The TRUE Meaning of The Banshees of Inisherin

before we get into the deeper meanings of this film we should first understand what the title means on the surface it comes as a throwaway line late in the film when column declares it as the name of the song that he has written however there is much more to it than that in Irish folklore banshees are known as Heralds of death they can be seen either at the site of or before death as an ominous warning of things to come banshees typically appear as an elderly woman dressed in black visually similar to the image of the Grim Reaper so having this in mind while watching the film it becomes quite obvious that one of the characters Mrs McCormick is in fact a banshee she appears throughout the film in various points both predicting literal deaths and watching over metaphorical ones looming over all things that see an end what's possibly even more interesting are her interactions while it's a recurring joke that most people don't like and actively try to avoid getting caught in conversation with Mrs McCormick there is one exception porrick's sister and the closest thing to a heroic figure the film has keeps good interactions with Mrs McCormick that when to comically begrudging way the Germans McCormick never gets a chance to come over for a chance she never gets a chance could you avoid her voice hide behind walls if she's coming up the road and chose her respect and decency and as a result is the only character to have a happy ending leaving the depression in isolation surrounding a national and sails off to find a better life amidst the main drama of the film being the dissolution of powderick and column's friendship the banshee's presence is felt but not overdone keeping her to be a distant Observer never desperate to Showcase her involvement often keeping her staged at a distance and with some form of physical barrier like a window or even a Cliffside even going so far as to never revealing her face during shaban's departure the cinematography of this film is also quite remarkable suddenly an artfully giving a visual parallel to the story showcasing Ben Davis's versatility as a cameraman having previously shot several Marvel films take for example his use of lighting in the pub scenes he has several lanterns hanging above the actors as practical lights and had hung several traditional film lights in the Raptors as motivated lights mimicking the look of the lanterns he was then able to place the lights on the characters in ways that not only look realistic but also play off the emotional state of the characters keeping some well lit and others in darkness lit only from the light bouncing back off the table it was one Central lamp over the table so that's your license right now the truth is that light source isn't going to light those people and then and he's doing nothing so you've got to light the people so as raft is up in the ceiling and I had them built larger than you normally do so I could hide little lamps behind them so that Collective round the table I think there's probably six small lights up there lighting each okay I was sort of lit and I was lighting it and I was about to give them a key light from One Direction I realized actually I really like the way the light is just falling because I wanted to be back and in the shadows in a lot present so they're key light you can see it's just above Barry's head there's an oil lamp he also chose his lenses based off a mixture of practicality and the feeling associated with the characters particularly with the two leads Park and column pay close attention when you watch the film to which characters you first identify with or at least believed to be in the main characters then watch how this might slowly change over the course of the film as is reflected in the choice of lenses that gets longer and farther away for some characters and wider and closer for others right and so what focal length did you stay with for the most of the close-ups I mean it changed I mean it changed on it also progresses through the film we started back with sort of you know his large format so yeah we were 50 75s and then we worked in much closer towards the end your allegiances I think in the film to begin with are very much with pori and then they switch slightly because you start to understand and then as Colin kind of fails to cope with the rejection we get closer and closer so there was a deliberate strategy for that where we start back longer and we get wider and closer and wider and closer and wider [Music] frankly my hair I don't give a damn [Music]

Channel: Eric The Cameraman

Views: 62,824

Keywords: The Banshees of Inisherin, Movie, Films, Colin Farrel, Brendan Gleeson, Martin McDonagh, Eric The Cameraman, True Meaning, Meaning behind films, film criticism, Film theory

Id: DrcPzeKMLNU

Length: 4min 35sec (275 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 20 2023