Something for the Weekend: Film Fatale presents 'All About Eve', May 5

When Film Fatale updates its facebook page with the next month's upcoming classic film, a number of thoughts flash through my mind - my chronically empty purse, the distance (a 4 - 4.5 hour stuffy bus journey) and of the vintage party dresses listlessly hanging in my wardrobe begging for a suitable night out and I sigh with a mixture of envy and melodramatic despair.

May's movie is one of my die hard favourites and one of the all time greats - a film composed primarily of sass, in the formidable form of Bette Davis.

All about Eve is an elegantly bitchy backstage story of ambition, betrayal and the theatre. Bette Davis stars as Margo Channing, an aging Broadway star who takes the seemingly naïve aspiring actress Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter) under her wing but Eve insinuates herself into Margo’s life and place on the stage.

"This Saturday May 5th, Film Fatale — Dublin’s most glamorous film event — will screen Bette Davis’ finest performance in the superb All About Eve in The Sugar Club, Dublin.

This night of cinema nostalgia and old–style Hollywood sophistication will transport the audience back to the 1950s for a night of film, vintage fashion, dancing and good old-fashioned fun.

A screening of Joseph L Mankiewicz's Oscar-winning drama will be followed by an elegant 1950s ball mirroring the film’s award ceremony with live performances, while Film Fatale’s resident DJs, The Andrews Sisters’ Brothers, will play music from the film’s era. The audience is invited to help set the scene by dressing in their vintage finest, paying homage to 1950s glamour or emulating the characters from the film."

Once again I take a back seat and envy you lucky, lucky Dubliners!

Tickets are €15 and are available at Entertainment.ie. Doors from 8pm, more information to be found at Film Fatale Events. They're selling out fast!

Next time, I say, next time - I'll see you there in a silk frock.

A month of instagram #1

Yes, so I've been playing around with instagram since they released it for android!

L-R, from top:

1. Tintin character (all of them!) chandelier, Hergé Museum, Belgium
2. 'A First Class Crisp' - Tayto doesn't miss a once in a lifetime marketing opportunity
3. Walking home
4. Window display, The Sheelin Antique Irish Lace Museum & Shop
5. Trinkets, The Sheelin Antique Lace Museum and Shop
6. Paddling in the sea at Strandhill beach, Co. Sligo
7. Green amongst the grey, the roofs of Sligo town
8. Iconic windows of The Model gallery
9. Buying lots of cheese for an exhibition opening reception
10. An alignment of past and present - (Tomb 7) Carrowmore megalithic tombs, Co. Sligo

You can follow me, illbeyourmirror!

Suffragette City

One of the perks of my internship is being able to sneak into the store every now and then at take a peek at the wonderful works on the racks.

I am particularly excited as Communicating with Prisoners (1924), by Jack B. Yeats, has made it to the short-list of ten paintings nominated for the title of 'Ireland's Favourite Painting'. This work is from the Niland Collection, held in The Model gallery. It is the only regional painting that has made it to the shortlist.

Jack, brother of the poet William, is one of Ireland’s best loved painters of the twentieth-century and this painting is one of a number of iconic scenes he painted during the civil war. 

© Estate of Jack B Yeats. All rights reserved / DACS 2012. Photo © The Model, Sligo
Writing of the context of Jack Yeats' painting, Communicating with Prisoners, Thomas MacGreevy declares ". . . they [Irish women] did everything except get executed. Many of them gave all they had, they suffered, they fought, they went to gaol, they hunger-struck." (Source)
Painted in 1924, Communicating with Prisoners depicts a group of seven women and one boy, whom are engaged in listening to shouts from the window of a of a Kilmainham jail bastion, from a ring of indistinct prisoners looking out at the group below. (More info on work here)
 The Irish suffrage movement was largely an urban, middle class one. Militant Irish suffragists were imprisoned in England and Ireland and some went on hunger strike (as referenced above). Former notable female prisoners include Grace Gifford and Countess Markievicz.
In 1914, Cumann na mBan was founded as an independent Irish female republican paramilitary organisation. MacGreevy elaborates: "There was a certain progressive, leftist strain in the Irish nationalist movement, which also had ties to Irish feminism and the suffragist movement. It is true that the participation of Irish women in political affairs remained for many years sporadic. Nevertheless, they continued to perform, even if only in limited numbers, similar roles to men."
Though not as acclaimed as their brothers but no less creatively gifted, Jack's sisters, Elizabeth and Lily, founded the Dun Emer Guild with their friend Evelyn Gleeson in 1902, in Dundrum, Co. Dublin. The name Dun Emer (Fort of Emer) was named for the Lady Emer, wife of the hero Cúchulainn, renowned in Irish folklore for her beauty and artistic skills. Jack's interest in Irish suffragettes who formed the theme of this painting, may have been inspired by his sisters and their contemporaries.
You can cast your vote for Ireland's Favourite Painting here! 
Read more...Masterpiece: Communicating with Prisoners  CELT: Movements for Social and Political Reform, 1870-1914: Irish SuffragettesJSTOR: A Political Prisoner in Kilmainham Jail: The Diary of Cecilia Saunders GallagherCuala Press pressmark
And for the title that's in it, a favourite -