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The Bleak Hereafter

Terry McMahon’s psychological thriller Charlie Casanova has had a troubled gestation. With a script that had been repeatedly rejected by the Irish Film Board, no outside support and a miniscule budget, the Irish director’s hugely controversial examination of class, language and violence has achieved international acclaim and this month was picked up by Studio Canal.

Roe McDermott, 21 Nov 2011

The result of the no-budget production and McMahon’s intense vision was an uncompromising, difficult film that’s aggressive in both style and substance and, as he predicted, it’s been a divisive force. The Irish Film Board remained, em, disinterested.

“They fucking hated it!” Terry maintains. However, it won ‘Best Film’ at the DMV International Film Festival and Janet Pierson, producer of the South by Southwest Film Festival, declared in front of the world press that Charlie Casanova was her new favourite movie.

Still, some critics were less enthusiastic. Variety’s Andrew Barker wrote a scathing review, describing it as a “punishing experience” and “aggressively abrasive” – not something most filmmakers would be bragging about. But then, McMahon isn’t most filmmakers.

“I did an interview for NBC and the first thing I did was I brought up the review, and I quoted it word for word. And then I turned to the camera and said ‘Fuck Variety!’ Sometimes you have to say that filmmaking is not about Variety.”

And now – finally – studios have come round to Terry’s way of thinking. In a final, triumphant chapter in this David Vs. Goliath tale, Paul Higgins, co-founder of Optimum Releasing, declared the film a spine-tingling “masterpiece”. Studio Canal are currently hashing out the details of an Ireland and UK release. With Hollywood directors such as Kevin Smith drawing attention to the powers of self-distribution Stateside with his horror film Red State, does McMahon feel he may be kicking off a similar movement here?

“Maybe there are accidental revolutions. I’m not trying to say I’m spearheading one here. But there’s no excuse anymore. There’s so much technology at our disposal it’s possible to make a film for next to nothing. So if the voice is singular enough, and the content provocative enough, it will stand against multi-million dollar productions. That precedent is incredibly exciting.”

My eye strays to McMahon’s arm, where the tattoo he had inked while working on Charlie Casanova peeks from beneath his sleeve. A once-personal mantra is now a war-cry for other aspiring filmmakers.



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