Film The Commitments
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Characters:
- Females
In "The Commitments" there are three female characters: they're the backing singers of the group Imelda, Natalie and Bernie.

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  • Imelda Quirke: she's about twenty years old, she's got long, curly, blonde hair and green eyes. She's quiet tall and thin, she's vey pretty. She sang as backing singer in the group ''The Commitmens''. She's got an amazing voice but, after the break up of the band, she doesn't sing anymore, because Greg, his husband doesn't want. She's portrayed by the Irish actress Angeline Ball (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FauNLW_D_dw)
  • Natalie Murphy: she's about twenty eighteen years old, she's got long, straight, brown hair and brown eyes. She's tall and thin. Before singing as backing singer in the group, she sang in the church choir, when the group broke up, she had a great success as solo singer. She probably has got a loving relationship with Jimmy Rabbitte. The actress in this role is Maria Doyle, an award-winning Irish actress and singer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_-vdYhUNnA).
  • Bernie McGloughlin: she's about eighteen years old. She's got short, brown hair and green eyes. She's quit slim and not very tall. She's really funny. Before becoming one of the vocalists of the soul group ''The Commintments'' , she was a street food seller, but after the break up of the band, she started singing in a country music band. She has terrible tastes about music. The actress is Bronagh Gallagher. Born in Derry, Northern Ireland, Gallagher had to learn a Dublin accent to portray this role.

(Claudia Volpicelli, Beatrice Clementi, Emma Zuppi)

Dublin:

Dublin is the capital and most populous city of Ireland.
It is a primate city serving a population of approximately 1.8 million within the Greater Dublin Area. The English name for the city is derived from the Irish name Dubh Linn, meaning "black pool".
Dublin is situated near the midpoint of Ireland's east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey.

Dublin in 1900

Overcrowding and unemployment were serious problems in urban Ireland at the beginning of the twentieth century. The infant mortality rate amongst the poor was 142 per 1,000 births, which was very high for a European nation at that period. The situation was made worse by the high rate of disease in the slums

In a Government Report on housing conditions in Dublin in 1911, as many as 169,736 people were classed as under the heading “indefinite and non-productive class”, and at least 45,149 people belong to the unskilled labour class, about one seventh of the total population.

Arnold Wright travelled to Dublin in 1914 to collect information about the lock-out, the form of work stoppage in which an employer refuses to allow employees to work. The Dublin Lock-out was a major industrial dispute between approximately 20,000 workers and 300 employers which took place in Ireland. The dispute lasted from 26 August 1913 to 18 January 1914, and is often viewed as the most severe and significant industrial dispute in Irish history. Central to the dispute was the workers' right to unionise,
Although aware of the desperate poverty, and terrible living conditions of most of the working classes, his sympathies largely lay with employers, and he, at times, expressed the view that the poor were partly responsible for their own problems.
He was more interested in the middle and upper classes, than in the poor.
He describes how desperate social and economic conditions were in Ireland before the lockout, and argues that these produced discontent, which often led to violence or lawlessness.

Expecially, the film is set in this places:
• Ardmore Studios, Herbert Road, Bray, County Wicklow, Irlanda (Studio)
• Ballsbridge, Dublino, County Dublin, Irlanda
• Bray Head Hotel, Bray, County Wicklow, Irlanda (Concerto - l'espulsione del giocatore tastiera)
• Bray, County Wicklow, Irlanda
• Darndale, Dublino, County Dublin, Irlanda (Casa di Jimmy Rabbite)
• Dublino, Irlanda (Barrytown)
• Guida Hall, Synge Street, Dublin, County Dublin, Irlanda (Sala in cui la band comincia)
• Musical Hall, Ricardo Snooker Hall - Lower Camden Street, Dublin, County Dublin, Irlanda (La sala prove della band)
• Northside, Dublino, County Dublin, Irlanda (Barrytown)
• Pembroke Road, Ballsbridge, Dublino, County Dublin, Irlanda (Casa di Joey “the lips” fagan – casa della madre -)
• Sherriff Street, Dublin, County Dublin, Irlanda (Sequenza di Apertura - Jimmy Rabbitte vende cassette al mercato)
• Sir John Rogerson Quay, Dublino, Irlanda
• Chiesa di San Francesco Saverio, Gardiner Street, Dublin, County Dublin, Irlanda (Chiesa - La canzone 'A Whiter
Shade Of Pale' suonato all'organo)
• Waterside Rock Bar, Sir John Rogerson Quay, Dublino, Irlanda (Concerto a Gallagher, attesa per l'arrivo di Wilson Pickett, scioglimento della banda)

(Sofia Allegra, Clelia Gentili, Giuseppe Alvise Sergi)

Summary:

In Dublin, in 1980s, Jimmy Rabbitte, a young proletarian, wants to create the most famous working band of tha world. He wants the band to play soul music, because it is a "black music"; his motto is "I'm black and I'm proud" and his idols are Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding and James Brown.
With some auditions, he chooses the members of the band: they are all young unemployed proletarian and, despite his idols, they are all white.
The name of the band is "The Commitments". They start to play in Dublin and they're quite succesful. Joey, the trumpetist, says he knows the famous musician Wilson Pickett and he promises the band will play with him, but he doesn't keep his promise and the members of The Commitments start to fight. So, just when the press got interested on them, they stop their activity.

(Bianca Di Silvestre, Sofia Eustacchi, Margherita Pandolfi, Alice Pellegrinotti)

The Director:

Alan William Parker was born on 14 February 1944 into a working class family in the North of London. He's a british director, screenwriter, actor, film producer and writer. He also creates many spot and movies for agencies. Thanks to the work made with Alan Marshall, Parker won lots of Awards.
His first important film has been Midnight Express (1978), that gave him notoriety in the world of cinema. It is about a true story of an american guy arrested in turkey for drug possession, who will get home with an evasion.
In his work also appear literary adaptations, which are perhaps his best films.
He has been active in the American cinema too.
However, most of his films are part of the musical genre or somehow related to music as Bugsy Malone (1976), Fame (1980), Pink Floyd The Wall (1982), The Commitments and Evita (1996).

(Giada Cicchetti, Federica Pelliccia, Clara Rodorigo)

Comment:

After watching the film, we see each other member of our group at the house of one of us. Although this film isn't very famous and the actors aren't well known, we enojyed so much this musical. The characters are realist and expressive. Also, the 'Soul music' of this musical/drama seemd particular to us because is not a type of music we often listen to. The city of Dublin, were the film was set, is a poor city with people of a middle-poor class and this fact makes the film more plausible, belonging to the reality of nowadays.

We also made some questions about this film to a lot of people:
1)Person A said that The Committments wasn't so interesting, because she doesn't like musicals, she think they are boring.

2)Person B, although, said that this film was very beautiful and realist and he liked it so much.

3)Person C said that this film wasn't so beautiful because the actors weren't good.

4)Person D liked very much The Committments because he likes Soul Music, and some songs like: Midnight Our, Mustang Sally and Destination Anywhere.

5)Person E said this film just once, and she doesn't remember what happens in it.

6)Person F said he doesn't know The Committments, but all his friends talked very well about it.

7)Person G said that she didn't see this film yet, but she want to see it because she already knows the songs and she loves this type of music.

8)Person H said that he saw the film and liked it because he like very much the character of Imelda.

9)Person I, who has got 30 years, gave us a description more detailed of the film because he knows it more than us and because he lived 2 years in Dublin and he knows the reality of that city.

10)Person L said she liked very much this film, but the Suol isn't her prefer type of music.

(Francesca Gigli, Marta Grossi, Nicolò Innocenti, Matteo Bernucci)