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Irish Examiner
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Neil Jordan on Kubrick, Brando, and the brilliance of Tom Cruise
Neil Jordan's father worked as a cigire. One of the teachers under his charge as a school inspector was the novelist John McGahern, who, as it happened, also briefly taught Jordan in school in Clontarf. Jordan's only memory of him from those days was of McGahern, who used to wear a brown tweed suit, leaning out the window of the classroom picking his nose. McGahern's teaching career came to a shuddering halt at that school. One day he disappeared. He was removed from his post, without a goodbye or an explanation. McGahern had already published a novel, The Dark, by the time he was teaching at Jordan's school. It had been banned, but it wasn't the book that led to his downfall. It was his falling in love with a Swedish divorcee. Years later, Jordan's father told his son what transpired. At the time, in the 1960s, it would have taken practically an act of parliament to get a teacher removed from his post. The principal – who kept a cane hidden in his sleeve – didn't want any hassle, neither did the teachers' union, but the middle class, god-fearing parents of the children at Jordan's school were so enraged by McGahern's domestic situation that they marched on their parish priest's house in Clontarf, demanding McGahern's removal. 'That's the kind of country it was,' says Jordan, 75. 'It was very conformist. It was strange. The principal said to him, 'John, why did you have to marry a divorced Swedish woman when there's women all over Ireland with their tongues hanging out looking for men?' John said, 'Well, they weren't hanging out for me.'' Neil Jordan on set. Jordan followed McGahern's path and became a novelist. McGahern sardonically told Jordan's father that his son was the living contradiction of his educational theories. Jordan's first novel, Night in Tunisia, won him literary prizes, but it's as a filmmaker, including The Crying Game, which earned Jordan a screen-writing Oscar, and Michael Collins, that has made his reputation. In the mid-1980s, Jordan was living in Bray, Co Wicklow. His eldest daughter told him someone called 'Stanley Cooper' had phoned. He left a number, but Jordan forgot to call him back. The next night, Jordan's daughter told him 'Stanley Cooper' had phoned again. Jordan phoned the number and found himself talking, not to a publicist or a journalist, but to Stanley Kubrick. The next time he was in London, Jordan arranged to meet Kubrick for dinner. Kubrick gave him precious directions for the restaurant's location in Chelsea, and where they would sit in the restaurant. When Kubrick arrived, he wore a green combat jacket stuffed with notepads, and he seemed to remember everything they had said over several phone conversations. It struck Jordan that Kubrick had a singular intelligence and that he probably recorded his telephone conversations. 'After we had that dinner, we began a series of conversations,' says Jordan. 'Stanley was like that with a lot of directors like Brian De Palma, David Mamet, John Boorman, Steven Spielberg. When I met Steven, he told me he phoned him too. He was interested in everything. He would call you up and discuss things. He lived in St Albans [England], in this lovely country pile with his wife, Christiane, and his kids. Somebody who didn't leave the house, would live on the phone.' Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in Interview With The Vampire, directed by Neil Jordan. Kubrick told Jordan the only reason for living in Los Angeles was the money and the pretty girls, and he had no need for either. As Jordan's star began to rise, he spent more time in Hollywood, shooting, for example, Interview with the Vampire, which came out in 1994, starring Tom Cruise. Kubrick asked Jordan about his opinion of Cruise, who he was thinking of casting in Eyes Wide Shut. Jordan said he was a very good actor. 'He had better be,' said Kubrick, 'because he's not a star for his personality.' When it came to casting the lead role in Interview with the Vampire, the part was offered to Daniel Day-Lewis, but he declined, which didn't greatly surprise Jordan – given his method style of acting, Day-Lewis would have had to sleep in a coffin for the production's duration, suggests Jordan. Instead, Jordan turned to Cruise. Sean Penn told Jordan that from his generation, Cruise was the toughest, he'd never back down. 'If you give Tom Cruise a challenge, he will rise to it,' says Jordan. 'Now he's the biggest star in the world, the only star in the world, perhaps, but he's a very good actor. That's why I cast him in Interview with the Vampire, why I thought he could make that Lestat role work. A lot of people said he couldn't, but he did. He's doing this Mission Impossible series because it's a challenge and it reveals his skills as just a plain and simple actor, but he's a great one.' Neil Jordan will discuss his memoir, Amnesiac, with Cristín Leech at Bantry's West Cork Literary Festival, 8.30pm, Monday, July 14. See: Marlon Brando and his Irish roots Marlon Brando. (AP Photo/Beth A. Keiser ) Neil Jordan got back to his hotel in Los Angeles one day in the early 1990s and noticed somebody had left a message on the phone beside his bed. He lifted the phone, but couldn't make any sense of the message. The next morning there was another message from the same mumbling voice. This time the caller left a number he could decipher and a name, Marlon. Jordan's interest was piqued. Might it be Marlon Brando? He remembered his agent asked if he had any film ideas and Jordan suggested Brando seemed Lear-like lately, like a king who'd lost his kingdom; his children were at war – his son had recently been charged with murdering his half-sister. Jordan phoned the number and found Brando on the other line. Brando wanted to meet. He was free anytime, even that morning. Jordan thought this extraordinary. He must be lonely, he concluded. So Jordan pointed his car towards Mulholland Drive, taking the turn Brando mentioned and entered a set of gates. He had hardly pressed the doorbell when the door was opened by Brando, dressed in a gigantic kaftan. He followed Brando through the house, where Brando got them some drinks. They repaired to a patio outside, which had some orange trees. Brando began peeling an orange and sucking on its juice. 'You're Irish,' Brando said, adding he had been in Ireland a few years earlier. He said he came off the plane in Dublin and while driving into the city he passed under a bridge – the trainline bridge on the Drumcondra Road – and it was the first time he ever felt at home. 'Brando described the bridge so emotionally and accurately,' says Jordan. 'I said, 'Of course, I know that bridge. If you come in from the airport, that's when you feel you're entering Dublin – when you go under that bridge.' "But when Marlon Brando says, 'I felt at home,' it threw me. I thought he was Italian with some Native American. There was something sad about the way he said it. Something sad all around. 'So, you're Irish?' I said.' 'Must be,' he mumbled.
Irish Independent
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
‘Fergus realises he still loves her; he loves the person, not the sex or the gender' – Neil Jordan on The Crying Game
Some people have described Neil Jordan's The Crying Game as a parable about human desire. Others (Jim Sheridan, Bob Geldof, Micheál Martin) have said it is the greatest Irish film ever made.
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Yahoo
Harvey Weinstein begs judge for earlier retrial: 'I want this to be over with'
Harvey Weinstein has begged a New York judge to hear the retrial in his landmark #MeToo case as soon as possible due to his deteriorating health, telling him: "I don't know how much longer I can hold on." has chronic myeloid leukaemia, diabetes and heart problems, and told the judge he was struggling amid harsh conditions at New York City's Rikers Island jail complex. "Every day I'm at Rikers Island, it's a mystery to me how I'm still walking," he told the court in Manhattan. "I'm holding on because I want justice for myself and I want this to be over with." The 72-year-old is facing a retrial after his 2020 rape and sexual assault conviction involving two women was overturned by New York's highest court in April last year. He has always maintained any sexual activity he was involved in was consensual. At the hearing on Wednesday, Judge Curtis Farber said the retrial would start on 15 April. However, Weinstein asked him to swap with another, unrelated case the judge has scheduled in March. The disgraced movie mogul had arrived at the court in a wheelchair more than half an hour after the hearing's scheduled start time. In court, he complained that jail officers had given him the wrong medication and failed to pick him up on time. "I'm asking and begging you, your honour," Weinstein said. He told the judge he was facing a "serious emergency situation" and wanted to "get out of this hellhole as quickly as possible". He told the court that at times he finds himself gasping for air and predicted he would soon need to be treated in hospital again. In December, he was rushed to hospital following an "alarming blood test result". In court last week, Weinstein's lawyer Arthur Aidala also appealed for the retrial to happen earlier in "the interest of humanity", saying his client was "dying of cancer and is an innocent man right now in the state of New York". Judge Farber said he would look into starting the trial a few days earlier than planned if time allows, but the decision had been made following consultation with Weinstein's lawyers as well as prosecutors. The judge also issued a key ruling on the retrial - upholding a separate charge based on an allegation from a woman who was not part of the original case. Weinstein's lawyers had tried to get the charge thrown out, arguing that prosecutors only brought it to bolster their case with a third accuser, but were unsuccessful. Despite the New York conviction being overturned, he remains in custody due to another conviction in 2022, for the rape of an actress in Los Angeles in 2013. His lawyers have appealed that case. Weinstein was one of the most powerful people in Hollywood - the co-founder of film and television production companies Miramax and The Weinstein Company, he produced films such as the Oscar-winning Shakespeare In Love, Pulp Fiction, and The Crying Game. However, charges were brought after several women went public with allegations about him in 2017, fuelling the rise of the #MeToo movement. In September last year, prosecutors in the UK dropped two charges of indecent assault brought against Weinstein in 2022, saying there was "no longer a realistic prospect of conviction".
Sky News
29-01-2025
- Sky News
Harvey Weinstein begs judge for earlier retrial: 'I want this to be over with'
Harvey Weinstein has begged a New York judge to hear the retrial in his landmark #MeToo case as soon as possible due to his deteriorating health, telling him: "I don't know how much longer I can hold on." Weinstein has chronic myeloid leukaemia, diabetes and heart problems, and told the judge he was struggling amid harsh conditions at New York City's Rikers Island jail complex. "Every day I'm at Rikers Island, it's a mystery to me how I'm still walking," he told the court in Manhattan. "I'm holding on because I want justice for myself and I want this to be over with." The 72-year-old is facing a retrial after his 2020 rape and sexual assault conviction involving two women was overturned by New York's highest court in April last year. He has always maintained any sexual activity he was involved in was consensual. At the hearing on Wednesday, Judge Curtis Farber said the retrial would start on 15 April. However, Weinstein asked him to swap with another, unrelated case the judge has scheduled in March. The disgraced movie mogul had arrived at the court in a wheelchair more than half an hour after the hearing's scheduled start time. In court, he complained that jail officers had given him the wrong medication and failed to pick him up on time. "I'm asking and begging you, your honour," Weinstein said. He told the judge he was facing a "serious emergency situation" and wanted to "get out of this hellhole as quickly as possible". He told the court that at times he finds himself gasping for air and predicted he would soon need to be treated in hospital again. In December, he was rushed to hospital following an "alarming blood test result". In court last week, Weinstein's lawyer Arthur Aidala also appealed for the retrial to happen earlier in "the interest of humanity", saying his client was "dying of cancer and is an innocent man right now in the state of New York". Judge Farber said he would look into starting the trial a few days earlier than planned if time allows, but the decision had been made following consultation with Weinstein's lawyers as well as prosecutors. The judge also issued a key ruling on the retrial - upholding a separate charge based on an allegation from a woman who was not part of the original case. Weinstein's lawyers had tried to get the charge thrown out, arguing that prosecutors only brought it to bolster their case with a third accuser, but were unsuccessful. Despite the New York conviction being overturned, he remains in custody due to another conviction in 2022, for the rape of an actress in Los Angeles in 2013. His lawyers have appealed that case. Weinstein was one of the most powerful people in Hollywood - the co-founder of film and television production companies Miramax and The Weinstein Company, he produced films such as the Oscar-winning Shakespeare In Love, Pulp Fiction, and The Crying Game. However, charges were brought after several women went public with allegations about him in 2017, fuelling the rise of the #MeToo movement. In September last year, brought against Weinstein in 2022, saying there was "no longer a realistic prospect of conviction".
Boston Globe
29-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Harvey Weinstein due in court as judge weighs scope of his #MeToo retrial and when it will start
Weinstein's lawyer, Arthur Aidala, is representing conservative strategist Steve Bannon in a border wall fraud trial that's set to start March 4 before a different Manhattan judge. Meanwhile, Farber has a murder trial in March. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Before Bannon's trial date was set last week, Aidala had suggested that Weinstein's trial go first in 'the interest of humanity,' citing the ex-studio boss' declining health. Advertisement Weinstein is being treated for numerous medical conditions, including chronic myeloid leukemia and diabetes. 'They know that Mr. Weinstein is dying of cancer and is an innocent man right now in the state of New York,' Aidala argued in court last week. He pleaded to prosecutors: 'Can I try this dying man's case first?' Weinstein is being retried on charges that he forcibly performed oral sex on a movie and TV production assistant in 2006 and raped an aspiring actor in 2013. The additional charge, filed last September, alleges he forced oral sex on a different woman at a Manhattan hotel in 2006. The Manhattan district attorney's office said in court papers that the woman, who has not been identified publicly, came forward to prosecutors just days before the start of Weinstein's first trial but was not part of that case. Prosecutors said they did not pursue the women's allegations after Weinstein was convicted and sentenced to 23 years in prison, but they revisited them and secured a new indictment after the state's Court of Appeals threw out his conviction last April. Farber ruled in October to combine the new indictment and existing charges into one trial. Advertisement Weinstein's lawyers contend that prosecutors prejudiced him by waiting nearly five years to bring the additional charge, suggesting they had elected not to include the allegation in his first trial so they could use it later if his conviction were reversed. Prosecutors called that thinking 'absurd,' countering that Weinstein's lawyers would have also been outraged if he had been charged based on the third woman's allegation either during his first trial or immediately after his conviction. Weinstein 'would likely have characterized that timing as a vindictive and gratuitous pile-on,' prosecutors wrote in a court filing last month. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office said the previously uncharged allegation 'required a sensitive investigation' and serious contemplation before seeking an indictment, in part because there are no eyewitnesses to the alleged assault and no scientific or other physical evidence. Weinstein co-founded the film and television production companies Miramax and The Weinstein Company and was once one of the most powerful people in Hollywood, having produced films such as 'Pulp Fiction' and 'The Crying Game.' In 2017, he became the most prominent villain of the #MeToo movement, which erupted when women began going public with accounts of his behavior. He has long maintained that any sexual activity was consensual. In vacating Weinstein's conviction, the Court of Appeals ruled that the trial judge, James M. Burke, unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations from other women that were not part of the case. Burke is no longer on the bench. Weinstein was convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 of another rape. His 16-year prison sentence in that case still stands, but his lawyers appealed in June, arguing he did not get a fair trial. Advertisement Weinstein has remained in custody in New York's Rikers Island jail complex, with occasional trips to a hospital for medical treatment, while awaiting the retrial. The Associated Press does not generally identify people alleging sexual assault unless they consent to be named.
