Gasman

After her first film, Small Deaths, Ramsay received another jury prize at Cannes for Gasman, which tells the simple story of a father and his children attending a Christmas party. If you got the impression from this Scottish director’s first two short films that she didn’t have a very happy childhood, suffered from an emotional deficit and grew up in constant fear of psychological and physical violence, you will have no doubt after watching Gasman. In addition to the motif of long-desired but unattainable harmony, the film is noteworthy in the context of Ramsay’s filmography due to the fragmentary conveying of information about the characters by means of dialogue and detail shots. As always with Ramsay, the choice of song is very meaningful, this time “No Place Like Home” from The Wizard of Oz, sung by the young protagonist. We know enough to have our curiosity piqued, but not enough to know the answers to all of the implied questions. The protagonists of all of Lynn Ramsay’s future feature-length films will be similarly enigmatic. (29/01/2018)