Themes: Party Film, Haunted By the Past, Star-Crossed Lovers
Main Cast: Anjelica Huston, Donal McCann, Rachel Dowling, Cathleen Delaney, Helena Carroll
Release Year: 1987
Country: US/UK
Run Time: 82 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
The final film of legendary director John Huston was based on the closing story of James Joyce's Dubliners. Anjelica Huston is top-billed as Gretta Conroy, the niece by marriage of turn-of-century Irish spinsters Kate Morkan (Helena Carroll) and Julia Morkan (Cathleen Delany). At the home of these two curious ladies, Gretta is prodded into remembering her long-dead lover. She tearfully reveals to her husband (Donal McCann) that the deceased boy may well have died on her behalf. Her tale of woe bespeaks the sentiment shared by James Joyce: no matter how long in their graves, the dead will always influence the living. Adding to the film's elegiac quality, it stars Huston's daughter Anjelica and was co-written with his son Tony Huston. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Made while the director himself was not far from death, John Huston's film version of a James Joyce story widely regarded as the finest in English is a gracious tribute to his master. The story, which is set at a small Christmas party in turn-of-the-century Dublin, concludes with a typically Joycean epiphany. While not Joyce's story, which is basically unfilmable, Huston has made a film which softened the writer's criticism of his society, lovingly depicting a world about whose parochialism protagonist Gabriel Conroy Donal McCann feels some ambivalence. The director allows scenes to flow at a leisurely pace, emphasizing the convivial nature of a gathering where all present are enacting long-familiar rituals. When "The Lass of Aughrim" is sung shortly before Gabriel leaves with his wife, Gretta Angelica Huston, she's brought up sharply. It's only after learning the meaning of this song that Gabriel grasps the mystery of Gretta's heart, and the measure of his solitude. While lacking the richness and power of Joyce's story, Huston has created something of a parallel miniature, as he contrasts the nostalgia of the party with a hauntingly Pinter-like distillate of marital dissonance. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide
Ingrid Craigie - Mary Jane; Dan O'Herlihy - Mr. Browne; Frank Patterson - Bartell D'Arcy; Donal Donnelly - Freddy Malins; Marie Kean - Mrs. Malins; Maria McDernottroe - Molly Ivors; Sean McClory - Mr. Grace; Kate O'Toole - Miss Furlong; Maria Hayden - Miss O'Callaghan; Barbre Dowling - Miss Higgins; Lyda Anderson - Miss Daly; Colm Meaney - Mr. Bergin; Cormac O'Herlihy - Mr. Kerrigan; Paul Grant - 1st Young Gentleman; Patrick Gallagher - 3rd Young Gentleman; Amanda Baird - Young Lady; Paul Carroll - Young Gentleman; Redmond Gleeson - Nightporter; Brendan Dillon - Cabman; Dara Clarke - Young Lady
Credit
Dorothy Jeakins - Costume Designer, Tom Shaw - First Assistant Director, John Huston - Director, Roberto Silvi - Editor, William J. Quigley - Executive Producer, Alex North - Composer (Music Score), Stephen B. Grimes - Production Designer, Dennis Washington - Production Designer, Fred Murphy - Cinematographer, Stephen B. Grimes - Producer, William J. Quigley - Producer, Wieland Schulz-Keil - Producer, Chris Sievernich - Producer, Josie MacAvin - Set Designer, Bill Randall - Sound/Sound Designer, Tony Huston - Screenwriter, James Joyce - Short Story Author
The Dead is a 1987film directed by John Huston, starring his daughter Anjelica Huston. The Dead was the last film that Huston directed, and it was released posthumously.
"Huston directed the movie, at eighty, from a wheelchair, jumping up to look through the camera, with oxygen tubes trailing from his nose to a portable generator; most of the time, he had to watch the actors on a video monitor outside the set and use a microphone to speak to the crew. Yet he went into dramatic areas that he'd never gone into before - funny, warm family scenes that might be thought completely out of his range. Huston never before blended his actors so intuitively, so musically."[1]
The film takes place in early twentieth century Dublin at an Epiphany party held by two elderly sisters. The story focuses our attention on the academic Gabriel Conroy (Donal McCann), and his discovery of his wife Gretta's (Anjelica Huston) memory of a deceased lover.
The film adaptation is largely faithful to Joyce's short story, with minor concessions made to alter the dialogue to aid the narrative for cinema audiences.
The most significant change to the story was scriptwriter Tony Huston's inclusion of a new character, a Mr Grace, who recites an eighth-century Middle Irish poem, "Donal Óg" (tr. Lady Gregory: [2][3].
The effect of this is to act as catalyst for the "Distant Music" which provokes the confrontation between Gabriel and Gretta towards the end of the film.
