That is 5 Irish films a week for 6 weeks, savage, 30 Irish movieson tap now for the next month and a half. But I immediately thought to myself, here we go, The Commitments, Into the West, The General, etc but, no, I have not seen one of the films that are being featured this week. I also thought, I bet you they will be all these culchie period dramas, wrong again. They are really mixing it up with genres too. What an amazing idea.
I would have loved to of been in the room when someone proposed that one.
Boardroom of Setanta – Head of Setanta sits at the top of the table; lots of young suits sit on either side of the table.
Head of Setanta
Okay, we are going to have do something over these summer months, Pat Dolan and Steve McManaman talking about transfers for three hours a day is just not going to cut it, we need something new, we need something fresh, we need something that people are actually going to watch. There are only so many reruns of classic premier league games from the nineties that people can handle and I think most viewers are coming around to the fact that poker is boring as fuck to watch. What are we going to do?
The board is silent, a lot of mumbling and biting of nails
Head Setanta
Come on, people, give me something, you all don’t get paid 65 grand a year to just sit here and say nothing. I want ideas.
A hand is raised
Head of Setanta
Yes, you there
Young Executive No. 1
How would you feel about showing Irish films on the channel?
Head of Setanta
On a sport channel?
Young Executive No. 1
Well . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yeah.
Silence in the room, everyone waits in anticipation how the Head is going to react
Head of Setanta
Brilliant! What your name, son?
Young Executive No. 1
Simon, Simon Lemon
Head of Setanta
You’ve got balls, Lemon. I want you to go out a get yourself the finest high class prostitute money can buy on me.
Never did I think I was actually going to watch Setanta during the summer months when there is no football on, bring it on, I’m gonna get stuck into these. Tonight’s film is called H3. It’s a film made about the H-Block protests in the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland in 1981. The film didn’t get the notoriety that Hunger got but the reviews state that it is a brilliant perspective on the story. I will be defo checking it out
Thursday’s looks fucked up, it’s a horror film made by Nic Roeg, the filmmaker that directed my favourite horror film of all time, Don’t Look Now. With an all star cast – Miranda Richardson and Donald Sutherland, it looks like pretty scary stuff. I can’t believe I never heard of this one either.
Friday’s film is one called Mapmaker, another psychological thriller staring Brian F. O’Byrne; guess what, a mapmaker gets himself into a shit load of trouble with some angry locals. Brilliant, can’t wait.
The bottom line is fair play to everyone Setanta and especially the guy who came up with the idea, you are fucking hilarious, a sport channel playing films, I know it sounds so Father Ted but its wicked idea. I for one will be gorging out on some sweet Irish cinema mid week for the duration of the summer. I cant wait to see next weeks line up, which get released tomorrow.
