4 minute read
Belfast boys strike a harmonious chord
Van Morrison (Ivan) has been a favourite artist of mine since the release of Moondance in 1970. I have travelled the world to see him in concert and now we are in Ireland it should be easy to catch Van. The Australian residence in Killiney is not far from a house he paid for in Dalkey although he has never lived there, so it is a tenuous link I hold to him as an ‘almost a neighbour’. Kenneth Branagh grew up on a street nearby Morrison’s own home place, and “Belfast” brings these two great talents together. Choosing Van’s music as the soundtrack is so shrewd, so evocative so brilliant it brings to life and colourises a black and white film. “I’m Stranded” is so heart felt but as Van writes; “There ain’t nowhere else to be accept right here and I’m stranded.” “Days like this” with its sophisticated words and funky sax and horns tell us that life is full of set backs, big and little, but momma told Van “...there’d be days like this”. “Warm love” is ever present everywhere Van sings and in this film love is everywhere, it is a story of Northern Ireland’s Troubles, but its music is the music of love, romance and youth. “...And the Healing has begun...” tells us that no matter the pain, we will again walk down the avenue with a smile. I love Van’s optimism and his love for his people, and the people in his life. We move then to “Philosophers stone”, which poetically and beautifully describes Van’s journey to be who he is, the harmonica is redolent of the time, a little Dylanesque - but very Van. “Love should come with a warning” reminds me of a line I heard from an advertising guru friend of mine in the 1980s who said, “It’s easier to find a woman that hates you and buy her a house.” I am sure that’s an apocryphal piece of advice. Turn to the brilliant “Moon Dance”, an album I bought from Trev’s records in Whyalla for $4.95 back in the day, it still has the price tag on it because nobody was allowed to play my records, pristine they are. And I love them. Branagh lifts into the mystic from this brilliant music. “Domino” finds its place as a funky well produced signature tune from a true genius. Thank you Kenneth Brannagh. Thank you Van. Finally and importantly, “Down to Joy” – an original track for the movie, pulls and yearns at the heartstrings of the people who make up the stories of this film and of those who are watching it. That track has been nominated now for an Academy Award for best Original Song and I can’t think of a man more deserving. This is a film about opportunity love and courage, it’s a soundtrack deftly constructed to create colour depth and hope. It does all this and I cannot wait to get back to a venue to witness this grumpy genius who is not living in Dalkey. He lives in Belfast and he loves the place.
REVIEW: THE HON GARY GRAY AO AUSTRALIAN AMBASSADOR TO IRELAND
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ROSE-TINTED TALE OF THE TROUBLES
When the first lockdown of the pandemic hit in 2020, veteran actor and filmmaker Kenneth Branagh sat down to write the story of another tumultuous time, featuring a different kind of lockdown, growing up during The Troubles in 1969 Northern Ireland. He describes his movie, Belfast, as a fictionalised memoir that remembers the idyll of his boisterous boyhood right as the violence begins to get frighteningly close to home. Indeed, his own street is soon barricaded, separating Protestant loyalists from their republican Catholic neighbours. Despite the political context, this is an affectionate, rose-tinted coming-of-age story told through the eyes of Branagh’s nine-year-old avatar, Buddy (charming newcomer Jude Hill), who really only in the broadest sense comprehends what’s going on around him. What he does know is that his Ma (Caitriona Balfe) is fierce and loving while his devoted Pa (Jamie Dornan) works away in England, his beloved grandparents (Judi Dench and Ciaran Hinds) live just around the corner, and he’s trying hard in class so he might earn a place sitting next to the girl he loves (Olive Tennant, daughter of David). After a colour-filled aerial tour of the present-day port city that will surely bolster tourism numbers post-pandemic, Belfast is shot mostly in velvety monochrome (by Haris Zambarloukos), underscoring the dreamy, creamy quality of memory and often shot from steep angles to signal a child’s sightline. Moments of first-person perspective spring into colour, as do the films of Branagh’s childhood (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, One Million Years BC, High Noon), which he sees on family trips to the cinema and home on TV, and clearly made an impression. Belfast is Branagh’s ode to those formative years, to his family, to the stories he grew up on as well as the city he remembers so vividly and which his parents finally, reluctantly, end up leaving. Apart from a romantic, and starrily romanticised, scene in which the dashing Dornan serenades Balfe’s Ma to the 1968 classic Everlasting Love, it’s Belfast rocker Van Morrison’s string of indelible hits that dominate the soundtrack. Branagh’s memoir may recall films you’ve seen before, most recently Alfonso Cuarona’s masterful, personal 2018 film Roma, set in 1970s Mexico, but the movie-loving filmmaker has made a nostalgic crowd-pleaser that’s a tonic for tough times.☘
