Directed by John Huston 
125 minutes
In English

This was the last film directed by the legendary John Huston... one of the greatest American filmmakers of the last century, who had a passion for life, but also sharp, critical intelligence. Huston conjured up some of the most crucial films in cinema history—The Treasure of the Sierra Madre about unlimited greed, the film noir of Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon, etc. But with his version of James Joyce's The Dead he made the most intimate and poignant film of his life. In a way, it's not surprising this film cuts so close to the bone, Huston was basically on his deathbed while shooting it. He was 82 years old, confined to a wheelchair, and hooked up to an oxygen machine while he was directing. Ironically Huston died several weeks before it was finally released, so watching this flick at the time was almost like listening to him speak his final words from beyond the grave.

The Dead is considered by many to be the masterpiece of James Joyce's writing, and was the last chapter in his collection The Dubliners. The poet T. S. Eliot declared this passage as "one of the greatest short stories ever written." It is a mysterious and incredibly haunting text with an almost transcendental otherworldly mood. On the surface the story is about celebration, a family banquet, and social life during so-called holidays - but what it's actually more about is piercing that outer shell, all the customs and etiquette, and revealing the darker, deeper, world that dwells in our lives below the surface. It takes place in Ireland during the post-New Year's celebration on epiphany day, also known as "Little Christmas" in Eastern Christianity.

When Huston was asked what his movie was about, he said it's “The story is about a man being revealed to himself. And while we’re watching that happen, we’re revealed to ourselves.” Many said this story by James Joyce was unfilmable, and one of the things that made it work was the fact that the crew was working alongside the director as he was dying... including the main actress, who was his daughter Anjelica Huston. This project was clearly the swan song of Huston, who had deep ties to the country of Ireland. Back in the 1950s he was so disgusted about what was happening in the United States that he left and became an Irish citizen, and he raised his daughter Anjelica in Ireland. It is clear that this movie was never intended to be a commercial product, but more a labour of love. 

It is a film about hidden regrets we harbour deep inside us. It's a film of razor-sharp poetry, and at a certain moment seems to cut itself off from the rest of the world entirely. There is a kind of suspension of time that is created, a zone where humanity is revealed again, separate from all the clutter and noise of modern everyday life.