52 Films by Women Vol 3. 19. YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE (Director: Lynne Ramsay)
T he movie-verse of Glasgow-born writer-director Lynne Ramsay is tough. Her four feature films to date – Ratcatcher (1999), Morvern Callar (2002), We Need To Talk About Kevin (2011) and now You Were Never Really Here (2017) exhibit, according to the critic Sheila Johnston, ‘a fascination with children and young people and the recurring, unresolvable themes of grief, guilt and, above all, death and its aftermath’. She signed on to adapt and direct Alice Sebold’s novel, The Lovely Bones , but was replaced by Peter Jackson. Then on the first day of shooting the western, Jane Got A Gun , she didn’t turn up and was the subject of a lawsuit. A sojourn in Santorini, Greece followed. She is a filmmaker absolutely committed to her art. When star Joaquin Phoenix plunged into water in a scene in You Were Never Really Here ’s fourth act, Ramsay was right there with him, off camera. Directing the actor – let’s not call him a Hollywood star – she would act out the scenes in front of...