Banshees of Inisherin

1 January 2023

Director: Martin McDonagh

He: First and foremost for me, I like slow stuff. Slow movies, especially like this with scenery and nature. Pretty much it doesn’t matter what’s happening. Because the vibe already satisfies me big time. So I was not creeped out, maybe the old lady, she was a bit creepy. But even his fingerless palm was alright. He said he would do it so you were waiting for it. 

And maybe there’s just another angle of showing what loneliness looks like. It’s very pure for me. Because I quite often come across these thoughts and try and understand what they’re talking about, to some extent, even though they’re much older.I would sat it’s a great movie. I’m gonna rewatch it, but I’m not sure when. Because In Brudges,I rewatched three or four years after. 

Her: It’s so funny that you couldn’t remember that you’d watch it.

He: Yeah well same actors, same director. I’m quoite fascinated, this one is out of the box. A not for everyone movie.

Her: Do you think it’s better than Withnail and I? 

He: No but I’ve been referring to Withnail and I a few times because of first of all because of the nature, and then costumes. But Withnail and I is a completely different ball game. I think I’ve watched it over 10 or 15 times already. Over and over again I’m rewatching it.

She: Like, it needs time to settle down. 

He: Sit down and think about it. Maybe just watch the screenshots, have a visual reference. The animals were amazing for fucks sake, like seriously. I know that they’re well trained. But still so gorgeous. Donkey, horses. Dog. Everyone was so like very beautiful. 

Her: So, like Colin Farrell’s character, you wouldn’t leave them? 

He: I don’t know, I like his eyebrows. It’s a house type, quite a triangle up there.

Her: Of Sadness. I know I can’t resist those eyebrows. 

He: The main thing here is that you do not watch this stuff quite often these days. The movie industry is Avatar, you know, the information comes quick and nothing stays. Whereas with the slow movies, you have more time to actually process the information. The more things stay. That’s why I like it. You don’t need to rush anywhere, you have all your time. 

Her: The thought that I had that you may not have had is about the costumes. They were too good, I’m sorry. Al lof Kerry Condon’s costumes, they were according to the style and the era, but they were too fit. They were very stylish. The marron red jumper that Colin Farrell is wearing with a collar. That’s like, designer shit. I mean it could be authentic as well. But it’s just like, those little things. I mean it’s not based on a real story thing where they have to look authentic. It’s like a bit of a better version of reality. But the costume designer did almost too good of a job. But also because of the dark aethetics. That nature is beautiful in its own way but it’s gloomy. And the grass is bright so the only other colours were the costumes. 

He: Well they live on an island, they were kind of point this stuff out. They’re isolated. 

Her: Yeah, but also you know every scene they had new outfits. She was changing alot. He was changing alot. Red and blue. Every times I was admiring the costume. They were really beautiful. Out done. 

She: Like, they have a lot of time to change costumes. I think  they were not trying to make it too realistic, I think in the 19th century. And maybe then people were dressing differently. But the main purpose of the costumes is to finish the feeling the director wanted to make. Which was surprising to me b because of the cutting fingers, or whatever. But while I was watching it I was always feeling some evil, waiting for you somewhere. 

Her: LIke in the shape of the old lady. 

She: Yeah the most obvious symbol is the old lady. But in the end it isn’t. Then I thought it was the house, with all these masks and stranger chairs, stuck to the walls. All along it’s not here, not there all along I’m feeling it’s close but it’s not coming. 

Her: Well look she mentioned that there would be two deaths right? She was kind of Death, because when the policeman came over to Colin Farrell’s house to investigate she called him, and she pointed towards the other death that happened, his son’s, I guess it was suicide. He didn’t just slip. She was obviously supposed to be the creepy one because she represents death.

Him: Or the Banshee, of the song he composed, she’s shrieking that death is coming. But she’s shrieking in the subtle way of an Irish playwright. It’s a whisper. Sullen. She’s not actually shrill and high pitch, the screech, the scream. That made it all the more unnerving. 

Her: So she’s the banshee. 

Him: That’s my interpretation, but I would say so. My old flatmate was a theatre acting student, and we went and saw a Martin McDonaugh play at Sydney Theatre Company.The way he described that particular style of drama, is that it’s all so subtle. It’s the opposite of blockbuster entertainment movie acting, 100 per cent sure, certain that this is what I’m doing. Sam Worthington’s character in Avatar 2 has to save Pandora, there’s no ‘should I, shouldn’t I?’ About it. In this it’s even the uncertainty of whether Brendon Gleeson’s character is actually going to cut off his fingers. ‘Oh, well maybe I won’t, because he’s not as dull as I thought he was.’ If I pushed him to this existent, it’s still a shock when he does. Even some of the shot choices of Barry Keoghan, asking Kerry Condon whether she wants o be with him, because the first time he says it is like, aren’t you wild. Do you like sex?

Her: Is that what he said, do you like sex?

Him: No, that’s what the implication was. But he has his own torments (and uncertainty).

Her: Yeah, he was flirting, that was his way to flirt. 

Him: It was, but when he was asking her, ‘actually, maybe you’d like a relationship? You couldn’t see yourself being with someone like me, could you?’ And the kind of mannerisms he was doing. Everybody's acting was impeccable. 

Her: What’s his name again?

Him: Barry Keoghan.

He: I saw him somewhere else. I recognise his face.

Her: Was he in Peaky Blinders? I can’t remember where he was, but he was great. 

Him: He was in the Green Knight, he’s in a really good film called The Killing of A Sacred Deer. Also with Colin Farrell. And he was in Dunkirk.

He: Ah, I watched it three times already. 

Him: He’s performing that was showed that kind of subtly as well. Rather than being sure exactly what somebody was going to do. Martin McDonagh himself, when Colin Farrell is standing on the cliff waving to Kerry Condon, and yuou see the silhouette in the background. I was expecting as he’s waving, to disappear (gasps) hear the whole audience gasp in that moment, he didn’t let you go down that way. Wasn’t going to show it. 

He: I knew that he would stay. 

Him: But the assumption was it was going to be Brendan Gleeson. But actually it’s a bait and switch where it ends up being Barry Keoghan. Who I think jumped there. 

He: I still think it’s 50 /50, it could’ve been either one there. 

Him: The whole time, with the uncertainty of a theatrical film. You think you don’t know what’s going to happen next. All the way up until the end, I’m invested in this. 

Her: McDonagh is really great with keeping that tension, and changing your expectations. 

He: Even when nothing is actually happening. Like really seriously they’re just going back and forth.

Her: The dialogues. The dialogues are happening. 

He: The dialogues are happening, yeah. 

Him: All of this stylistic tuff and this kind of overview is also distracting from the actual subject matter, which is incredibly heavy. And like you said, dark. The things I saw about the costume was it’s making it beautified or slick. It’s like a high production value, that makes you enjoy watching it even if the subject is like the sad music he’s playing. Oh it’s making me feel feelings. I don’t know if I want to feel that, can’t we just be kind and happy?

Her: And nice! (laughs)

He: But you know what, I’m definitely watching In Bruges once again, some time soon. Like definitely this month, not sure when, but yeah that’s happening. 

Her: Can I just say also that the dialogue was so fucking amazing. 

Him: Yeah well because it’s written like a play. 

He: It’s a theatre play (on screen).

Her: And I’m so glad that I could understand what they’re saying. 

He: Yeah, exactly! I was like oh no, Irish, I’m fucked, I can go home. 

Him: The beauty of that is that it’s authentically Irish. It’s an Irish writer/director. An Irish cast. Why do we have to do things the American way? We all have to exist in that system, but what if this is an Irish story. 

He: What do you think of this wine, like? 

Him: After a while it washes over you, and it becomes kind of natural. Because they talk in this different way. I remember having this one example in school where an Irish priest or somebody came in and was saying that Gaelic, the don’t speak directly, they speak in circles. So if you ask anybody a question, they’ll answer it in a roundabout way then give the question back to you. So an example would be, ‘What did you think of Banshees of Inisherin, it’s got a lot going on in it doesn’t it? Good actors, and director and yeah they’ve done it all before haven’t they? Some interesting Irish stories in there, banshees are a muth, and Inisherin isn’t a real place, but at the time of the civil war, that was a really troubling time, what did you think of Banshees of Inisherin?’ 

She: I think that’s how most people speak when they don’t know how to answer exactly. So they’re just saying some bullshit and return you the question. 

Him: People speak in circles. And that’s the circular nature of this story as well. Oh no, I think we’ll be back at it. And that’s the allegory of the Irish civil war and the two men, who are very different, having a conflict, and everybody else getting pulled into it seemed like the right way to handle something that’s so complex that you strip it down to its bare elements. Talented depressive, musical man, and a simple nice man and the impasse that they’re at that I related to both in different ways and did project alot of my own relationships or friends that have come and gone and you think, which one am I? Am I both? Or neither? Or at some times one, and other times the other. Do you just let it go? Or do you push harder? And only when you see a film like that is some how the heaviness is resolved in me, because I was carrying it all this time. Until I saw how other people handle it. 

Her: Isn’t it cool to see that a styory like this is worth making a film about it? Ypou know it doesn’t have to be something great, like a war or some kind of big event. It can be just a problem that alot of people come up and sometimes they can’t even talk, discuss it between themselves, because one of them doesn’t even have it in them to clear the air. And so it just stays inside. And then you see a movie being made about it. So you understand that other people have the same problem. 

He: A good promotion for any psychiatrist. 

Her: Yeah or a good reference for local psychiatrists. 

He: Like who are you, Farrell or Gleeson? THe lady or the son? Or maybe you’re the cop? I like how he gave him the black eye. And nobody said anything but the cop was embarrassed. 

Her: Well the copy was the real evil, actually. 

Him: I believe Hannah Arendt said that the banality of evil is it’s in regularly people.Just what you do or don’t do. 

She: Yeah like [people who are just doing their jobs. 

Him: Just following orders.

He: My name is the Lord / destroy my brothers

Her: Would you say it’s an escapist film? I felt like I travelled to the imaginary place that doesn’t exist.

Him: An island off of Ireland. 

Her: From the opening shot of the greens with the sky over it. I was like alright, we’re landing.

She: Maybe it was done on purpose as well, that the nature and the scenarios are kind of the brightest things you can see in that movie. Because the people are not so bright. 

He: On the other hand, like this movie we’re watching it from Sydney right? And the main audience will be people from the city, watching about villages at the beginning of the 20th century, somewhere in Ireland that in turn creates an additional atmosphere that’s very unusual for us. 

Him: Escapist in that sense. You think life would be simpler in a country town. 

He: It’s more complex.

Him: Because there’s less. You can’t actually juyst walk away from your one friend on the island. 

He: It actually remiunded me of this Balbanov movie, it’s based on a book.

She: On a play.

He: So that’s a kind of similar story. 

Him: Well thank you all so much for coming to see it with me, because I just thought it would be the easiest way to tell you all that, ‘I just don’t like you no more.’ 

Her: (Laughs) alright, fuck you then I don’t need your fingers. 

He: Oh no, no no. say no more. My donkey is already dead for like 30 years. 

Him: How good was that dog pulling away the shears. 

He: Yeah well it’s a border collie and they’re considered to be the smartest dog of all. 

Her: Oh I loved it when, that was a good scene obviously, but I loved it when he came back to the house, and he took the scissors, shears, and the dog was looking at him, at them, at him, at them. 

He: Yeah like him means this. That’s the next step. 

Him: The total unexpected way it goes, like the old woman banshees says don’t go killing his dog now’ and he’s like fuck off, don’t go putting ideas in my head, I wasn’t gonna.’ So you expect it to be that kind of escalation. And yet it goes a different way. And thank you also for indulging me the recording because I didn’t consider what you’re saying about the animals. I saw them, I didn’t consider the costumes, I saw it. But I was more thinking about other elements to it. So when you hear other people share their takes, you’re like oh yes, of course. 

He: It’s like a good old tradition when you watch a movie togheter, then you stay there and you discuss it with production people and stuff like that. 

She: Yeah like Q and A’s. 

Him: Yeah that’s why we love film festivals, the director can come. There was a screening of this at the New Yorker Festival and I was looking at tickets for it and I was like, do I do it? I wanna hear what Martin McDonagh has to say about it. Do I just look it up on Youtube? No I want to ask questions. I asked Davy Chou, a Cambodian French director of Return to Seoul a burning question I had. Why did he change the title from All the People I’ll Never Be? Then seeing him turn to the Festival director Nasheen Moodley and them having a little laugh. You’re so invested in what they’re doing and grateful for them making these films, so we have an alternative to Avatar to see in cinemas. 

Her: That’s what I’m saying. Avatar is escapism right? But I feel this is escapism. I don’t need to go that far, to another planet. Inisherin is enough. It’s also imaginary right? 

Him: Let’s go there. 

Her: I learned the title of the film just buying the tickets today. 

Him: Well he does challenge you in that way too. It’s not Three Billboards. It’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. It’sn not said In Bruges, because the town is pronounces Brugge. 

She:  Brussels.

Her: Wait, Bruges is Brussels? 

Him: It’s a small town outside Brussels. 

He: I was supposed to go there but there was a fucking terroristic attack so I ended up going to Amsterdam in 2016.