Other broadcasters might bury arthouse films, but Cineclub showcases them, writes Michael Dwyer.
While BBC 2 and Channel 4, once the British bastions of alternative viewing, continue to bury foreign-language and independently produced movies in graveyards slots, often hours after midnight, RTÉ has made the commendable decision to move its Cineclub strand from a post-midnight Thursday night slot on RTÉ 1 to a Saturday night place on the Network 2 schedules from this month, and with a promise that each movie will begin transmission closer to 11 p.m. and at least before midnight.
One of RTÉ television's longest-running strands, Cineclub was pioneered by the station's former head of acquisitions, William F. Harpur, now retired, and fostered by him down the decades with the assistance and active support of former in-house viewers, Liam O'Leary and Frank Hall, both now deceased.
In a country where the only arthouse cinema outlets outside of Dublin and Cork are the film societies co-ordinated by Access Cinema (formerly the Federation of Irish Film Societies), the Cineclub slot has provided viewers everywhere with a welcome source of alternative cinema - both classics and contemporary productions.
Brian Walsh, who has been acquiring films for Cineclub and scheduling it for the past three years, explains that he has shifted its emphasis towards more recent productions. "The priority now is to show films no older than four years," he says.
There will always be exceptions, of course, such as tonight's transmission of Claude Berri's superb 1986 pastoral drama, Jean de Florette, which was placed seventh - the second highest non-English-language film after Cinema Paradiso, which was sixth - in The Irish Times readers' poll of all-time favourite films conducted in 1995.
"In the past, Cineclub was a necessary showcase for classic films. We felt it was time to give it a new slant and to expand its audience. I went looking for urban-based drama from as wide a spectrum as possible. In the old days, we had the luxury of going to the major international film festivals, but budgetary considerations preclude that now, except for the Irish festivals. Of course, we still go to the major international television markets to see and buy new material."
In his terms, Cineclub is not strictly an arthouse slot, in that the emphasis is firmly on foreign-language cinema and with few English-language independent productions beyond those that cannot easily be accommodated within the main RTÉ schedules. He gives as examples of Peter Greenaway's The Draughtsman's Contract, and the Bono-scripted Wim Wenders film, The Million Dollar Hotel, both of which will be shown in Cineclub next spring, and Derek Jarman's Caravaggio.
"It's a joy to schedule," says Walsh, producing a two-page list of titles lined up to be screened on Saturday nights between now and the end of July next year. Imminent transmissions on that schedule include the hilarious French comedy, Le Diner des Cons, which will be shown on October 5th, in the same week it opens in an English stage adaptation by Ronald Harwood, See You Next Tuesday, as the Gate Theatre's Dublin Theatre Festival presentation.
The many notable movies to be shown on Cineclub between now and the end of the year will include the thoughtful and absorbing French romantic drama Nelly et M Arnaud, the colourful Spanish Civil War saga Ay, Carmela!, the Oscar-winning Dutch film Antonia's Line and the searing German drug addiction drama Christiane F.
Cherishable movies planned for transmission in the spring include Farinelli Il Castrato, Eat Drink Man Woman, El Norte, Le Bossu, The Horseman On the Roof, Les Destinées Sentimentales, What Have I Done to Deserve This? and Bernardo Bertolucci's masterpiece, The Conformist.
The schedule also features many enticing international productions which never achieved a cinema release in Ireland, including the recent Norwegian Oscar-nominated drama, Elling, and a substantial selection of recent Spanish cinema, about which Walsh is particularly enthusiastic. He cites Gitano, which stars dancer Joaquin Cortes as a vengeful gypsy and will be shown next Saturday night, and the road movie Antartida, which follows a week later.
Arthouse cinema has long been dominated by French cinema, and Walsh credits the French industry for the skill and dedication with which it promotes its productions. "They market everything so well," he says, "but I would like to reduce its dominance of Cineclub, where about 30 per cent of the films will be French in the year ahead." He adds that RTÉ is complying with a EU directive to run a European Film Week in the winter, and he is at present finalising that schedule of 10 films to be shown from November 15th to 24th. Among the confirmed titles are the classics, Jean Cocteau's La Belle at la Bête, Roberto Rossellini's Rome Open City and David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia, along with the much more recent Greek gay drama From the Edge of the City, the Oscar-winning Polish film Kolya, and the 1996 Carlos Saura film Taxi.
The RTÉ film department also has the capacity for the occasional crossover into prime-time scheduling, such as Jean-Pierre Jeunet's wholly delightful Amélie, which Walsh expects to be transmitted next Easter.
"Cineclub is a public service commitment," he says. "Otherwise we would be swamped by American product."
He believes that one of the principal reasons why BBC 2 and Channel 4 are now dumping foreign-language movies in the middle of the night is to steer the target audience for those films towards their digital channels, especially in the case of Channel 4's Film Four channel.
The market has become more competitive, too, with Channel 4 again to the forefront. "They have an eye on the Irish market," he says, "and are beginning to demand exclusivity over the films they acquire - which could remove us from the window for those films for a year."
Two further laudable aspects of Cineclub are that the movies are always shown without cuts, and without interruptions for commercials. Despite the late hour at which it was scheduled on Thursday nights on RTÉ 1, Cineclub attracted a respectable average audience of 85,000 viewers, with more than 100,000 viewers tuning in for the excellent seven-film season of Pedro Almodovar's work shown over April and May this year. The strand's new, more accessible slot on Saturday nights is certain to expand that audience.
Vive la différence!
Cineclub is broadcast on Saturdays on Network 2. Tonight's feature is Jean de Florette at 11.05 p.m.