Intertextualities between Frank Berry’s films, I Used to Live Here (2014) and Michael Inside (2017)

Abstract

With the support of John Nicholl’s (2001) approach on how to “read” a film, this article discusses the intertextual relations between two films I Used to Live Here (2014) and Michael Inside (2017), by the filmmaker and producer Frank Berry. These two fictional dramas are set in the suburban north region of Dublin and portray issues such as bullying, loneliness, social exclusion, and suicide. In the 2017 film, the director borrows some filmic elements from the previous movie such as visual and sound codes, the setting, specific scenes, and actors. Using images as signs, as defined by Ferdinand de Saussure, the director makes imagetic appropriations to enhance the construction of space and identity, which brings a strong sense of sequel in “Michael Inside”, thereby stimulating examinations concerning its originality. Additionally, this research briefly observes the social function of these two community-oriented films and the director’s motivation for the usage of intertextualities. In conclusion, it discusses how Ireland’s recent history of rapid globalization has transformed Irish cinema tradition, especially in prison-themed films such as Michael Inside, in which the lines between the local and the global become blurred.