This year’s Cannes Film Festival is set to be the most successful yet for the Irish film-making community, according to film board chief executive Mark Woods.
Our friends in the US have made yet another sterling contribution to consumer culture with YM aka Young & Modern. An ultra-glossy format, tabloid-esque layout and breathless prose are all brought to bear as the mag tries to corner the market as teenage girls monthly of choice.
A few years ago it would’ve been impossible to make a movie like goldfish memory, but thanks to digital technology and film board funding director Liz Gill is celebrating a box-office hit.
With a major role in the new Ned Kelly biopic, dubliner Laurence Kinlan is being widely tipped as the next big thing. Just don’t mention ‘The Northsider Colin Farrell’, is all.
Prior to their recent Dublin gig, THE BLUETONES talked to NADINE O REGAN about the fickleness of fame, artistic integrity, America and the dangers of sausage sponsorship!
It hasn't been success all the way for Paths To Freedom star Deirdre O’Kane but here she tells Paul Nolan how a chance encounter with Billy Connolly helped her see the funnier side of the Montreal Comedy Festival
Craig Fitzsimons talks to David Gleeson, director of Cowboys & Angels, another exciting addition to the growning canon of unapologetically youthful and exuberent contemporary Irish movies
No, we're not taking the piss. Click below to hear a 30 second sampler of the star belting out a cover of 'I Fought The Law' from the soundtrack of his latest movie, Intermission...
The last time we met Cillian Murphy he was fighting Black and Tans in west Cork. Now he’s the star of a lavish Danny Boyle space opera. Still, no matter what the subject matter, the actor keeps his feet firmly on the ground.
The Miss Ireland competition is in its 45th year. Liam Fay went along to the Burlington Hotel final to come to (metaphorical) grips with the assets of Miss Irish Sun Newspaper, among others.
He found the experience deeply embarrassing. Pix: Colm Henry.
COLM O'HARE meets SCOTT YOUNG, father of Neil, and a renowned journalist, author and broadcaster in his own right. In this rare interview he talks about his best-known subject - his famous son.
Don’t go, they said. but they didn’t follow their own advice. Now, after much professional and personal upheaval, the Hothouse Flowers are back, once more in love with the idea of “ringin’ the bell”.
Fiona H. Stevenson aka Fay Wolftree Webb was the gifted Hot Press writer once dubbed the ‘High Priestess of Punk’ in Ireland in the mid-’80s. in later life, having moved to England, she had to cope with the complex and difficult reality of living with manic depression. on December 18, 2003, aged just 39, Fiona died, apparently of a prescription drug overdose. in a personal tribute to Fiona, and as a means of highlighting a major mental health concern, former Hot Press writer Paul O’Mahony here recalls his first love and enduring friend.
"To tell you the truth, I don’t see myself as being all that interesting or attractive." that being so, Colin Farrell must be one of a very few who doesn’t. Dublin’s latest superstar, famous for cussing, bedding women and (lest we forget) acting, has been inescapable in the gossip columns in recent months. But how much is truth and how much fiction? In this candid interview with Tara Brady, he talks about drink, drugs, football, fame, hype, luck, romance and – in his latest box office winner The Recruit – working with Al Pacino
Or how TONY BENNETT survived drugs, near-death and the mafia, to become possibly the coolest man on the planet at the age of 72. Interview: Joe Jackson.
It’s been ten years since his last novel, but Neil Jordan has now reprised his role as one of Ireland’s finest contemporary prose writers with the dark gothic drama, Shade. In a wide-ranging interview with Olaf Tyaransen the Oscar-winning writer/director discusses the challenges of literary craftsmanship, swimming with sharks in Hollywood, working with Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, his disinterest in celebrity and why Ireland continues to be his preferred place of residence.
Here's a suspect device: 3 Colours Red consider themselves a political and polemical band yet they only sound convincing on the (trite) love songs on Revolt.
Upwards of two million people do it in Ireland every Sunday - and yet little or nothing is ever written about it in the media. So we asked ourselves a few questions: Why do so many people attend what is by any standards a very strange ritual? Do they enjoy themselves? Is the performance a good one? What do they get from it? And are the sound and lighting really up to the international standards? That's right, a crack Hot Press team of reporters attended Sunday mass recently - this is what they found.
DEREK BELL on art, spirituality and porn! MARTIN FAY on Sean O'Riada, Carnegie Hall and drink! And PADDY MOLONEY on superstar friends, Bono's problematic vocals and his critics, inside and outside the group. Yes, it's the second and final part of JOE JACKSON'S extraordinary interview with THE CHIEFTAINS.
Christiaan and Justin Webb have wasted no time in carving their own niche: it’s a world of purple haze and post-Y2K insouciance, a hybrid of the Stone Roses and the Eels. This is music that’s so knowingly nonchalant, it lopes at its own pace in every direction except the one with the bright lights.
It’s early days for the band, and although right now, it seems unlikely that they’re going to topple any Premier League outfits, the world is still very much their oyster and I’d venture that they’ll swallow it whole at some point.
Now as one of the most successful groups in the world with over 22 million albums sold, Il Divo have announced an additional Irish date on Sunday March 8, at the O2.
Sometimes I wish Glen Hansard’s guitar would explode, or that half way through a terrible rendition of ‘Pavement Tune’ the band would lose their way and let the song fall apart. A mistake of some sort would be nice, if only to prove that The Frames are mortal when it comes to playing live.
BDB’s characteristic ramshackle guitar and endearingly imprecise vocal are this time combined with full string and horn arrangements, creating a kind of folksy motown feel, Detroit crossed with Devon
Gen X race memory and The Devil And Daniel Johnston have ensured a full house at Vicar St, and in the foyer ‘Hi, How Are You?’ frog t-shirts are doing a brisk business in black and white.
Jim Sheridan’s wonderful In America forces us to think seriously about many things: family, children, immigration and the importance of making movies in Ireland.
Till now, Pogues' compliments have invariably centred on Shane MacGowan's singular songwriting. The group's erratic performances which could descend into some ramshackle acoustic heart of darkness meant the praise wasn't always extended to his fellows.
But only if we let them. Draconian changes in the arts infrastructure have been proposed, the damaging effects of which will be felt for generations to come. Now is the time to shout: STOP!
30th Anniversary Retrospective: From indie flicks to Hollywood classics, Irish gems to world cinema masterpieces, Tara Brady here selects the top 101 films of the past 30 years.
