Kenneth Branagh's personal work, a fictional reconstruction of his ``Belfast'' autobiography

"Belfast" synopsis

Buddy (Jude Hill) is a 9-year-old boy who was born and raised in Belfast and lives a fulfilling life. Pa (Jamie Dornan), who goes to work in England, Ma (Caitriona Balfe), who is strict and loving, Will (Lewis McCaskey), a dependable and gentle brother, Granny (Judi Dench), a good counselor, and a humorous character. Surrounded by his grandfather Pop (Ciarán Hinds) and other good family, as well as his favorite friends, he enjoys movies and music, is full of smiles, and is surrounded by lots of love. His life is a perfect world for him. But on August 15, 1969, a hot summer day. Buddy's peaceful world turns into a nightmare due to sudden violence. Protestant armed groups began attacking the city's Catholic population. Belfast, where all the residents knew each other and felt like one family, was divided from this day forward. In the midst of daily violence, Buddy and his family are forced to decide whether to leave their hometown or not.

Index

• Kenneth Branagh's personal works
• recasting autobiography as fiction
• Branagh's thoughts on Ireland
• The world as seen by a boy: the contrast between reality and the world of movies
• Music by Van Morrison and Love Affair

Kenneth Branagh's personal works

Kenneth Branagh's breakthrough film was 1989's `` Henry V, '' based on Shakespeare's play. A work of the same name based on the same play was made in 1944, directed by and starring Laurence Olivier (the Japanese title of Olivier's version was `` Henry V ''), but unlike Olivier's version, which had a beautiful style, What made Branagh's version interesting was that it was gritty and had real power.

Henry, who had been idle until then, awakens to a sense of his duty as a prince, goes to war, and grows into an adult by witnessing the reality of the war. While Olivier played Henry in his late 30s, Branagh played the role in his late 20s, making it a more convincing story of young man's coming of age. The entire movie is filled with the power of an ambitious newcomer, and the battle scenes are especially impressive.

For this film, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director and Best Actor, and instantly earned him the title of ``Modern Olivier.'' Since then, he has directed and starred in the light-hearted all-star film ``Karamou'' (1993) and the four-hour blockbuster `` Hamlet '' (1996). Although he became a central figure in Hollywood's new Shakespeare craze, his 2000 musical version of The Lost Love was a critical and commercial failure. Branagh was also forced to change direction.

Branagh also has the face of a ``strong commercial director,'' and in the 2010s he directed the American comic ` `Thor '' (2011), Disney's `` Cinderella '' (15), and Agatha Christie's `` Murder on the Orient Express Express.'' The director's films focused on famous subjects such as ``The Case '' (2018) and `` The Nile Murder Case '' (22). As a person in the theater field, I think that whether it's ``Cinderella'' or Poirot, I think of them as ``new rereadings'' rather than remakes. Stage works, whether by Shakespeare or Chekhov, are performed by different directors. In that sense, I guess there is no resistance to remakes.

“Belfast” preview

Looking back at his career as a director, there are a lot of original works and surprisingly few original works. Meanwhile, ``Belfast'' is Branagh's first original screenplay film in a while. He himself calls it a ``very personal work'' as it is based on his own childhood experiences. It won the Audience Award at the 2021 Toronto Film Festival and was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. It's been a long time since Branagh put his own thoughts into this work, and it's one of his best films.