1999 series at Lincoln Center willshowcase breadth of Irish cinema

Cinematographers have long maintained that the air of Ireland possesses a quality not often found elsewhere. Academy Award-winner Walter Lassally said he feels the moisture in the air lends photography a particular clarity and brilliance.

The downside of the situation, if indeed there is one, is that movies made in Ireland too often end up being "too beautiful" in the style often associated with television’s Masterpiece Theater. In what was perhaps a reaction to excessive beauty, Paddy Breathnach’s "I Went Down" prompted praise from a number of critics for having been filmed in a part of the country that wasn’t green and beautiful, and was, in fact, drab and colorless.

"I Went Down" will get at least another showing or two in new York, as part of a 12-day series presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and tentatively titled "New Visions: Contemporary Irish Cinema." Scheduled to open at the Walter Reade Theater on May 28, 1999, and continuing through June 10, the program will probably include Thaddeus O’Sullivan’s "Nothing Personal," Cathal Black’s "Korea," Jimmy Smallhorne’s "2 X 4," plus Neil Jordan’s "The Butcher Boy," "Michael Collins," and the others.

In addition, the series’ curator, Kathleen Murphy, is hoping to show all four parts of novelist Roddy Doyle’s controversial television mini-series, "Family."

— Joseph Hurley