Ratcatcher

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This is the greatest anything ever. I just saw it. It made me cry in several places. "[Ratcatcher] is a freight train of affectations that clicks with me on the most amplified levels......" Just talk about the film or other things which click with you in such way.

― david h(0wie), Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I wuv it too.

― Graham, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

It's excellent -- and the cinematography is so precise and efficient to be frightening. For such a bleak film it is surprisingly haunting.

― clive, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Anyone reading this thread who hasn't seen "Ratcatcher" should definitely rent it or go out and buy a copy. It's incredible.

I've just read that Lynne Ramsay's next film (due this year) is called "Morvern Callar" and stars the beautiful Samantha Morton. Apparently it's based on a novel by Alan Warner. Here's the plot:

When her writer boyfriend commits suicide, an impoverished supermarket clerk in a small Scotland port town, Morvern Callar (Morton), covers it up, steals his unpublished novel, sells it as her own, and takes off for the easy life of a rave clubber in Ibiza, Spain.

Sounds good...

― D, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

So here's the thing -- when I first saw the title I just thought of some weird medieval comedy a la Terry Gilliam involving the town drudge who indeed captures rodents to make a living. So I'm assuming that's not the case? Or is there emotional depth to Baldrick after all?

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Ratcatcher is one of the strangest films I have ever seen. The first half did not connect at all, seemed gritty social realism by numbers, slow and wholly uninvolving with a cliched plot. Then there was thje brief fantasy sequence with the mice and when we got back into the main plot (and the Dad was partially humanized) I absolutely adored it. Not only that but it made the first half all make sense and beautiful in reflection. Very, very brave opening too. Really looking forward to Morvern Callar (Morton is ace).

― Pete, Thursday, 25 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Something about the plot description of this new movie makes me think of Shirley Valentine, though. Is that a good thing? Anyway, approval of Ratcatcher noted.

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 25 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I didn't like Morvern Callar the book, but Archel did I think. Or maybe it was someone else off sinister. YES it was. She was from Oxford and I only met her once. Pamela, that was it. What a lovely girl she was. I ended up apologising for being rude about Morvern Callar.

The film's being premiered at the Edinburgh Film Festival. I wonder if I can get a ticket.

― N., Thursday, 25 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Gritty social realism by numbers

*stunned* Those are very insightful, well observed numbers.

― ^david_h(owie), Thursday, 25 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

six months pass...

I saw this on Saturday and I still can't stop thinking about it. Anyone who hasn't already, please see this.

― mark p (Mark P), Monday, 27 January 2003 16:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Woah! Way to go last minute reminder. There's a one-off showing at the GFT in an hour's time. Must run.

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 27 January 2003 16:56 (twenty-two years ago)

But help! I only had three hours sleep last night and I am v.drowsy. Do Pro Plus work? Earlier a cup of coffee sent me to sleep.

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 27 January 2003 17:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Careful, despite it being lovely, you could well fall asleep in the first half hour.

Were you up all night watching Superbowl?

― Pete (Pete), Monday, 27 January 2003 17:03 (twenty-two years ago)

I love that darn Superbowl.

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 27 January 2003 17:04 (twenty-two years ago)

I have it at home on video, haven't watched it yet, but I must say I was seriously underwhelmed by Movern Callern. However, my other video pick, Ipcress File, which starts off with Michael Caine grinding his own coffee beans and then making coffee in a French press, was a definite hit.

― Mary (Mary), Monday, 27 January 2003 17:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Err yeah.. one of the best films I have ever seen.

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 27 January 2003 20:23 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

why don't you love ratcatcher?

― cºzen (Cozen), Monday, 23 August 2004 12:17 (twenty-one years ago)

I sodding do!

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 23 August 2004 12:27 (twenty-one years ago)

I am looking at a winsome picture of Lynne Ramsay right now. I can email it to you if you like, N.

― Markelby (Mark C), Monday, 23 August 2004 12:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Did it have subtitles in the UK?

― TOMBOT, Monday, 23 August 2004 12:30 (twenty-one years ago)

No Tom.

― Markelby (Mark C), Monday, 23 August 2004 12:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Has there ever been an English language film from America that's been subtitled over here? How common is it in reverse?

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 23 August 2004 12:32 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't think of one.

I know that the (foreign) girls (speaking in english) were subtitled for the USA's 'the next joe millionairre'.

― cºzen (Cozen), Monday, 23 August 2004 12:35 (twenty-one years ago)

When we saw it in California it had subtitles. I am not making this up.

― TOMBOT, Monday, 23 August 2004 13:29 (twenty-one years ago)

That's just LAAAAAME. (waves at the TOMBOT)

Mark, if you have occasion to say yo from me to LR, please do! Best. Interviewee. Ever.

― suzy (suzy), Monday, 23 August 2004 13:58 (twenty-one years ago)

I believe you, Tom. Didn't they do it with Trainspotting too? And Eastenders? Or was that just a published glossary?

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 23 August 2004 14:00 (twenty-one years ago)

No, Trainspotting when I saw it had no such silliness. I dunno about Eastenders, but I imagine they would have had a glossary for that since they had one for Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

― TOMBOT, Monday, 23 August 2004 14:03 (twenty-one years ago)

I saw a piece in the Tate Modern called something like Britain Seen From the North that was basically a map of Britain made of old toys on the wall. All I could think was RATCATCHER RATCATCHER RATCATCHER.

Yeah, it was subtitled here, too. Trainspotting wasn't.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Monday, 23 August 2004 14:03 (twenty-one years ago)

My Name is Joe (the Ken Loach film) had subtitles in the US.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 23 August 2004 14:11 (twenty-one years ago)

So basically, it's anything from Glasgow?

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 23 August 2004 14:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Eastenders isn't subtitled on BBC America. Not here at least. The only other British thing I've seen subtitled here is an Oasis interview on MTV.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Monday, 23 August 2004 14:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Alba: yes!

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 23 August 2004 14:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Liamnoel famously subtitled on MTV! Too fookin' right!

― suzy (suzy), Monday, 23 August 2004 14:23 (twenty-one years ago)

I got the feeing that it was less "we can't understand them because they're not Americans" than "we can't understand them because they're too fucking trolleyed to open their mouths."

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Monday, 23 August 2004 14:26 (twenty-one years ago)

sorry, I'll be less enigmatic, I watched this film today and was struck by a number of things, none less than I think it is a masterpiece.

― cºzen (Cozen), Monday, 23 August 2004 18:41 (twenty-one years ago)

why is it lame to have subtitles on a film for whom the dialogue might be incomprehensible to its distributor's intended audience? a bunch of ken loach films have subtitles here in the states, and a good thing too.

― amateur!!st, Monday, 23 August 2004 18:43 (twenty-one years ago)

hey amateurist what d'you think about 'ratcatcher'?

― cºzen (Cozen), Monday, 23 August 2004 18:47 (twenty-one years ago)

i've rented it twice and still haven't seen it.

― amateur!!st, Monday, 23 August 2004 18:47 (twenty-one years ago)

spoilers. it's strange that even though I have watched the film 6 times and the murder james commits he quite callously ignores I almost always forget, by 2/3rds into the movie, that he is a murderer. there is the scene, the only glint of anger and destruction, where he pummels the bin bags, killing a rat. this is, I think, as are other things, a testament to ramsay's dreamy eye & forgiveness. she's somehow managed to film one of the most destitute periods of glaswegian history (gangs, rubbish strike, poverty &c.) and inure it with a romantic gleam. there are obvious refs. to roeg's 'don't look now' (haha 'refs.' more like 'lifts') (the long pan shot, post-murder, along the banks of the water; the editing on the slashing scene). I've so much to say about this film.

― cºzen (Cozen), Monday, 23 August 2004 18:56 (twenty-one years ago)

he is a murderer? i must have totally blocked this out of my memory and its still not coming back.

what about that spacemouse?

― jed_ (jed), Monday, 23 August 2004 19:02 (twenty-one years ago)

he is a murderer? i must have totally blocked this out of my memory and its still not coming back. exactly!!!

haha yeah the space mouse I'm still not sure about, I like how it rhymes with the scene in the field (they both have the 'badlands' theme played over them), but tht level of magic realism maybe jars with the rest. the scene leading up to it is wonderful, the kid who plays kenny deserves ten oscars.

― cºzen (Cozen), Monday, 23 August 2004 19:04 (twenty-one years ago)

i forget what he's done, too, usually quicker than 2/3rds in i think. in morvern callar, i manage to quickly forget that morvern dismembers and disposes of her dead boyfriend.

― lauren (laurenp), Monday, 23 August 2004 19:29 (twenty-one years ago)

PS WHEN SOMEONE HAS THE DECENCY TO SAY "SPOILER" IN THEIR POST, PLEASE AVOID REPEATING THE STUFF THEY GIVE AWAY IN YOUR REPLY, THX

― Markelby (Mark C), Monday, 23 August 2004 20:14 (twenty-one years ago)

SPOILER

i forget what he's done, too, usually quicker than 2/3rds in i think. in morvern callar, i manage to quickly forget that morvern dismembers and disposes of her dead boyfriend.
-- lauren (warmleatherett...), August 23rd, 2004.

well they kind of portray this elliptically. not so's you wouldn't know if had happened, but so's you wouldn't think too hard about the moral implications.

― amateur!!st, Monday, 23 August 2004 20:18 (twenty-one years ago)

I DON'T KNOW IF THIS IS A SPOILER

It's OK - no one remembers that he's a murderer anyway.

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 23 August 2004 20:19 (twenty-one years ago)

spoiler. what does it mean?

― cºzen (Cozen), Monday, 23 August 2004 20:22 (twenty-one years ago)

if i have put anyone off from running out and renting morvern callar (or ratcatcher), i sincerely apologize. please, don't let me stop you. it really won't affect your viewing of the film.

― lauren (laurenp), Monday, 23 August 2004 21:07 (twenty-one years ago)

morvern callar was so so disappointing. in fact, I dislike alan warner quite strongly but, I think the book may be better.

― cºzen (Cozen), Monday, 23 August 2004 21:16 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm in too good a mood (due in large part to trashy foreign sweets) to argue with you, but let it be noted that i disagree.

― lauren (laurenp), Monday, 23 August 2004 21:19 (twenty-one years ago)

I loved Morvern Callar, but Ratcatcher left me cold. I'll have to give it another shot.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Monday, 23 August 2004 21:19 (twenty-one years ago)

the kid who plays kenny deserves ten oscars.

yes he's incredible. so many people in the film deserve 10 oscars though.

i think M C is pretty poor - have you seen The Gasman, Cozen?

― jed_ (jed), Monday, 23 August 2004 21:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Own the Ratcatcher DVD, will gladly lend it to anybody who wants to watch / catch Gasman, which is also on it (!)

― x j e r e m y (x Jeremy), Monday, 23 August 2004 21:22 (twenty-one years ago)

that's her pre-ratcatcher short, right? I think I noticed it on some fopp £5 dvd of notable shorts but didn't pick it up. what's it like?

― cºzen (Cozen), Monday, 23 August 2004 21:23 (twenty-one years ago)

(ps, lauren, glad you like them! :)

― cºzen (Cozen), Monday, 23 August 2004 21:27 (twenty-one years ago)

very very good indeed. although its basically just a sketch for Ratcatcher.

― jed_ (jed), Monday, 23 August 2004 21:28 (twenty-one years ago)

It's great. It kind of melds into Ratcatcher in my mind because I saw them together.

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 23 August 2004 21:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I love morvern callar, depsite adam's calling me insane for even remotely liking it. I do think it's practically the same film as Ratcatcher though. I hope that her adaptation of the Lovely Bones is very different from both of these.

― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 23 August 2004 21:28 (twenty-one years ago)

What is the plot of The Gasman? I just have the image of them walking down a railway track in my mind. And a party.

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 23 August 2004 21:29 (twenty-one years ago)

my dvd of ratcatcher doesn't have it on. : /

― cºzen (Cozen), Monday, 23 August 2004 21:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Morvern Callar is so not the same film as Ratcatcher!

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 23 August 2004 21:31 (twenty-one years ago)

I do think it's practically the same film as Ratcatcher though.

huh? honestly?

― cºzen (Cozen), Monday, 23 August 2004 21:31 (twenty-one years ago)

not plot-wise, per se, but symbolically speaking they seem very tied together to me.

― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 23 August 2004 21:33 (twenty-one years ago)

they're not even stylistically similar. nor thematically. I can't see it.

― cºzen (Cozen), Monday, 23 August 2004 21:35 (twenty-one years ago)

person lives in poverty, person commits crime, person dreams of a bright future as symbolized by sunbathed horizon (field/spain).

― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 23 August 2004 21:40 (twenty-one years ago)

i thought a lot about the films' colo(u)r schemes after seeing both. ratcatcher was washed out, lots of browns and rusty shades and white whereas m.c. was almost oversaturated bright blues and greens and oranges. i assume that to have used such opposite palettes was a conscious decision.

― lauren (laurenp), Monday, 23 August 2004 21:44 (twenty-one years ago)

^^^^^^^WARNING! COLOUR SPOILERS ^^^^^^

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 23 August 2004 21:45 (twenty-one years ago)

well... maybe not a lot. but, for like an hour at least.

― lauren (laurenp), Monday, 23 August 2004 21:46 (twenty-one years ago)

agreed. I think the films are intentionaly very tightly linked; there's a shot in MC that echoes a shot in Ratcatcher (when he's in the house). I'd have to rewatch them again in order to state exactly why I feel this way though. and I don't know if I can take another viewing of them right now because they're depressing.

― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 23 August 2004 21:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I didn't find Ratcatcher at all depressing.

I didn't like MC much, but my favourite bit was the trekking Spain section, for which she used old film stock, I think.

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 23 August 2004 21:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I didn't find Ratcatcher at all depressing.

are you sure you aren't thinking of this movie?

http://www.dvd-center.de/filme/covers/outsrc/3831.jpg

― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 23 August 2004 21:53 (twenty-one years ago)

I assumed it was just the US title!

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 23 August 2004 21:54 (twenty-one years ago)

No, really, I didn't. I didn't take the intent of the film as bleakness at all.

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 23 August 2004 21:54 (twenty-one years ago)

that film can be read a couple of ways and it probably says a lot about the state of mind of the viewer at the time they see it; I've read the ending differently at different times.

― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 23 August 2004 21:56 (twenty-one years ago)

spoilers. are the boys who slash james' father in part his friends from earlier on? tht would make the attack even more disturbing.

― cºzen (Cozen), Monday, 23 August 2004 21:58 (twenty-one years ago)

There isnt much of a plot to The Gasman. As far as i remember the kids go to a christmas party (after walking down the railway lines - an amazing scene) where they have to play with some other kids. It becomes clear that the other kids also have the same father as the first boy and girl and that the father basically has two families. I believe this is partly autobiographical. It has alot of the same actors as Ratcatcher - they blend together in my mind too, Alba.

― jed_ (jed), Monday, 23 August 2004 22:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Ah yeah - that's right. I knew there was some kind of sexual intrigue. She is amazing for leaving images burned into your mind. That railway track, yeah.

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 23 August 2004 22:14 (twenty-one years ago)

I remember the kids' acting being so great, too.

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 23 August 2004 22:14 (twenty-one years ago)

the Gasman is really unsettling and kind of confusing until about 3/4 of the way through. it's very good.

― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 23 August 2004 22:20 (twenty-one years ago)

I seem to remember guessing the shared father thing early on, which is very unusual for me.

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 23 August 2004 22:22 (twenty-one years ago)

thanks for the SPOILER, jed.

― lauren (laurenp), Monday, 23 August 2004 22:24 (twenty-one years ago)

you're WELCOME Lauren!

― jed_ (jed), Monday, 23 August 2004 22:29 (twenty-one years ago)

The actor who plays James' father--anyone seen him in other roles? I know Ramsay likes to use non-professionals, and I was wondering if his scars were real.

― Stephen X (Stephen X), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 02:07 (twenty-one years ago)

the director of photography (alwin kuchler) deserves one of those oscars.

what does james' smile at the end mean?

one thing I don't like (the only thing?): the inclusion of nick drake on the (otherwise impeccable) ('lollipop, lollipop...') soundtrack.

― cºzen (Cozen), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 11:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Was the Gasman shown on Channel 4 at some point? I remember seeing a short that fits Jed's description in one of their seasons and thinking it was terrific.

― Ricardo (RickyT), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 11:22 (twenty-one years ago)

:)))))))

― cºzen (Cozen), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 17:44 (twenty-one years ago)

the dad, tommy flanagan, is in (oh no!) 'aliens Vs. predator'. I remember him in 'face/off' too. I think his scars are real.

is 'ratcatcher' based on 'small deaths' (her other, earlier, short) (rather than 'gasman')?

― cºzen (Cozen), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 19:19 (twenty-one years ago)

this always reminds me of the film:

http://www.countrybookshop.co.uk/images/jackets/1999/0099273020.jpg

― cºzen (Cozen), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 19:25 (twenty-one years ago)

I'll check my transcript from interviewing her, can't remember.

― suzy (suzy), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 19:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I wonder if burnside's had the film in mind, the book isn't too similar.

― cºzen (Cozen), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 19:41 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.criterionco.com/asp/release.asp?id=162&eid=241§ion=essay

― cºzen (Cozen), Friday, 27 August 2004 21:37 (twenty-one years ago)

I hated this film. I am not saying this to be different or difficult. It annoyed me deeply, it felt incoherent, gimmicky and trendy.

I am wondering now if there is a certain kind of film - the contemporary youth-art film? - to which RC belongs. A genre in which there is a lack of narrative signposting, a lot of seemingly 'blank time', mysterious motivation, lack of closure etc - nb: I am aware that this is a classic definition of the Art Film (Bordwell) - but also, in last 15 years or so, with an element of glamour and appeal to the wee kids.

I don't really know whether RC fits that bill or not, but the film I saw the other night, LOOK AFTER MY CAT, certainly does.

― the bellefox, Saturday, 28 August 2004 14:06 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't know any wee kids who are interested in 'Ratcatcher' except for cozen. I don't know that many wee kids, mind.

― Alba (Alba), Saturday, 28 August 2004 14:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Why am I the only person who has seen LOOK AFTER MY CAT?

My thought about the CY-AFilm is: couldn't we have some films with the glamour and appeal that they have, and the lack of narrative dumbness and falsity, but -- NOT just artfully alienated either?

In truth, the film WONDERLAND, about which some of us talked a lot a long time ago, is closer to what I am asking for here.

(Closer than what? Maybe 'closer than owt else I can think of'.)

But I am saying that I think both sets of conventions (art and Hollywood) feel not wholly adequate, and I feel that there is a better way which is not obscure or esoteric but obvious, really.

― the bellefox, Saturday, 28 August 2004 14:20 (twenty-one years ago)

The actor who plays James' father--anyone seen him in other roles? I know Ramsay likes to use non-professionals, and I was wondering if his scars were real.

-- Stephen X (figmentfragmen...), 11:07 PM. (later)

They are. He was Chelsea-smiled pretty early in his career, IRC.

And I'm curious to her adaptation of Lovely Bones, meself.

― x j e r e m y (x Jeremy), Saturday, 28 August 2004 15:19 (twenty-one years ago)

A genre in which there is a lack of narrative signposting, a lot of seemingly 'blank time', mysterious motivation, lack of closure etc

an obvious point but: Just like life!

― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 28 August 2004 15:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Why am I the only person who has seen LOOK AFTER MY CAT?

you are not, if you actually mean take care of my cat.

there are a bunch of recent asian films centering on teenagers which have a lot of art-film qualities to them--they don't rely as much on commercial genre convention as american teen movies. another one is blue gate crossing (i think that's the name) from taiwan. which has utterly beautiful cinematography, like take care of my cat (the latter is much more adventurous though).

my sassy girl was kind of in the middle.

a film everyone should see is oasis.

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Saturday, 28 August 2004 17:20 (twenty-one years ago)

I loved this film.

― cºzen (Cozen), Sunday, 29 August 2004 13:10 (twenty-one years ago)

which film?

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Monday, 30 August 2004 04:22 (twenty-one years ago)

I am sorry I got the CAT title wrong.

― the bellefox, Tuesday, 31 August 2004 13:50 (twenty-one years ago)

four months pass...

http://www.bestlaidschemes.com/industrial/class/insiders/clip-3

― cºzen (Cozen), Thursday, 13 January 2005 18:44 (twenty years ago)

seven months pass...

kenny was just in "still game". nae moose though.

― jed_ (jed), Friday, 19 August 2005 20:32 (twenty years ago)

what now?

― Adam In Real Life (nordicskilla), Friday, 19 August 2005 20:45 (twenty years ago)

river city?

― jed_ (jed), Friday, 19 August 2005 20:58 (twenty years ago)

Jed: when you said 'just like life' above: NO - that was my point: films like this make out that they're lifelike, but they're not; real life is not stylized and pretentious in the way that films like RC are. And in real life, people you know say and write interesting things, unlike in films like this. It is the quest to imagine films more like real life that I was trying to articulate above, nearly a year ago.

― the pinefox, Friday, 19 August 2005 21:02 (twenty years ago)

Pinefox, what do you think about the films of Alan Clarke?

― Adam In Real Life (nordicskilla), Friday, 19 August 2005 21:02 (twenty years ago)

i adore this movie.

― mark p (Mark P), Friday, 19 August 2005 21:04 (twenty years ago)

I havenae seen them.

I remember the goals of Wayne Clarke! (1987-1988)

― the pinefox, Friday, 19 August 2005 21:05 (twenty years ago)

fwiw, lynne ramsey has just been signed to a prominent prodco as a commercials director.

― mark p (Mark P), Friday, 19 August 2005 21:13 (twenty years ago)

PF is right of course abt the stylisation of the film vis-a-vis the stylisation of life but I think he's wrong about their relative qualities

― cozen (Cozen), Friday, 19 August 2005 21:14 (twenty years ago)

superpitcher, "the long way" (dir: lynne ramsey, 2004)

― cozen (Cozen), Friday, 19 August 2005 21:14 (twenty years ago)

pinefox i don't find RC pretentious at all. if it's stylised it is so in a way that i like. i find it like my childhood, or rather like my childhood as i remember it which i suppose is a distinct thing from strict "realism". i find most of the characters and scenes in the film have close analogues to scenes from my own childhood. i'll say more at some point but i'm quite drunk now.

xposts

― jed_ (jed), Friday, 19 August 2005 21:16 (twenty years ago)

Morvern Callar was pretentious. Ratcatcher not so much, or not so insiduously.

― Adam In Real Life (nordicskilla), Friday, 19 August 2005 21:17 (twenty years ago)

I like Small Faces. Is that what Glasgow is like?

― Adam In Real Life (nordicskilla), Friday, 19 August 2005 21:18 (twenty years ago)

haha I liked it when N. called me a 'wee kid', I hope he still thinks of me this way

so much on this thread I didn't remember, a lot of good "spoiler" based jokes and me foolishly stating that I have "so much to say about this film" while then going on to say little to nothing insightful

it's a great film nonetheless and I'm due to watch it again soon

with a girl

― cozen (Cozen), Friday, 19 August 2005 21:20 (twenty years ago)

haha small faces! you!

― cozen (Cozen), Friday, 19 August 2005 21:20 (twenty years ago)

I agree with colin too about ratcatcher's relation to my childhood and its scenes I've stored away

― cozen (Cozen), Friday, 19 August 2005 21:22 (twenty years ago)

It was I, really, who called you a wee kid

It is good and amusing of you to spot and admit that point re. having lots to say and then turning out not to

Morvern Callar, the film: crikey, I had forgotten this - it makes my point a hundredfold; I am so sorry that it was so dire

― the pinefox, Friday, 19 August 2005 22:02 (twenty years ago)

it WAS

― Adam In Real Life (nordicskilla), Friday, 19 August 2005 22:10 (twenty years ago)

Despite the awfulness of LR's films, this thread is actually good. In a strong field, the winner of best post is the one with the picture of MOUSE HUNT. Fantastic.

― the bellefox, Friday, 19 August 2005 22:11 (twenty years ago)

Morvern Callar, the film: crikey, I had forgotten this - it makes my point a hundredfold; I am so sorry that it was so dire

it has good things in it.

― jed_ (jed), Friday, 19 August 2005 22:16 (twenty years ago)

like Lee Hazlewood.

and...

...

― Adam In Real Life (nordicskilla), Friday, 19 August 2005 22:17 (twenty years ago)

That wasn't a good thing!

― the bellefox, Friday, 19 August 2005 22:18 (twenty years ago)

We'll agree to disagree.

― Adam In Real Life (nordicskilla), Friday, 19 August 2005 22:19 (twenty years ago)

the scene at the end where she's raving and some really slow track is playing on the soundtrack. that's good.

― jed_ (jed), Friday, 19 August 2005 22:33 (twenty years ago)

also very good acting from the red haired girl.

― jed_ (jed), Friday, 19 August 2005 22:34 (twenty years ago)

I'd like to see this movie, again

― RJG (RJG), Friday, 19 August 2005 23:02 (twenty years ago)

I loved Morvern Callar. The house-party scene is amazing, probably my favorite scene/sequence of the decade.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Friday, 19 August 2005 23:24 (twenty years ago)

oh no!

― Adam In Real Life (nordicskilla), Saturday, 20 August 2005 00:10 (twenty years ago)

I adored Ratcatcher -- except the syrup scene/dad getting mugged while holding the kitty, I've got an issue with that. Morvern Callar I was very disappointed by but I think it might be because the material was so weak. I haven't heard anything good about the book it was based on.

― Ian Riese-Moraine: a casualty of social estrangement. (Eastern Mantra), Saturday, 20 August 2005 20:41 (twenty years ago)

Then here is something: the first half at least of the book it was based on is terrific.

― the bellefox, Saturday, 20 August 2005 22:05 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, but you don't like Ratcatcher.

― Ian Riese-Moraine: a casualty of social estrangement. (Eastern Mantra), Saturday, 20 August 2005 22:09 (twenty years ago)

I don't like Lynne Ramsay's short films much either. I DO like Ratcatcher but having setting your indie film debut "in the private world of children" has started to become short-hand for...something?

see George Washington, You Me And Everyone We Know, tec.

― Adam In Real Life (nordicskilla), Saturday, 20 August 2005 22:12 (twenty years ago)

You know, very odd: she was attached to "Lovely Bones," which would have made a nice mainstream bid. But then she wasn't and suddenly Peter Jackson (of all people) was. Now, who knows?

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Saturday, 20 August 2005 22:35 (twenty years ago)

I thought Gus Van Sant was doing Lovely Bones!

― Adam In Real Life (nordicskilla), Saturday, 20 August 2005 22:39 (twenty years ago)

Oops, no I meant Time Traveller's Wife.

― Adam In Real Life (nordicskilla), Saturday, 20 August 2005 22:40 (twenty years ago)

four months pass...

All the Morven Callar bashing on this thread makes me sad. It's the better film, imho. Well, no, actually. Not the better film...Though I do prefer it. More like, starting from the same basic ingredients (a death), they each move in totally opposite directions...before coming back again. They play off one another so well...Watch them back to back!

This was more insightful in my head.

Why do you dislike it? Is the Morton factor?

― steviespitfire (steviespitfire), Thursday, 5 January 2006 13:50 (twenty years ago)

i like the ratcatcher, i have never seen the morven collar although i own it.

― jeffrey (johnson), Thursday, 5 January 2006 21:33 (twenty years ago)

callar.

― jeffrey (johnson), Thursday, 5 January 2006 21:34 (twenty years ago)

morvern callar makes me feel completely immersed. i have never been able to describe it as anything other than ambient, though that doesn't actually work. i find it vastly superior to ratcatcher, though i like that a lot too. it would have been interesting to see what lynne ramsay would have done with _the lovely bones_, but tbh, i'm kinda glad she got dropped as the book seemed kinda blah (only read the first 20 or so pages in a bookstore).

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Thursday, 5 January 2006 21:41 (twenty years ago)

I found Ratcatcher so devastating I haven't gone back for a second look in five years. I liked MC but felt it kinda trailed off...

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 5 January 2006 21:48 (twenty years ago)

"Morven Callar as the first micro-house film: discuss."

― steviespitfire (steviespitfire), Thursday, 5 January 2006 22:20 (twenty years ago)

I mean, there is a sort of pulse moving through it, and yet this pulse is itself fragmented, drops out, comes back...the expected, the inevitable (tragedy) and the (little) unexpected (moments) are closely intertwined...

Listen to the first Isolee, or something, and watch it.

― steviespitfire (steviespitfire), Thursday, 5 January 2006 22:31 (twenty years ago)

ramsay actually made it with the idea that people would start the first track of farben's textstar as soon as morvern first steps into the bathtub

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Thursday, 5 January 2006 22:47 (twenty years ago)

and you should totally get high before you do it

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Thursday, 5 January 2006 22:48 (twenty years ago)

You mean, like, off the ground?

― steviespitfire (steviespitfire), Thursday, 5 January 2006 22:58 (twenty years ago)

no, just like, watch it in denver or something

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Thursday, 5 January 2006 23:14 (twenty years ago)

i love both of these movies

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 5 January 2006 23:51 (twenty years ago)

they are both great. adam's dislike for movern callar is bewildering, he is seeing something in it that I don't see.

― kyle (akmonday), Friday, 6 January 2006 17:17 (twenty years ago)

three years pass...

Is Ramsay still doing We Need To Talk About Kevin?

― Alba, Wednesday, 7 January 2009 17:05 (seventeen years ago)

We Need To Talk About Kelvin

― the pinefox, Wednesday, 7 January 2009 17:53 (seventeen years ago)

i actually met her six months or so ago and she said "...kevin" was almost ready to go. i'm sure she thought the same about "the lovely bones" too, though.

― jed_, Wednesday, 7 January 2009 18:01 (seventeen years ago)

I'm reliably informed she's casting in NYC this week.

― choomescent (suzy), Wednesday, 7 January 2009 18:12 (seventeen years ago)

one year passes...

I'm unfamiliar w/ this property, but Tilda Swinton and John C Reilly are in.

http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/01/28/casting-notes-john-c-reilly-in-lynne-ramsays-new-film-daniel-bruhl-and-paz-vega-in-castros-daughter/

Watched Ratcatcher for the first time in 9-10 years last night, nearly matched my memoreies.

― Rage, Resentment, Spleen (Dr Morbius), Monday, 1 February 2010 15:23 (fifteen years ago)

Sounds interesting. Been thinking about revisiting Ratcatcher lately.

― Trip Maker, Monday, 1 February 2010 15:30 (fifteen years ago)

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