Lynne Ramsay

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Does anyone else on here think that Lynne Ramsay is one of the most distinctive talents UK cinema has ever produced? Just rewatched 'Gasman' with a friend, and was blown away; as for 'Small Deaths', possibly the most stunning short film I've ever seen..... her observation of tiny details and emotional fragility is quite sublime.

All Ramsay-related chat appreciated (including 'Ratcatcher' and 'Morvern Callar'!)...
 

tox

Factory Girl
Morvern Callar ranks as one of my favourite films. What's so great about it is the sense of atmosphere, particularly in the club scene. I remember reading an interview with Lynne Ramsay about it, saying how she felt most club scenes didn't really represent the true feeling of being in a club environment. The way she captures Morvern moving through the club, with the lights picking her out against the darkened background pretty much captures what its like for one person to move through a club by themselves. It also does a good job of staying faithful to the atmosphere of the book, even if it plays slightly with the story. Some of the stills from the scene in the club toilet are also pretty cool. The colouring and the wierd alien like girl clinging to the wall are the two things that come to mind. Definately one to watch - has it been released on DVD yet?

baboon2004 said:
Does anyone else on here think that Lynne Ramsay is one of the most distinctive talents UK cinema has ever produced? Just rewatched 'Gasman' with a friend, and was blown away; as for 'Small Deaths', possibly the most stunning short film I've ever seen.....

I've seen Ratcatcher, which is again an excellent film, but haven't heard of Gasman or Small Deaths. Thanks for giving me the heads up on these two - time to do some investigating I think.
 

Diggedy Derek

Stray Dog
I've only seen Ratcatcher, but I thought that was absolutely wonderful, and very distinctive as you say. One bit was particularly fantastic, when the little boy is sitting motionless by the canal thinking, and just for a second (or split second), you see from the tree swaying in the background that it's gone into slow-motion photography. Really effective way of conveying the depth of his thoughts.
 
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owen

Well-known member
I'm very keen on almost everything about Morvern Callar (the languid pace, the lushness, that fantastic club scene, holger czukay woo hoo) but found samantha norton a little annoying...overdid the mysterious ingenue bit for my taste

didn't she recently scrap a film she'd been working on for years, or somthing like that?
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
tox said:
I've seen Ratcatcher, which is again an excellent film, but haven't heard of Gasman or Small Deaths. Thanks for giving me the heads up on these two - time to do some investigating I think.

No worries - Gasman is available on an excellent Cinema16 comp named British Short Films. If anyone can tell me where to get hold of a copy of Small Deaths (caught it on C4 aeons ago), would be more than grateful...

As for the scrapped film, I heard something about that too, but can't recall the details.
 

tox

Factory Girl
baboon2004 said:
No worries - Gasman is available on an excellent Cinema16 comp named British Short Films. If anyone can tell me where to get hold of a copy of Small Deaths (caught it on C4 aeons ago), would be more than grateful...

I found that the R2 DVD of Ratcatcher lists "short films" as a special feature, so that might be worth having a look at. It doesn't actually specify which short films it contains though... (only £6.99 over at play.com!).
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
tox said:
I found that the R2 DVD of Ratcatcher lists "short films" as a special feature, so that might be worth having a look at. It doesn't actually specify which short films it contains though... (only £6.99 over at play.com!).

Thank you so much! Found the listing for the R1 DVD of Ratcatcher, which includes all her short films (including one I've never heard of), so I am presuming (will check at HMV) that the R2 is the same. Bliss.
 

dHarry

Well-known member
owen said:
found samantha norton a little annoying...overdid the mysterious ingenue bit for my taste

I have heard that comment from others also, but only seems valid from a realist/character-driven standpoint. For me she is perfect as a sort of blank ego-less fluid identity - (Camus' Outsider-like) lack of "normal" reaction to his suicide, the way she inserts her name into his novel, her absorption in the music tape/walkman, wanderings around the local pubs/houses/parties/supermarket/workplace, Scottish highlands, Ibiza (rep-organised "fun", clubs, rural religious pageant & countryside), etc all couldn't help but remind me of Deleuze & Guattarri's Anti-Oedipus' description of the schizo's stroll, slipping in and out of the various machines of life with a benign open-ness to whatever works for any particular time and place.

It seemed to me that Ramsay was trying to create in Callar a kind of non-Oedipal subjectivity no longer driven by ego-demands (like her friend), but surfing the waves of desire wherever they take her. Norton's affectless but absorbed face seemed to perfectly reflect this, part child-like, part teenage refusal to settle into an "adult" personality (a set of identifying ego-idiosyncrasies which teenagers - rightly? - seem to despise as a set of off-the-shelf ham-actor cliches)
 

labrat

hot on the heels of love
dHarry said:
Norton's affectless but absorbed face seemed to perfectly reflect this)
i think her very blankness is perfect at literalising LSD's properties as a catalyst of "ego death"
aside from the club sequence the house party (Spoon) bit is superb at SHOWING the effects of halluciogens.
 

mms

sometimes
baboon2004 said:
No worries - Gasman is available on an excellent Cinema16 comp named British Short Films. If anyone can tell me where to get hold of a copy of Small Deaths (caught it on C4 aeons ago), would be more than grateful...

As for the scrapped film, I heard something about that too, but can't recall the details.

one of the guys who helps run warp films who are in my office at work runs cinema16 so i've managed to cadge the last few copies he has of the british and the european shorts comps for the shop, so should have em in for sale tomorrow if anyone is interested.
 
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