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BELFAST’S CINEGMATIC ÉMIGRÉ:BRIAN DESMOND HURST
TUESDAY 31 MARCH
7PM
STUDIO CINEMA
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£6 / £5.50
BOOK ONLINE
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Brian Desmond Hurst remains a prolific yet enigmatic émigré figure in Irish and British cinema history. Born into a working class Protestant family in Castlereagh in 1895, he died 91 years later, with over 30 films to his credit and had lived in London’s exclusive residential area of Belgravia. How did he make this transformative journey and why was his achievement ignored for so long?
From Irish Hearts (1934) to memorable war-time movies like Dangerous Moonlight (1942), Hurst’s career links back to Hollywood’s silent era master directors, Rex Ingram (1893-1950) and John Ford (1895-1973) the latter with whom Hurst worked, appearing in The Hangman’s House (1928).
Much of what we know of Hurst’s life is fabrication rather than fact. A creative Irishman, he was adept at telling tales about himself that were outrageously funny, flattering to himself and reflected what the people he met wanted to believe. A critical edition of his memoir, Travelling the Road: A Life in Cinema edited by Lance Pettitt, will be published in September by Lagan Press.
Shot on location at Inch Strand, Kerry, his adaptation of Synge’s stage classic Playboy of the Western world turned out to be a flawed swan-song film. Its nostalgic take on Synge’s story was out of kilter with the emergent modernisation in the Republic. Tonight’s screening will be introduced by Lance Petitt and Hurst’s great-niece, Marion Smith who first met her great uncle Brian at the location filming of Playboy.
Dr Lance Petitt is Reader in Media and Popular Culture at Leeds Metropolitan University. He is author of Screening Ireland (2000), December Bride (2001) and ‘Funny Business’, an article on James Young in Eire-Ireland 43: 3/4 (2008).
Photo Courtesy of Christopher Robbins with thanks to Marcus Hearn'.
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