The Banshees of Inisherin http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world - 10 out of 10

 

The Banshees of Inisherin http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world

10 out of 10

 

 

We have seen The Banshees of Inisherin yesterday and what a joy, a treat this motion picture is, it looks like it is the best by far, ahead of Tar, where Cate Blanchet shines as usual, only the main character is not really the one we would love to see around, a lesbian in a quite negative (well, complex is more like it, but still, she has some dark sides that make you shiver, spoiler alert) role, which is a premiere in some ways.

 

Were this space to have a real audience, I would need to justify the above, or else face public opprobrium, let us just say that roles for the LGBTQ+ community have been modeled to show a difference, you could not make those minorities the ‘bad guy, woman or other’, because of the history, only the equality seems to have been achieved, and now you can watch Tar unleash the dark materials on people…

The Banshees is a real feast, makes me think of Parasite as a recent revelation, a film made in the last few years that manages to almost astonish in its daring, complexity, surprises, solutions, themes and freshness, the cast of the acclaimed In Bruges reunites, less Ralph Fiennes, but the two leading actors giving marvelous performances, Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson both deserve the Oscars, for best actor in a leading and supporting role respectively, just as Kerry Condon should get hat and all other cinematic awards for her presence as Siobhan, the sister of poor Padraic, a very sad fellow who gets quite angry at one stage.

 

This film has it all, serious themes, humor you can seldom find, if often bloody and very dark…there is discussion of religion, how God does not care about miniature donkeys – and he should, let me refer to the fabulous The Reivers by William Faulkner http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/10/the-reivers-reminiscence-by-william.html where the great Nobel Prize winner explains some of the psychology of the donkey ‘he knows you do not love him, and feels insulted when you pet him…the donkey would be the smartest animal, followed by cats, dogs and lastly horses’ – but he is very much against self-mutilation

Colm is confessing to the priest, but the latter is informed and knows about the quarrel between the former and Padraic – in fact, Padraic is somehow the victim to begin with, he is dull, but a good fellow and had done nothing to deserve the complete and unexpected rejection from somebody who used to be his drinking partner – and when asked how does he know, he retorts that this is a small island.

 

One of the most amazing things about this marvelous film is that it is apparently so simple as to make one doubt if this could really be one of the best films of 2022 – and again, it is not just one of the, but the very best I have seen –

 

We have these two men, Colm and Padraic, who had been drinking and spending time together, up to the point where the former decides he does not like the latter anymore, and wants to have nothing to do with him in the future (spoiler alerts coming) because he is such a dull fellow, and he has little time left.

Now we contemplate the theme of the meaning of life, the passing of time with worthwhile endeavors, the need to have meaningful goals and then commit to them, something explained in the wondrous The How of Happiness by Sonja Lyubomirsky http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-how-of-happiness-by-sonja.html-‘ Happiness Activity No 10: Committing to Your Goals-picking one, two or three significant goals that are meaningful to you and devoting time and effort to pursue them’

 

Colm wants to compose music, mentions Mozart – everybody knows about him, Padraic denies having heard of the composer, and thus ‘out goes your theory’ – as one composer of the seventeenth century – he will be corrected by clever, well-read Siobhan…who will have to leave this place, or else she will get entangled and sucked into the emptiness, the solitude, banality of the island…they are all dull, as she says

Padraic is hilarious when he mentions Beoven (if he did say that) he uses a name that suggests he is thinking of Beethoven, but the uneducated islander does not come close to the real name of the Magister Ludi, or better said just close enough for the audience to laugh at the hint and the ignorance…

 

Colm has had enough of dullness and invites the public to meditate, use introspection, think if we do the best we can to avid wasting our own time – Seneca has said that life is not short, we have time, only we waste so much with useless endeavors http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-tao-of-seneca-by-seneca-one-of.html

the man takes a drastic decision and will not talk with the dull Padraic anymore, he only has a few years left as it is, and people do not remember the ‘good, ordinary folks’, as aforementioned, it is Mozart and the great that will stand the test of time, and Colm seems to be concentrated on that…he does have a lapse though.

 

When Padraic gets drunk and starts showing courage, standing up for himself and confronting and putting some hard truths out, Colm says he now likes him again…there is the problem of the policeman, who is abusing his son, Dominic, and who ones kicks Padraic to the ground and is in turn knocked off by Colm…poor Dominic is infatuated (I am not sure if love is the right word) with Siobhan, but he has no chance, the difference between them is greater in what they know, intelligence, than it is in years, and the woman may find a way out of this quagmire, island where almost all are dull, or just very peculiar http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html