A scene from "Sing Street."
By Karen Butler
Filmmaker John Carney says shooting his 1980s-set movie “Sing Street” in modern-day Dublin made him realize how much the Irish capital has transformed in the last few decades.
“The more I made the movie, the more I realized just how long ago it was and how little of that Dublin is kind of left,” Carney told the Irish Echo in a recent phone interview. “We really did embrace money and the Celtic Tiger and the property boom. There were times when I found it hard to shoot in Dublin because of how much it had changed. I had to keep certain lenses on and keep away from certain areas of Dublin that had just changed so much. I sort of almost didn’t realize it until I put a camera on it, the degree to which Dublin has become a funky European sort of capital. Because back in the ‘80s, it was quite depressed and there was a big recession and there were lots of problems in Dublin architecturally, with huge sort of gaps where buildings had fallen down and were sort of wastelands and car parks and stuff. It was very atmospheric and very photogenic, but I couldn’t quite replicate that, so I had to sort of leave that out of the story.”
The critically acclaimed, music-themed comedy follows teen Conor as he assembles a band at his new school to impress a beautiful girl, while his home life falls apart. It stars newcomers Ferdia Walsh-Peelo and Lucy Boynton, with veteran Irish actors Aidan Gillen and Maria Doyle Kennedy in supporting roles.
So, how much of the story is inspired by Carney’s own life?
“A little bit of it, but it sort of departs,” Carney revealed. “The original idea was drawn from my life – the idea of the school kid, a fish out of water in a rougher school, starting a school band, but then, really, once I cast Ferdia as Conor, I think that was sort of the area that I departed. That was the time I sort of departed from my own version of the story; just because he is such a confident kid. I didn’t have any of that confidence when I was young; nor did anyone, really, in the ‘80s. People were, I think, a little bit more doubtful. Ferdia is a real kid of the noughties. He is very, very confident and good-looking and full of swagger, as he should be. But, I suppose, once I cast him, I sort of let the film take a more optimistic journey.”
Gillen, who is perhaps best known for playing master manipulator Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish on the medieval fantasy series “Game of Thrones,” spent a recent break from the show playing Robert, the distracted, soon-to-be-divorced father of Conor and his two siblings in “Sing Street.”
“‘Sing Street’ is a very good film,” Gillen told the Echo in a separate phone interview. “I'm happy it's gone down so well. I think it deserves it. I think it’s John Carney's best film. I think it's got brilliant performances from those kids and great music.”
“Sing Street” arrives after Carney’s 2013 indie gem “Begin Again,” which was set in New York and starred famous artists such as Keira Knightley, Mark Ruffalo, James Corden, Hailee Steinfeld, Catherine Keener and Adam Levine. Although the movie was successful and Carney remains great friends with Ruffalo, Corden and Levine to this day, the writer-director said he was eager to return to Ireland and make another film with talented people who were less well-known.
“The movie-star thing threw me a little bit with Keira and I wanted to sort of get back to what I knew best and I also kind of wanted to work in a different way,” Carney explained. “I wanted to work with actors that were enjoying their job and were sort of committed to it and didn’t look at it as a living. Obviously, many of the actors are professional actors in the film, but, they are all my colleagues and my friends; there was no sort of ceremony with it, you know what I mean? We just sort of did the work and enjoyed it and it was nice to return to Dublin to make a film after that experience.”
Thanks to his time as bassist for the Frames in the early 1990s, Carney witnessed a lot in the music industry and on the road and, no doubt, has loads of tales he could tell. Pressed to reflect on why “Begin Again,” “Sing Street” and his beloved “Once” all focus on the positive aspects of music, such as the passion and joy that come with creating and collaborating with others, Carney admitted: “I don’t know if it’s a choice. It sort of just ends up that way.
“At the moment, they are the kind of stories that I want to tell. Optimistic memories of music in my life and how I use music and how music affected me as younger person and guided me through things and helped me make decisions,” he noted. “I think, in a sense, it’s harder to make a heavy film than it is to make a light one. You kind of have to be Ingmar Bergman, I think, to make a really, truly, heavy, dark, visceral film. So, I do what I can, really, and it ends up, I suppose, feeling a little bit optimistic.”
“Sing Street” is in theaters now.
