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In the 80s, novelist Edna O'Brien – Died last year at the age of 93 – received the status of “Saoi”, an Irish honor meaning “wise”. His wisdom has been hardened, as shown in the documentary by Sinéad O'Shea Blue Road: The story of Edna O'Brien. He covers the life of O'Brien, starting with rural childhood in the county of Clare and his emergence as a writer with his first novel in 1960 Campaign girls – A success that led to being demonized in Ireland for his sexual franchise and his revolt against the repression of women.
In addition to many archive images, the film includes passages from O'Brien intimate newspapers, read by Jessie Buckley. These are extraordinarily frank, expressing variously euphoria, despair, rage, fascination with whirlwind changes in his life. The most alarming are the revelations of his difficult marriage to the writer Ernest Gébler who, more and more resentment of his success, seems to have scribbled his own acrimonious comments in his newspaper.
The film in turn offers an in -depth psychological portrait; A history of modern Ireland and its social attitudes; And a representation of an era when literary success could bring social glory that turns the head. At the height of his fame, O'Brien was famous for his extravagant festivals and for having toured with Judy Garland, Jane Fonda and Paul McCartney. We hear her accounts for one night with Robert Mitchum and a long and painful link with a married British politician, she surge “Lochinvar”.
Interviewed by O'Shea in the last two years of his life, O'Brien – Fragile but austere and fears of the own blade – rejects all of this as a distraction of important things in life, especially nature. With contributors such as the sons of O'Brien Sasha and Carlo Gébler, the actor Gabriel Byrne and the writers Anne Enright and Walter Mosley, it is a moving and perceptive tribute to O'Brien as a formidable writer and a woman of remarkable complexity.
★★★★ ☆
In British cinemas from April 18
