The banshees of Inisherin

Since I got interested in sustainability - I see everything from a sustainability lens. 

So as the movie showed the houses made in 1928 my first thought was ‘WOW, these houses are so similar to the ones I had seen in the hills Rajgarh in Himachal. During one of our downward journeys from a hill we saw houses whose terraces were made with small circular stones. See pic below. In the movie which was shot on a remote island - Aral Island and Achille Island. Using local materials to build their house was common sense in the early 20th century - but as more and more people started to migrate to the city we started having the matchbox structure or flats in which we all stay. Our intention / dream to make a house the way we want is now a distant dream as the time and effort needed to make a house is monumental and neither of us have the energy to make it.  

Back to the movie

For me the stand out was the cinematography. 

This is how cinematographer Ben Davies describes how he chose the location “I spent a lot of time [on Inishmore]. I tried to spend my time in preparation and spent a hell of a lot of time photographing it and trying to capture what the island said to me. I’m not a writer as Martin is. I can’t articulate what I felt about the place or the feelings that place evokes. But I can photograph it and show you the images. There’s something very special about it, the raging ocean and the sky is so barren. It’s very beautiful, but it’s also quite melancholic, and I adored it. I loved it there because I’m not afraid of melancholy. It's something I quite embrace. That did shape the idea. But I think Martin always knew that.”

The key word is melancholy - different shades of sky, the barren land, the rocks and ocean all of them formed the perfect backdrop of a friendship which is changing colours & also the turmoil & angst which both the lead characters are going through. I could have taken still shots and painted them if I could. 

The second was music 

Again, the background score adds melancholy and builds the various moods across the movie.

This is how the music director Carter Bartwell describes how he created the music “I began largely with Colin Farrell’s character. We see most of the film from his point of view, and he’s this naive man-child. When we first see him, he’s got a big smile on his face because it’s another sunny day in Ireland, and you get the impression everything’s going great for him until exactly two minutes into the movie, when that stops being true. I started by playing with his childlike qualities. The way the melodies are structured, the harmonies are not totally straightforward, and it does suggest that there’s something that’s off or is going to go off in the story. I did keep basically the same set of sounds throughout the film, and it’s very simple: the celesta, harp, flutes and marimba, and then some low percussion-like tuned gamelan gongs. What happens is, because of the nature of the story, that same playing of innocence at the beginning of the film [becomes lost innocence] at the end of the film.”

I went back and heard the music and it automatically brought back the images from the film, that is how beautifully they are tied to the movie. Of course the credit goes to the director for providing stewardship and vision to all of them. It’s actually a very simple film - more like a play actually but the island plays an important role to give it a cinematic panorama.   

The movie has got 9 nominations and won several awards, so there is lot of reviews & article which one can read online. 

Below is the best one which I found in India.

https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/the-banshees-of-inisherin-an-ode-to-broken-friendships-and-a-takedown-of-nice-guy-syndrome-11988512.html