Film: Ratcatcher
Director: Lynne Ramsay
Country: UK
Released: May 1999
Runtime: 94 minutes
Genre: Drama
Studio: BBC Film / Pathé
Influenced: Andrea Arnold, Andrey Zvyagintsev, Céline Sciamma, Debra Granik
Ratcatcher was Scottish filmmaker Lynne Ramsay's debut feature and is loosely based on her experiences growing up in a housing estate in Glasgow. Exploring the harsh realities of working-class life in a post-industrial setting, the film is set against the backdrop of a dustcart driver strike in Glasgow in the late 1970s. The story revolves around James Gillespie (William Eadie), a sensitive 12-year-old boy living with his family in a cramped and grim housing estate. Ratcatcher's expressive opening, involving a slow-motion shot of James encircling himself in a net curtain before he's slapped back to reality by his mother, is characteristic of the dreamy quality of the film and Alwin Kuchler's cinematography. James is haunted by a tragic accident in which his friend Ryan drowns in the nearby canal. The film follows his struggles to come to terms with this traumatic event, and his own guilt about his role in it, as well as his desire to escape the squalor of his surroundings.
James forms an unlikely friendship with a girl named Margaret Anne (played by Lynne Ramsay's own daughter), who is also an outcast in her community. Their relationship serves as a source of solace and hope in an otherwise bleak environment. The way he lies on Margaret Anne on the sofa while the other boys make fun of her is so sweet; he's a sensitive lad caught up in a coldhearted world, where the bonds of community are breaking down. Another scene that shows his tender nature is with his friend Kenny by the canal, talking about animals and the RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), a moment that is clearly indebted to Ken Loach's Kes. Many of the scenes with Kenny are touching and heartwarming, but often in the background we see tower blocks looming, a visual reminder of the the harsh environment in which they live. After a scene with Kenny, we see James walking with the older teenage boys who have lost any sense of innocence and who bully him.
The first time I watched the scene of James' bus ride out of Glasgow, when Nick Drake's guitar plays over footage of the Scottish countryside, I was moved to tears. Ramsay's use of symbolism and striking visuals, as well as her exploration of the inner lives of her characters, sets the film apart from more conventional coming-of-age stories. She employs innovative camerawork in the sequence where James visits the new build house of his dreams, while one of my favourite scenes in all of cinema is when James goes out to frolic in the wheat field under the rays of the evening sun (a nod to Malick's Days of Heaven). There are also moment of escapism and magic realism, notably when we see Kenny's rodent go into space attached to a red balloon, a clear reference to Albert Lamorisse's famous 1956 film, another meditation on innocence and childhood. Ramsay soundtracks the mouse's journey to the moon with Hans Zimmer's You're So Cool, the same music that plays over the dreamy end sequence of True Romance.
Ratcatcher received critical acclaim and garnered several awards and nominations, including the Cannes Film Festival's Jury Prize in 1999. Ramsay's direction and Kuchler's cinematography were particularly praised, and the film also won numerous awards at smaller film festivals. As well as establishing Ramsay as a talented director, it also launched the career of Tommy Flanagan (who plays James' Dad), and both have gone on to have successful careers in TV & film. Flanagan plays George, who becomes a local hero, but James doesn't want to be like his Dad and doesn't share his love of football. In the same way that James tries to escape the grip of his father, he also tries to escape the grip of inner-city Glasgow. The striking imagery of rubbish bags piling up in the housing estate symbolises the decay and neglect of the community. Innocence lost, especially in urban settings, was also a theme in Ramsay's short films. At the close of the film, we see James back in the wheat field as his family moves into a new build, and then we see him drowning in the canal as the end credits roll, an ambiguous ending that leave his fate undetermined.
Comments