Filmmaker Lisa Mulcahy is a veteran of many TV shows; in recent years alone, she's helmed episodes of such acclaimed shows as The Tourist, Years And Years, Ridley Road and Blood.
Now she's turning to the big screen as the director of Lies We Tell, a new psychological thriller about a gaslit girl's break for freedom. Maud (Agnes O’Casey), an orphaned heiress living alone in an isolated manor, must fight her charming and dangerous Uncle (David Wilmot) for her inheritance— and her life.
We asked Lisa for her choice cultural picks...
FILM
I read Claire Keegan's book, Small Things Like These, a few months back, and loved it. It’s short but perfectly captures a time and mood in Irish society in the 1980s when young girls and women suffered brutally at the hands of the catholic church. It’s now been made into a film starring Cillian Murphy, Ciáran Hinds and Emily Watson. It also stars Agnes O’Casey who is in my film, Lies We Tell, and who I’ve worked with twice now. Aggi is such an emerging talent and this was a great book, I’m very excited to see the result.
MUSIC
Ok, this may not be what you’d expect but if I really want to get lost in music, I listen to Elvis. The greatest, most moving, powerful voice, ever.
BOOK
I hadn’t been reading for a while as things were so busy but I have gone back to it in the last few months and have just finished Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, which I loved and was dreading coming to an end. I was literally rationing the last few chapters. The characters are brilliantly drawn (including the dog, Six-thirty) and at times I wanted to shout out "C’mon you women! You can be that person you wanna be!". Also, for the first time I engaged with chemistry, and found it interesting, fascinating even. Now, that was a surprise.
THEATRE
I don’t get to the theatre often but I do love it and love seeing new, emerging Irish actors take to the stage. My next outing will be something completely different though, in London, where I will be seeing Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends, a show devised to celebrate his incredible career and life’s work.
TV
There’s lots of Irish drama that I’ve to catch up on. I’ve just started watching The Lovers on Sky, which is great, and I was all set to catch the first episode of Obituary on RTÉ when it aired on September 26th when my remote literally blew up! Some of the series is directed by Oonagh Kearney who I was mentoring through the Screen Ireland mentoring scheme, so I’m really looking forward to seeing her work. BBC do such great drama, the most recent I saw being The Sixth Commandment – incredibly powerful stuff with a brilliant cast including Eanna Hardwicke and Conor MacNeill. Conor and I just worked together on a couple of episodes of the 2nd season of The Tourist, another BBC drama, written by Harry and Jack Williams, which I directed, and which airs in early January. They’re hugely talented writers and have a new series called Boat Story which will also air very soon on BBC – sure to be gripping. I’m also really looking forward to Faithless, a new comedy drama created by and starring Baz Ashmawy.
GIG
Myself and Michael (the hubby) went to Electric Picnic in September. The last time I was there was in 2012 when I was pregnant with twins so was feeling pretty rotten, but this year was brilliant – beautiful weather, great friends, a wild range of music and a fabulous atmosphere (and as the twins are only 13, they got left at home – sorry guys!) I’m a rock 'n' roll and ska lover so most of the main stage bands and their music were strangers to me, but it didn’t matter – it was all great. I loved The Killers; a mad duo called Confidence Man; Lyra – who is the greatest sport ever, with a mega voice to go with it - and Foil Arms and Hogg, who were brilliant on the comedy stage... a must-see gig, if you get the chance. I was in an endless queue for the portaloos beside the Electric Arena when the Wolfe Tones were singing Grace. The whole crowd (as well as us queuers) sang along – it was phenomenal.
ART
I’ve always loved William Turner’s paintings – his work depicting nature and the seas is so atmospheric and evocative; so visually inspiring and all-consuming. So, I made it my business to get to the special exhibition of his work that was at the National Gallery in Dublin earlier this year. An incredible collection of paintings and other works that explore the vast forces of nature as well as the power of sun and the moon. If you missed it don’t worry, every January, the gallery displays their permanent collect of Turner’s works for one month (when the light is weakest). Put it in your diary and enjoy getting lost in his vision! If I’m ever up in Dublin with some free time, I often nip into the gallery, a wonderful, peaceful place that’s free for us all.
RADIO/PODCAST
I always listen to RTÉ radio in the car but now, if my journey is longer than a few minutes, I will turn on a podcast. Doc on One is brilliant – so many gripping, intriguing, and even bonkers stories. My other go-to podcast is Team Deakins with Oscar-winning cinematographer Roger Deakins and script supervisor and collaborator, James Ellis Deakins. They do fascinating interviews with a huge range of people who work in the film industry – actors and crew alike. Check out the one with Paul Mescal – excellent.
We need your consent to load this Spotify contentWe use Spotify to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
TECH
I’m not the most adept person with apps, but I did just download Borrowbox, which is a free app from the library service, allowing you to read any audio books that the library carries as well as newspapers and magazines (and probably more). A wealth of listening and reading to explore.
THE NEXT BIG THING...
Agnes O’Casey, the star of Lies We Tell. Mesmerising.
Lies We Tell is in Irish cinemas from Friday, October 13th
