Special film event planned for this Kildare library
Kildare author and film director will attend
The Naas Library and Cultural Centre will be hosting a special event to celebrate director Walter Hill’s 1984 musical action film Streets of Fire.
Set in a dystopian metropolis, rock star Ellen Aim (Diane Lane) is kidnapped by a biker gang known as The Bombers, headed by evil Raven Shaddock (Willem Dafoe).
Aim’s ex- boyfriend Tom Cody (Michael Pare) takes charge in bringing Aim out of the clutches of the terrorising gang and back to the stage where she belongs. The film features a rousing rock n’ roll soundtrack with music by Ry Cooder, Jim Steinman, Tom Petty and The Blasters.
Attending the screening will be two special guests: Wayne Byrne, a film historian and author of the acclaimed book Walter Hill: The Cinema of a Hollywood Maverick, and director (and Film Ireland writer) Paul Farren. These Hill experts will discuss the director, the film, and its legacy.
Author Byrne says, “I’m looking forward to discussing Streets of Fire. It’s one of my favourites and it was quite a thrill to document it in my book with Walter himself and with various cast members and producers.
“It was its 40th anniversary recently and deserves to be seen again in such a great setting as the library, which was itself a cinema going back a hundred years, so there is great cinematic history there.
“It’s a very underrated movie and kind of got lost among other high-profile blockbusters that came out in 1984. But it has become a cult film over time and here we are screening and discussing it forty years later to hopefully an audience of old fans and potential new ones. It should be an enjoyable evening.”
The screening will take place in Naas Library and Cultural Centre on Thursday April 17 at 6.30pm. The event is not ticketed, seats are assigned first-come first-served. For further information, contact at [email protected] or on 045 980795