All absurdities are our own absurdities
Echoing last issue's witch theme, we present a screening of Martin McDonagh's films. The general plot of the movie is that on the Irish island of Inisherin, a pair of former friends broke up due to differences in the value of life and different sense of personal boundaries.
The director carefully placed many intentions in the plot: doors and windows are passages for exploration and invasion; the bright and beautiful outdoors and the dark indoors reflect the split between the world and the personal state; the priest and the grocery store proprietress respectively represent the obsolescence and powerlessness of religion in the face of a profound existential crisis, and the vulgar curiosity and mental numbness in a closed environment; the British Civil War and the separation of friends, beauty and curse; even the beautiful Inisherin Island, like the Garden of Eden, cannot prevent the destruction of an old friendship...
Isn't this another kind of barn burning?
The director's choice of the location where the story takes place is also very interesting: if the outer island of Europe is Britain, and the outer island of Britain is Ireland, then the outer island of Ireland is Inisherin, that is, INISH-ERIN. Such a scene of isolation between close friends on the most isolated island not only means the fundamental separation between people and the impossibility of returning to Eden; it also expresses that art as the pursuit of survival, after all, like vulgar daily life, cannot escape the curse of the banshee and the blame of boredom. Some people may think that the director placed his only hope on the sister who left the main island in a row boat. She has rich understanding and a strong heart. In boredom and despair, she finally left the closed island to face the world and explore the possibility of breaking the deadlock by facing gunfire, changing reality and opening up to the world. But don't forget that the gunfire in the distance foreshadows more brutal and blind killings. What she is going to by boat is a more cruel world full of banshees.
"don't say oh pardrick,say yes."
There are always two competing forces in Martin McDonagh's plays. That is, the tragic power generated by the absurdity and spiritual and existential crisis of the world, and how people in it face this existential crisis. As a playwright in the important wave of "face-to-face drama", MacDonald constantly discusses the relationship between the other and the absurd, because the absurd is also born from the fundamental rupture and incomprehensibility between people. He does not provide the audience with any way to escape reality, and blocks all longing for the future, insisting on depicting the original appearance of the realist story from his own objective perspective. "I am absolutely honest about the way I view life and the world, and my thoughts on human nature." This film combines public viewing with serious reflections on cruelty and despair. It is Macdonald's successful attempt to bring direct drama to the public.
"Not talking, not expressing your feelings, holding on to resentment, all of that never seems to go away. I try not to do that, but it's still there deep down inside of me. I don't know, I hope that our community is getting better."
Finally, here is the edited version of past post-screening exchanges
Event: The Banshee of Inisherin Screening
Time: 2023/10/1 (Sunday) 14:00-15:54, discuss together afterwards
Location: Wangjing, Beijing, 200 meters away from Exit C of Futong Subway Station (the specific location will be informed after registration)
Ticket: 20 yuan
Detailed consultation: Gan (WuWoWang2)