After scooping gold at the Galway Film Fleadh, Irish feature film 'Adam & Paul' is released in Irish cinemas this week. The director, Lenny Abrahamson, and producer, Jonny Speers, have spoken to IFTN about the film and the steps they took to take the film to the big screen.
Sometimes people laugh at funerals, it's about the only way they can cope. The same thing can be said for 'Adam & Paul' as this film takes the audience on a journey that is all at once heartbreakingly sad and hilariously funny. It is a poignant 'day in the life' tale of two Dublin junkies, played by writer Mark O'Halloran and Tom Murphy. Director Lenny Abrahamson modestly describes his feature debut as a "tragic-comedy in the old style, old fashioned Chaplin/Laurel and Hardy era" yet with its stunning visuals, expert acting and a sublime script this remarkable Irish film becomes much more than that. It cracks the surface of the junkie life where we encounter the two characters in their darkest hours and from daybreak to dusk the pair scrounge, steal and cheat their way to their next fix.
"I am really heartened by the fact that people from all different backgrounds, different tastes in film and different expectations of what films are supposed to do can find things in 'Adam & Paul'. It seems to have a very general, very broad resonance with people. There are definitely people who don't like it but it seems to have hit the right chord with most," says Abrahamson.
Lenny Abrahamson |
The real story of 'Adam & Paul' began with writer/actor Mark O'Halloran over two years ago. As an out of work actor living on Parnell Street he became fascinated with the lives of the inner city addicts that passed by his window below. He began work on a script and passed a number of scenes onto producer Jonny
Speers who had been producing commercials for some time with director and friend Lenny Abrahamson. Seeing the potential in the script he introduced Abrahamson to O'Halloran and the trio began developing the script and planning the production.
Set in contemporary Dublin, 'Adam & Paul' is a very Irish film but one the filmmakers believe is rooted in a European tradition. Like many downbeat comedies, the story presents quite a depressing scenario and without the flowing humour the film would be an impossibly difficult one to watch. With this in mind both Speers and Abrahamson are sure that their film is accessible to any audience be they Irish or international.
"I think it has a more universal resonance and I think of it as an Irish film in the real sense but not an Irish film in the pejorative sense," says Abrahamson. "I want people to go in and watch this film, a film that is exactly the way we wanted to make it and have the opportunity to experience it and react as they do. Some people say, oh you are marketing it as a comedy, but it is a comedy. That's how the film sees itself, there's all sorts of other things going on but those other things are stitched into the film."
Speers agrees, saying: "I think you can identify with the state of the junkie no matter nationality you are. I think it will make people clearly understand things about that world that they have not understood before. It's a genuine universal story, like any good film."
'Adam & Paul' was made on a meagre budget of €400,000 and the idea of 'less is more' is an essential part of 'Adam & Paul.' The film was granted €350,000 from the Irish Film Board through the microbudget scheme and was given an additional €20,000 from RTE and €30,000 from Xtravision. The shoot took place over four weeks in the Autumn of 2003. In hindsight although making the film was tough, both producer and director are pleased with what they have achieved and believe the film would have been the same no matter how big or small the budget.
Murphy O'Halloran |
"The budget of the film is the budget of the film. Jonny's budget was not based on us taking a script and thinking 'Oh Jesus, I think we are going to have to cut corners here,' in a way it's the other way round. We were very aware as we were writing it that it needed to be the ideal script for the kind of way in which we were likely to have to film it. Two characters, over one day and no costume changes with primarily exteriors, it allows you to shoot in a pared down way without losing anything," says Abrahamson.
The production team behind 'Adam & Paul' is quite unlike the archetypal "first time" feature crew. Lenny Abrahamson began his love affair with film in Trinity College where he set up the The Trinity Video Society with Ed Guiney "when we were both babies and had hair" says Lenny. Now an Irish industry heavyweight, Guiney and his Element Films partner Andrew Lowe came on board as executive producers and with Speers, Abrahamson and DOP James Mather long time commercial veterans, the transition from small to big screen was a smooth one.
"I feel that doing commercials over a few years has been like boot camp. Commercials demand a huge amount of disciple which was invaluable when it came to shooting Adam & Paul," says Abrahamson. "A film set is a way of making a film, a machine to make a film...even though it was so low budget and so difficult to do, it felt like we were all dealing with that in a really mature way, we weren't scrambling to make a film."
This mature frame of mind was a key to keeping the film making process tight and delivered on schedule.
"Given that you know how the machine around you works because you have used it to make all sorts of commercials, when you finally do get to shoot something that really matters to you, it's what you are trying to achieve that you can concentrate on because you are already comfortable with the context and the tool that you are using. So in that way I feel very lucky with the people that were involved like Jonny, myself and James Mather in the actual making of it of the film and I think that's why the shoot went well and a huge reason why the film is good," Abrahamson finally adds.
'Adam & Paul' is released in cinemas nationwide from the 27th of August 2004.
By Tanya Warren.
