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Nora (2000)

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8 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
fine film about a great writer's beginnings, 4 febrero 2005

Author: esh04676 de United States

I've read some of the comments pro and con already made on this movie and am glad some viewers liked it. I thought it very fine indeed, but agree that some prior knowledge of James Joyce, his life and work, is helpful. Joyce's writing is not a bore, as some of the comments suggest. The story "The Dead," from Joyce's collection "Dubliners," is one of the great short stories in English literature. It is referrd to several times in this film. (Incidentally, "The Dead" has been made into a film also.) The time of the film "Nora", when Joyce was trying to find a publisher for "Dubliners", was well before the writing of his great work, "Ulysses". It was a time when Joyce and Nora Barnacle had a stormy relationship, but nevertheless were deeply in love and had a lusty relationship with each other. This is well depicted in the movie, beginning with their first date, when Nora surprises and delights Joyce with her bold advances. Ewan McGregor and Susan Lynch play these scenes with high professional skill, helping us to really understand the delight these two people had in a physical relationship. Their love is an up and down affair but endures. McGregor is a fine actor who always give 100% in whatever his role may be and in "Nora" he does not disappoint. I was struck by the way he squinted occasionally, just as Joyce must have done with his terrible eyesight, which even in these early years had begun to deteriorate badly. Susan Lynch is new to me and very convincing as the servant girl from the Irish countryside who kept up to the challenges of life with a great intellectual. One objection: I viewed this film on DVD and was unhappy that there are no captions for the hard of hearing--or for those who have trouble with Irish brogues!! There were a couple of the Trieste scenes where Italian conversation did have English language captions. A great relief! But is it really too great an expense for DVD producers to routinely include the caption option?

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6 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
An Impressionistic Portrait of Nora and Jim., 17 marzo 2002

Author: Chris Sullivan de Los Angeles, CA

This is a beautiful film. Beautiful in the way it was directed, played and photographed.

Some of the photography, by cinematographer Jean-Francois Robin, could remind the viewer of the most famous of impressionist paintings of the time with couples strolling in the late afternoon fading sun in that magic hour of light when day is slowly but surely turning into night.

The story is essentially about Nora and we are introduced early on to the inspiration of the Michael Furey character from The Dead. This is shown in flashback, just as it is in the original story, as the physically bruised Nora Barnacle leaves Galway for Dublin after a beating from her father.

We are not sure just how far Nora's sexual experiences with the young man went but when she eventually meets James Joyce on that famous original Bloomsday of June 16th 1904, when the Ascot Gold Cup was being won by Throwaway, when Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus were wandering elsewhere around Dublin she does something so memorable and orgasmic to the genius Jim that it plants the seeds of jealousy in his mind that will haunt and taunt their relationship even to the point of James questioning whether their eldest child, Giorgio, is in fact his. If she did that to me she would do it to anybody is his reasoning.

There are some fine multi layered performances by the two leading characters, Ewan McGregor and Susan Lynch, who are ably supported by Peter McDonald as Jim's long suffering but supportive brother Stanny (Stanislaus). With one turn of the head and a slight look in the eye McGregor shows the character's insecurity with the relationship and the return look from Lynch lets him know, and the audience, that he is being unreasonable. Nora believes that James invents the situations to give him fuel for his stories but there is a growing torment of the young artist there with his displays of paranoia about Dublin, his fear of 'things with horns' and his child like panic when he is caught in a thunder storm. These three things and maybe his writing with its stream of consciousness tell us that this, indeed, is not a reasonable man.

There was hardly any mention, however, of the eye problems that James Joyce suffered from throughout his life. His fear of blindness, that he eventually almost reached, might have shown his urgency to get things down on paper. But this is such a small complaint in a wonderful movie so lovingly written and directed by Pat Murphy without one word of James Joyce being used in the script. There are a few little hints, which copyright cannot affect, when we see the few lines: 'Europe, The World, The Universe' which comes from 'A Portrait Of The Artist as a Young Man' and we see Nora save a manuscript from the fire. A manuscript that would be the first draft of 'Portrait' and which eventually saw the light of day as 'Stephen Hero.'

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4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Molly Blooms, 28 abril 2000

Author: seamus enright (seamusenright@ireland.com) de Cork, Ireland

Writer's lives are always a difficult subject for the screen, and even with the wealth of biographical and autobiographical material about James Joyce, he remains no exception. This movie, concentrating on the early part of his relationship with the humorously-monikered Nora barnacle makes a reasonable enough attempt to bring cinematic life to this complex and enigmatic figure.

Ewan McGregor, in the role of Joyce is sometimes a bit too young and sexy to convey his subjects brooding, promethean intensity, but he's certainly more convincing than Bosco Hogan in Joseph Strick's Portrait of an artist. The real star of the film is Susan Lynch, whose earthy sexuality convinces us that she could develop into the Molly Bloom of Ulysses. There's also good support from the actor playing Joyce's more level-headed brother and soi-disant "keeper", Stanislaus.

The movie is often affected by the exaggerated Irishness that seems to blight every movie set in the island, but it doesn't get in the way of the film's verisimilitude too much, with one exception. When Joyce's brother takes his book to an Irish publisher, he is told that "there's something dirty going on" in "The Dead" and this is presented as a uniquely Irish reaction, though in reality Joyce had the same reaction everywhere.

The film is also punctuated by subtle allusions to Joyces work that literati will enjoy picking up, but won't alienate those poor hordes of non-Joyceans too much. At the risk of sounding like a swotty pedant, there's a lot of profane language in the movie, which Joyce maintained he never used in speech, though it serves, if anything to increase the characters' believability.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
A fine film, if a bit confusing, 12 octubre 2000

Author: thompson_leigh de Dallas, Texas

I have to say I was greatly surprised by the extremely low rating average on this film's IMDB listing page--I looked at the demographic breakdown and over half the votes are 5 and above, so how can it possibly be 2.8 average? I had the opportunity to view Nora overseas a couple of weeks ago and I must say I found it compelling, even though its focus confused me a little.

The storyline kind of went into full gear before we got to know the characters, but the performances of Ewan McGregor and Susan Lynch were both top notch. The relationship of James and Nora riveted me to my seat. They fought like dogs, but they were vibrant and passionate souls whose relationship endured all sorts of demons. Nora's soul was bared for the viewer and Susan Lynch made her one of the strongest female characters I can remember by giving Nora vulnerability as well as uncommon emotional strength. McGregor did a great job of helping me sympathize with Joyce, even when he was neurotic and treated his long time love terribly. I wish the beginning of their relationship had been presented more concretely, but McGregor and Lynch hooked me anyway. As it presented the events of their lives, Nora was top notch. Not for anyone who is an afficionado of actions films, that's for sure.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Must be seen more than once to be fully appreciated., 3 septiembre 2000

Author: Stella-44 de Sydney, Australia

I was also most fortunate to attend the screening on Aug. 23 in Sydney. Ewan's words at the end of the film really illuminated the motives and the intense belief shown by the director Pat Murphy and the lead actors for this lovingly crafted film.

At first, the tale seems simple enough. Two people are in love. Love, however, has a habit of not coming into people's lives in a logical fashion. Hence, the literary genius whose muse is a country girl turned chambermaid. This situation prompts questions/doubts at many levels - for the audience, the friends and family of Joyce and Nora, and the lovers themselves.

This is why I feel it is necessary to view the film more than once. The understanding of this love requires thought. It is an hypnotic story, at times confronting as the different modes of realisation, elation, torment and rejection of love are lived through by the duo as they flow in and out of synch. with one another.

It should be pointed out that the film's title, 'Nora' should be accepted as a signpost that this film does NOT focus on Joyce. It is the significance to Nora of this union and the effect of her existence upon Joyce which is the true focus.

I highly recommend this film as a most satisfying and very beautifully told study of an all encompassing real life love affair.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
truely a moving tale, 16 junio 2002
Author: neaslon de Odessa, TX, U.S.A

I don`t know much about James Joyce, but I loved this movie. I don`t know if it was because I am a huge Ewan Mcgregor fan or what. I loved the way Nora was totally in love with James. I loved the way Ewan portrayed his insecreties. I loved how that in the end they realise that love can over come most obstecals(A quote from another Mcgregor film)If you will watch this movie as a love story and not analize every single thing ,you will love it to.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
An insight into a writers mind, 23 agosto 2000

Author: GB-37 de Sydney Australia

I was lucky enough to see this at a small time premiere in Sydney and Ewan turned up as he is out here making some big time sci-fi movie. Anyway my first reaction to this movie was that I thought that it moved with a pace that was too disjointed and that we were confronted with too much intimate detail before we had a chance to understand anything about the characters. Afterwards we heard from Ewan and from his expressions of how it was a glimpse at a life not a tale and how that we are supposed to just capture moments in what was a very complex and unique relationship that Joyce had with nora that on further thought I have come to see more into what the film was trying to do so on second viewing I was able to understand I suppose more of the workings of the mind that was Joyce I highly recommend this film to anyone with a passion not only for Joyce's work but anyone who has an interest in the personal life of a creative mind. Watch it twice for even more.

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4 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
interesting...disappointing, 6 enero 2003
Author: Daniele Vigo de California

I bought this DVD, expecting the always fascinating work of Ewan Mcgregor. When I watched it, I was interested in the characters, wanting to know more. By the end of the film I was disappointed in the story line. They were together, then they weren't. He couldn't live with out her and all is happy again. It was two people that were the perfect couple but were absolutely horrible for each other. I did like the fact that it ended with a laugh, though.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Actual lives--not a Harlequin romance, 21 agosto 2004

Author: Bill Bell de Ontario, Canada

At a superficial level the film is richly evocative of the physical and cultural settings of Dublin, Ireland and Trieste, Italy; and of the strong contrasts between the two places. Dublin's streets are gritty, dark and damp, its people dress in shades of black and grey. Trieste is bright and airy, and people find it natural that rooms should connect via exterior balconies. But unfortunately when James Joyce tried to escape Dublin he carried his Irish neuroses with him in his cases.

Nora Barnacle is hearty, strong, sensuous and highly adaptable. As a biography of her, this film concentrates on the generous support and protection that she gives, and promises to give, to a fearful, complicated man given to outrageous sexual jealousy--James Joyce.

Nora and James might seem poorly matched and perhaps it is the combination of her own jealousy for his letters--and their intense physical relationship--that binds them.

None of us could expect to predict a stable outcome, could we? Yet they lived together for their entire adult lives.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
A reflection of Joyce beyond the film., 9 junio 2000

Author: ceadcara de Dublin, Ireland

This is a worthwhile well produced film. For the first time the general public see James Joyce as a human being, and not an intellectual icon. Too much has been published about what Joyce wrote. Here is the real story of a man, the woman he loved, and the very real struggle he had to get published in the first place. Joyce was very badly served by the country of his birth. His books were burned in Dublin, and excluded from the works of past pupils of his Jesuit school. All that is now changed. This film opens a window on the life of Joyce which has been shut for too long. He wasn't a mind without a soul. He was a very real man, with weaknesses like all men, but with a vision, and a will to succeed.

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