Gasman

Dir: Lynne Ramsay

1998

****

Filmed two years after her debut short (Small Deaths) and it’s follow up (Kill the Day), and the year before her first feature (Ratcatcher), Lynne Ramsay’s Gasman marks an important chapter in her film career. Much like her first films, Gasman doesn’t have much context to it – we know only as much as our protagonist knows, our protagonist being a young girl. The film examines the emotional state of this young girl through circumstances that are never spoken or fully explained. The girl attends a Christmas party with her father where she encounters two other children that are familiar with her dad. We see each character in lingering close up well before we even see their faces. Not much is said so we don’t have much to go on, all we know is that a mystery has been raised and a young girl is emotionally effected by the lack of answer. It’s another social piece, visually compelling and open to interpretation but more than that, there is the suggestion of an untold darkness about it. It is something Ramsay has masterfully developed throughout her career ever since. Even in her adaptations, Ramsay adds her own subtle mysteries that always create tension and an often unbearable feeling that something else untoward has happened or is happening while our focus is elsewhere. Ramsay is a student of film making but her talents come from beyond film school. She is a story teller. Her visuals do most of the talking but she manages to direct the audiences attention effortlessly while also leaving so much open to interpretation. Her films are contemporary and expressionist while also being a perfect example of gritty realism.