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The Irish film starring Helen Mirren that's been rescued from obscurity
The history of Irish film seems a young one, with the constant stream of new cinema stories seeing success across the world, from blockbusters such as The Banshees Of Inisherin to small, perfectly formed shorts like An Irish Goodbye.
In truth, people have been making films in Ireland since the early 20th century when American Sidney Olcott made The Lad From Old Ireland in Kerry in 1910. While not as prolific as other European countries, the 20th and 21st centuries have seen a steady stream of filmmaking in Ireland: films that are remembered and loved by Irish audiences in equal measure. Sadly however, while the modern industry continues to explode on TVs, phones and cinema screens, the films of the past can often languish unseen.
On June 6 this year, in the famous red seats of Queen's Film Theatre (QFT) in Belfast, the writer Bernard MacLaverty spoke to a full house after a screening of a newly restored version of Cal the 1984 film he adapted from his novel of the same name. Helen Mirren as Marcella with co-star John Lynch in 1984 film Cal. Pic: Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock
It was an emotional night that saw Bernard tell tales of the 1980s film business in Ireland, taking his second novel and turning it into a script, and witnessing Helen Mirren and John Lynch tell the story he had created. In particular he told of his disappointment the last time he had seen the film, when the remaining print had been of such bad quality it was almost unwatchable.
This special night was the culmination of seven years' work (including a break for a pandemic) to restore Cal and bring it back to the big screen, where it belongs. For me personally and the many people who helped to put the film back on screen, to see a full cinema watching a perfect version of the movie was a confirmation of the value of bringing back important Irish pictures to audiences across the world.
I've been working at Film Hub NI since 2013; it's part of the BFI FIlm Audience Network, a project to develop audiences for independent cinema across the UK, funded by the British Film Institute. A key part of our work is connecting audiences to our rich film culture, from Super 8 films held in archives, to others that had a spotlight long ago and deserve to be seen again. A newly restored version of Cal screened earlier this month. Pic: Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock
Across the island of Ireland we have a rightly celebrated film industry, flying high and making other nations jealous at the Oscars. For us, it is vitally important that the early building blocks of what we enjoy today, those pioneers who made films when little support existed, are celebrated, but also that the films are watchable by young people who will make the films of tomorrow.
The effort to restore Cal started in October 2018 when the QFT celebrated its 50th anniversary as the home of independent cinema in Belfast. The cinema's aim has always been to bring to Belfast audiences the best of international film, and its early years saw a dedicated clientele form around the converted lecture hall with an entrance down a secret alleyway at the rear of the university. However, this loyal core wasn't enough to stave off numerous financial crises as the cinema struggled to survive in the midst of the Troubles.
In the 1980s, however, the emergence of a thriving homegrown movie industry began to place the QFT as the home of Irish film in the North, allowing some level of financial stability. One of the most successful of these Irish productions was Cal, directed by Pat O'Connor, fresh from debut feature The Ballroom Of Romance, and produced by David Puttnam, who was on top of the film world after producing Chariots Of Fire and Local Hero.
Cal stars John Lynch as the titular character, a 19-year-old Catholic drawn into republican violence who forms a relationship with local librarian Marcella, played by Helen Mirren, the Catholic widow of a Protestant RUC constable who now lives with her in-laws in an isolated farmhouse. John Lynch as Cal, a 19-year-old Catholic drawn into violence. Pic: Warner/Goldcrest/Enigma/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock
Set against the background of sectarian division, the film skilfully shows the impact of violence on the everyday lives of people from different social and political backgrounds. It presents Cal and Marcella as victims of hidden forces, unable to escape the consequences of wider events beyond their control.
Michael Open, then head of QFT, met producer Puttnam at Cannes Film Festival and arranged to bring Cal to the cinema for the 1984 Belfast Festival, the success of which led to a further run of 42 consecutive sell-out performances. During this time 14,100 people saw Cal, and for the first two weeks of these screenings, QFT became the second-highest grossing cinema in the UK outside London.
Given the importance of the film to QFT history, it was obvious that Cal had to be part of the 50th anniversary, but, as Bernard found out to his horror, it appeared that the only existing print on 35mm film was near unusable. Cal was so important to the cinema's history that the QFT went ahead with the screening, but as one attendee that night commented: 'The film deserves better than that.'
The QFT staff and I met and determined that we would start lobbying for a new print to be made. The first step was to contact film archives across Britain and Ireland to see if they held a master copy, but it appeared that none existed in public archives, with RTE having a broadcast copy which wouldn't have been appropriate for restoration. Helen Mirren as Marcella in Cal. Pic: Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock
Park Circus, the company that manages the back catalogue for many of the major film studios and who are the distributors, contacted the studios to see what was possible, and we were glad of the help of Northern Ireland Screen, which began to make enquiries on the film's behalf.
We were a bit stumped at that stage, so we commissioned a film writer from Belfast, Dr Sam Manning to investigate the story of the film's making and talk to some of the main players (sadly Helen Mirren was unavailable).
This allowed readers to remind themselves of the film, and nail down why it was key to understanding both the Irish movie industry and how contemporary artists responded to the Troubles.
Then came a lucky break when Puttnam wrote to the movie's original producers, Lionsgate Films. They were able to locate the original master copy deep in the vault, and a new restored digital copy of the film was delivered to Park Circus. After some discussions, they decided that a new release of the film might be possible, and Northern Ireland Screen again supported the mission. Their role as custodians of the film heritage of Northern Ireland allowed them to see the importance of Cal in telling the story of our filmmaking past.
So, technical tweaks were delivered, posters were printed and we prepared to screen the film in all its glory at the start of June. And it wasn't just at QFT; cinemas in Dublin, Glasgow, Manchester, Bradford and beyond booked the movie, a testament to the film's power to tell the story of love in a time of conflict, a tale still all too relevant to the times we live in. Cal stars John Lynch as the titular character, a 19-year-old Catholic drawn into republican violence who forms a relationship with local librarian Marcella, played by Helen Mirren, the Catholic widow of a Protestant RUC constable who now lives with her in-laws in an isolated farmhouse. Pic: Warner/Goldcrest/Enigma/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock
The last ten years have seen a revolution in what is called in the cinema trade as 'repertory cinema'. Essentially, cinemas have seen the value of broadening out their offerings from the weekly screening of newly released films to a wider appreciation of films of the past. Whole festivals are now dedicated to screening newly restored work from around the world. These include Cinema Rediscovered, which takes place in Bristol each July, and the daddy of them all, Il Cinema Ritrovato, where Bologna is taken over by screenings of the cream of film history. Younger audiences are discovering that the world of film lies beyond the latest offerings, and sites such as Letterboxd open up a vast range of movies from across time and place for new audiences to discover.
With the twin threats of Covid and streaming, cinemas have looked to their heritage to reinvent themselves and find new audiences. Statistically, in 2022 and 2023, when cinemas were struggling to recover their pre-pandemic level, the market for classic cinema rose by 139% in Britain and Ireland. Irish cinema of the past deserves to take its place in this renaissance.
But beyond the industry view, what made us proudest of managing to get a restored Cal back on screen was the reaction to the film itself from audiences who have seen it. In a time when the Troubles are displayed and dissected on screens across the world with something like Say Nothing being screened internationally on Disney+, Cal is a moving, sincere drama that comes from those times, bringing an authenticity to modern audiences' understanding of what happened, drawing the eye to the miseries and joys of the time when two people clutched at love in the midst of conflict.
Watching Cal again in a cinema allows audiences to reconnect with the story of Cal and Marcella, to see the skill that artists such as Pat O'Connor and Bernard MacLaverty brought to the telling of their story, to hear once again the haunting soundtrack of Mark Knopfler as these makers intended it to be heard. Sitting in the QFT and feeling the reaction of the audience witnessing their history on screen made the work to restore the film worthwhile.
Cal will now be available to see for cinema audiences across the world, and the work of Mirren, Lynch and many others will be enjoyed for years to come.
Cal is being screened at QFT and Dublin's Irish Film Institute until the end of this month. See and to book tickets.
