Lynne Ramsay's dark, agonizing poetry celebrated at The Cinematheque, to February 4
With films like We Need to Talk About Kevin and You Were Never Really Here, the Scottish director is a singular contemporary voice
Tilda Swinton struggles to raise a sociopathic child in We Need to Talk About Kevin.
The Cinematheque presents Cracks in the Rearview Mirror: The Cinema of Lynne Ramsay to February 4
TRAINED AS A photographer and cinematographer, Scottish director Lynne Ramsay conjures images so haunting and dreamlike that she barely needs words to tell her stories.
She’s not a filmmaker that you see on red carpets too often, but Ramsay is inarguably one of the most exciting auteurs of this generation—and her unsettling, unforgettable output is finally getting the celebration it deserves at The Cinematheque this month. Best of all, the art-movie house is pairing her features with some rarely screened shorts. These are films that are a perfect accompaniment to drizzly, dark days and a world that sometimes feels like it’s spinning toward disaster.
Working chronologically through her films, you could start the series with Ratcatcher, a mesmerizing debut feature set in a housing project on what must be Glasgow’s most depressing canal, amid a 1970s garbage strike. The story about a 12-year-old boy faced with tragedy is a great introduction to Ramsay’s agonizing poetry and stark, unsentimental honesty. The Cinematheque pairs it perfectly with Ramsay’s graduation film, Small Deaths—which focuses on a series of children dealing with turmoil.
Perhaps the most exciting pairing here features Ramsay’s strongest film, We Need to Talk About Kevin, with Gasman, about the emotional state of a young girl. In Kevin, Tilda Swinton is an enigmatic standout as a mother wracked by memories of raising a son who has committed an unfathomable act of violence that’s destroyed her life.
And don’t miss Morvern Callar or the more recent You Were Never Really Here: in both, the director creates a delirious realm that sometimes slips out of reality—mostly because the main characters are losing their grip. In the latter film, featuring one of Joaquin Phoenix’s most fearless performances—and yes, we know, that’s saying something—the filmmaker builds the kind of visceral dread you can feel inching up your spine.
So, no, there won't be a lot of uplift here—but you'll come to see how exhilarating Ramsay's movies can be, despite the painful subject matter. And that dichotomy speaks directly to how excitingly crafted her films are.
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