The Van | |
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Directed by | Stephen Frears |
Written by | Roddy Doyle |
Produced by | |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Oliver Stapleton |
Edited by | Mick Audsley |
Music by | |
Production companies |
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Distributed by | Fox Searchlight Pictures |
Release dates |
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Running time | 100 minutes |
Countries |
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Language | English |
Box office | $712,095 [1] |
The Van is a 1996 film, based on the novel The Van (the third in The Barrytown Trilogy ) 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. [2] The film stars Colm Meaney and Donal O'Kelly.
Brendan "Bimbo" Reeves gets laid off from his job as a baker in Barrytown, a working-class quarter of Dublin. With his redundancy cheque, he buys a van and sells fish and chips with his best mate, Larry. Due, in part, to Ireland's surprising success at the 1990 FIFA World Cup, their business starts off well. The relationship between the two friends soon becomes strained as Bimbo and his wife, Maggie, behave more and more like typical bosses. Larry believes that Maggie is the cause of the strained friendship, as he thinks she is pushing Bimbo away from him. The van is closed down because of poor hygiene by health inspector Des O'Callaghan. Bimbo thinks that Larry told the Health Board about the van, leading to a fight between the two. Larry quits the job, despite Bimbo's best efforts to get him back. Bimbo then drives the van into the sea, so as to regain his friendship with Larry.
Filming took place in the North Dublin suburb of Kilbarrack, and at Ardmore Studios, Bray, Co. Wicklow.
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote: "When I saw The Van for the first time at the Cannes Film Festival in 1996, I felt it was the least of the three films, and I still do, but it was trimmed of about five minutes of footage after Cannes and, seeing it again a year later, I found it quicker and more alive. It is also the most thoughtful, in a way, and the ending has a poignancy and an unresolved quality that is just right: These disorganised lives would not fit into a neat ending". [3]
Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a score of 38% based on reviews from 21 critics. [4]
It opened in the UK on 29 November 1996 on 94 screens and finished in sixth place for the weekend with a gross of £204,447. [5]
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).
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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.
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The Van is a 1991 novel by Roddy Doyle and the third novel in The Barrytown Trilogy. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize (1991).
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The Snapper is a 1993 Irish television film directed by Stephen Frears, and starring Tina Kellegher, Colm Meaney and Brendan Gleeson. The film is based on the novel 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.
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