Film society’s top honour for author John Banville
WEXFORD AUTHOR, John Banville, has been presented with the Fellowship of The Picture House, Wexford Film Society’s highest honour, for his screen work.
The presentation was made last Tuesday night in Wexford Arts Centre.
He is the seventh Wexford person to receive the prestigious accolade which is presented annually to a person from the county who has distinguished themselves in the world of film.
Previous recipients included director, Declan Lowney, actor, Gary Lydon, film critic, Philip Molloy, screenwriter, Billy Roche and production designers, John Paul Kelly and Anna Rackard.
Speaking after the presentation, which was made to him by Stephen Eustace, Banville spoke of how the Capital Cinema was ‘the picture palace’ he regularly attended with his family as a child. Expressing a love for most types of films he did admit that he hates musicals.
With a number of critically acclaimed films to his name including, ‘The Last September’, ‘Albert Nobbs’ and ‘The Sea’, he said the work of writing a screenplay was much easier than writing a novel.
‘With a novel you have to describe everything.’ he said.
‘In film, actors, and cinematographers do half the work.’
He also said it’s a ‘great thrill’ to see his characters come to life on screen and to have actors speak lines he had written.
‘Who wouldn’t want that?’ he said.
Long before ‘Albert Nobbs’ made it to the big screen, Banville was asked by the star of the film, Hollywood legend, Glenn Close, to ‘Irish up’ her script, but ended up doing more than was originally intended. However, he had great fun working with the Oscar nominated actress and was amused by the fact that while they were shooting the movie in Dublin, a place near one of the locations was actually called ‘Glenn Close’.
Banville’s next project is likely to be a television series based on his 1997 novel, ‘The Untouchable’.