The Dead

"Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion than fade and wither dismally with age."

John Huston could have finished his career on a high with his Oscar nomi-nation in 1986 for Prizzi's Honor, but the attraction of a tribute to his artistic mentor James Joyce and nostalgic reasons (Huston had lived in Ireland for 25 years and held an Irish passport) proved too strong. Uniting the technical team that made Under The Volcano with an effective Irish cast, he tumed one of the best short stories in English literature into a graceful, elusive film.

The story concerns Gabriel Conroy (Donal McCann), a Dublin teacher who believes he is superior to the banal unfulfilled characters that surround him at his aunts' Epiphany feast. But an astonishing revelation by his wife (Anjelica Huston) makes him realise he is just as empty as the rest. Despite suffering from emphysema during filming (which meant he couldn't move anywhere without a supply of oxygen), Huston's technique is flawless, with assured camera movements creating a perfect atmosphere.The cast and acting are universally excellent, unusual for a film adaption of a well known work of literature, though they were working from an Oscar-nominated script by Tony Huston, the director's son. The voice-over narration of the final sequence does omit the philosophical meaning in Joyce's text, but Huston makes up for this with beautifully photographed images to convey the swooning of the soul.

Within months of the film's release he was dead.

Review by Stephen Cox
Taken from EUFS Programme 1994-95