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Kubrick by Candlelight
An extra in a Kubrick film falls in love with an assistant director in this short film narrated by Brian Cox.
Kubrick by Candlelight is an award-winning romantic comedy short film written and directed by David O'Reilly and produced by Vinnie Jassal. It follows the romance of a British assistant director and an Irish extra who meet behind the scenes of the filming of Barry Lyndon in Ireland 1973.
Paul is an extra in a film shooting in his sleepy Irish village. But this is no ordinary film - it's the film classic Barry Lyndon, directed by the legendary Stanley Kubrick. And true to the epic, troubled nature of the production, the behind-the-scenes is almost as dramatic as the story. Amid the outsized personalities and chaos (and an opinionated onscreen narrator), Paul falls in love with one of the assistant directors, Mary - who is beautiful, English and out of his league. Despite the seeming mismatch in their backgrounds, Paul pursues Mary. He manages to get her to agree to a rather quirky first date and the pair seem to connect. But the spirit of the film production keeps asserting itself, as does an entitled, snobbish romantic rival - proving the course of romance doesn't run true, especially when it's inspired by Kubrick.
Inspired by a love of Kubrick and twenty years behind the scenes as a top location scout, David O'Reilly wanted to create a big scale short film that both illustrated the team's creative skills but also their ambitions to make feature films.
Shot over 4 days in Tullamore County Offaly the team brought together some fantastic Irish and UK actors including from Tullamore itself Darragh O'Toole (Peaky Blinders), Amy Hughes (Vikings), Phelim Drew (Angela's Ashes) as well as comedian and impressionist Al Foran.
Joining David and Vinnie was Stil Williams (Waterloo Road, The Last Tree) as DOP.
The shoot encompassed multiple locations in and around Tullamore, horses, 50 extras, period cars and buses, both 70s and 1800s costumes and props, 500 candles and one Stanley Kubrick in the guise of Michael Nolan. The principal shoot was followed up by a day in Shepperton Studios.
Editing by Ben Leach, grading by Jonny Tully and VFX work by Paddy Eason followed up the shooting period as did getting Succession's Brian Cox to play the unconventional unreliable narrator.
The original and adapted score by world renowned Irish musicians Ewan Cowley, Gavin Cowley and Joe Csibi as well as Peadar O Riada playing his father Sean's piece from the soundtrack of Barry Lyndon. Also featuring two fantastic tracks from 70s Irish rock band Cromwell.
The film premiered at the Oscar and Bafta Qualifying Encounters Film Festival in late 2017 and since then has won multiple awards worldwide including several Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography nods. It was acquired by RTE (Irish National Television) where it screened twice and also by Aer Lingus where it became
part of the inhouse entertainment package. It screened theatrically at the Triskel Cinema Cork as an accompaniment to Kubrick documentary Filmworker.
Most recently Kubrick by Candlelight has screened in the US on the Kanopy channel and became available online with the Omeleto Youtube channel. Throughout David has created a fun and persistent social media presence across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to create awareness of the film and its eventual release.
As part of its premiere in Ireland, David created a photography exhibition - Kubrickperspectives - inspired by his successful Instagram account as well as taking part in various workshops and talks about the film and his day job as one of the world's top location scouts having worked regularly with the likes of Michael Mann, Chris Noland and Tim Burton.
| Darragh O'Toole | Paul Pender |
| Amy Hughes | Mary Taylor |
| Mark Lawrence | Mark Thornton |
| Al Foran | Mick Molloy |
| Phelim Drew | Padraig |
| Mark Webb | Uncle Billy |
| Lisa Moore | Melissa Muggeridge |
| Alan Curran | Dan Kelly |
| Michael Nolan | Stanley Kubrick |
| Brian Cox | Narrator |
| David O'Reilly | Writer |
| David O'Reilly | Director |
| David O'Reilly | Producer |
| Vinnie Jassal | Producer |
| Georgette Turner | Executive Producer |
| Ben Leach | Editor |
| Stil Williams | Director of Photography |
| Ewan Cowley | Composer |
| Joe Csibi | Composer |