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Fans of the movie Once may want to check out Glen Hansard’s band, The Frames. Hansard is also in The Commitments, directed by Alan Parker, about an Irish band performing soul/R&B classics. Their rationale: The Irish are the blacks of Europe. Does anyone know what happened to the actor who played Jimmy Rabbitt their manager? That movie and its soundtrack album is the reason every band I heard in Manila in the 90s seemed to cover “Mustang Sally”. Andrew Strong, who played the vocalist, went on to a solo singing career. You may also want to look up The Commitments, the novel by Roddy Doyle, which zips along very fast once you realize it must be read with an Irish accent—in your head, spare the neighbors. Or you could hire Colin Farrell to read it to you. Another Roddy Doyle novel, The Van, features characters who had appeared in The Commitments (Jimmy Rabbitt’s family). It was adapted for the movies by Stephen Frears, who also directed The Queen. As far as I know The Queen, starring Helen Mirren, never officially screened in Manila. Do the distributors have any intention of showing No Country For Old Men? No Country is said to be a very faithful adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel. I haven’t ready any Cormac McCarthy (Does the book-on-tape of All The Pretty Horses count? It was read by Brad Pitt). His recent novel The Road is being filmed, starring Viggo Mortensen. Now that Ian McEwan’s Atonement has been filmed (and is now suffering a backlash, which is unfortunate as it’s a fine adaptation), the book I want to see on the screen is The People’s Act of Love by James Meek. In Meek’s acknowledgements he thanks Tilda Swinton for giving him a place to write. No, she does not look like Conan O’Brien who is Irish-American. I hear the movie rights to the Meek were optioned by Johnny Depp. Ah, Johnny. Did any of us watching 21 Jump Street anticipate this?
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
February 27th, 2008 at 13:57
Robert Arkins played the Jimmy Rabbitte character in The Commitments. According to the filmbase.ie site, “Robert is an accomplished musician and composer with over 20 years professional experience. Writing for performers and filmmakers as well as contributing parts and production on a number of releases his repertoire ranges from Hip Hop to Rock to Soul to Classical. Recent projects have included the short “Right Now Ladies and Gentsâ€, an album with DJ Wool (a hiphop scratch DJ) working with clients such as McCann Erickson and Amnesty International as well as participating in Moonstone.” The IMDb site lists the 2006 short “The Silent City” one of Arkins’s projects. IMDb also claims that the film adaptation of “The People’s Act of Love” is now in production.
February 27th, 2008 at 14:38
SOMEBODY TELL ME WHERE I CAN FIND A COPY OF THE COMMITMENTS?! I’ve been on the prowl for years and combed thru every store (legitimate and otherwise), no luck. I feel deprived. Please, anybody!
February 27th, 2008 at 15:16
that “once” song-Zzzzzzzz with a capital “zzzzzz” although all the nominees were weak.
jimmy rabbitte–the actor/musician anyway– is still in ireland, still writing, performing music. i think he does commercials, advertisements. showed up at an alan parker booksigning last year.
tilda swinton looks like david bowie in his thin white duke phase. if cate blanchett can do dylan, she can do bowie. have you heard about her romantic life? she’s 47, she’s got a 67-year old lover and father of their twins in a “spectacular pile” of a home on the banks of nowherenearanything scotland, and a 27-year old lover who travels the world with her when she’s filming or going to the oscars. apparently. LOVE her. jealous.
February 28th, 2008 at 07:04
The Road is like the best novel there is. You really have to read it.
March 1st, 2008 at 01:16
Like the previous posters said, Robert Arkins is still a working musician. In the extras of The Commitments DVD, they played a selection of his music (bouncy, guitar-based stuff that’s really appealing). He wasn’t an actor, and auditioned to be one of the band members… Alan Parker said it was a shame, because Robert was one of the real musicians that could be plugged in with the band—he could sing and play various instruments… and director Parker couldn’t resist not using him and made him the manager character. Robert did sing the opening song of the film (“Treat Her Right”), which is also in the soundtrack.
There are updates on Andrew Strong and the mulleted-kid who played the saxophone… (and the DVD is easily available on Amazon online, or a Virgin Megastore. Mag pabili ka na lang?)
I gave up reading All The Pretty Horses back then… just couldn’t fold myself into McCarthy’s work. But I decided to give The Road a try, and I loved it. I bawled so much! It’s his most straightforward (in a way) yet. I’m not that keen on Viggo playing the dad though…
March 1st, 2008 at 12:19
I miss the days of wowow, that Japanese cable channel. It used to show movies like The Commitments, Brassed Off, Velvet Goldmine, Shallow Grave, American Psycho, Trainspotting, Tokyo Eyes. Some really, really good stuff. Bring back wowow. Stat.