Film Details
| Title | FRANKIE STARLIGHT |
| Production company | Ferndale Films |
| Sponsor | Bórd Scánnán na hEireann/Irish Film Board |
| Country of origin | Ireland |
| Producer | PEARSON, Noel |
| Director | LINDSAY-HOGG, Michael |
| Script/Adaptation | RAYMO, Chet
O'LEARY, Ronan |
| Photography | LAUFER, Paul |
| Editing | FOSTER, Ruth |
| Production design | CONWAY, Frank |
| Costume design | BERGIN, Joan |
| Music composer | BERNSTEIN, Elmer |
| Cast | Anne Parillaud (Bernadette Bois), Matt Dillon (Terry Klout), Gabriel Byrne (Jack Kelly), Rudi Davies (Emma), Georgina Cates (young Emma), Corban Walker (Frank Bois), Alan Pentony (young Frank), Niall Toibm (Handy Paige), Dearbhla Molloy (Ella Kelly), Jean Claude Frissung (Albert Bois), Victoria Begeja (Anne Marie Bois), Barbara Alyn Woods (Marcia), John Davies (Tobin), Amber Hibler (Charleen), Jessie-Ann Friend (Lisa), Ulrich Funke (German officer), Guy Verame (interpreter), Julian Negulesco (Bernadette's uncle), Corinne Blue (Bemadette's aunt), Sage Alien (bar proprietress), Ann Weakley (midwife), Elizabeth Keller (TV interviewer), David Parnell (photographer), Aiden Grennell (bookshop manager), Tristan Gribben (bookshop assistant), Christopher Casson (bookshop gentleman), Owen Roe (senior customs officer), Aisling Leyne (girl in gallery), Pauline Cadell (prostitute), Alan Devine, Edward Naessens, Laurent Mellet (Bemadette's friends on beach), Christine Keane (mother of scabious child), Darren Monks (young man in cinema). Kit Kincannon (man in bar), Martin Murphy (guest at wedding), Martin Dunne (friend at wedding). Deny Power (friend at wedding No. 2). |
| Colour | col |
| Sound | Dolby Stereo |
| Duration | 101 |
| Release date | 1995 |
| Copy | IFA |
| Summary | Eighteen-year-old Bemadette Bois leaves her home in Normandy, France in 1945, having failed to live up to her saint's name by predicting the date of the allied landings on D-Day. As a consequence she is held partly responsible for her father's death. She is allowed to stow away on an American troop ship in return for sexual favours. Put ashore in Ireland, the penniless Bernadette gives birth to a son, Francois/Frankie. Bemadette and Frankie are befriended by married customs officer Jack Kelly, who briefly becomes Bernadette's lover. Jack is discovered by his teenage daughter Emma and he confesses the affair to his wife, who proposes they help look after Bemadette and Frankie. With Jack's help, Bemadette is able to raise Frankie in Dublin. Jack teaches Frankie about the stars, sparking in him a lifelong mystical obsession with the cosmos. However, disharmony is introduced into the household when the disturbed Emma comes to live with Bemadette and Frankie. As an adult, Frankie weaves his love of astrology into a novel based on his recollections of his mothers relationship with Kelly and an ex-GI, Terry Klout. After his book is published he moves from isolation to a potential celebrity. The family move to Texas (V). "Based on Chet Raymo's best-selling novel The Dork of Cork, this film follows the fortunes of a dwarf Frank (Alan Pentony as young Frank); Corban Walker as adult Frank), whose best-selling memoirs recall the story of his French-born mother, her lovers, and their life in post World War Two Ireland. The film's flashbacks tell how eighteen-year-old Bernadette (Anne Parillaud) leaves her Normandy home after failing to live up to her saint's name and incorrectly predicting the date of the Normandy invasion, which leads to her father's death. Hitching a ride on an American troopship, she is dropped off in Cork, pregnant, the result of sex with any one of a number of soldiers. A married customs officer Jack Kelly (Gabriel Byrne) befriends her and looks after her until her son Frank is born. Even though they have an affair which is discovered by his family, the Kellys support the pair after they move to Dublin, and Jack helps Frank with his interest in astronomy and the cosmos. When an ex-GI, Terry (Matt Dillon), appears, a new relationship is born and they migrate to Texas." |
| Note | IR Rel 14/9/1995 (world premiere). Filmed on location in Ireland in Dublin, Wicklow and Kildare, and in Texas. |
| Reference | FI No. 49, Oct/Nov 1995:28; IT 15/9/1995:11; SBP 10/9/1995:8; SI 10/9/1995; SI 17/9/1995:13L; ST Magazine 17/9/1995:15.
Publicity: Cast and filmmakers lists, production notes, cast and filmmakers details, finance. Frankie Starlight: World Premiere. Frankie Starlight premiere programme: Production background, story synopsis, principal cast and crew biographies, cast and crew lists. Sunday Independent, 10/9/95, ‘The impresario’, profile of Noel Pearson, producer of Frankie Starlight (Eamon Dunphy). Irish Times, 15/9/95:11, ‘Beyond the stereotype of the small person’, interview with Corban Walker, actor in Frankie Starlight (Helen Meany); ‘Meryl makes her day’, critical review of film Frankie Starlight (Helen Meany). Film Ireland, Oct/Nov 1995:28, crew and cast lists, and critical review of Frankie Starlight (Elaine Lennon). Sunday Tribune, 1/3/98:3, ‘Father and daughter at height of success’, interview with Chris and Sinead Burke who appeared in Frankie Starlight (Susan McKay). |
| Format | 35mm |
| Distributor | Ferndale Films |
| Language | English |
| Production credits | p.c: Femdale Films, p: Noel Pearson, d: Michael Lindsay-Hogg, sc: Chet Raymo, Ronan O'Leary from the novel The Dork of Cork by Raymo (London: Bloomsbury, 1993), dop: Paul Laufer, line p: Seamus Byrne, m: Elmer Bernstein, ed: Ruth Foster, p.dsgn.: Frank Conway, cast. d: Nuala Moiselle, cost: Joan Bergin, publicity: Gerry Lundberg, IR distr: Femdale Films. |
| Location | Dublin
Wicklow Kildare Texas |
| Genre/Category | Feature Film Drama |
| Keywords | Childhood
Astrology Novels |