The other movies in competition: The Banshees of Inisherin / Love Life

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  • The Banshees of Inisherin
  • Love life

THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN

Ireland, UK, USA Director:Martin McDonagh With Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, Barry Keoghan Running time: 109′

Martin McDonagh is a sentimental filmmaker. In The Banshees of Inisherin he reunites the starring couple from his excellent debut In Bruges. Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson are together again, this time as Padraic (Farrell) and Colm (Gleeson), two old friends living on an island off the west coast of Ireland. Everything runs smoothly until one day Colm suddenly decides to end their friendship. Padraic does not understand why, and he is devastated. The man seeks the help of his sister Siobhan, who is also struggling with instances that concern her and involve other members of the tiny community on the island. Meanwhile, the situation between Padraic and Colm threatens to escalate with dire consequences.

The Banshees of Inisherin is the fourth film by McDonagh, whose previous film, the award-winning Three Billings Outside of Ebbing, Missouri, was in competition in Venice in 2017, and won the Osella for best screenplay and, a few months later, two Oscars, for the outstanding performances by Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell. McDonagh works very well with actors; he proved that with Seven Psychopaths, in which he manages an all-star cast consisting of, among others, Christopher Walken, Woody Harrelson, Michael Pitt, and Farrell and Rockwell themselves.

The Banshees of Inisherin is running for the Golden Lion and has two more talented actors in the cast. Kerry Condon previously worked with McDonagh on Three Billings, and she returns to Venice 22 years after her first time with Goran Paskalijevic’s How Harry Became a Tree, starring a vibrant Colm Meaney. 

Barry Keoghan is the son of Inisherin’s policeman, also struggling with some issues in his life. Keoghan, a Dubliner, previously worked with Colin Farrell in Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Sacrifice of the Sacred Deer. In the past year he appeared in both cinecomics universes, in the Marvel one playing Eternals, directed by 2020 Golden Lion winner for Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland . He delivered a voice cameo in the finale of The Batman, but was then discovered that he is the Joker chosen by director Matt Reeves for the next chapter of the new Dark Knight saga.

Alessandro De Simone

The Banshees of Inisherin
Colin Farrell e Brendan Gleeson in THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN © 2022 20th Century Studios All Rights Reserved.

 

LOVE LIFE

Japan/France Director Kôji Fukada With Fumino Kimura, Kento Nagayama, Atom Sunada Running time 123′

A student of Kiyoshi Kurosawa at the Film School of Tokyo, anointed at Cannes in 2016 with the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section thanks to the extraordinary Harmonium, Kôji Fukada arrives in competition in Venice with Love Life. The film is based on a song from the album of the same name released in 1991 by musician Akiko Yano, composer of the music for the animated film My Neighbors Yamada and the sound effects for the two short films Yadosagashi and Mizugumo Monmondel directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Taeko is a happily married woman living with her son Keita and husband Jiro (Kento Nagayama) until the little one’s father, Park (Atom Sunada), who is deaf, sick, and has no income, surprisingly reappears. So Taeko decides to help him. In this touching and profound female portrait, the director cast Fumino Kimura, known for her 2018 Netflix TV series The Many Faces of Ito and for the lead role as Yoko in the action comedy The Fable (2019). Considered one of the leading auteurs of the new Japanese cinema, selected in Locarno 2019 with Yokogao (A Girl Missing), Kôji Fukada has also frequented the world of TV series, thanks to The Real Thing, whose film version was selected for Cannes 2020. The cast of Love Life also includes Hirona Yamazaki, Misuzu Kanno, Tomorowo Taguchi, Tetsuta Shimada, and Mito Natsume. The film arrives in theatres in September, which for the Japanese director is an added satisfaction given that during the pandemic he promoted, with great success, together with his friend Ryūsuke Hamaguchi, director of Drive My Car, a fundraising campaign to support the theatres. 

Tiziana Leone 

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