Anne Devlin (1984) User Reviews

A brilliant Irish film from a different perspective!

[Colm22 · 8/10 · 27 October 2005]

An excellent film with an alternative perspective to Irish history, in this case the rebellion of 1803 led by Robert Emmmett told through the eyes of a young woman, Anne Devlin.

The film is remarkably intelligent with the script opting to explore the realities and problems of planning a rebellion at the start of the nineteenth century as oppose to merely romanticizing the events. Significantly the actual rebellion or battle itself is not shown, for the simple fact that the protagonist, Anne, was not at the scene during it and this reflects the director's wish to ground the film with the central characters' perspective. The film has been somewhat overlooked internationally but hopefully in the fullness of time will be appreciated for championing the views and the voices of those figures who still continue to be ignored by history books.

The near-maid

[blacknorth · 8/10 · 25 May 2007]

Ireland's resurgent film industry (in swing since Michael Collins) has yet to produce anything as convincing as this extraordinary and moving story of heart-sided Anne Devlin, caught up in the 1803 rebellion through the carelessness of her men.

Brid Brennan's near maid belongs to the hidden history of Ireland opened by Sebastian Barry's later Steward Of Christendom, but she shares none of that character's sense of revisionist sweepstakes. She's an open faced young woman, on a cart, on a horse, under torture. She is escorted from scene to scene, but her suitors are guards or informers or both, and the sullen blush on her knows it. Brennan's performance is superb - she anticipates all the famine faces to come.

The film has an extraordinary visual sense of the age - the damp is captured as crisply as any hanging, even going to muffle the dialogue, as though mock recording of that time simply could not take, or water got into the boom. The period decor is well produced and the photography (by O'Sullivan) is beautiful, stark, cruel.

The essence of her dilemma is expressed perfectly after her capture. She asks,'Do you know, did my family tell them anything?'