Not Cannes, but a prestigious event in Dinard, Brittany, recently renamed to include the best of Irish as well as British cinema. There were full houses all week and, in the end, the jury chose Roddy, a well-known figure in Irish theatre and TV, as best actor. (The unusual name, sounds like Law-lor, recalls a family relation and respect for Fintan Lalor, a leading Young Irelander in the 1840s and champion of small farmers).
Lalor’s film, in which he plays an ageing jack-of-all-trades, That They May Face the Rising Sun, is an adaptation of the last novel of John McGahern, and already has won this year’s RTÉ best film, having had 11 nominations. The cameras rolled in Connemara, rather than the quiet lakeside area where the novel was set, and there were regular drives home to Belfast in the car of old friend and distinguished producer, Brendan Byrne. The two were together again for the Dinard outing, eagerly seeking the seaside town’s connection with Alfred Hitchcock.
Although there is a statue in the main square, complete with birds, and locals swear that a spooky house on a hill was the model for Psycho, the nearest proof is Lalor’s Hitchcock, with the familiar rotund profile in glass. When I caught up with him, he was back on a film set in Ballymena, in a four-part TV series based on Louise Kennedy’s novel, Trespasses, set in 1974 Holywood. It seems there’s plenty of work for character actors like Lalor — the recipient of a special award at Belfast Film Festiv.