Four Days in July

Four Days in July is a 1984[1][2][3][4] television film by Mike Leigh. Set and filmed in Belfast, the film explores the Troubles by following the daily lives of two couples on either side of Northern Ireland's religious divide, both expecting their first children.[5] The film's action unfolds over 10–13 July 1984; the two couples' children are both born on 12 July, the date of a Protestant celebration in Northern Ireland known as the Twelfth.[6] Despite the politically charged setting, the film is uniquely uneventful, at least on the surface; Paul Clements writes that "It is hard to identify any full length work by Leigh in which less of consequence seems to happen."[7] Broadcast only once, it was Leigh's last film for the BBC.[8][9]

Four Days in July
GenreDrama
Written byMike Leigh
Directed byMike Leigh
StarringBrid Brennan
Stephen Rea
Paula Hamilton
Charles Lawson
Eileen Pollock
ComposerRachel Portman
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
Production
ProducerKenith Trodd
CinematographyRemi Adefarasin
Running time96 minutes
Production companyBBC
Release
Original networkBBC One, BBC HD
Original release29 November 1984 (1984-11-29)
External links
Website

Cast and crew

The film stars Paula Hamilton and Charles Lawson as the Protestant couple, Lorraine and Billy, and Brid Brennan and Des McAleer as the Catholic couple, Collette and Eugene.[8] Stephen Rea, Eileen Pollock, B.J. Hogg, and Shane Connaughton appear in secondary roles.[8][9] The film's music was composed by Rachel Portman.[9]

Reception

In 2009 The Times' Kevin Maher praised the film as a "must-see movie for anyone with a compassionate interest in an 800-year-old political sore."[10] Shane Connaughton, screenwriter of My Left Foot called it "easily the most interesting picture I've seen about Northern Ireland since the troubles started. Apart from John Arden and Margaretta D'Arcy's The Ballygomben Bequest (1972), I can't think of any play or film that has gone into it so successfully in any deep way at all."[11]

Notes
  1. Cardinale-Powell, Bryan; DiPaolo, Marc (22 July 2013). "Devised and Directed by Mike Leigh". Bloomsbury Publishing USA – via Google Books.
  2. Monaco, James (10 July 1991). The Encyclopedia of Film. Perigee Books. p. 327 – via Internet Archive.
  3. "Mike Leigh: how I got started in cinema". The Daily Telegraph.
  4. "Four Days in July". TV Guide.
  5. Clements 167
  6. Clements 167–68
  7. 168
  8. Clements 176
  9. "Movie Reviews". The New York Times. 9 July 2019.
  10. http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article6844782.ece
  11. Connaughton, quoted in Michael Coveney's 1996 The World according to Mike Leigh, p. 178

References

Clements, Paul. "Four Days in July (Mike Leigh)." British Television Drama in the 1980s. Comp. George W. Brandt. Cambridge University Press, 1993. 162–176.

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