Name: Soirée Ciné : Dancing at Lughnasa (1998)
Start: 2025-11-05T19:30:00+01:00
End: 2025-11-05T22:30:00+01:00
Location: Maison des Européens Lyon

$Soir\u00e9e Cin\u00e9 : Dancing at Lughnasa (1998)$

Up next for the film club is a trip up to Donegal and back to 1936 where Brian Friel set his wonderful 1990 play Dancing at Lughnasa.
This adaptation by Pat O Connor stars Meryl Streep as the alpha female of the five Mundy sisters living together in a small community in the aptly named Ballybeg (‘small town’ in Irish) where many of Friel’s plays are set.
They lead mostly quiet lives interspersed with reminiscing and although the moral order of the Catholic Church holds sway over their lives, there are hints that its hold over them is not complete: the only male in the house is a child born out of wedlock to one of the sisters.
This delicate balance between pagan undercurrents and an overbearing Catholicism is shaken by the appearance of two men into the midst of the matriarchy: first the sisters’ only brother returned from the missions in African and then, Gerry, the father of the wee boy growing up amongst his maiden aunts.
When on top of those intrusions, the march of history stumbles into the sisters’ secluded lives, they have to face the disappearance of a world which had perhaps already been on its last legs.
The film received some good reviews when it came out in 1998 and picked up a number of nominations and one IFTA for best actress. Alongside Streep, Michael Gambon, Kathy Burke and Rhys Ifans appear in this entertaining adaptation of an Irish classic.
Come and join us to watch it at the usual place (la Maison des Européens 5 rue Pizay) on Wednesday the 5th of November. We’ll start the film at around 8pm and stay on afterwards for chat and cheese.
See you there!