James Joyce’s “Araby” on Film

James Joyce published Dubliners in 1914, and among the stories in that volume, one received a distinguished cinematic treatment by John Huston in his 1987 film of ‘‘The Dead,’’ the subject of a fine monograph by Kevin Barry in 2001.1 The time is overdue to recognize a film of another Dubliners story, ‘‘Araby,’’ directed by Dennis J. Courtney, released in 1999.2 Early reviewers of the Dubliners volume, such as Gerald Gould in the New Statesman and Ezra Pound in The Egoist, singled out ‘‘Araby’’ for special notice, and Courtney’s film version is attuned to the story’s unusual beauty and complexity. I was grateful for the opportunity to interview the director in detail about his work on February 28, 2009.3 Courtney explained that the principal photography for this film of ‘‘Araby’’ was completed in the summer of 1994, with pickup shots completed in 1995. The shoot took eight to ten days, and the film, 18/2minutes long, was shot out of continuity at various locations. Released in 1999, it was sent to over 40 film festivals, where it won numerous awards. Originating as a Master’s degree project at Regent University, the film had a budget of $30,000 and was shot in the eastern United States. Its locations included row houses in Richmond, Virginia, the exterior of the bazaar from a building in Asbury Park, New Jersey, and a train from New Hope, Pennsylvania. The priests’ sacristy from a church in Portsmouth, Virginia became the classroom in the film. Courtney researched the film for a year, reading everything he could find about the story. The website includes an extensive bibliography of critical writing about ‘‘Araby.’’4 The adaptation and editing were by Courtney and Joseph Bierman. Courtney described the film as inherently difficult to make because of its presentation of the interior experience of its young protagonist, portrayed by a young actor, Van Michael Hughes (see Figure 1). Hughes attended the Governor’s School of the Arts in Virginia, where he studied