December Bride [Paperback]

Sam Hanna Bell's debut novel (1951), about life in a tight-knit Presbyterian community in turn-of-the-century Northern Ireland, was adapted for the screen by David Rudkin and directed by Thaddeus O'Sullivan in 1990. Both as a novel and as a film, December Bride is a remarkable combination of passion and politics set against a rural backdrop of communal constraint and individual action. Visually and thematically, the film is a timely reinvestigation of Ulster Protestant history and culture, and in particular reclaims a tradition of radical independent thought exemplified by the work of Sam Hanna Bell. Drawing on previously unpublished archival material and new interviews, Lance Pettitt explores the intricate relationship between novel, screenplay and the wider film culture. December Bride is a consummate and provocative challenge to the politics of Irish society, its cinematic representations, and to the very process of film adaptation itself.Review of the Ireland into Film series:
Each writer has also done an impressive amount of new archive research, which greatly enhances the series' value as fim history and film research. The volumes give full production details and where possible, contain good background interviews with writers and directors???.Each volume is lavishly illustrated so that as well as providing good detailed information on the films and an engaged debate about adaptation in general, the series is also an excellent value for the collector. Handsome in design and including sensible stills, each of the three volumes provides a lengthy and insightful essay, full credits, and notes. This series is a splendid model for other national film institutes. All film collections. This title has been reviewed jointly with This Other Eden, by Fidelma Farley, and December Bride .
These three concise monographs initiate a collaboration between Cork University and the Irish Film Institute and a series titled Ireland into Film. In his brilllƒE