Present at the British Independent Film Awards' red carpet were Ralph Fiennes and Brendan Gleeson, seperately.
Out of the seven nominations, In Bruges brought home one award for "Best Screenplay" for Martin McDonagh. Martin was not present to accept the award from what we hear.
Best Film is lost to Slumdog Millionaire, Best Directing Debut goes to "Hunger", Best Actor (for both Colin and Brendan) is lost to Hunger as well, and best Supporting Actor (for which Ralph had a double nomination) went to Happy-Go-Lucky.
Congratulations to the winners! I haven't seen any of those films, but Colin Farrell recently wrote a praising short review of Happy-Go-Lucky so I might just go for it.
1/7 isn't exactly 10/10, but that 1 is damn well deserved and those 7 nominations were, too. Congratulations Martin on Best Screenplay!
Congratulations to Martin McDonagh for winning the Writers Guild Award for In Bruges! Now I don't know shit about writers' guilds and how many and which and where and how, but it looks like this is the Irish Writers Guild? No? I don't know. I do know he was up against other contestants who were predominantly Irish and that it's mentioned on an Irish site and of course a Belgian site. Here are the links:
CONGRATULATIONS MARTIN!
After a decent storm of positive reviews for In Bruges, one would almost forget that DVD releases get reviews, too. This includes consideration of the film itself, sound quality and a quick walk through the bonus material. Here's the DVD reviews for both English and Dutch or Flemish (we understand eachother, right?).
- English (written for the USA)
CinemaBlend DVD review
The overall conclusion comes down to four out of five stars. Quotes:
"... a movie with some top-notch talent [...] giving superb, profanity-laced performances."
"Farrell shows great range [...] [and] gives his character a lot of heart."
"Writer/director Martin McDonagh does an excellent job of weaving these characters together."
"This gag reel is not only funny because it is nearly six minutes of footage laced with profanity, stereotypes and miscues, but its funny because the mistakes are honest, and the actors are having fun."
"The final feature is "F**king Bruges," which is actually quite pointless yet really funny. [...] It's f**king crazy."
- Flemish and Dutch (written for NL)
DVD.nl
Positive review, elaborates on all qualities of the dvd. Quotes [translation below]:
"De dialogen, vooral tussen de drie belangrijkste karakters in de film, zijn scherp en met ingetogen humor. Colin Farrell was voor mij echt een openbaring in deze rol als ‘beschadigd’ huurmoordenaar Ray."
"Ondanks dat Ray de stad bij voortduring een “shithole” noemt, straalt de film in positieve zin af op Brugge."
"Zijn zes minuten aan bloopers passeert de revue in deze feature. Het plezier ten aanzien van het maken van deze film valt van het gezicht van Farrell en Gleeson af te lezen."
"In anderhalve minuut krijgen we een stevig salvo van scheldwoorden op ons afgevuurd die tijdens de 100 minuten In Bruges gebezigd worden. Persoonlijk krijg ik altijd de slappe lach van zo’n vloek-compilatie. Dat was in dit geval niet anders. Sorry."
English translation:
"The dialogues, mainly between the three main characters, are sharp with restrained comedy. Colin Farrell was a revelation to me in his role as 'damaged' hitman Ray."
"Dispite the fact that Ray constantly states Bruges is a "shithole", this film shows a positive image of Bruges."
"The gagreel consists of six minutes of bloopers. You can tell from Farrell's and Gleeson's faces how much fun they had while making this film."
"In a minute and a half we get a serious dose of cusswords fired at us, cut from the 100 minutes of In Bruges. I personally think compilations of cusswords are always hilarious. This one was no different. Sorry."
On 30 November it's time for the British Independent Film Awards! Unfortunately with my "limited resources" (read: I'm an amateur) I haven't been able to figure out if anyone from In Bruges will be there. Either way Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes and Martin McDonagh are all nominated.
Colin is currently taking four months off from shooting films, Brendan is filming "Perrier's Bounty" with Cillian Murphy in Ireland, Ralph is still performing Oedipus in the London National Theatre until beginning 2009 on a nearly daily basis, and Martin was last reported involved in a production of The Cripple of Inishmaan which will tour Ireland and visit New York (how long he is involved and present at the tour is unknown).
My guess is, if any of them will be there (oh, come on, 7 nominations, someone's gonna show up) it will be either Martin or Ralph, maybe Colin. But that's just educated guesswork. If you are located in London, you could try and stand near the red carpet, but then again I realize you all aren't necessarily as fanatic as I am - and I am nowhere near London right now.
And so the countdown starts! I'm sure In Bruges will be cashing in some awards. At the very least Ralph Fiennes will win something (double supporting actor nomination) and I'm sure they can't deny Martin "best directing debut". Good luck boys!
I just wanted to share with you all that I got the wonderful opportunity to briefly meet Mr. Ralph Fiennes last night, after seing him in Oedipus (National Theatre, London) which was absolutely amazing. If you have access to do this also, I highly recommend it - it's an amazing play.
After the incredibly inspiring, admirable performance, I got an autograph and to have my say quickly. It seemed a little manic to name all the films I loved him in (because there's a lot) so I just stuck to "Amazing performance, thank you so much. I love you work. I loved In Bruges" and I think he said "Thank you", I'm quite sure he did because he was an absolute gentleman, but I don't recall because I was obviously very nervous.
So now I've met Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson and Ralph Fiennes - three 'down', one to go, right? I don't think Martin McDonagh will happen, though.
Many thanks to Minorityy from Colin Farrell Fansite for finding these, and many thanks to Cav from CFF for coming up with the title "Irish Manwich" - yes please!
Here's a photoshoot from February 2008 with Colin Farrell and Martin McDonagh that was done at the Soho Hotel in London. Nobody really knows where this came from, and why it's only on a Slovakian website, and why they didn't acquire the images until this month, and what the exact purpose of the shoot was, but I don't think anyone's complaining.
Here's a taste of it:
Find the images at ProfiMedia. Unfortunately they're all watermarked, but that's the only unfortunate thing about it.
I can't really say I'm a poor student anymore, can I? Because I've updated this site from Arizona, Bruges itself and now London. It's not as jetsetter-ish as it seems!
Either way, the friend I am staying with in London right now is going to look and see about the British Independent Film Awards' red carpet, and she'll try and take pictures (and get my Beauty Queen of Leenane book signed, dammit) if anyone from In Bruges shows up. So we might be able to cover the event somewhat after all!
