Dublin 1979. The Northside. Maeve Brennan gets up and puts on her first bra. The summer holidays beckon for Maeve and her trio of friends, Ruth, Orla and Claire. But they still have to suffer the indignities of the vigilant Sister Una as she patrols the school for latecomers. At home, the put-upon Maeve washes her bra and fears it’s already lost ist luster…
Until an encounter with Brian Power, the local heart-throb, sets her on a collision course with her friends. Ruth needs her support when her estranged father wants to meet her, but Maeve is torn when Brian asks her to the Grove, the local club. It’s Cleary’s clock vs. the Grove… Is Maeve woman enough to make the right choice?
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When I was a teenager, I read Edna O’Brien’s trilogy, The Country Girls, The Girl with Green Eyes, and Girls in their Married Bliss. I remember thinking that it would be interesting to follow women of my generation as they go through the changes that women go through over the years. Where to start? I decided it would be more interesting to start before they become worldly teens but while they’re still children on the cusp of womanhood. When it’s all still new. You know there’s been plenty of films with girls losing their virginity but I wanted to set it at a point before all that.
First I wrote a short story but that was just a starting point. I developed the characters and story from there. But I never wanted to put a big plot on it because it didn’t seem to suit it. The piece is a mood really, it’s about feelings rather than events and maybe needed a more delicate treatment. I wanted to tell stories. It can be frustrating sometimes as an actor waiting for a part to come. I just wanted to do something. From the first time I was on a film set in the first role I had, I was intrigued by the process of filmmaking. It’s really a director’s medium as opposed to theatre which is more the actor’s medium.
Coming of age is a bit of a tired label put on films, I’ve enjoyed many directors first films, often they’re coming-of- age, from Truffaut to Barry Levinson, I also loved Fellini’s Amarcord. But I hadn’t seen that many stories told from a girl’s point of view.
Back then my friends were really important to me, I think that girls stick together and then they tend to go apart with their respective boyfriends and then they come back together again. It’s a strong bond.
Orla Brady (actress, character: Jean Brennan)
When I did Proof 1, about three years ago, I got sent the script. I pretty much loved it. It's a gorgeous script. I met Marian for a cup of coffee one day, and she's just utterly wonderful; clearly a very good director and a very good person. You always respond to writing or you don't. If you think the writing is not up to it, you're not interested from the out, and if you think it's good, you really want to be involved.
I think what is lovely about this is it's seen through the eyes of Maeve. It's very much her world seen from her perspective. She is at the stage in life - she's a nice child and they're a close family - but she's at the eye-rolling stage, the kind of "My parents: they haven't got a clue!" But ultimately they're the kind of parents that you understand a few years later. It's those childhood years; they're just tired all the time. I saw absolute resonances with my own family, and I think that's what Marian's captured in the script: a very typical, hardworking, Dublin family.
Working with the four girls was a huge treat for us, actually. It's one of the things that both myself and Aidan were saying after a few days on the shoot: it's really refreshing. You arrive on set, and there are these four girls, and it's the most exciting thing in their lives. It made you smile all the time; it was like they were at their birthday party every day. It was just the best thing that had ever happened to them. And you just thought, 'This is an adventure. It's a bloody great job.'
PJ Dillon (Director of Photography)
I used to live in New York at around the same time that Marian and Tommy were living there, and I would've met Marian when she was an actress in Ireland. I became reacquainted with her when I met her while working on a film in New York that she had a part in. The shoot was very difficult, because we were trying to shoot a period movie on a very, very low budget and that was the most difficult thing. But in fairness to Tommy and Marian, they were pretty insistent that the film should be shot on 35mm rather than on super 16 or on video. That was great for me as a cameraman, because obviously 35mm is still the best format to shoot on in terms of quality, resolution and everything. So I was very pleased about that.
Because Dublin has changed so much it was very difficult to find locations. The amazing thing is the amount of colour that's around now that wasn't there in 1979. We took a very conscious decision that we would try and do things photographically to hide that fact. We shot with a very shallow focus, so we could keep stuff out of focus, if there was modern stuff in the background. It made it kind-of more timeless.
Roshanak Behesht Nedjad (coproducer)
Women of a certain age tend to remember how it was when they were young. Every woman I know who read the script really fell in love with it, and the character, because basically it is a reminder of your own youth, and how you faced the awkwardness of being young. Becoming a woman, and not understanding - really - what is happening to you and your body. You're developing, but your soul has to travel with you, which is not easy for a 13 or 14-year-old girl. And that's all set in Dublin, and it is a very nice script and I liked it immensely, so that's the reason I was hooked.
"The story’s beauty lies in its simplicity. Quinn is an unpretentious as she is professional, portraying a series of recognizable situations that are bound to make viewers smile and sigh at the resurrection of childhood memories." Exberliner
National Premiere: Galway Film Fleadh, 2007, Ireland
International Premiere: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin, Generation 14plus, 2008, Germany
Jamson Dublin International Film Festival, 2008, Ireland
New York Children’s International Film Festival,2008 USA
Kristiansand, 2008, Norway
Newport Beach Film Festival, 2008, California
Britspotting, 2008(Berlin, Potsdam, Cologne, Stuttgart), Germany
Eurocine 27 (representing Ireland) Brussels, 2008, Belgium
Seattle International Film Festival,2008, Washington
Tremblant International Film Festival,2008, Canada
Emden Filmfest, 2008, Germany
Newport International Film Festival,2008, Newport, Rhode Island
Lights Out Film Festival, 2008, Dublin
Melbourne International Film Festival, 2008, Australia
Woodstock Film Festival,2008, New York
Cinemateca di Bologna,2008, Italy
Mill Valley Film Festival,2008, California
Fort Lauderale International Film Festival,2008, Florida
Sao Paolo International Film Festival,2008, Brazil
FICI (Film Festival of Madrid), 2008, Spain
Irish Cultural Centre Paris, 2008, France
Awards
Tiernan McBride Drehbuchpreis für das beste Drehbuch
Best First Feature, Galway Film Fleadh, 2007, Irland
Maeve Brennan: Ailish McCarthy
Ruth Murray: Sophie Jo Wasson
Orla Kennedy: Orla Long
Claire Fox: Riona Smith
Brian Power: Shane McDaid
Frank Brennan: Aidan Quinn
Jean Brennan: Orla Brady
Dessie Brennan: Jack Kavanagh
Donal Brennan: Liam Weir
Sinead Brennan: Meadhbh Ní Dhálaigh
Ruth’s Father: Jared Harris
Alice Murray: Marian Quinn
Joe Fox: Patrick Fitzgerald
Vera Kennedy: Anne O’Neill
Crew
Writer, Director
Marian Quinn
Producer
Tommy Weir
Co-Producer
Roshanak Behesht Nedjad
Line Producer
James Flynn
Director of Photography
PJ Dillon
Art Direction
Paki Smith
Composer
Gerry Leonard
Costume Design
Driscoll Calder
Sound Design
Lars Ginzel
A Production of Janey Pictures / Flying Moon Filmproduktion
Funded by
Broadcasting Commission of Ireland
Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg
Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung
MEDIA Programm of the European Union
Irish Film Board
RTÉ
World Sales
BETA Cinema
http://www.janeypictures.com
http://www.fugu-films.de