A great throwback to and celebration of the little important details in Irish cinema.
Roddy Doyle’s beloved The Van has been celebrated as part of a brand new radio documentary.
Propped Up, as the name suggests, takes a keen look at the props, architecture and set design behind three Irish films, including the titular van from the 1996 cult hit.
The doc is a labour of love for Dublin-based writer and documentarian Pavel Barter, who was inspired by a trip to Dunquin.
While there, he discovered a derelict building that he thought dated back to the late 1800s but was actually a purpose-built prop for the film Ryan’s Daughter.
Indeed, Barter’s documentary opens with him overlooking the Dingle Peninsula and the reveal that the filmmakers constructed an entire village in County Kerry before later demolishing it, but that one building still stands.
That movie, along with The Van and 1980s Ireland-set fantasy horror Rawhead Rex come into focus in Propped Up, which got its debut airing on Newstalk on Sunday morning.
If you happened to be sleeping in, you can listen to the doc in full at this link and again on the radio station at 11am on Monday 29 October.
With Roddy Doyle very much back in the public’s imagination thanks to the success of the powerful Rosie and the well-received theatre adaptation of The Snapper, it is perhaps fitting that this new project pays tribute to one of his most quoted works.
“The Van represented hope, it represented a way out, independence,” says production designer Mark Geraghty in the documentary.
Geraghty also worked on The Commitments and The Snapper, and came on board to help complete the Barrytown Trilogy.
“[The characters] were going to be businessmen, they were going to be successful, they could afford to pay for their own pint; and that was important for a man, especially back then.”
You can check out the full Van retrospective and the rest of Propping Up here.
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