Fisherman Colin Farrell shares his strange story with town priest Stephen Rea in ONDINE (photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures)
ONDINE (Neil Jordan, 2010)
Opens Friday, June 4
www.magpictures.com
After hard-luck fisherman Syracuse (a decidedly unglamorous Colin Farrell) raises his net to find out he has caught a woman (Alicja Bachleda) from the bottom of the sea, his life takes a dramatic shift in Neil Jordan’s wonderful fairy tale, ONDINE. Syracuse, also known disaffectionately as Circus for his checkered past, resuscitates the beautiful woman, who appears to have lost her memory and later chooses the name Ondine, which means “little wave.” Syracuse brings Ondine fishing with him, and when she sings her strange, haunting song, he catches more lobster and salmon than he ever has before. But his wheelchair-bound daughter, Annie (Alison Barry), who needs a new kidney, thinks than Ondine might be more than just good luck; she believes that Ondine is a selkie, a supposedly mythological sea creature who can live on land for seven years before having to return to her watery home. But when a mysterious stranger suddenly shows up in town, everyone is forced to reevaluate their changing lives. Gorgeously shot by master cinematographer Christopher Doyle (IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE) in the coastal village of Castletownbere and along Poulin Harbor, ONDINE is a compelling story that easily could have turned into treacly melodrama but manages to keep surprising up to the very end. Farrell is excellent as the uneducated, simple, but lovable Syracuse who, when not fishing or taking his daughter to her weekly dialysis treatment, shares his tale with the town priest (Stephen Rea) in some very funny scenes. Jordan (MONA LISA, THE CRYING GAME), who has a house in Castletownbere, has made a fairy tale audiences can really believe in with ONDINE, which features a lush soundtrack by Sigur Rós’s Kjartan Sveinsson that accompanies the lush locations.
For a slideshow of the film’s U.S. premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 28 with Colin Farrell, Alicja Bachleda, and Neil Jordan, please visit here.
Agnès Jaoui directed, cowrote, and stars in this fabulously French film about literature, music, love, and loyalty. Lolita (newcomer Marilou Berry) is an overweight young woman with dreams of becoming an opera singer. However, people seem to take an interest in her only when they learn that her father, mean-spirited Etienne (cowriter Jean-Pierre Bacri, Jaoui’s partner), is a famous novelist and publisher. Indeed, that is the case when her vocal coach, Sylvia (Jaoui), finally agrees to help Lolita’s singing group prepare for a special performance. Meanwhile, Etienne takes Sylvia’s husband, struggling novelist Pierre (Laurent Grevill), under his wing, even as he ignores his daughter’s calls for love. Berry is simply marvelous in her first major role, utterly charming and heartbreaking as she reaches out to her father, puts her faith in the wrong relationship, and battles to express herself in a smothering world of hangers-on, wanna-bes, and, if she looks hard enough, true love. There’s a reason this film was chosen to open the 2004 New York Film Festival. Don’t miss it.
