The Films of Lynne Ramsay: Conclusion

Lynne Ramsay is one of the most fascinating voices in contemporary cinema currently working. She has a background in photography and cinematography, and it’s a background you can see in all of her films – which are primary visual exercises. She is the personification of the old filmmaking edict of “Show, don’t tell”. Her films are all fascinating, and all leave it to the viewer to draw their own conclusions. She trusts the audience enough that she isn’t going to hold their hands and walk them to a pre-determined conclusion.

It’s somewhat sad then that a filmmaker who has been making shorts since 1996 only has four shorts, three features and one heavily re-edited music video (not reviewed as part of the series, because frankly, I didn’t find it that interesting, so I didn’t know what to say about it other than it looks good, but also like a typical music video) to her credit after 18 years – only two of which have happened in the last decade. I don’t know why this is – I still don’t know what she did between 2002’s Movern Callar and 2011’s We Need to Talk About Kevin – or what if anything she is working on now. The furor that enveloped her after she walked out of Jane Got a Gun last year was mystifying. Many directors have either left or been fired from a movie during production (Stanley Kubrick – One Eyed Jacks - and Martin Scorsese – The Honeymoon Killers - spring to mind, but are hardly alone) but the media treated Ramsay horribly. Apparently, all the legal issues around that have now resolved, so hopefully, Ramsay can move onto to something else. She is a great filmmaker, and one I cannot wait to see more of – hopefully in the near future.