February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Michael Gray
Kino Interntional presents a rare opportunity to see Joseph Strick’s
1967 feature film adaptation of James Joyce’s "Ulysses" at the Anthology Film Archives in Manhattan.
Just about every Irish actor who was breathing and ambulatory at the time made a cameo appearance in the film, among them T.P. McKenna, David Kelly, Rosaleen Linehan, Fionnuala Flanagan and Geoffrey Golden. In the lead role, playing the peripatetic Leopold Bloom, Milo O’Shea gives his character the full welly, and completely upstages the introspective Dedelus, played by Maurice Roeves.
Strick’s script for the film was nominated for an Academy Award, in the
Best Adapted Screenplay category. The authorities weren’t so impressed back home in Ireland, where the film was deemed too racy for the citizenry by the national film censor. The ban was upheld several times over the years that followed, and remained in place, unbelievably, until last year, when the current censor reviewed the film and finally passed it for public viewing.
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Fans of Irish film and literature will finally have the chance to see it in Ireland later this spring, 34 years after it was made. New York fans can get a head start on them this Sunday, Jan. 28, at 1:30 p.m. at the Anthology, 29 Second Avenue.
"Ulysses" is being shown as part of a series of international classics from the Kino catalog, spanning eight decades of cinema history.
For more information, log on to www.anthologyfilmarchives.org.