The Snapper | |
---|---|
Directed by | Stephen Frears |
Screenplay by | Roddy Doyle |
Based on | The Snapper by Roddy Doyle |
Produced by | Lynda Myles Ian Hopkins (associate producer) |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Oliver Stapleton |
Edited by | Mick Audsley |
Music by | Stanley Myers |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Electric Pictures [1] Miramax Films |
Release date |
|
Running time | 91 minutes |
Country | Ireland |
Language | English |
Box office | $4 million (UK/US) |
The Snapper is a 1993 Irish television film directed by Stephen Frears, [2] and starring Tina Kellegher, Colm Meaney and Brendan Gleeson. The film is based on the novel [3] by Irish writer Roddy Doyle, about the Curley family and their domestic adventures. For his performance, Meaney was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.
Soon after a wild night at the pub, twenty-year-old Sharon Curley finds herself expecting a little "snapper" (baby) by a man she loathes. [4] Her refusal to name the father sets in motion a family drama involving her three brothers, two sisters, and her parents, along with her employers and all her friends. Kellegher, playing the role as a coarse, earthy, yet remarkably sensible young woman soon discovers who her friends really are, as some people tease and torment her, some make remarks to her siblings, some force her father to take direct action in her defence, and all spread gossip. She decides to keep the baby and her family, each in their own way, eventually decides to support her. Her father particularly studies up on childbirth and female anatomy (with gratifying results for his wife as a bonus).
Des Curley, [5] Sharon's father, shows the whole world in his face, his emotions ranging from outrage toward Sharon for embarrassing the family to tender concern as her time draws near. As the eight-member family trips all over each other emotionally (symbolised in their battles for the one bathroom, often occupied by Sharon), the tensions within the family grow more intense. Widespread speculation about the identity of the father disrupts the neighbourhood, with some hotheads visiting their own brand of justice on the Curleys. It is revealed that father of the baby is George Burgess, a friend of Sharon's father. George had sex with an inebriated Sharon. The arrival of the baby offers a chance at resolution.
The surname of the Rabbitte family in the book had to be changed to Curley as 20th Century Fox owns the rights to the Rabbitte name from The Commitments (1991), which featured the same characters. The film was shot in many familiar locations around Dublin including Raheny, Kilbarrack, Ballybough, Dún Laoghaire & The Old Shieling Hotel.
The film opened theatrically in the United Kingdom and Ireland on 6 August 1993 on 28 screens. [6] It was released by Electric Pictures in the UK and Ireland and Buena Vista in the US & Canada. [6]
The film grossed £74,754 in its opening weekend in the United Kingdom and Ireland (including £34,043 from 10 screens in Ireland) and went on to gross £474,206 in the UK. [6] [7] In the United States and Canada, the film grossed $3.3 million. [8]
Colm J. Meaney is an Irish actor best known for playing Miles O'Brien in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993–1999). He has guest-starred on many TV shows including Law & Order and The Simpsons, and starred as Thomas C. Durant on Hell on Wheels (2011–2016).
Roderick Doyle is an Irish novelist, dramatist and screenwriter. He is the author of eleven novels for adults, eight books for children, seven plays and screenplays, and dozens of short stories. Several of his books have been made into films, beginning with The Commitments in 1991. Doyle's work is set primarily in Ireland, especially working-class Dublin, and is notable for its heavy use of dialogue written in slang and Irish English dialect. Doyle was awarded the Booker Prize in 1993 for his novel Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha.
What's Eating Gilbert Grape is a 1993 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by Lasse Hallström, and starring Johnny Depp, Juliette Lewis, Mary Steenburgen, Leonardo DiCaprio and John C. Reilly. The film follows the story of Gilbert, a 25-year-old grocery store clerk who is caring for his morbidly obese mother, as well as his mentally disabled younger brother, Arnie. The film takes place in the fictional rural town of Endora, Iowa.
When a Man Loves a Woman is a 1994 American romantic drama film directed by Luis Mandoki and written by Al Franken and Ronald Bass. The film stars Andy García, Meg Ryan, Tina Majorino, Mae Whitman, Ellen Burstyn, Lauren Tom, and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Intermission is a 2003 Irish black comedy crime film directed by John Crowley and written by Mark O'Rowe. The film, set in Dublin, Ireland, contains many interconnected storylines, and is shot in a documentary-like style, with some sections presented as excerpts from television programs that exist within the show.
Into the West is a 1992 Irish magical realist film about Irish Travellers written by Jim Sheridan and David Keating, directed by Mike Newell, and stars Gabriel Byrne and Ellen Barkin.
Brendan Gleeson is an Irish actor. He has received various accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, two British Independent Film Awards and three IFTA Awards, along with nominations for an Academy Award, three BAFTA Awards and five Golden Globe Awards. In 2020, he was listed at number 18 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors. He is the father of actors Domhnall Gleeson and Brian Gleeson.
Naked is a 1993 British black comedy drama film written and directed by Mike Leigh and starring David Thewlis as Johnny, a loquacious intellectual, philosopher and conspiracy theorist. The film won several awards, including best director and best actor at Cannes. Naked marked a new career high for Leigh as a director and made the then-unknown Thewlis an internationally recognised star.
Crooklyn is a 1994 American semi-autobiographical film produced and directed by Spike Lee, who wrote it with his siblings Joie and Cinqué. Taking place in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, during the summer of 1973, the film primarily centers on a young girl named Troy Carmichael, and her family. Troy learns life lessons through her rowdy brothers Clinton, Wendell, Nate, and Joseph; her loving but strict mother Carolyn, and her naive, struggling father Woody.
Barrytown is an Irish comedy-drama media franchise centred on the Rabbittes, a working-class family from the fictional suburb of Barrytown, in Dublin. It began in 1988 when Beacon Pictures and 20th Century Fox bought the rights to the 1987 novel The Commitments by Roddy Doyle shortly after it was published. The book was successful, as was Alan Parker's 1991 film adaptation. The film received cult status, and is regarded as one of the best Irish films ever made. In 1999, the British Film Institute ranked the film at number 38 on its list of the "100 best British films of the century", based on votes from 1,000 leading figures of the film industry.
The Snapper (1990) is a novel by Irish writer Roddy Doyle and the second novel in The Barrytown Trilogy.
Bairbre Dowling was an Irish actress. She appeared in films, frequently on the American stage and on US TV as well as in Irish productions.
The Commitments is a 1991 musical comedy-drama film based on the 1987 novel of the same name by Roddy Doyle. It was directed by Alan Parker from a screenplay written by Doyle, Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. Set in the Northside of Dublin, the film tells the story of Jimmy Rabbitte, a young music fanatic who assembles a group of working-class youths to form a soul band named "The Commitments". The film is the first in a series known as The Barrytown Trilogy, followed by The Snapper (1993) and The Van (1996).
Widows' Peak is a 1994 British-Irish mystery film directed by John Irvin and starring Mia Farrow, Joan Plowright, Natasha Richardson, Adrian Dunbar and Jim Broadbent. The film is based on an original screenplay by Hugh Leonard and Tim Hayes.
Mi Vida Loca is a 1993 American coming-of-age drama film directed and written by Allison Anders. It centers on the plight of cholas growing up in the Echo Park section of Los Angeles, who face the struggles of friendship, romantic entanglements, motherhood, and gang membership. The story follows interlocking stories of several female gang members while centering on the friendship between two friends who become involved with the same man.
The Van is a 1996 film, based on the novel The Van by Roddy Doyle. Like The Snapper (1993), it was directed by Stephen Frears. The first film of the trilogy, The Commitments (1991), was directed by Alan Parker. It was entered into the 1996 Cannes Film Festival. The film stars Colm Meaney and Donal O'Kelly.
The Road to Wellville is a 1994 American comedy-drama film written, produced and directed by Alan Parker, an adaptation of T. Coraghessan Boyle's novel of the same name, which tells the story of the doctor and clean-living advocate John Harvey Kellogg and his methods employed at the Battle Creek Sanitarium at the beginning of the 20th century.
This Is My Father is a 1998 film directed by Paul Quinn.
Tina Kellegher is an Irish actress, best known for her work in film and television in the 1990s. She currently plays Ger Lynch in the RTÉ soap opera Fair City.
The 17th Irish Film & Television Academy Awards took place in July 2021. The ceremony honoured Irish films and television drama released between 1 February 2020 and 31 May 2021.