Film and Book Info

Film

Beautiful Thing (1996, Great Britain, Hettie MacDonald) September

Two boys, Jamie and Ste, are neighbours on a South London housing estate. One is dealing with his emerging homosexuality, the other with a brutal alcoholic bully of a father. But in spite of this, a sweet, tender love kindles between them. Their relationship forms the core of the film, but the quirky characters that surround around them, not least the Mama Cass-obsessed Leah and Jamie's tough and sexy mum, are equally enticing. This film is a celebration of first love that shines through the graffiti and grime.

Ma vie en Rose (1998, Alain Berliner) October

When seven-year-old Ludovic (Du Fresne) shows a penchant for lipstick and skirts, he unwittingly uncorks a gush of suburban prejudice. It's not that he wants to be a pint-sized transvestite, or even that he's gay, but rather an utter conviction that he should be a girl. His parents (well played by Laroque and Ecoffey) can't understand it or cope with the social stigma that's blackening their name in the tight-arsed, tight-knit community. Crippled by a mixture of liberalism, love and deep embarrassment, they end up in a comic stand-off with their son. Seasoned with spicy humour, the film never preaches. Instead, through Du Fresne's remarkable performance, it deals with a child's innocent exploration of identity and an adult perception that is tainted by sexual insecurity.

Reading Group

At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O’Neill October

Set in Dublin and its near surrounds AT SWIM, TWO BOYS follows the turbulent year to Easter 1916. At its core it tells the love of two boys, Jim, a naïve and reticent scholar, the younger son of foolish, aspirant shopkeeper Mr. Mack, and Doyler, the dark rough diamond son of Mr. Mack’s old army pal.

Out at the Forty Foot, that great jut of rock where gentlemen bathe in the scandalous nude, the two boys meet day after day. There they make a pact: that Dyler will teach Jim to swim, and in a year, they will swim the bay to the distant beacon of the Muglins rock, to raise the Green and claim it for themselves. As Ireland sets forth towards her uncertain glory there unfolds a love storyof the utmost tenderness, carrying the reader through the turbulence of the times like a full blown sail.

AT SWIM, TWO BOYS is written with great verve and mastery. It shares those elements that are the marks of all great books – the breadth of its canvas, the skill of its brush, the intensity of its subjects and, above all, the shining light of its humanity