Breakfast on Pluto is a 2005 film directed by Neil Jordan and based on the novel of the same name by Patrick McCabe, as adapted by Jordan and McCabe. Image File history File linksMetadata Breakfast_on_pluto_poster. ... Neil Jordan is an Academy Award winning Irish filmmaker and novelist. ... Neil Jordan is an Academy Award winning Irish filmmaker and novelist. ... Stephen Woolley, born 2 December 1952 in London is a British film producer and director. ... Neil Jordan is an Academy Award winning Irish filmmaker and novelist. ... Patrick McCabe (born March 27, 1955 in Clones, County Monaghan, Ireland) is an Irish writer of mostly dark and violent novels of contemporary, often small-town, Ireland. ... Breakfast on Pluto (1998) is a novel by Patrick McCabe. ... Cillian Murphy (born May 25, 1976) is an Irish actor noted for his intense, risky performances in diverse roles,[1] as well as his distinctive blue eyes. ... William John Liam Neeson OBE (born June 7, 1952) is an Oscar-nominated Irish actor. ... Stephen Rea (born October 31, 1946) is an Irish actor. ... Gleeson as Professor Mad-Eye Moody in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. ... It has been suggested that Otis Ferry be merged into this article or section. ... Sony Pictures Classics is the specialty films division of Sony Pictures. ... November 16 is the 320th day of the year (321st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 45 days remaining. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... This is a list of film-related events in 2005. ... Neil Jordan is an Academy Award winning Irish filmmaker and novelist. ... Breakfast on Pluto (1998) is a novel by Patrick McCabe. ... Patrick McCabe (born March 27, 1955 in Clones, County Monaghan, Ireland) is an Irish writer of mostly dark and violent novels of contemporary, often small-town, Ireland. ...

Synopsis

Irish foster child Patrick/Patricia "Kitten" Braden (Cillian Murphy) searches for love and her long-lost mother in small town Ireland and then London in the 1960s and 1970s. This dark, whimsical comedy is narrated both by the main character and by animated robins, and divided into over 30 brief autobiographical chapters. Cillian Murphy (born May 25, 1976) is an Irish actor noted for his intense, risky performances in diverse roles,[1] as well as his distinctive blue eyes. ... The 1960s decade refers to the years from January 1, 1960 to December 31, 1969, inclusive. ... The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979. ... Animation refers to the process in which each frame of a film or movie is produced individually, whether generated as a computer graphic, or by photographing a drawn image, or by repeatedly making small changes to a model (see claymation and stop motion), and then photographing the result. ...

Plot

The story opens with a glamourously made-up Patrick "Kitten" Braden pushing a baby in a pram, flirting insouciantly with construction workers and introducing her life story. In the fictional Irish town of Tyrellin near the border of Northern Ireland, cartoon robins narrate via subtitles as Baby Patrick's mother abandons him on the doorstep of his father, Father Liam (Liam Neeson), who places him with an unloving foster mother. A young Patrick (Conor McEvoy) is shown acting on transgender impulses in early childhood, donning a dress and lipstick, much to the chagrin of his foster sister and mother. Luckily, young Patrick finds acceptance from his close childhood friends, Charlie, Irwin and Lawrence, and Lawrence's father, who tells Patrick that his biological mother was a great beauty who looked like blonde American movie star Mitzi Gaynor and ran away to London. Stroller redirects here. ... William John Liam Neeson OBE (born June 7, 1952) is an Oscar-nominated Irish actor. ... Transgender (IPA: , from trans (Latin) and gender (English) ) is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies that diverge from the normative gender role (woman or man) commonly, but not always, assigned at birth, as well as the role traditionally held by society. ... Mitzi Gaynor (born September 4, 1931 in Chicago, Illinois, although some sources indicate 1930) is an American actress, singer, and dancer. ...

Cillian Murphy as Patrick "Kitten" Braden

The story is quickly moved ahead to Patrick's late teen years in the early '70s, with Murphy looking glam and androgynous in a curly perm hairdo, bell-bottoms, platforms and makeup. Patrick finagles a spot in home economics class so he can learn how to make feminine clothing "for his sister," but gets into trouble by writing wild fiction imagining how he was conceived by Father Liam and Liam's young housekeeper Eily Bergin (Eva Birthistle) and by inquiring about where to get a sex change. Patrick renames himself/herself as "Kitten," also using the name Patricia. She approaches her father in confession, asking about her mother, but is rebuffed. Image File history File links Cillianbop. ... Image File history File links Cillianbop. ... The acronym LAMP (or L.A.M.P.) refers to a set of free software programs commonly used together to run dynamic Web sites or servers: Linux, the operating system; Apache, the Web server; MySQL, the database management system (or database server); Perl, PHP, Python, and/or Primate (mod mono... If referring to a flower, see disambiguation under bisexual Androgyny is the state of indeterminate gender, or characteristics of gender. ... Bell bottoms are trousers that become more wide from the knees downwards. ... Platform sandals with wooden sole Platform court shoes with open toes Platform trainer Platform boot, ankle length Platform shoes are shoes, boots, or sandals with thick soles, often made of cork, plastic, rubber, or wood (wooden-soled platform shoes are technically also clogs), generally worn strictly for fashion, and/or... Cosmetics or makeup are substances to enhance the beauty of the human body, apart from simple cleaning. ... Family and consumer sciences, or home economics, is an academic discipline concerning consumer science, nutrition, cooking, parenting, interior decoration, textiles, gardening, and other subjects related to home management. ... Modern confessional in the Church of the Holy Name, Dunedin, New Zealand. ...

After Kitten learns that her foster mother has been receiving financial support from Father Liam but not sharing it with her, she packs a suitcase and runs away, quickly catching a ride with a glam rock band, Billy Hatchet and the Mohawks, who dress up like glam Indians. She strikes up a flirtation with leader Billy (musician Gavin Friday) (though it's ambiguous whether a romance actually happens), fantasizing that Billy is the hero and she is the doomed wife in the widely loathed 1968 pop hit "Honey." Kitten briefly joins the band as its "squaw," but is fired when audiences are put off by her gender identity. Billy installs the lovestruck, homeless Kitten in a trailer home, where she discovers he's hiding guns smuggled for the Irish Republican Army. Meanwhile, Kitten's friend Irwin has begun to work with the IRA, much to his girlfriend (and Kitten's best friend) Charlie's dismay. Kitten dismisses Irwin's politics as "serious, serious, serious," but when Kitten's friend Lawrence is killed by police detonating a suspected IRA car bomb, she tosses Billy's guns into a lake. This endangers the lives of both her and Billy, who leaves her to go on the run; Kitten manages to talk her way out of being shot by the IRA. David Bowie as Glam superstar Ziggy Stardust on the cover of his 1973 Album Aladdin Sane Glam rock (also known as glitter rock), is a style of rock and roll music, which initially surfaced in the post-Hippie early 1970s. ... Gavin Friday Gavin Friday (born Fionan Martin Hanvey, on 8 October 1959, in Dublin) is an Irish singer and songwriter, composer and painter. ... See also: 1967 in music, other events of 1968, 1969 in music, 1960s in music and the list of years in music // January 4 - Guitarist Jimi Hendrix is jailed by Stockholm police, after trashing a hotel room during a drunken fist fight with bassist Noel Redding. ... Honey, also known as Honey (I Miss You), is a song written by Bobby Russell for American country singer Bobby Goldsboros tenth album, Honey. ... Squaw (from Pidgin Massachusett (a Pidginized version of a language belonging to the Algonquian family) squa, meaning young woman) is an English loan-word whose present meaning is (an) American Indian woman, regardless of tribe, and often with a derisive connotation. ... This article is about the historical army of the Irish Republic (1919–1922) which fought in the Irish War of Independence 1919–21, and the Irish Civil War 1922–23. ... The Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb produced in the United States. ...

Playing off Charlie's concern that she doesn't know anyone in London as too "serious, serious, serious," Kitten decides to move there to search for her biological mother. Initial inquiries prove fruitless, and penniless, she finds shelter in a tiny cottage in a park, only to wake and find that she's in a children's entertainment park for The Wombles and is assumed to be applying for a position as a singing, dancing Womble. She gets the job, but quickly loses it when a fight breaks out between her sponsor (Brendan Gleeson) and their boss. Soon, Kitten is forced into prostitution, and is violently attacked by her first client (Bryan Ferry), saving herself from strangulation by spraying him in the face with Chanel No. 5 perfume. The Wombles are fictional characters created by British author Elisabeth Beresford, originally appearing in a series of childrens novels from 1968. ... Gleeson as Professor Mad-Eye Moody in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. ... Whore redirects here. ... It has been suggested that Otis Ferry be merged into this article or section. ... Chanel No. ...

Kitten is writing in her journal at a diner when she is approached by Bertie Vaughan (Stephen Rea), a chivalrous magician, who asks to hear what Kitten is writing about. She explains that it's the story of "The Phantom Lady" who was "swallowed up" by the big city, then reveals that it's the true story of the mother she is seeking. Bertie hires Kitten to be his magician's assistant, exploiting Kitten's life story in a hypnosis act. Kitten and Bertie take a romantic day trip, but when Bertie leans in to kiss Kitten, she stops him, explaining that she's not really a girl. Bertie says that he already knew this, yet he doesn't kiss her. Soon, Charlie, looking for Kitten, sees Bertie's show and feeling Kitten's role in the show is derogatory, yanks Kitten out of there. Charlie is pregnant and has come to London for an abortion; Kitten accompanies her to a clinic, but Charlie changes her mind and goes home. Stephen Rea (born October 31, 1946) is an Irish actor. ... Look up magician in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A pregnant woman Pregnancy is the process by which a mammalian female carries a live offspring from conception until it develops to the point where the offspring is capable of living outside the womb. ...

Next, Kitten goes to a club where British soldiers hang out and again finds potential romance dancing with a soldier, only to be injured as the club is bombed by the IRA. When they discover that Kitten is biologically male and Irish, she is arrested on suspicion of being involved in the bomb plot. Beaten and prevented from sleeping by British police, she writes a hyperbolic false confession, shown in a fantasy sequence where, in a leather catsuit dress, Kitten renders IRA conspirators helpless by shocking them with her bombshell sexuality and spraying them with her trusty Chanel No. 5. Finally, the cops let her go, and in her weakened state, she asks one of the cops if he would marry her were she not a terrorist transvestite. A woman wearing a black latex catsuit and thigh-high boots. ...

Still broke, Kitten is again forced to turn tricks, and depressed, she thinks she spots her mother in the Underground. She is saved when picked up by the second cop who interrogated her (Ian Hart). He warns her that she could get killed, and Kitten explains that she's not exactly employable, so the cop brings her to a peep show shop that's run by the sex workers who dance there. Kitten joins their collective and transforms herself into a high femme blonde. Tipped off by Charlie, her repentant father comes to see her in her peep show booth, in a scene that mirrors the confessional scene from the beginning of the film. Father Liam confesses his love for his son, and tells Kitten where to find her mother. The London Underground is a transit system that serves much of Greater London and some neighbouring areas. ... Ian Hart as Professor Quirrell in Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone Ian Hart (born 8 October 1964 in Liverpool, Merseyside, England) is an English actor of Irish Catholic extraction. ... A peep show or peepshow is an exhibition of pictures or objects viewed through a small hole or magnifying glass. ... A sex worker is anyone who earns their living by providing sexual services. ... Collective can also refer to the collective pitch flight control in helicopters A collective is a group of people who share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest, or work together on a specific project(s) to achieve a common objective. ... One of the worlds most famous blondes Marilyn Monroe, who was in fact a natural brunette Blond (feminine, blonde) is a hair colour found in certain mammals characterised by low levels of the dark pigment eumelanin and higher levels of the pale pigment phæomelanin, in common with red...

Dressed up in a feminine business suit, pillbox hat and pearls, Kitten goes to her mother's house posing as a telephone company marketing researcher, first encountering a younger half-brother she didn't know about, whose name is also Patrick. She faints upon meeting her mother, but revives to have a short conversation, in which she decides not to reveal herself as the abandoned son. But after Irwin is killed by the IRA and Kitten goes home to tend to a pregnant, grieving Charlie, Kitten finally has a happy reunion with her father, who takes in Kitten and Charlie. A suit, also known as a business suit, comprises a collection of matching clothing consisting of: a coat (commonly known as a jacket) a waistcoat (optional) (USA vest) a pair of trousers (USA pants) Though not part of a suit, a shirt and tie very frequently accompany it. ... A pillbox hat is a small womans hat with a flat crown and straight, upright sides. ... Wikibooks has more about this subject: Marketing Look up marketing in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

But the town reacts against the trangendered Kitten and the unwed Charlie by firebombing Father Liam's parish house, and Kitten and Charlie flee to London, where Charlie has her baby and the three form a nuclear family headed by two femmes. In the final scene, they run into Kitten's mother Eily and little Patrick at the doctor's office. Eily is pregnant again. Kitten is friendly, but still doesn't reveal her true identity to her brother or mother. She seems happy with her family situation. The robins wrap up the story with irreverent narration. The term nuclear family developed in the western world to distinguish the family group consisting of parents (usually a father and mother) and their children, from what is known as an extended family. ...

Cast

• Cillian Murphy: Patrick 'Patricia/Kitten' Braden
• Liam Neeson: Father Liam
• Ruth Negga: Charlie
• Laurence Kinlan: Irwin
• Stephen Rea: Bertie Vaughan
• Brendan Gleeson: John Joe Kenny
• Conor McEvoy: Patrick Braden (at ten years)
• Gavin Friday: Billy Hatchet
• Ian Hart: PC Wallis
• Steven Waddington: Inspector Routledge
• Eva Birthistle: Eily Bergin
• Ruth McCabe: Ma Braden
• Liam Cunningham: 1st Biker (who introduces song "Breakfast on Pluto")
• Patrick McCabe: Schoolmaster Peepers Egan

Cillian Murphy (born May 25, 1976) is an Irish actor noted for his intense, risky performances in diverse roles,[1] as well as his distinctive blue eyes. ... William John Liam Neeson OBE (born June 7, 1952) is an Oscar-nominated Irish actor. ... Ruth Negga is an Ethiopian-Irish actress who has starred in Irish films such as Isolation, Capital letters, Breakfast On Pluto and the Irish television series Love Is The Drug. ... Stephen Rea (born October 31, 1946) is an Irish actor. ... Gleeson as Professor Mad-Eye Moody in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. ... Gavin Friday Gavin Friday (born Fionan Martin Hanvey, on 8 October 1959, in Dublin) is an Irish singer and songwriter, composer and painter. ... Ian Hart as Professor Quirrell in Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone Ian Hart (born 8 October 1964 in Liverpool, Merseyside, England) is an English actor of Irish Catholic extraction. ... Steven Waddington is a British actor born in 1968 in Leeds [1]who is probably best known for his supporting role in Michael Manns The Last Of the Mohicans. ... Liam Cunningham (born on 2 June 1961 in Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish actor who has appeared in A Little Princess, First Knight, Jude and numerous other projects. ... Patrick McCabe (born March 27, 1955 in Clones, in County Monaghan, Ireland) is an Irish writer of mostly dark and violent novels of contemporary, often small-town, Ireland. ...

Background/Production

To prepare for the lead role of Kitten, Cillian Murphy studied women's body language and for a few weeks met with a drag queen who instructed him and took him out clubbing with friends.^[1]

Neil Jordan and Pat McCabe made big changes to the story in their adaptation of the novel for the silver screen. In the book, the protagonist is called "Pussy," but Jordan and McCabe rename her "Kitten" in the film. Unlike the highly sexual Pussy, who is sexually involved with numerous male and female characters in some rather kinky situations as well as a few long-term relationships, Kitten doesn't even kiss another character on the lips. One sexual encounter for hire is strongly implied, but Kitten is not shown being overtly sexual with anyone on screen. Kitten's flirtatious relationships with the series of male characters she meets throughout the film are never shown or strongly implied to have been consummated, leaving the yearning main character unrequited. Neil Jordan is an Academy Award winning Irish filmmaker and novelist. ... Kink is a term used to refer to a broad range of sexual practices such as spanking, bondage, domination and submission, sadomasochism and sexual fetishism. ...

The seaside scene between Kitten and Bertie (Stephen Rea) was considered by some to be an allusion to director Jordan's earlier film The Crying Game,^[2] which also involved a transgendered major character, the IRA, and actor Stephen Rea. In The Crying Game, Rea's character doesn't realize that the woman he has fallen for and become sexually involved with is biologically male. In Breakfast on Pluto, Kitten confesses that she's "not a girl" before Rea's character can kiss her, and he says kindly that he already knew, but does not follow through with the kiss. Stephen Rea (born October 31, 1946) is an Irish actor. ... For the song of the same name by Geoff Stephens, see The Crying Game (song). ...

As part of a sprawling cast, author of the novel upon which the film is based, co-screenwriter Patrick McCabe, has a cameo in the film as Kitten's creative writing teacher.^[3] Patrick McCabe (born March 27, 1955 in Clones, in County Monaghan, Ireland) is an Irish writer of mostly dark and violent novels of contemporary, often small-town, Ireland. ...

Awards and nominations

For his portrayal of Kitten, Cillian Murphy won the 2007 IFTA Award for Best Actor^[4] and was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy. The IFTA Award (Irish Film & Television Award) first appeared in 1999. ... The Golden Globe Awards are American awards for motion pictures and television programs, given out each year during a formal dinner. ...

Neil Jordan also won the 2007 IFTA for Best Director and Jordan and McCabe took home the Best Script IFTA.^[4]

See also

• Cross-dressing in film and television
• Don Partridge

Film poster for Glen or Glenda Cross-dressing in motion pictures began in the early days of the silent films. ... Don Partridge (born 27 October 1944, in Bournemouth, Dorset, England) is an English busker, one-man band and singer-songwriter, who found fleeting fame in the mid to late 1960s. ...

References

External links

• Breakfast on Pluto at the Internet Movie Database
• Official site for Breakfast on Pluto film
• Sony Pictures Classics - Breakfast on Pluto
• Slant Magazine Film Review by Keith Uhlich
• The CillianSite's Breakfast on Pluto cultural references links page
• Interview with Patrick McCabe and Neil Jordan (January 2006)