The Banshees of Inisherin | Cinema of Meaning #49

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Excellent podcast that helped me understand this wonderful movie more. When you discussed how Colm thinks music is something important because people remember it, I remembered that scene where he gets the entire century of a composer wrong and Siobhan corrects him. This movie hurt my heart because I hate when people are turned into pariahs and shunned and it was really hard for me to watch the friendship of these two men deteriorate.

Currently writing a dissertation on Irish cinema and this film is one of my three case studies! Perfect timing guys, appreciate some in-depth, external viewpoints.

There's a line in the film where the officer tells his son Dominic to go home and iron his shirt, going on to call him the "lady" of the house. Whereas you see Siobhan is shown washing Padraic's clothes, making all of his meals, and even cleaning up after his messes when he brings Jenny in and she relieves herself on the floor. When Siobhan is arguing with Padraic about leaving one of his first (although not THE first) things he brings up is who will cook for him? From what I remember, after Siobhan leaves we never see Padriac take care of any household chores. Yes, we see him take care of the animals and his usual tasks, but we never see him eat a proper home cooked meal, clean the house, or do his laundry. It's interesting because obviously the movie wants us to see some comparisons between Padraic and Dominic (as based on the conversation where Padriac asked if he is after Dominic in being the dullest) but at least Dominic can do chores around the house competently and take care of himself AND another person (his dad). It begs the question of what it means to actually be the "dullest one of the island" and what those standards are.

being an islander I relate to Colm alot. Though I didn't enjoy this movie as much while watching it I love hearing the breakdowns around the film

I'm Irish and familiar with the Civil War, and I cannot fathom the relevance of its introduction in the film. I've yet to hear a good explanation, other than one that compares the conflict in the film to civil war in general. So, I don't think you're missing much. I think the problem lies in the writing. The film seemed mired in cynicism (gloomy, dismissive and lots of throw-away lines), and more empathic writing might have done more with such an interesting setting and characters. Great job with the pronunciation, bu the way. I always admire your thoughtfulness and insight - that is to say you're both nice AND talented!

Maybe Colm doesn't like Padraic no more. I don't think it has anything to do with Padraic's niceness