The Cork Opera House was full to capacity last night as the first of more than 200 movies showing at the Murphy's 42nd Cork Film Festival was screened. The opener was a popular choice, the Japanese film Shall We Dance?, in which a morose Tokyo corporate accountant transforms his life when he takes up ballroom dancing. It has been one of the most successful foreign-language films of the year in the US, where it has been tagged the Japanese Strictly Ballroom. One of the longest-established film festivals in the world, Cork is proving as attractive as ever at the age of 42, and the early box-office returns had the festival director, Mr Mick Hannigan, beaming.
"We are delighted with the advance booking this year," he declared. "Already, even before the festival opens, we've exceeded 50 per cent of our target." Some of the Irish features, including Mark Staunton's romantic comedy Separa- tion Anxiety and Graham Jones's cheekily titled How to Cheat in the Leaving Certifi- cate are already sold out.
Mr Hannigan also welcomed the strong support of the major distributors representing the Hollywood studios. Buena Vista International (Ireland) has supplied Cork with five films, including the potential Oscar-winner The Ice Storm, while PolyGram has given Wilde, with Stephen Fry as Oscar, Warner Bros has delivered the gripping thriller LA Confidential and 20th Century Fox David Cronenberg's controversial Crash.
For all the fuss it generated at Cannes last year, Crash is not expected to yield a ripple of protest at Cork. Times have changed from the 1960s, when a former Cork lord mayor commented: "I have never seen such dirt and filth in my life as I've seen this week."