Let’s just say that not all immigrant stories are the same. This one for example is nothing at all like the folks being debated on the campaign trail here in America. For one thing, it transpired back in the 1950s. In New York City. Brooklyn. And she is white. And a woman from Ireland.
So, among things, the chances of her being a “terrorist” were rather remote.
But some things stay the same. There’s still gender bias. And racism. And ethnocentrism. And while you once lived over there in a particular cultural context, now you live over here in [in some respects] an entirely different one.
And then things get complicated. A tragedy strikes and you have to go back. And then you find yourself pulled in both directions. By two different lives. By two different sets of relationships. By two very different men.
All with very different narratives.
And in part these will revolve around conflicting moral imperatives: What is the right thing to do? Or, as likely as not, what is the least wrong thing to do?
And [inevitably] this will revolve as well around the extent to which [given the times] this might be recounted as “the immigrant experience”. As though it might possibly be reduced down to one particular individual’s trek between competing realities.
Here there is great stock put in being Irish. And there are those who take pride in the fact that they are Irish…or German or Italian or French or Spanish or whatever. But I have always seen this as just part and parcel of the way in which as children we are taught to separate ourselves in this manner. It’s just a way to mold and manipulate [and then later to divide and conquer] us all politically.
Or, sure, maybe there really is something to it. Maybe [biologically] there are actual qualities or characteristics that are passed down over the generations through the genes.
IMDb
[b]The city of Brooklyn in the film was actually shot in Montreal for budgeting reasons, as the production was unable to turn 2015 Brooklyn back to 1950s Brooklyn. Only two days of production were spent in Brooklyn, one in order to create the brownstone exterior shots and a second to film at Coney Island.
Saoirse Ronan herself was born in The Bronx, New York, but raised in Ireland to Irish parents.
While this is Saoirse Ronan’s first time using her native Irish accent, the dialect of her character differs from the one she uses in reality. In this film, she uses a Wexford accent, as her character is from Enniscorthy, while she speaks with a Dublin accent in her private life.
Received a standing ovation when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.[/b]
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn_(film
trailer: youtu.be/1ekxPFTZm1Y
BROOKLYN [2015]
Directed by John Crowley
Eilis: Miss Kelly might I to talk to you later.
Mary Lacey: Not if what you’re going to say will cause trouble for me in some way or another.
She’s reason enough to be leaving.
[b]Eilis: I’m away to America.
Mary Lacey: Whose idea was that?
Eilis: Father Flood in New York arranged it. Rose used to play golf with him. He sponsored me. He found me a job and got me a visa.
Mary: Lacey: Your poor sister.
Eilis: My sister?
Mary Lacey: Oh, mothers are always being left behind in this country. But Rose … That’s the end for her now, isn’t it? She will be looking after your mother, for the rest of her life.
…
Georgina [about their ship cabin] This is hell. Never again.
Eilis: Never again to America?
Georgina: The mistake was coming home from America in the first place.
…
Georgiana [at customs]: Stand up straight. Polish your shoes, and don’t cough whatever you do. Don’t be rude, or pushy, and don’t look too nervous.
Guard: This way!
Georgiana: Think like an American. You have to know where you’re going.
Guard [stamping her passport]: Welcome to the United States, Ma’am. Through the blue door, please.
…
Mrs Keogh: I saw you had a letter today, Diana. Any news?
Diana: Mr. de Valera has had another operation on his eyes, she says.
Mrs Keogh: I don’t want news that I can read in a newspaper.
Sheila: Anyway, we would describe Mr. de Valera as “politics”, would we not, Mrs. Kehoe? And we do not like politics at the dinner table.
Mrs Keogh: We don’t.
Diana: It’s not politics, to talk about eye operations.
Mrs. Keogh: It is if the eyes belong to a politician.
…
Mrs. Keogh: Ellis, from the look of you, you have greasy skin, is that right? What do you do about that?
Eilis: Just… Well, I wash it, Mrs. Kehoe, with soap.
Miss McAdam: There is nothing wrong with soap. Soap was good enough for our Lord. I expect.
Mrs. Keogh: Well, which brand did he use, Miss McAdam? Does the Bible tell you that?
…
Eilis: Sorry. Could I have the bill please?
Diner Waiter: I hope that when I go through the pearly gates, the first sound I hear is you asking me for the bill in that lovely Irish brogue.
…
Mrs. Keogh: We’ve never had a Bartocci’s girl living here. We might get some inside information.
Eilis: I haven’t been told anything.
Diana: I’ll bet you wouldn’t let on if you had. She’s that sort. More loyal to her bosses than to her friends. Like a Red spy.
Sheila: Oh, dear God!
Mrs. Keogh: I’ll thank you to keep His name out of a conversation about nylons. He might be everywhere, but he’s certainly not in Bartocci’s on sale day.
…
Rose [in a letter to Eilis]: We talk about you every evening, of course. We want to know everything. I’m sure you’re busy, but even if your letters were two hundred pages, they wouldn’t be long enough for your mother.
[cut to Eilis weeping]
…
Father Flood: I forget what it’s like in Ireland. So when your sister wrote to me about you I said that the Church would try to help. Anyway, we need Irish girls in Brooklyn.
Eilis: I wish that I could stop feeling that I want to be an Irish girl in Ireland.
Father Flood: Homesickness is like most sicknesses. It will pass.
…
Eilis [at the Christmas dinner for the poor and homeless]: How many are we expecting?
Father Flood: There were a hundred last year. There may be more this.
Eilis:They all Irish?
Father Flood: All Irish.
Eilis: Why don’t they go home?
Father Flood: If there’s nothing there for a clever young girl such as yourself, there’s gonna be even less for men like these. Some of them have been here fifty years, they have lost touch with everyone. These are the men who built the tunnels, the bridges, the highways. God alone knows what they live on now.
…
Patty [putting makeup on Eilis]: There. That’s better. Now you don’t look like you’ve just come in from milking the cows.
Eilis: Is that what I looked like?
Patty: Just a bit. Nice clean cows.
…
Tony: I’m not Irish.
Eilis: You don’t sound Irish.
Tony: I need to make this clear. No part of me is Irish. I don’t have Irish parents or grandparents or anything. I’m an Italian. Well, my my parents are, anyway.
Eilis: So what were you doing at an Irish dance? Don’t the Italians have dances?
Tony: Yeah. And I wouldn’t want to take you to one. They behave like Italians all night.
Eilis: What does that mean?
Tony: Oh, you know.
Eilis: No.
Tony: Hands.
Eilis: Too many of them?
…
Tony: OK, so while you’re being amenable. Can we go see a movie this week? When you’re not at night classes?
Eilis: I’ll sign up for two movies.
Tony: Really?
Eilis: Yes. Even if the first date is a disaster, I’ll give it another chance.
…
Miss Fortini: Eilis! You’re like a different person! How did you do it? Maybe I can pass some advice on to the next poor girl who feels that way.
Eilis: I met somebody. An Italian fella.
Miss Fortini: Oh no. I’m not passing that on. I’d rather have them homesick than heartbroken. Does he talk about baseball all the time? Or his mother?
Eilis: No.
Miss Fortini: Then keep him. There isn’t another Italian man like him in New York.
…
Patty [teaching Eiliis how to eat spaghetti]: Hold it. Now remember You’re getting off easy, because we haven’t got sauce.
Diana: Yeah. You have to remember that the sauce flies everywhere, so take it slowly.
Patty: I’m gonna say “Splash” anytime I see problems.
Diana: Good idea.
Eilis: Can I start now?
Patty: Yeah! Go!
Diana: SPLASH! You just splashed his mother, and his father, and the walls.
Patty: Let’s go again.
…
Tony’s mother: Hey, how did you learn to eat spaghetti like that?
Eilis: I’ve been taking lessons.
Tony’s brother: Lessons? Like, in a class? You can do that?
…
Frankie [Tony’s brother who is 8 years old]: So first of all I should say that we don’t like Irish people.
[General cries of outrage around the table]
Frankie: We don’t! That is a well known fact! A big gang of Irish beat Maurizio up and he had to have stitches. And because the cops round here are Irish, nobody did anything about it.
Maurizio: There are probably two sides to it. I might have said something I shouldn’t, I can’t remember now. Anyway, they probably weren’t all Irish.
Frankie: They just had red hair and big legs.
…
Eilis [to Tony]: You remember that after I had dinner at your house, you told me you loved me. Well, I didn’t really know what to say. But I know what to say now. I have thought about you. And I like you, and I like being with you and…maybe, I feel the same way. So the next time you tell me you love me, if there is a next time…I’ll say I love you too.
…
Eilis: Tony and I are going to Coney Island at the weekend to celebrate.
Diana: Oh, boy!
Eilis: What does that mean?
Diana: Do you have a bathing costume?
Elis: No, I was going to get one…
…
Patty: Do you have sunglasses?
Eilis: No.
Sheila: You need sunglasses. I read that if you don’t have them on the beach this year people will talk about you.
Mrs. Keogh [witheringly]: And what will they say, exactly, Sheila?
Dolores: That’s the thing, Mrs Kehoe. You’d never know, because they’d never say it to your face.
Mrs. Keogh: Diana’s right, though, Eilis. You need to think carefully about your costume. It’s the most Tony will ever have seen of you. You don’t want to put him off.
…
Father Flood [on Rose’s death]: It was sudden. I think perhaps she was ill, and she knew she was ill, and she didn’t tell anybody.
Eilis: When will they bury her?
Father Flood: Tomorrow.
Eilis: Without me.
Father Flood: Without you. You’re too far away, Eilis.
Eilis: Why did I ever come here?
Father Flood: Rose wanted a better life for you. She loved how well you were doing.
Eilis: But I will never see her again. That’s right, isn’t it, Father? I will never see her again.
Father Flood: You know that I think you will.
…
Mother [on the phone]: When your daddy died, I said to myself that I shouldn’t grieve too much because I had the two of you. Then when you went to America, I told myself the same thing because Rose was here with me. But everyone’s gone, Eilis. I have nobody.
…
Eilis: I can’t bear it, Tony.
Tony: You wanna go home, I guess.
Eilis: And how would it be for you, if I did go home?
Tony: I’ll be afraid, every single day.
Eilis: Afraid that I wouldn’t come back?
Tony: Yes. Home is home.
Eilis: I’m not sure if I have a home anymore.
…
Eilis [at the seashore back in Ireland]: I’d forgotten.
Jim: What?
Eilis: This.
Jim: You have beaches in Brooklyn?
Eilis: Yes, but they are just very crowded.
Jim: There will probably be quite a few walkers along here later.
Eilis: Yes. It’s still not the same.
Jim: I’m sure it’s not. We don’t really know anything of the rest of the world. We must seem very backward to you now.
Eilis: Of course not. You seem calm, and civilised. And charming.
…
Jim: Can we talk?
Eilis: What about?
Jim: The future. I can’t let you just go back to America without saying anything. I’d regret it for the rest of my life. So, I don’t want you to go. I want you to stay here, with me. And I know that means asking you another question. But I don’t want to bombard you. So I’ll save that one for later.[/b]
And we know what that one is. Only Eilis has forgotten to mention that she is already married to Tony.
[b]Mary Lacey: Anyway, Mrs Brady has a niece living in Brooklyn. The world is a small place, isn’t it? She had a letter from her a couple of weeks back.
Eilis:And what did it say?
Mary Lacey: Oh, only that she’d been to a wedding at the city hall, and her husband bumped into a girl from Enniscorthy who was getting married there.
Eilis: I’m not sure what you’re telling me, Miss Kelly. He didn’t bump into me.
Mary Lacey: Oh, you can’t fool me, Miss Lacey. Although I’m not sure that that’s your name any longer, is it? He couldn’t remember. Something Italian, he thought.
Eilis: I’d forgotten.
Mary Lacey: You’d forgotten! What a thing for…
Eilis: I’d forgotten what this town is like. What were you planning to do, Miss Kelly? Keep me away from Jim? Stop me from going back to America? Perhaps you didn’t even know. My name is Eilis Fiorello.
…
Eilis: Mommy, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m married. I got married in Brooklyn before I came home. I should have told you. I should have told you as soon as I got back. I want to be with him. I want to be with my husband.
Mother: Of course. Is he nice? Yes. He’d have to be nice, if you married him. So you are going back?
Eilis: Yes. Tomorrow.
Mother: Are you on the early train? I’m going to bed.
Eilis: Mummy…It’s not even eight o’clock. You don’t have to…
Mother [crushed]: I’m very tired. And I’d like to say goodbye now, and only once.
…
Eilis [instructing a new immigrant on the ship back to America]: When you get to Immigration, keep your eyes wide open, Look as if you know where you’re going. You have to think like an American. You’ll feel so homesick that you’ll want to die, and there’s nothing you can do about it apart from endure it. But you will, and it won’t kill you. And one day the sun will come out - you might not even notice straight away, it’ll be that faint. And then you’ll catch yourself thinking about something or someone who has no connection with the past. Someone who’s only yours. And you’ll realize…that this is where your life is. [/b]