely out of this world. There is a scene he is driving his truck and stops and stays in breathing that I realised when it was over that I had not been breathing for the whole scene. If this movie was given a bit more attention by Lionsgate it could have been his second Oscar.

The silence of the movie is resounding, the absence of a strong soundtrack to enhance emotions is a choice, it's not your tears that they are going for, it is raw emotion. The movie is driven not by its plot but by its message, which is not judgemental, but invites you to think. The movie ends when the story begins, just like the book. But the message is so powerful and the dilemma so hard, that you spend two days questioning yourself what would you have done if you were Bill Furlong? A reflection on our society past and present, a must see, a small little work of art.

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.

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.

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.