On Friday 19 January 2024, members of the Association Luxembourgeoise de la Presse Cinématographique (ALPC - Luxembourg Film Critics Association) met in Val Ste Croix in Luxembourg City for their Annual General Meeting at which they elected The Banshees of Inisherin by Martin McDonagh as their Film of the Year 2023.
The first round of voting had taken place by email, with APLC members proposing their Top Ten (from a list of all 301 films that had gone on general release in Luxembourg cinemas during 2023) which were then whittled down to a short-list of five films which were then voted on at Friday's AGM.
The Banshees of Inisherin by Martin McDonagh, which was released in Luxembourg in the first week of January 2023, came out on top
According to the ALPC's announcement, "the ALPC distinguished the film 'The Banshees of Inisherin', directed by Martin McDonagh. Signing his first film in his native land, the Irish director reunites, with Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, the duo of actors who had made a lasting impression in the comedy with tragic overtones 'In Bruges', the first cinematic excursion of a McDonagh more accustomed until then on the theatrical stage, where he, together with his brother John Michael, forged a reputation as a playwright analysing with black humour and cynicism the darkest inclinations of humanity. It is from the theatre that he gets his art of dialogue and his ability to raise the stakes in a hectic closed session, a closed session that is here Inisherin, a [fictitious] Irish island that everyone wants to abandon and where gossip goes good progress, which is why the two best friends Pàdraic (Colin Farrell) and Colm (Brendan Gleeson) ward off boredom with daily pints at the pub. Until the fateful day when Colm decides to end their friendship. While in the distance, the civil war rages on dry land, it is another war, that of a friendship in pieces and a broken heart which engages on the island, a conflict which will experience unexpected collateral victims. What are the limits of a friendship, when does a human relationship break down, what can you expect from life when you're stuck in a setting that allows for about as much variation as Bill Murray's daily life in 'Groundhog Day'? And what can art and music do in the face of confinement, solitude and the stupidity of men?"
Interestingly, films that are released at the start of the year are often forgotten, or at least superseded, in our minds by the time the end of the year comes and one has to reflect over the past twelve months of cinematic releases.
The finalists / Top Five
1. The Banshees of Inisherin by Martin McDonagh - see our film review at https://chronicle.lu/category/film-reviews/43944-film-review-the-banshees-of-inisherin
2. Anatomie d'une chute by Justine Triet
3. Killers of the Flower Moon by Martin Scorcese
4. Oppenheimer by Christopher Nolan
5. Tár by Todd Field.
Last year, the ALPC chose Triangle of Sadness by Ruben Östlund. Previous "ALPC Films of the Year" are: The Power of the Dog by Jane Campion, Tenet by Christopher Nolan, Joker by Todd Phillips, Dunkirk by Christopher Nolan, Spotlight by Tom McCarthy, Birdman by Alejandro González Iñárritu and Mommy by Xavier Dolan.
