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REVISED 02/25/07 2:10 PM EDT
A St. Patrick's Day Push for |
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The production, set against Ireland's War of Independence and Civil War, will open in Los Angeles and New York, and possibly other major markets, too late to be eligible for Oscar consideration in 2007.
"Barley," which won the Cannes Film Festival's Palme D'Or in May as the festival's best picture, was helmed by British director Ken Loach. The film begins in 1920, and stars Cillian Murphy as Damien, a medical student. After witnessing a murder by the British paramilitary "Black and Tans," Damien joins the local contingent of the IRA with his brother, Teddy (Padraic Delaney), setting the plot in motion.
U.S. distributor IFC Entertainment's decision to release the film in mid-March means "Barley" will bypass the hoopla, along with the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars, involved in pushing a film for the world's most prestigious film honor. Murphy will thus miss a chance for Oscar for another year, disappointing those who thought his work in Neil Jordan's 2005 film "Breakfast on Pluto" also was Oscar worthy.
| 'We've already won the only prize that European and world filmmakers truly covet (the Palme d'Or).' – 'BARLEY' PRODUCER REBECCA O'BRIEN |
"We love this movie," said IFC Films VP Publicity Michelle Panzer, explaining the decision to forego even a limited release in Los Angeles this year to make "Barley" eligible for next year's Oscars. "The right thing for the film is opening at a time when the talent is available (to promote it) ... when we can promote the film in a strong and responsible manner. It would be lost in the marketplace. Winter is the most competitive time for opening a film. "
Among its criteria for eligibility for an Oscar, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences requires that a movie must open in a commercial theater, for paid admission, in Los Angeles County in the year before the award ceremony, and run for seven days. Under current release plans then, "Barley" will be eligible for the Academy Awards in 2008, Panzer said. The 2007 Oscar telecast occurs on Sunday, Feb. 25.
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"I'm satisfied that (IFC) will give our film the best release possible. We decided to go with IFC as we wanted people who were real fans of our work and would give the film the strategic specialized handling it requires."
Still, two films that "Barley" bested for the Palme - "Babel," starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, and "Volver," helmed by Spaniard Pedro Almodóvar - are serious contenders for Oscar this year, by virtue of heavy promotion, the requisite U.S. screenings in '06, and nine Golden Globe nominations between them.
O'Brien gave March 14 as the launch date - "in time for St. Patrick's Day," but IFC executives were less certain. Either March 14 or March 16 is "99.9%" likely for the U.S. release, in theaters in New York and Los Angeles, and perhaps other top metro markets, IFC's Panzer said. IFC plans a "traditional platform release across the country, " she added. This could ultimately entail release in 20 or more markets, but, depending on the film's drawing power, these plans could change, Panzer said.
The film's delay in reaching the United States, O'Brien said, is typical of "films made without U.S. financing, as the legal side of delivery is far more complex than in other territories." Distributors in other countries had pre-bought the film or are regular customers, she said, making negotiations "quicker and simpler."
IFC Entertainment is distributing the film via its IFC First Take scheme, in which the film is released simultaneously in theaters and via cable operators Comcast and Cablevision "on demand." With this, IFC's Panzer said, "14 million people get to see these foreign language or small independent films across America." Those numbers could double by the time "Barley" is released, she said, with the addition of new cable operators. A film viewer's cost for on-demand is in the $6 range, she said.
A call to fellow Britishers to 'confront their imperial history'
"Barley" is the newest film by Loach, who earlier portrayed cover-ups by British authorities in 1980s Northern Ireland in "Hidden Agenda" (1990). "Hidden Agenda" earned $1.03 million in U.S. box office, according to IMDB.com, the highest in the U.S. of any of his films. Loach's films have never received an Oscar nomination, though they've gained 60 other awards and 38 nominations during his 45-year-long filmmaking career.
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Courtesy of Sixteen Films Ken Loach on location in Cork |
There have been rumors that Loach's film was edited for release in the United Kingdom to soften its portrayal of British brutality, but this O'Brien emphatically denied. "There are NO alternative versions of the film - absolutely not," she said.
Some commentators, Irish as well as British, responded to "Barley" with vitriol aimed at Loach. In a May 30 article in The Daily Mail, Dublin-born writer Ruth Dudley Edward described "Barley" as "a travesty of history" and wrote of Loach "… what is truth in the hands of this Marxist propagandist?"
While lambasting Loach's film, Michael Grove referred also to Michael Moore's film anti-war film "Fahrenheit 911," when he wrote in The Times of London on May 31, "The judges in Cannes have shown that they enjoy rewarding directors who rubbish their own countries, and that enjoyment is all the greater when the countries being rubbished are America or Britain."
| LOACH: 'AND MAYBE, IF WE TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT THE PAST, MAYBE WE TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT THE PRESENT.' |
"Barley" opened on 105 of the UK's 3,486 screens on June 23, more than any other Loach film, according to IMDB.com. There are 328 screens in 64 cinema sites in the Republic of Ireland, according to a 2004 report commissioned by the Arts Council of Ireland.
The film's budget was reportedly about $8 million, and DVD sales are underway in the UK and Irish markets, with sales ranked No. 55 on Amazon's UK site Nov. 21. (Neil Jordan's film "Michael Collins" (1996) ranked No. 1,075 in sales on the site, and "Breakfast on Pluto" No. 1,875.) "Barley" thus seems already assured of turning a profit.
In addition to the Palme D'Or, "Barley" has garnered the Irish Film and Television Awards' Best Film honor. Loach also received the British Independent Film Awards' Special Jury Prize for his direction of the film, and cinematographer Barry Ackroyd the European Film Awards' best cinematography prize (shared with José Luis Alcaine for "Volver"). "Barley" screenwriter Paul Laverty, a longtime collaborator with Loach, also received a nod for a Satellite Award for Best Screenplay. In late December, the film was voted the second best film of the year by viewers of BBC One's "Film 2006 with Jonathan Ross," trailing only the latest James Bond film, "Casino Royale." WGT
With additional reporting by Patricia Jameson-Sammartano in New York and Kieron C. Punch in Coventry, United Kingdom.
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This feature was edited by Patricia Jameson-Sammartano and produced by Joe Gannon.
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