The Sundance Kid rides into town

Michael Dwyeron film

Robert Redford will be in Dublin next Thursday evening to discuss his work in a public interview that I look forward to conducting at Trinity College.

Redford's career as an actor, producer and director spans close on 50 years and includes seven productions directed by the late Sydney Pollack. They first worked together as actors in War Hunt(1962).

Ordinary People, the first of Redford's films as a director, earned him the 1980 Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director, and he was nominated again in both categories for Quiz Show(1994). His many notable films as an actor have included Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kidand The Sting, both with Paul Newman; the gripping paranoia pictures, Three Days of the Condorand All the President's Men; two acutely observed films directed by Michael Ritchie, Downhill Racerand The Candidate; and Arthur Penn's underrated The Chase.

Redford's early interest as an environmentalist has been evident since he played a mountain man in Pollack's Jeremiah Johnson(1972). It was shot against handsomely photographed locations in Utah, where Redford made his home and founded the Sundance Institute for aspiring film-makers, and its highly successful spin-off film festival.

• A limited number of tickets to the Robert Redford public interview will be available through a reader's offer in The Irish Timestomorrow

Tartan sets the pattern

It is sad to note the closure of Tartan Films, one of the most adventurous and imaginative film distribution outlets in Britain and Ireland since Hamish McAlpine established it in 1984. The company's eclectic policy was evident from its first acquisitions for release: Alan Rudolph's quirky romantic drama Choose Me, Derek Jarman's uncompromising The Last of England, and Dan O'Bannon's gory, black- humoured Return of the Living Dead.

Tartan championed the movies of Wong Kar-wai and Julio Medem, and introduced us to such exciting discoveries as Jamón, Jamón, Man Bites Dog, The Last Seduction, La Haine, Belleville Rendezvous, Secretaryand the company's biggest commercial success on cinema release, Super Size Me.

The Tartan video label built up an outstanding catalogue, releasing the works of such great artists as François Truffaut, Ingmar Bergman and Pier Paolo Pasolini. And long before Hollywood was picking up the remake rights to Asian thrillers and horror movies, McAlpine and his team were acquiring Infernal Affairs, The Ring, Audition, The Eyeand Old Boy. A bidding battle to buy the company's library is already under way.

Irish misery hits US screens

Red Roses and Petrol, the leaden 2003 movie based on Joseph O'Connor's play of that name, finally opened in the US last weekend. Adapted and directed by Tamar Simon Hofs, it assembles a bickering Irish family for the wake of their father (Malcolm McDowell). The cast includes Max Beesley, Susan Lynch and Olivia Tracey.

The New York Timesreview began: "Leave it to the Irish to turn misery and recrimination into an art form", adding that "the misery seeps from the screen in cold, damp waves; by the end you'll be grabbing for the bottle yourself." The film has never been released in Ireland.

Gong shows in Edinburgh

At the closing ceremony of the Edinburgh International Film Festival last Sunday, Shane Meadows was given the Michael Powell Award for best new British feature film, for Somers Town. The film has its first Irish screening at the new Lights Out! festival in Dublin on July 18th before going on cinema release here next month.

In other award news, Robert Carlyle collected an acting gong at Edinburgh for his performance in Summer; Errol Morris took the documentary prize for Encounters at the End of the World; Marianne Palka was named best new director for Good Dick; and the audience award went to James Marsh's documentary, Man on Wire.

Batman sequel dark indeed

The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan's eagerly anticipated second Batman movie starring Christian Bale and featuring the late Heath Ledger as The Joker, opens three weeks from today on both sides of the Atlantic. Among the first to see it has been Irish film censor John Kelleher. He passed the picture with a 15A certificate, adding this advisory: "Strong weapons and physical violence, brutal but not graphically depicted. Strong air of menace throughout. Some references to physical violence/cruelty may disturb some younger viewers."

The Dark Knightlooks likely to be the longest of the summer releases, with a running time of 152 minutes, as noted on the censor's website:  www.ifco.ie.

Quote:
"It's an insanely ambitious movie. It comes from an exotic country inside my brain and my gonads." - Director Guillermo del Toro on hisHellboy 2: The Golden Army , at its world premiere in Los Angeles last weekend. It opens here next month