Octogenarian knitted jumpers: Costume design in ‘The Banshees of Inisherin’
After racking up tissue boxes and award nominations upon release, Martin McDonagh’s sentimental and solemn drama – The Banshees of Inisherin hopes to win ‘Best Picture’ at the 95th Academy Awards. The beautiful feature film stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as best friends fractured by a sudden change of heart.
The Martin McDonagh film takes place in the picturesque Irish west coast, and showcases something intimate, conceptual as well as existential. It revolves around two friends who reach a sudden impasse. Gleeson’s Colm Doherty brutally cuts out Farrell’s Pádraic Súilleabháin due to a belief that Súilleabháin’s kindness makes him boring. McDonagh’s bittersweet story and the brilliantly compelling performances of Kerry Condon and Barry Keoghan take centre stage.
The remote Irish settings also play a vital part, such as emphasis on culture and national identity as a Civil War resides as the backdrop to the intimate story, quite literally as audiences hear battles in the background behind the main characters subjected in the shot. The costume design also tells the story just as much as the other mise-en-scène techniques, as talented and artistic designer Eimer Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh created versatile and symbolic costumes to carry the plot.
The designer worked with costume supervisor Judith Devlin’s neighbour Delia Barry, a uniquely skilled octogenarian knitter hailed as “an amazing woman”. Barry worked on a vibrant and dynamic collection of cosy sweaters made from red, purple, blue and charcoal threads to complement each character.
Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh’s work assists the film’s historical context. Her costume palette consists of waistcoats, jackets, and trousers for men and red petticoats and black shawls for women, embracing the traditional outfit of the era in the West of Ireland. “It’s a small story set on an island off the coast of another island,” Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh shared with IndieWire as a reference to the Oscar-nominated film’s contextual and geographical landscape. “That really gives you an opportunity”.
The designs also accentuate the film’s solemn yet raw tone, as brown and dark shades marry with the plot events and themes of intimate bonds breaking down and emotional distress. The costume designer addresses this storytelling factor by adding: “Martin wanted it to be cinematic”.
With that, she took plot events and what they did for character motives or emotions into account, harmonising numerous micro and macro film elements into one artistic landscape that tells a heartfelt tale. “They are being battered by the sea,” Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh said. “They are working on land, cutting turf. Brendan and Colin really, really, really understand the importance of what a costume can bring to the character. They were engaged with the whole process.”
“Colin had a sweater that was a bit too zingy, too poppy. So we dipped it to knock the colour back,” she shared as the trials and tribulations of getting costume and colour aligned with subject matter and visuals. “We hand-dyed all of Brendan’s shirts. It’s all about getting the levels right.”
