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Blue Road: The Edna O'Brien Story

Play trailer Blue Road: The Edna O'Brien Story 2024 1h 38m Biography Documentary Play Trailer Watchlist
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In 1960, a young Irish woman named Edna O’Brien wrote a sexually frank debut novel, The Country Girls. She became a literary sensation, writing for The New Yorker, delivering provocative interviews, and authoring screenplays. Her success enraged her writer husband and made her a pariah in her native Ireland, where her books were banned and burned. She would make her home in London, where she conducted numerous love affairs, hosted star-studded parties, and made and lost a fortune. In July 2024, Edna passed away and this film provides a final testimony from her, aged 93, as she reflects upon her extraordinary life for filmmaker Sinéad O’Shea’s camera. Granting the director access to her personal journals, read aloud in the film by the Oscar-nominated Irish actress Jessie Buckley, and with additional perspectives offered from Gabriel Byrne, Walter Mosley and an array of renowned writers, Edna does not shy from any subject.

Critics Reviews

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David Rooney The Hollywood Reporter The melancholy undercurrent in O’Shea’s film comes not so much from O’Brien, who is devoid of self-pity, as from the evidence that her stature among the greats of Irish literature was fully acknowledged at home only toward the end of her life. Nov 15, 2024 Full Review Fionnuala Halligan Screen International It’s executed in the same spirit of openness and friendship that O’Brien brought to her own headlong passions and you get the feeling that, yes, she’d think it got her right. Oct 30, 2024 Full Review Catherine Bray Variety Blending evocative archival footage, audio and new talking-head interviews, director O’Shea collages together an accessible look at a life seemingly lived to the full. Sep 16, 2024 Full Review Giovanni Lago Next Best Picture “Blue Road: The Edna O’Brien Story” is a documentary as contemplative as it is celebratory. It’s an examination of an artist who found success in a time when her views on pleasure and desire were not promoted conversed as conventionally. Rated: 8/10 Nov 27, 2024 Full Review Pat Mullen POV Magazine O’Shea does O’Brien’s story well, offering a fully formed character study that, like the writer’s works, tackles the social issues of Ireland’s oppressive Catholic bent. Sep 18, 2024 Full Review Christopher Llewellyn Reed Hammer to Nail So many remember her fondly and celebrate her writing. And now, this extremely entertaining documentary offers a rousing portrait that does her ample justice. Watch it and get to reading. Sep 16, 2024 Full Review Read all reviews

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Movie Info

Synopsis In 1960, a young Irish woman named Edna O’Brien wrote a sexually frank debut novel, The Country Girls. She became a literary sensation, writing for The New Yorker, delivering provocative interviews, and authoring screenplays. Her success enraged her writer husband and made her a pariah in her native Ireland, where her books were banned and burned. She would make her home in London, where she conducted numerous love affairs, hosted star-studded parties, and made and lost a fortune. In July 2024, Edna passed away and this film provides a final testimony from her, aged 93, as she reflects upon her extraordinary life for filmmaker Sinéad O’Shea’s camera. Granting the director access to her personal journals, read aloud in the film by the Oscar-nominated Irish actress Jessie Buckley, and with additional perspectives offered from Gabriel Byrne, Walter Mosley and an array of renowned writers, Edna does not shy from any subject.
Director
Sinéad O'Shea
Producer
Eleanor Emptage
Screenwriter
Sinéad O'Shea
Genre
Biography, Documentary
Original Language
English
Runtime
1h 38m