Dance First Movie Details:
Country | United Kingdom Belgium Hungary |
Language | English |
Genre | Biography, Drama |
Release date | 30 September 2023 (Zinemaldia) 3 November 2023 (United Kingdom) March 7, 2024 (Hungary) August 9, 2024 (United States) |
Running time | 1hr 40min |
Starring | Gabriel Byrne Fionn O’Shea Sandrine Bonnaire Léonie Lojkine Bronagh Gallagher Gráinne Good Robert Aramayo Maxine Peake Aidan Gillen |
Directed by | James Marsh |
Written by | Neil Forsyth |
Produced by | Michael Livingstone Tom Thostrup Fabian Westerhof Viktória Petrányi Deborah Aston |
Cinematography by | Antonio Paladino |
Edited by | David Charap |
Casting By | Beatrix Nemesházi Olivia Scott-Webb |
Production Design by | Damien Creagh |
Production Company | Umedia Film Constellation Sky Arts 2Le Media Proton Cinema |
Distributor | Sky Cinema StudioCanal |
Dance First Movie Cast & Characters:
- Gabriel Byrne as Samuel Beckett
- Fionn O’Shea as the eldest of three younger Becketts
- Aidan Gillen as James Joyce
- Maxine Peake as Barbara Bray
- Sandrine Bonnaire as Suzanne Dechevaux-Dumesnil
- Léonie Lojkine as young Suzanne
- Robert Aramayo as Alfred Peron
- Bronagh Gallagher as Nora Barnacle
- Lisa Dwyer Hogg as May Beckett
- Barry O’Connor as William Beckett
- Gráinne Good as Lucia Joyce
- Caroline Boulton as Sylvia Beach
Storyline:
The film documents the Irish writer’s life, from his childhood, his friendship with James Joyce until the incarceration of the latter’s mentally ill daughter Lucia Joyce, his relationship with his future wife Suzanne Dumesnil, his time as a fighter for the French Resistance during the Second World War, his postwar literary rise and subsequent Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969, his affair with translator Barbara Bray and his later life until his death in 1989. Throughout the film, Beckett carries out an interior monologue.
About Dance First Movie:
Dance First is a biographical film about Irish playwright Samuel Beckett, directed by James Marsh and written by Neil Forsyth. Gabriel Byrne stars as Beckett, with a supporting cast featuring Fionn O’Shea as a younger Beckett and Aidan Gillen as James Joyce.
Principal photography began in Budapest in May 2022. Filming locations in Budapest included the corner of Gerlóczy utca and Vitkovics Mihály utca, the steps of the VÃgszÃnház, Dohány utca, the lobby of Hotel Gellért and the New York Kávéház.
The film closed the 71st San Sebastián International Film Festival’s official selection on 30 September 2023. The film was theatrically released in the United Kingdom on 3 November 2023, by Sky Cinema in association with StudioCanal.