Friday evening, lying on the
couch struck by my period cramps, I ended up watching Directors on Directors:
Taylor Swift & Martin McDonagh. My initial plan was to watch Martin
McDonagh’s short film Six
Shooter, which was recommended by a friend the night before while we were
discussing Martin McDonagh’s work. My YouTube search for Six Shooter
also brought me the Directors on Directors episode with Taylor Swift and
Martin McDonagh.
At a first glance, it looked like
an odd pairing: a 53-year-old playwright turned into a filmmaker known for his
tragicomedies and a 33-year-old ex-teenage-country-singer turned into an
incomparable popular artist. Plus, neither makes me think of a “director” first,
since the former’s writer identity and the latter’s popstar identity are more
prominent.
Upon a deeper glance, I was
completely on board for this pairing: the writer/director of the movie that I have
revisited the most and the artist of the album that I have listened the most so far in
2023.
I must admit that Martin McDonagh
was not a filmmaker in my radar before I watched The Banshees of Inisherin
earlier this year. I missed In
Bruges when it came out, put it in my “to-watch” list, but it fell
through the cracks. I watched Three
Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri on a plane, thought it was one of
the more interesting movies of that season, but didn’t think much about it
afterward.
I was on the road till
mid-January this year. When I came back to Copenhagen, The Banshees of
Inisherin (will call it The Banshees for short from now on) was one
of the films widely shown in cinemas. I found the trailer interesting. Sister
in Movies wasn’t so interested in watching it at the time, so I made plans to
watch it by myself after the first lecture of the new semester. Despite the big
audience that day for the film, I was somehow the only one in the last row of Grand Teatret’s big room. After the film
ended, I left Grand thinking “I am glad I lived to see this gem.”
I love watching things that are very
funny and very sad at the same time, e.g., Nanette, Fleabag, Russian Doll ... It is very
hard to strike a balance in that tone, but when it is done well, the end
product gives you a lot to reflect on if you wish to. If you don’t, you can
just take in the funny parts and run away with them or you can complain about
how sad and depressing what you just watched was. The Banshees masters
this tone in my opinion.
The film also has multiple stories
well-juxtaposed. There is the personal story as we watch the
interactions of the town people, the historical story with Irish civil
war going on in the background, and the fable story with the several
animals having almost three-dimensional characters and the banshee figure. You
can take all the stories in or just follow one based on what you prefer. Either
way, the film’s value doesn’t diminish.
When it comes to the personal
layer, it is also rare to be able to relate to multiple characters in a film
even while watching it for the first time. In the case of The Banshees, without
major spoilers, I could feel Colm’s despair and self-destructiveness, Pádraic’s
grief over being dumped by his best friend in a drastic manner, Siobhán’s need
to leave, and whatever Dominic feels when he says, “there goes that dream.”
I finally watched In Bruges three
days after I watched The Banshees and loved it as well. People are keen
on comparing the two since both has the same main actors and are written and
directed by the same person. The consensus among the people who are old-time
fans of In Bruges seems to be that The Banshees isn’t as good as In
Bruges. I disagree, but I also think that the comparison is unnecessary. I
am glad that I didn’t have to bring any In Bruges baggage to my viewing
of The Banshees.
I must also admit that I have
never been a Swiftie.
Shortly after I moved to Bay Area
in 2015, I volunteered to visit a primary school together with my then manager
Guy Lohmann to promote Computer Science among the students. At that time, Guy
was at IBM for 30 years, and I was there for 3 months. We were our own odd pairing. In my
presentation to the students, I had a picture of my one-year-old self in front
of a computer with a date on top of the picture. One of the male students in
the classroom reacted to this picture by saying “Wow! You are the same age as Taylor
Swift.” Technically, I am one year older than her, but this is not the point of
this story. That was the first time I had to acknowledge the real-world impact
of Taylor Swift.
Since then, I didn’t keep up with
Taylor Swift much beyond the occasional songs I got exposed to by the popular
culture, until Fall 2021. Taylor Swift was the musical guest in a Saturday Night
Live (SNL) episode around mid-November 2021. She played All Too Well for 10mins, which was unusual for SNL.
It was the first time I heard that song. I thought it was a very beautiful
breakup song and form of storytelling. Then, I got into the wormhole of the
internet to read about what she has been up to. I learned that she started directing her own videos (“Respect!”) and re-recorded her old albums to assert
ownership of her own work over her old record company (“You go girl!”).
In those days, I had my own
struggle with asserting ownership for my work and funding resources. My struggle
ended with me losing part of my work and resources. I felt devastated by it,
since I still don’t feel that I am at a stage in my career where I can spare
any resources or work. I blamed myself for not asserting things earlier with a
higher level of self-confidence.
While I found Taylor Swift’s battle
inspiring, I am also old enough to know that some battles aren’t worth it. If I had entered a battle, and that would have been more natural for my overall stubborn
self, I could have lost it all. I needed my energy to maintain the remaining
parts of my work and resources in the long run.
Nevertheless, I decided to follow
Taylor Swift’s work beyond just random exposures. She released a new album, Midnights, last fall. I
gave it a proper listen at the end of this January. Then, I couldn’t let it go.
I tried her previous albums as well, but none of them stuck except for a few
songs here and there. I wrote to Academic Sister, whom I usually go to punk
concerts with, how much I loved listening to Midnights and questioned “maybe
something is wrong with me.” She replied “No, you are just open to mainstream
music.”
Midnights is an album that
highlights becoming more self-aware, which to me is the best part of getting
older. I think that is why I love listening to it so much.
I had a lovely Friday evening
watching the conversation between Taylor Swift and Martin McDonagh. It was a
genuine, constructive, and inspiring conversation between two accomplished people whom most
people wouldn’t imagine in the same room. Whoever thought of this pairing, I appreciate
it.
