Paddy Breathnach is most persuasive when he stays close to his characters. We rate his intimate dramas above his less distinctive horror work, and his move into television gives us reason to keep following him.
Fi1m perspective
In Rosie (2018), Paddy Breathnach keeps the camera close to the characters and lets the shot change as the scene develops. The housing crisis supplies the subject; the naturalistic performances keep our attention on the people caught in it. This is where we find him most persuasive. He has moved between crime comedy, horror and intimate drama, but his work is more distinctive when the characters take precedence over the demands of the genre.
His route there was not direct. After co-founding Treasure Films with producer Robert Walpole in 1992, he began in natural history and sports documentaries, then made his first feature, Ailsa (1994). I Went Down (1997) brought the crime-comedy breakthrough, followed by the international production Blow Dry (2001). The subsequent horror films Shrooms (2007) and Red Mist (2008) were less distinctive. A willingness to try another kind of film is useful, but these excursions give us less reason to seek out his name.
Viva (2015), a Spanish-language drama set in Cuba, and Rosie brought him back towards intimate stories. The change of language and setting in Viva is a useful reminder that closeness to characters need not depend on working at home. Writers Mark O'Halloran and Roddy Doyle have worked with him, as has cinematographer Cathal Watters. From the late 2010s, television took a larger place, with The Dry (2022–) and Bodkin (2024) among his directing credits.
Breathnach's television work includes two episodes of the sixth series of Michael Hirst's Vikings (2013), directed in 2020. We found ourselves caring about the people doing the fighting, because Travis Fimmel and the other performers gave the battles human consequences. That is a response to the series, not a claim that one director accounts for everything it does well. The countryside and battles reward the attention, even when the dialogue is painfully blunt. Rosie is the place to go next for a clearer sense of what he can do with a camera and a performance.
Biography
Paddy Breathnach is an Irish film and television director and producer. He began his career directing natural history documentaries and co-founded Treasure Films with producer Robert Walpole in 1992. His first feature, Ailsa (1994), won the award for Best First or Second Film at the San Sebastián Film Festival.
His second feature, I Went Down (1997), screened at Sundance and won the New Directors prize at San Sebastián along with Best Director awards at the Thessaloniki and Bogotá film festivals. Subsequent features include Blow Dry (2001), Man About Dog (2004), Shrooms (2007), Red Mist (2008), Viva (2015) and Rosie (2018). Viva was shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Breathnach has directed episodes of television series including Vikings (2020), The Dry (2022–) and Bodkin (2024). He is a board member of the Screen Directors Guild of Ireland.
