Queer Portrayal In Contemporary Irish Cinema

Goldfish Memory: Fluid Sexuality in a New Irish Landscape

Images depicting Ireland tend to evoke the picturesque green landscapes many associate with Ireland. The typical postcard will often depict rolling hills, timeless castles, sheep obstructing roads, etc. This imagery creates a calm, idyllic life, but exists away from the globalization Irish people are experiencing , to the pleasure or chagrin of its citizens. Distancing itself from this pastoral scenery, Goldfish Memory , creates a new, hipper landscape in which escapes from the traditions and taboos associated with popular images of Ireland with new fluid identities.

Goldfish Memory follows a group of individuals and their intertwining stories of love and romance. Each character experiences new relations in contrast to their identities. The film's title derives from the memory of a goldfish being around three seconds, at which point the goldfish forgets everything it once knew and begins again, a metaphor for humans experiencing the joys and pains of love again and again.

Goldfish Memory occurs strictly within a new Dublin cityscape. Shots depicting the city's skyline and the river Liffey are shown frequently, and the city's population is seen actively walking the city's streets. In McLoones's "Cinema, city, and imaginative space,", he writes of how this portrayal envisions "a new imagining of Dublin, turning the old premodernist city into a postmodernist playground" (213). The color of the film has been enhanced to breathe life into the city, and the bustling and crowded streets show that Dublin's citizens are actively navigating this new potential. From these shots of city life, the film will cut to its characters interacting in hip, new places, such as a coffee shop or a well decorated apartment. In both these public and private spaces, the characters seem willing to openly choose a mate regardless of sex without fear of consequence. The film ignores how such actions may provoke homophobic response, but its frequent use of the cityscape means it is trying to represent Dublin at large. As scenes cut between vast exterior shots of buildings and cool interior shots of bars and other such spaces, the soundtrack acts a bridge between these two spaces. The music is evocative of what would be found a cool, inner-city coffee shop, bringing modern taste to a country so seemingly stuck in its ways. This constant use of a sound bridge is meant to impose the ideals of these areas on the larger population, representing Ireland's growing tolerance to queer culture. These dramatic new spaces become areas for which to discover a new identity, which many of the film's characters navigate and explore.

With this new Ireland, the film attempts to experience sexual freedom within this exciting new landscape. Many of the film's characters are gay, straight, lesbian, or something in between. David, the bumbling bartender, constantly repeats that he is straight early, despite his attraction Red. He is adamant in defending his heterosexuality, and while he is depicted as having little to no sexual interest in his girlfriend, he refuses to break up with her until caught with Red. Likewise, Red and Angie both identify as homosexual, but after one night's indulgence in wine, the two end the night by sleeping together, leading to Angie becoming pregnant. These characters provide a new intertwining of sexual relations and identities, and the film facilitates their exploration of sex and relationships. This new city provides optimal space for exploring queer identity, and the lack of ramifications for public displays of queerness means characters act at their own discretion.

For all of the film's exploration of fluid identities, those who most freely participate in this sexual hedonism are punished by the film's plot. Tom, the lecherous, old professor begins the film by charming two young women in his classes, Clara and Isolde. He is discovered by the former, and rejected by the latter. Clara goes on to date Angie, who is hoping for commitment from this relationship. Clara, in exploring her new bisexuality, decides to sleep with her male friend on the side, eventually causing Clara and Angie to break up. Clara and Isolde then start a relationship, with both seeking physical pleasure. Meanwhile, Tom finds new love in Renee, and by the film's end, has found redemption in his narrative through his marriage to Renee. Clara is then shown to use the same lines as her former suitor, differing only in environments. As Michael Patrick Gillepsie observes, "If one reads the final scene as endorsing a return to stability and equilibrium after a period of recklessness, then much of the praise given to the film for its sexual daring begins to ring hollow" (74). The film allows its characters to explore queer identities and spaces, but draws a distinct line between exploration and lustful self-indulgence.

Many arguments are made against Goldfish Memory for strict depiction of a new Dublin which lacks any significant landmarks to distinguish it from other cities. In Holohan's Cinema on the Periphery, he writes "the camera seems reluctant to stray too far from the river Liffey, as if this were the only reliable anchor for the city's identity...to stray too far from the river is to enter a semantic vacuum" (105-106). This lack of a serious Irish identity mutes the The film is based in Ireland, but authors often write of the film's lack of a serious Irish identity, losing the sexual progress which the film seems so focused on portraying.

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