Quand se lève la lune

THE RISING OF THE MOON.

Utterly charming film. Even better than the Brit's, QUARTET.

No 'name' stars, but they could never have given the characters the same authenticity and humanness that we enjoy from all the interpretive acting projected in each of the three episodes.

For sure, we get the best of the Irish character actors, either from the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, or even from the Outer Hebrides Playhouse ( just kidding), with all giving awesomely enjoyable performances.

Of course with John Ford at the helm, how could THE RISING OF THE MOON miss its place in the film firmament.

PS Correction from a previous review. The bobby/cop in the third episode was Dennis O'Day, not Ward Bond, whom you can catch as a cop in GWTW.

"The Rising of the Moon" is a very obscure Ford movie, the kind of picture Ford would say merely "a job of work". In other words, it is not to be taken seriously. I watched it the other night, wondering to find out why it is so overlooked among Ford's pictures. It is basically a disjointed, yet reflective poem on Ireland in a by-gone era that works if you are a hardcore Ford fanatic. It is based on three vignettes that are introduced by Tyrone Power. They are called "A minutes Wait", "The Majesty of the Law", and "Rising of the Moon" also known as "1921". It is not a great movie and certainly nowhere near the kind of movie it often evokes, the beautiful "The Quiet Man", but there are some nice and enjoyable moments, particularly in the vignette about the train that makes a stop for two hours instead of one minute.

This is only the hardcore Ford fans.

The Rising of the Moon (1957), directed by John Ford, is actually three short films about Ireland.

The first is "The Majesty of the Law," from a story by Frank O'Connor. O'Connor was an outstanding author, and the story itslef is worth reading. Ford keeps O'Connor's concept, but adds many embellishments. I wasn't impressed by these additions, but I was impressed by Ford's direction, which was outstanding in all three segments.

The second story, "A Minute's Wait," is by a less-known Irish writer, Michael J. McHugh. It's a fairly repetitious piece about a train that, for many reasons, never quite leaves the small station where it has stopped. It's the comic relief film. An English colonel and his wife are on the train, and they are presented as perfect stereotypes. At one point a sports team arrives, with great fanfare. The colonel tells his wife that it's probably the local cricket team. Of course, it's actually a victorious team that competes in the Irish sport of hurling. One reason not to fast-forward is to listen to the most bizarrely worded marriage proposal that you'll ever hear.

The third segment is adapted from Lady Augusta Gregory's play, "The Rising of the Moon." Lady Gregory was an English aristocrat who lived in Ireland, and adopted the Irish revolutionary cause as her own. She was the founder of he famous Abbey Theatre, which still exists today.

This segment has two serious plots. One is obvious--an Irish revolutionary is about to be executed. The other is less obvious but, in my opinion, it's the more important plot. It involves an Irish Constabulary sergeant and his wife. We see them first at the very beginning of the story, and again at the very end.

We saw this movie on the small screen, where it worked well. It's uneven, and not a masterpiece, but it's worth seeing. It has an anemic IMDb rating of 6.8. I think it's much better than that.

.A movie made of sketches.which is pretty rare in the English/Irish films,except for the horror flicks ,and in Ford's filmography;French (Duvivier) and Italians (Risi) are more familiar to that kind of stuff.

Ford's film has one great quality:his shorts become better and better.

I must confess I found the first segment pretty boring:unlike the two others ,it does not have an "universal" appeal .It is very talky and only the splendid Irish landscapes (it was filmed on location,Tyrone Power told us so in his presentation of the film)redeem it a little.

Things go much better with the second segment:one minute's wait in a tiny railway station which actually will last a very looong time.Several miniplots intermix (a mature couple going to a wedding ,a ghost story ,marriageable son and daughter ,a hockey team whose bus has broken down,a she-goat,lobsters ,and more ) and the very last picture is worthy of a Tex Avery cartoon. "The quiet man" in miniature.

Ford saved the best for the last:mainly during the first half ,he has a very fine way to blend tragedy (an Irish rebel will be hanged by the English ) and comedy (those nuns are wearing high heels!).A positive "remake" of "the informer" this segment is witty,sometimes hilarious,and even suspenseful.It ends of course with the traditional song "rising of the moon" a policeman used to sing although he found it a bit subversive.

This movie is to Ford what the album "Irish Heartbeat " is to singer Van Morrison :a work of love for his homeland.

These three films owe their success to an ensemble cast of Irish actors most of whom cropped up again and again whenever Ireland used to be depicted in theatre, film or television.

Representing an early style of theatre acting that needed to be clearly heard at the back of the auditorium without microphones, Noel Purcell in "The Majesty of the Law" gives the tone to most of the acting in these three films by beautifully blasting the other actors with an outsized performance. Cyril Cusack offers a rare subtlety. In "A Minute's Wait" watch dozens of actors flowing back and forth on a platform in rural Ireland as the principals share performances in true ensemble fashion.

The first two films are glorious comedies with only the faintest kernel of truth. But, no matter, by suspending disbelief, you can settle down and let the blarney flow over you.

The third film "1921" which starts with a potential execution, a strange addition to the other light stories, nevertheless manages to haul in the blarney yet again in order to lighten the tone. And no one expects even this one to end badly. There is a final song even.

All three films contain plenty of comic dialogue and, best of all, are shot on location and, despite being in black and white, we get to see much of a real Ireland - even if it's mostly in the background.