Today, let's talk about the British movie "Belfast".
The film is an autobiographical film written and directed by Kenneth Branagh, based on the true story of his childhood in Belfast. It was his first time as a screenwriter after 15 years, and he wrote the script with the encouragement of his friend and actor John Sessions. The film is also the last work John Sessions will star in before his death in November 2020.
The American Film Institute Museum in Los Angeles opens in September 2021, and "Belfast" is one of the museum's premiere films.
Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, is located at the mouth of the Lagan River on the northeastern coast of the island of Ireland. It is the largest seaport in Northern Ireland, the political and cultural center and the largest industrial city in Northern Ireland. Contradictions and conflicts have always accompanied the city. Searching for "Belfast" plus "riot" or "riot" in the search engine will always find many entries. Various political, religious, ethnic and cultural conflicts are concentrated here, and some big news will break out from time to time.
The film is set in Kenneth Branagh's childhood, in 1969. The little boy Buddy lives in a Protestant neighborhood. One day, the Catholic residents here are attacked by Protestants, and everything becomes turbulent. The army soon came here to maintain order, and more Catholics began to prepare to leave here to find another way out. Buddy's father, a carpenter working in England, had to go through checkpoints to and from get off work, which made life a little more inconvenient. Still later, the radical gang members urged several of the Buddy children to join, or else they would be in trouble. In the end, Buddy's father decided to immigrate to Canada with his wife and children, leaving Buddy's grandparents and rushing to a new life.
The film is about some small things that Buddy vaguely remembers when he was a child. From the perspective of a child, it tells an intermittent story in a fragmented form, just like a vague childhood memory.
In order to show Belfast more authentically, many of the actors in this film were born in Belfast.
Ciarán Hinds and Kenneth Branagh live close together in Belfast, only a mile apart, but the two have never met. Both later left Belfast to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Ciarán Hinds also left Belfast for England in the mid-70s to escape "trouble".
British actress Judi Dench is of strong Irish ancestry. Her mother was born in Dublin, Judi Dench moved her family from the UK to Northern Ireland at the age of 10, and many of her in-laws still live in Dublin and western Ireland and have lived through the turbulent times depicted in the film.
We all know that small children are one of the three most difficult situations to photograph.
In order to capture the real performance of the young actors, Kenneth Branagh often secretly filmed scenes that Buddy Jr misted for "rehearsal".
When Buddy became suspicious of the camera, the crew covered the red light on the camera with tape. Many of the shots that viewers end up seeing are "dress rehearsals" shot this way.
Among the Christmas gifts Buddy received was Agatha Christie's "Hallowe'en Party." The protagonist of this detective story is the well-known great detective Poirot, and Kenneth Branagh has directed "Murder on the Orient Express" (2017) and "Death on the Nile" (Death on the Nile). the Nile, 2022), in which he plays Detective Poirot.
Unspeakable nostalgia, childhood that cannot be returned.