Turning That Clown Upside Down

Send in the Clowns. Pic: Ruth Medjber

rom Bounty and Lives Of The Infamous to Inside No.9 and this month’s Apocalypse Clown, Irish filmmaker George Kane has been responsible for some of the big and small screen’s darkest laughs in recent years.

Which, given that he attended film school in Dun Laoghaire, shouldn’t really come as all that much of a surprise.

Having broken on through with his self-produced 2007 comedy pilot Cinephilia, it was clear from the start that the Kane lad knew what he was doing. And he hasn’t stopped working since.

His 2012 Dead Cat Bounce rockumentary Discoverable picked up 7 international awards whilst his 2018 C4 short, Bounty, is the station’s most-watched Comedy Blap, with views passing the million mark.

Add to that recent work on such acclaimed TV series as Brassic and Inside No.9, and it’s hardly surprising that his new feature film, Apocalypse Clown, has been getting ridiculously good reviews.

Screening at The Whale on, fittingly enough, Friday, October 13th, we asked curious George to reveal his inspirations, and just where this dark twisted mind sprung from…

From an early age, all my career ambitions involved the media on some level – journalism, animation, graphic design, music production – but it was a video project in transition year that made it all click for me.

Portrait of the artist as a young film student

Filmmaking! Why hadn’t I thought of that before? Films were a big family thing for the Kane family growing up. Having my 6-year-old heart ripped out by ET, being terrified by Ghostbusters‘ gargoyles, falling in love with the Back To The Future trilogy, having my mind blown by Jurassic Park – and eventually developing a deeply geeky teenage obsession with the Marx Brothers…

Along with this school project, the Peter Biskind book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls turned me on to the films and filmmakers of ’60s/’70s Hollywood, and that was that. I knew what I wanted to do.

So I went to IADT Dun Laoghaire to learn how to do it, while raiding every 3-for-€30 video sale while I worked in HMV. I was equally into sketch comedy – Big Train, Python, Chris Morris, Mr Show…

After college, I jumped into an assistant role in a small post-production house in Dublin, which got me my very first TV credits. While there, I wrote, directed and self-funded a comedy pilot over the course of 18 months and, luckily, sent it to exactly the right commissioner in Channel 4. He introduced me to Belfast company Green Inc and, a year later, I was directing my first Channel 4 comedy pilot.

Fifteen years later and thankfully it’s all worked out pretty well, as I don’t know how to do anything else…

Back To The Future (1985)
I’ve seen the trilogy so many times, it feels like it’s part of my DNA. The original can’t be beaten. Not a moment is wasted, the cast are phenomenal… it’s funny, thrilling, smart, inventive – and the Johnny B. Goode scene fuelled my rock n roll fantasies for a long time. The perfect family film.

Monkey Business (1931)
I’d probably pick any of the Marx’s Paramount movies from 1930-34, and Duck Soup gets all the kudos – but I think Monkey Business is actually funnier, joke for joke. Groucho’s sparring with Thelma Todd… the joyously chaotic customs scene where they all try and pass themselves off as Maurice Chevalier… A small highlight is all four brothers being chased around the boat, but still deciding to stop and bang out an impromptu atonal jazz jam, for no good reason at all.

The Conversation (1974)
I love paranoid ’70s films, and films about insular obsessives. This is one of the best of the decade. Wonderful sound design, a fantastic piano score, Hackman at his best. Amazing to think Coppola knocked this out between his Godfather masterpieces, and didn’t even manage to finish shooting the whole script!

The Last Detail (1973)
Another ’70s pick – and peak Jack Nicholson. Gritty, down to earth locations, funny and profane Robert Towne dialogue, no-nonsense Hal Ashby direction… and a classic 70s downbeat ending.

The Insider (1999)
I also have a thing for journalism-newsroom movies – Zodiac, All The President’s Men… I rewatch them all once a year. The Insider is probably my favourite Michael Mann film. Pacino is on fine form, Russell Crowe is excellent, it looks and sounds glorious, plus the supporting cast are hard to beat.

The Fugitive (1993)
I know The Fugitive inside out. I was quite sheltered as a film-watching teenager, so this was probably the first rated-15 film I ever saw! It’s the kind of fun adult thriller that doesn’t get made any more. It’s still really effective and full of texture and personality quirks in a way modern Hollywood films aren’t. Tommy Lee Jones and his supporting cast of cops give the thing so much flavour and Harrison Ford has rarely been better. Another perennial rewatch for me!

Sunset Boulevard (1950)
One of my absolute favourites. I’m a sucker for films about films – The Bad & The Beautiful is another. But Sunset Boulevard is such a joy – dark, cynical, witty and tragic, satirical about Hollywood… cameos by Cecil B DeMIlle, Erich von Stroheim and Buster Keaton… Gloria Swanson being iconic.

American Movie (1999)
Speaking of movies about movies – this is possibly the funniest documentary of all time. I didn’t believe it was real, the first time I saw it. It’s also sad and hopeful and big-hearted. A portrait of Mark Borchardt, a horror movie nut and never-say-die film-maker from Wisconsin, trying to complete a short film called Coven, so he can sell it on VHS and thereby fund his opus, Northwestern. His relationships with his friend Mike Schank and his elderly Uncle Bill are touching and hilarious, and it’s endlessly quotable. David Earl from Apocalypse Clown is a massive fan too!

This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
Obvious choice I suppose, but undeniable! One of the greatest comedies of all time. No fat on it, riddled with unforgettable cameos, and still funny after I don’t know how many rewatches. I find myself quoting it far too regularly! “Can I raise a practical question at this point…?” Clearly an unavoidable influence on the previous film I made with Dead Cat Bounce, Discoverdale, where we chased Whitesnake around Scandinavia. Long story.

Mean Streets (1973)
Not my favourite Scorsese film but, as mad as it sounds, this was the one that made making a film seem achievable to me somehow. Phenomenal soundtrack, from Be My Baby on – and DeNiro dancing around a car to Mickey’s Monkey.

George Kane’s Apocalypse Clown screens at The Whale on Friday, October 13th – tickets here. You can find out more about the Kane lad here.