Anna Livia Ryan

Documentary tribute to "The Quiet Man" by John Ford. A special tribute that, away from traditional documentary, traces the outline of a cinematographic work of other person and offers a portrait of a society that fascinates the director.

Stiff Upper Lips is a broad parody of British period films, especially the lavish Merchant-Ivory productions of the 'eighties and early 'nineties. Although it specifically targets A Room with a View, Chariots of Fire, Maurice, A Passage to India, and many other films, in a more general way Stiff Upper Lips satirises popular perceptions of certain Edwardian traits: propriety, sexual repression, xenophobia, and class snobbery.

A young woman, Tara Maguire (Robin Wright) scandalizes her provincial Irish village in the 1950s by having a baby out of a wedlock, and refusing to name the father. She has a rare beauty and every man in town desires her, especially Sergeant Hegarty (Albert Finney). The arrival of a dramatic troupe stirs things up even more, especially when she falls in love with one f the "Playboys", Tom Casey (Aidan Quinn).

Adapted from Charles O'Neal's 1949 book, this follows the lighthearted adventures of a late 19th Century young man named Jamie McGrew, the three wishes granted to him in a dream by a fairy queen, and the unusual way they come true. His first is for travel (he goes from Ireland to a life of horse trading in Georgia); his second, to marry the girl of his dreams; the third, a son with the gift of poetry and the ability to speak in the ancient Gaelic tongue.