The 144th Best Director of All-Time: Lynne Ramsay

Ramsay.  Ramsay works so infrequently but she’s four for four here with films that landed in the top 100 of their respective decade. That’s extremely rare. She’s made four films in 20+ years (releasing in 1999, 2002, 2011, 2017). If you were to watch all four (including her most recent- the brilliant You Were Never Really Here) in a row, and then take about a week to just let them sink in, you’d be hard pressed to find more than a handful of directors you’d take over her on the planet since her debut in 1999. They’re uncompromisingly similar and visually exquisite.

Best film: We Need to Talk About Kevin

• First off—it’s absolutely, and gorgeously, drenched in red. – We have the opening of Swinton at a huge outdoor party/concert/no idea in red (tomatoes?)—perhaps a flashback of her youth but the narrative is very fractured so it’s not clear—
• Countless usages of red tinting and red paint—red Clifford dog, red ball, red shirts, red alarm clock emphasized, red chairs at the travel agency where she works, red jelly in sandwich, red ketchup with eggs, tomato soup background at store, red wine in almost every scene, red police lights accentuated-
• It’s glorious expressionism with Swinton (who is superb) as her vehicle/vessel through a realistic nightmare (though not in mise-en-scene or narrative)—she’s almost catatonic or a zombie- and justifiably so horrifying
• In the latter part I realized it’s not just red but yellows used in the mise-en-scene so often as well (car)
• It’s a collage of the different memories and time planes— portrait of a killer
• It’s a bit stretched at 110 minutes- I think there’s a 85 minute film in here
• Very odd folk soundtrack I think is a miss- seems so out of tune—give me something more hypnotic or driving instead
• the hypnotic nature of the film is staying with me so I could see moving it up

total archiveable films: 4

top 100 films:  0

top 500 films:  0

top 100 films of the decade:  4 (Ratcatcher, Morvern Callar, We Need to Talk About Kevin, You Were Never Really Here)

most overrated: Ramsay doesn’t have an overrated film. She’s a modern auteur (3 of her 4 films in the 21^st century) so it is not crazy that she doesn’t have a top 1000 film but if you go to the TSPDT 1000-2000 list she has 2 that could make it eventually- Morvern is currently at #1068 and Ratcatcher is #1224. Both You Were Never Really Here and We Need to Talk About Kevin are on the 21^st century TSPDT list and are both underrated.

most underrated:  Ratcatcher. It’s came out in 1999 so that’s long enough to wait- it should be on the top 1000 on TSPDT and isn’t currently.  

• It’s a strong debut from Ramsay; grim, stark, certainly fits the sub-genre poetic realism but mainly she’s started her narrative trend here and has a clear talent for arresting imagery
• Lots of squalor, the mise-en-scene loaded with filled garbage bags in the street
• Starts with suffocating in curtain much like Phoenix in the plastic in You Were Never Really Here in 2017
• Like all of Ramsay’s films the central character is in a traumatic experience (death of a child here that he is the cause of) and the rest of the film with float along with him—he’s not as zombie-like as the Samantha Morton, Tilda or Phoenix characters
• It’s a montage film- built in the editing room
• Much of it is silent cinema- strong photography
• Very grey coloring- washed out
• Sunless Scotland—grim
• Impenetrably authentic dialogue
• Part neo-realism (like Rossellini in WW2 rubble in Germany War Zero) and part magical or poetic realism- we have, at 40 minutes in, the character hop on a bus to a nice empty house with a field—we also have a mouse tied to a balloon going off of the planet earth to what sounds like the music from Terrence Malick’s Badlands
• A sweet mother and an angry drunk father
• Similar to 2000’s George Washington from David Gordon Green
• We have a great shot at that house in the country of the window frame with the wheat field in the background- Ramsay uses the window as her own frame- like Renoir did- she goes back to this at least three times- gorgeous
• Is the ending a dream escapes or real? Did he drown or was he saved? Ironic smile

gem I want to spotlight :  Morvern Callar

• Description—but it’s certainly opaque, chilly, existential, ethereal—works as a silent film for most of it (which makes me wish she went even more out there with the mise-en-scene)—it is a medication on grief and alienation
• Love the flashing light from the xmas tree—it would pick up again at the neon infused party and yet again with the strobe lights at the club/disco
• Handheld camera for much of it
• L’avventura works—maybe a bit of Repulsion from Polanski
• to the viewer expecting a narrative with momentum they’ll have this—seemingly throwaway scenes are ways of Ramsay (and Samantha Morton who is excellent) showing how much the character is in her own head—high— staring into space.
• Uses the window rain as a tear like In Cold Blood
• Hypnotic—delves in and out of focus with the camera
• Tinted Spain landscapes remind me of traffic lighting approach
• The running of the bulls is like an Easy Rider Mardi Gras scene (or the opening of We Need to Talk About Kevin)
• Stunning shot of a phone booth by the sea
• It is a true achievement for Morton
• Love the slow-motion ending in the club again with the vacant gaze

stylistic innovations/traits: Ramsay certainly doesn’t believe in John Ford’s old adage:  “one for them, one for me”—she’s only made four films but they are rigidly her own and work better as a collective. She a strong editor- jigsaw puzzle films or kaleidoscopes. She’s a collagist or montagist. They bounce around from various time slices, some scenes seem to be from dreams—she’s trying to put you in the headspace of her protagonists. She’s also brilliant photographer with a penchant for arresting imagery—there really isn’t much to her screenplays in terms of dialogue. She uses red heavily her films (most clearly in We Need to Talk About Kevin), neon (Morvern Callar, You Were Never Really Here). The ethereal dream-like atmosphere she creates in her films is Resnais. Large chucks of her films you ask yourself—did that really just happen? A flashback? A dream? In Ramsay’s films the central character is in a traumatic experience (death) and the rest of the film with we’re floating around with the survivor in a haze. Her films are certainly opaque, chilly, existential, and otherworldly—works as a silent film—often a medication on grief and alienation. There are reoccurring images like the suffocating in the curtain/plastic (Ratcatcher, You Were Never Really Here), the syncing with a dead person lying on the floor (Morvern Callar, You Were Never Really Here), Christmas lights (We Need To Talk About Kevin, Morvern Callar, You Were Never Really Here) red splashed on their faces (Morvern Callar, We Need to Talk About Kevin), heavy user of mirrors (Ratcatcher– that amazing ending, Morvern Callar, You Were Never Really Here), or the In Cold Blood shot of water on the face through a window (You Were Never Really Here, Morvern Callar, We Need To Talk About Kevin). Odd choices in music (the old timey folk in We Need To Talk About Kevin doesn’t work but the Greenwood score in You Were Never Really Here does). Always the non-diegetic music is important. She has these walking zombies (Phoenix, Tilda, and Samantha Morton) who are basically in post-traumatic stress. They are like fever-dreams of reality and alienation (I think the Antonioni comparison is so appropriate). It’s montage that matches their temperament and experience. On their own their impressive but together they show the work of a true unique voice/artist.

top 10

1. We Need to Talk About Kevin
2. Ratcatcher
3. Morvern Callar
4. You Were Never Really Here

By year and grades

1999- Ratcatcher	HR
2002- Morvern Callar	HR
2011- We Need to Talk About Kevin	MS
2017- You Were Never Really Here	HR

*MP is Masterpiece- top 1-3 quality of the year film

MS is Must-see- top 5-6 quality of the year film

HR is Highly Recommend- top 10 quality of the year film

R is Recommend- outside the top 10 of the year quality film but still in the archives