Lynne Ramsay

 

Bio:
Glasgow, Scotland! Born on December 5th, 1969. She doesn't really talk about her childhood.

She studied film and photography in college. She was also trained as a camera person there. During her early does as a filmmaker she did DP work for her first short, as well as the writing called, Small Deaths. Small Deaths was her graduation film and won her a Cannes prize in 1996. She did DP duty on two other films that weren't hers. She worked again just directing and writing two more shorts, Kill the Day and Gasman. Small Deaths, Kill the Day, and Gasman all have themes she is well-known for: cause & effect, family, thinking of the past, slices of life, children & teens.

 

Ratcatcher, then, came next in 1999. It was her first feature. She won all kind of awards for it and it has since been given the Criterion treatment. There was a new voice in town! She channels Ken Loach's Kes for it as they both deal with a child trying to escape the harshness of Britain's class system. This one takes place in Glasgow and is set during a garbage strike in the 70s. Life and death. Rat! Dysfunctional family? Hope? Metaphors!

Next, she chooses to do a film adaptation of the book, Morvern Callar (2002). Samantha Morton plays the titular character. Another movie set in Scotland. Supermarket! Suicide! A manuscript! Christmas! Spain...wtf? Deception! Do we trust this protagonist? What is she thinking?

She was going to direct The Lovely Bones but it got out of her hands for various reasons, mostly due to the studio. She has been critical of Peter Jackson's finished product.

We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) is based on another novel! Tilda Swinton plays the mother and Ezra Miller plays her son, Kevin. Her son is a unique young man to say the least. She doesn't know what to do with him. Symbolism! Emptiness. Where is the communication and passion!? What will Kevin do? Why do we hurt people with our actions? Time and memories bring diamonds and rust. A bow.

Swimmer (2012) is a short because a young man who swims through the UK while we hear nature and other people talk around him. It is shot in black and white.

She was in per-production on Jane Got a Gun with Natalie Portman with guns and outlaws but she quit shortly before the film was going into production due to conflicts with the producers. Gavin O'Connor replaced her.

You Were Never Really Here (2017) has Joaquin Phoenix playing a veteran who has PTSD, who lives with his elderly mother. He goes around searching for missing girls and kills their abductors with a hammer. He has one last job in him. The movie blends reality with fantasy, so much so, that by the end the audience questions what they are seeing.

Her next project is a Stephen King adaptation based on The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.

She has always wanted to make a version of Moby Dick in space. "So we're creating a whole new world, and a new alien. [It's] a very psychological piece, mainly taking place in the ship, a bit like Das Boot, so it's quite claustrophobic. It's another monster movie, cos the monster's Ahab."

Themes and the such: Young adults, teens, and children. Desire. Jail. Generations. Morals? Causes and the effects. What causes people to hurt others? Are most people good or bad? The mind and the body. Alienation. The past. Family. Guilt. Anguish. Horrors of life. Death and beyond. Nature and nurture. Let's the actions, visuals and music speak the most and has little dialogue. Her style has been said to demand immersion and is realistic due to the colors, sound, and what not. She writes or co-writes her films.

Collaborations: Alwin H. Kuchler (DP), Lucia Zucchetti (Editor)

Influence: Robert Bresson, John Cassavetes, Ingmar Bergman, R.W. Fassbinder, Terrence Malick, Andrei Tarkovsky, Bill Douglas, Ken Loach, François Truffaut, Michelangelo Antonioni, Franz Kafka