Green with Envy

Ahead of the UK release of In Bruges, Empire Magazine, and it’s techno-savvy twin Empire Online, have been giving the excellent film a real push. And why wouldn’t they, as the magazine says ‘With In Bruges, the British Gangster Movie gets a Croydon facelift’.

Hang on a minute! Gangster – Yes, British – Surely not. For starters, the film’s two leads – Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson – are as Irish as Guinness and Potato Famine. It’s writer/director Martin McDonagh’s theatre credentials (The Beauty Queen of Leenane and The Lieutenant of Inishmore) would confirm his nationality if his surname did not, and I can’t quite recall where In Bruges is set, I know it’s not Ireland but I’m fairly sure it wasn’t the lake district either. In fact the only UK-set scene takes place in a Church with Ciarán Hinds as the clergymen. This film couldn’t get more Irish if you painted it green and drunkenly marched across the village square every March 17th. And before someone says ‘but, it had Film Four funding’, so did The Motorcycle Diaries and I don’t see them labelling that as British.

In as poorly written and perplexing a piece as Empire has ever published (click above link). The reviewer spends the majority of the review criticising the film – including quotes from reliable sources such as ‘Kristina’ from Metacritic.com – before awarding a deserved four star-rating. Now we Irish have become accustomed to British film folk trying to take credit for our success. Only recently the London’s Critics Circle short-listed Once as ‘British Film of the Year’, but this is a disappointing turn from a usually reliable magazine - perhaps ‘Empire’ may be a more appropriate name than originally expected.

However, the British Film Industry does have a history of trying to swipe anything that moves at the movies. You need only look at the recent BAFTA nominees for Best ‘British’ Film, such as international spy-flick The Bourne Supremacy and American Civil War yawn-fest Cold Mountain, to see this annexation extends beyond our isle. Should the IFTAs wish to follow a similar tack they could start claiming recent efforts such as Get Rich or Die Tryin’ and The Brave One as Irish, not to mention the upcoming manga-based Akira, on account of their director’s passports.

So lets get this clear, Colin Farrell, Once, Father Ted, The Nolan Sisters and before The Lovely Bones comes out, Saoirse Ronan are ours, we’ll share Daniel Day Lewis and the Brits can keep Bono – if they want him.