Star Rating:

Bargaintown

Directors: David Jazay, Judith Klinger

Release Date: Friday 4th December 2015

Genre(s): Documentary

Running time: Ireland minutes

Shot in pre-Celtic Tiger era of 1988 and 1989, Bargaintown is lovingly restored for the upcoming Irish Film Institute documentary festival.

Directed by German photographers and filmmakers David Jaszai and Judith Klinger, this tender, easy-going documentary chronicles a Dublin that’s just on the cusp of real change. The quays is where they find the capital shedding the old and embracing the new with Jaszai and Klinger’s camera gazing up to the aged sun kissed storefronts, occasionally taking in the curious faces of those staring out from cars and delivery trucks as they pass in front of the lens.

Essentially a series of silent street shots (although we do hear the calls of vendors) that will tickle those who remember the names of the discount shops, jewellers, furniture wholesalers and Tormey Brothers auctioneers, which the directors shoot without commentary, but the directors break things up by slipping in short interviews with publicans, barbers and store owners who lament the passing of Old Dublin.

One barman talks of buildings pulled down after fires and replaced by ugly (and empty) office blocks, while a barber isn’t concerned with the environmental impact of rising traffic congestion and predicts the future will include an obsession with personal health and fitness (how right he was). Mike Tynan, a furniture wholesaler, gives us a brief history of his business and then treats us to a session of his jazz drumming. As an interlude, Jaszai and Klinger treat us to two songs from bluesman Frank Quigley as he entertains a crowd in the Workingmen’s Club on Wellington Quay..

What soon becomes apparent is that while some of what we’re seeing is urban decay ( especially the shots of shops propped up by structural supports) in a time of economic depression, Jaszai and Klinger find beauty in the buildings; the cheery sun helps but would the scenes have the same effect in the Dublin rain? But capturing a moment in time between the old and renewal (middle aged men still wear suits and those only years younger wear jeans and jumpers) Bargaintown is a beautiful snapshot of an era.