Neil Jordon: Exploring Boundaries (Contemporary Irish Filmmakers Series)

Overview

Neil Jordan is unquestionably Ireland's most versatile, prolific and successful film director whose work, both in terms of his fiction writing and film, has achieved international acclaim and recognition. His films include The Company of Wolves, Mona Lisa, The Crying Game (for which he won an Oscar), Interview with the Vampire, Michael Collins and The Butcher Boy. Though Jordan lives in Ireland, and while his work often engages with Irish subjects, he addresses at once more universal and more intimate themes such as the interrelation of private sexuality and politics or society, obsession and the nature of desire, and transformation and identity. As the book's title suggests, Emer and Kevin Rockett argue that central to Jordan's work is an exploration and challenging of boundaries and borders. This is evident not just in film terms in that he has worked in and across many genres and in different production contexts, but in the various thematic concerns of his diverse films. Just as he plays with the seemingly exclusive realms of reality and fantasy, of which the latter is ultimately favoured, so, too, does his work balance word and image, or narrative tightness and visual pleasure. Above all, he creates sumptuous and sensuous worlds of synergy which, thematically and narratively layered, are open to multiple critical interpretations. Neil Jordan: Exploring Boundaries, the first book-length study of Neil Jordan's creative output, offers contextualised readings of each of his films, from Angel to The Good Thief, as well as situating them in relation to his literary work. Not only will this study be an invaluable source for education and reference, but it will be of interest to film students and enthusiasts and anybody engaged with Irish and international cinema, and culture generally.