The Boys and Girl from The County Clare

[kenny]

Since it's been discussed here before, and some [ many ? ] of you may not have seen it, “The Boys and Girl From The County Clare” is being shown on BBC1 this Tuesday coming at 11.55pm – set your video/DVD recorders, and look out for “Ptarmigan”.

[MTGuru]

Thanks, Kenny. Yes, it's great to see Ptarmigan in the opening scene.

And from an older thread, here's the soundtrack tunes listing, as best as I could piece it together:

0:00:40 The Rolling Wave [fiddle]
0:03:04 The Crooked Road to Dublin
0:04:48 The Crooked Road to Dublin
0:05:32 The Millpond / Gillian's Apples
0:07:15 Egan's Polka [box]
0:07:42 Hang on Sloopy [radio]
0:12:35 The Trip We Took Over The Mountain [Bb whistle]
0:19:03 The All Ireland
0:22:42 ???
0:23:10 The Berry Bush Polka?
0:27:11 George White's Favourite
0:27:43 Planxty Fanny Power
0:29:40 The Old Bush
0:32:40 The Job of Journeywork? [box]
0:33:30 Wren's Polka [box]
0:34:50 Come West Along the Road [flute]
0:35:22 The Rights of Man [fiddle]
0:35:53 Drowsy Maggie [fiddle]
0:35:58 My Darling Asleep [fiddle]
0:36:05 Three Little Drummers [harp]
0:36:18 Gander in the Pratie Hole [whistle]
0:36:26 Humours of Castlefin [fiddle]
0:38:11 Egan's Polka
0:38:50 The Irish Washerwoman
0:40:00 The Millpond / Gillian's Apples
0:41:20 St. Mary's Polka
0:42:20 Come West Along the Road [flute]
0:44:20 The Crooked Road to Dublin
0:44:56 Drag Her Round the Road
0:45:18 The Humours of Glendart
0:46:18 Kesh Jig
0:50:00 The Wild Rover [song]
0:50:36 Sally Gardens
1:00:00 Hardiman the Fiddler
1:03:50 Come West Along the Road [flute]
1:09:00 Sally Gardens / Skylark
1:11:27 A Visit to Ireland
1:12:50 The Rolling Wave [fiddles]
1:24:00 Improv / Sally Gardens [whistle]
1:25:00 Fred Finn's
1:26:32 End Credits: Whiskey in the Jar [song]
1:29:48 Sean Nós song [song]

[ElaineT]

Well worth watching if you haven't seen it.

[kenny]

Reminder...............

[Adrian W.]

I just got this, based on reading about it here....we enjoyed it, going to pass it around to buddies. Maybe it's just me, but I found the fiddle faking the hardest thing to watch. Tunes were fine.

[MTGuru]

I just got this, based on reading about it here....we enjoyed it, going to pass it around to buddies. Maybe it's just me, but I found the fiddle faking the hardest thing to watch. Tunes were fine.

I've wondered why, with Andrea cast in the lead, they didn't just alter the script and story to have her play flute, which she wouldn't have to fake-finger. I guess the general public wouldn't necessarily recognize a wooden flute (Is that a clarinet?). Of course, Ptarmigan wasn't faking it ...

[gregdidge]

[quote="MTGuru"]Thanks, Kenny. Yes, it's great to see Ptarmigan in the opening scene.

I am ordering a copy of the dvd. Who do I look for in the opening scene to see Ptarmigan?

Thanks!

[MTGuru]

I am ordering a copy of the dvd. Who do I look for in the opening scene to see Ptarmigan?

Can't miss him. He's the evil codger poisoning his barefoot lads' minds with The Rolling Wave.

Of course, one of the boys grows up to become the Chief Engineer of the Starship Enterprise, so maybe Ptarmi deserves some of the credit.

[gregdidge]

Thanks, MTGuru Now the DVD just has to get here.

[SilverStrand]

Love the movie...saw it at the Seattle film festival...one of my favorite movies.

[kenny]

[Thread revival. - Mod]

For those of you in UK, this is being shown again tonight - 12.20am Sunday to be precise - on BBC2. I suppose it might be around on iPlayer for a week after, but am not sure about that. I still think it's great fun, and worth watching again.

[cboody]

Do watch it. It may be your only chance to hear Fanny Power accompanied by what I recall as being called a "BadRan." A fun film. And Ptarmi hasn't changed a bit.....

[kenny]

Ptarmi always looked like that,,,,:)

[TheSilverSpear]

After hearing about this movie for years, Mr. Spear and I finally watched it on iPlayer. I think we're actually missing our calling as film critics, because while we agreed the tunes were nice, we also thought that it was, in fact, a bad movie. And Andrea Corr can't act. I might be more of a film snob than Kenny and cboody.

The faked instrument playing was doing my head in after a while. Worse on the pipes and flutes. I found it distracting to hear a tune and watch someone's fingers moving around in a sluggish, random way that bore no relation to the tune. Anyway, if you're going to cast Andrea Corr, why not cast someone who actually plays the fiddle? They couldn't be any worse at acting.

Nor could I get over the fact that both Theoden and Chief O'Brien play the fiddle. Who knew? Does that make me hopelessly geeky?

[MTGuru]

Nor could I get over the fact that both Theoden and Chief O'Brien play the fiddle. Who knew? Does that make me hopelessly geeky?

And the Captain of the Titanic, too! Too busy working on his diddly to see the iceberg.

I dunno ... It sounds like you never took Coleridge's admonition concerning the willing suspension of disbelief to heart. There's nothing to ruin a movie faster than seeing it with a cranky expert. My dad was a lifelong professional horseman, and he ruined every cowboy movie I ever saw.

OTOH, I saw the opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark in a group of nearly the entire Indiana University Classical Archaeology department. Maybe that's why I remember that film as a comedy.

BGCC is hardly great cinema. But for those of us who can't hop on the ferry to Ireland or the fleadh, and who live somewhere where the culture is quite different and trad is not a matter of everyday awareness, the chance to spend a few hours with a film about our music, however flawed, is still a modest delight.

As for Andrea ... For many, just walking, talking and breathing is acting enough from her, thank you very much.

Actually, I do wonder why they didn't modify the script once she was cast to have her play whistle or flute instead of fiddle and not have to fake the fingerings. IIRC, that wouldn't have made a difference to the plot. Plot? Plot?