Major Themes, Influences, and Artistic Style

Neil Jordan treats every one of his movies as a brand new project. There is no such thing as a typical Neil Jordan movie. Although there may not be a single type of Neil Jordan film, there is a Neil Jordan style and approach. Many of Jordan’s films have a gothic sensibility. There are the obvious symbols like vampires, ghosts, and haunted castles, but he also expresses his fascination with death and decay, no real boundaries between reality and fantasy, and out-of-bounds sexuality.
Another one of his themes is fragmentation of identity. Characters in Jordan’s films express this fragmentation by treating their identity as something that can be revised under different circumstances. His films are a lot like the modern world where familiar frameworks such as organized religion, nationalism, and gender roles are often perceived as untrustworthy and irrelevant.
Jordan approaches all of his movies with a similar artistic style. He takes the familiar and turns into something questionable. His films make us, the viewers; question our understanding of the world. All of his films revolve around this idea that reality is complex and not absolute.
Symbolism is also very important to Jordan. Mona Lisa has many images relating to childhood and innocence: the white rabbit, the dwarves, and the old woman’s shoe. In The Company of Wolves there are many symbolic images of procreation and sexuality.
He was influenced a lot by Ireland and what was going on at the time. "The world we grew up in wasn't bad -- it was fascinating -- it was just blighted by these [...] medieval eruptions of insanity. Ireland was a bit like that then. It wasn't quite politics, it wasn't religion. You didn't know what it was. But what it definitely was, was the intrusion of severe violence into the lives of innocent people." -- Neil Jordan.


Mapes, Marty. "Interview with Neil Jordan." Turner Classic Movies (2010): n. pag. Web. 9 Apr 2010.

Sragow, Michael. "Beautiful Dreamer." (1999): n. pag. Web. 24 Mar 2010.