Lynne Ramsay

"Ramsay's work bears some of the hallmarks of the social realist school of British naturalism, but she is a more sensual, liberated filmmaker than Mike Leigh or Ken Loach; her camera is more agile, her cutting more flexible, her imagination more poetic." - Tom Charity (The Rough Guide to Film, 2007)
Lynne Ramsay
Director / Screenwriter
(1969- ) Born December 5, Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland
Top 250 Directors / 21st Century's Top 100 Directors

Key Production Country: UK
Key Genres: Drama, Short Film, Psychological Drama, Urban Drama, Road Movie, Crime Drama
Key Collaborators: Alwin H. Küchler (Cinematographer), Lucia Zucchetti (Editor), Lynne Ramsay Jr. (Leading Actress), James Ramsay (Leading Character Actor), Jane Morton (Production Designer), Gavin Emerson (Producer), Joe Bini (Editor), Anne McLean (Leading Character Actress), Alex Manette (Leading Character Actor), Jackie Quinn (Leading Character Actress), Jonny Greenwood (Composer)

"Lynne Ramsay is one of the brightest talents to have appeared in recent British cinema... Her small output to date has already been recognised with a plethora of international awards and her further progress can only be awaited with considerable anticipation." - Robert Shail (British Film Directors: A Critical Guide, 2007)
"Lynne Ramsay's work bears a powerful personal imprint. Her films are marked by a fascination with children and young people and the recurring, unresolvable themes of grief, guilt and, above all, death and its aftermath. They are low on dialogue and explicit story exposition; instead, they look to bold, unusual images, vivid details, an astute use of music and highly wrought sound design to create their unsettling worlds. Bill Douglas and Terence Davies have been cited as points of comparison, but her films are very much the product of an original vision." - Sheila Johnston (BFI Screen Online)
We Need to Talk About Kevin
We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)
"With only four features and a handful of shorts over a 20-year career, Lynne Ramsay has nevertheless established herself as one of the most compelling and original voices in contemporary international cinema. The infrequency of her films is all the more regrettable considering that she had almost as auspicious a debut as one could hope for. Completed only three years after her graduation from the UK’s National Film and Television School, her first feature, Ratcatcher, screened in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes and won recognition and critical acclaim worldwide; another three years later, she returned to Cannes with Morvern Callar, which picked up two prizes in the Directors Fortnight category." - Amanda Brason (Toronto International Film Festival, 2019)
"All her movies walk the line between art, film and entertainment. They’re immensely watchable, gripping studies of damaged people; but there’s also an aesthetic, often an intimate focus, a mood painted by the pictures. Each film is a distinct, original work. They remain in your mind for a long time." - Miranda Sawyer (The Observer, 2018)
"Trained as a photographer and cinematographer, Lynne Ramsay’s films all have embedded in them a determination to let the images do all the talking. There’s often an air of magical realism about her work, as strange images puncture sombre tales of people dealing with the aftermath of death, as Ramsay folds poetry and fantasy into even the most meagre of circumstances. Despite the majority of her films being adapted from novels or short stories, the feelings of her characters are rarely conveyed through dialogue. Instead, the editing and the camerawork infer everything we need to know." - Kambole Campbell (Little White Lies, 2018)
"Ramsay's transformation into a bare-bones, shoot-and-run American-style indie director is even more remarkable considering that her early, formative years as a filmmaker were almost entirely conducted within the shelter of Britain's state-funded system." - Andrew Pulver (Directors Guild of America, 2010)
Selected Filmography
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GF Greatest Films ranking ( Top 1000 ● Top 2500)
21C 21st Century ranking ( Top 1000)
T TSPDT
Lynne Ramsay / Favourite Films
Don't Look Now (1973) Nicolas Roeg, 8½ (1963) Federico Fellini, Full Metal Jacket (1987) Stanley Kubrick, Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) Chantal Akerman, Killer of Sheep (1977) Charles Burnett, Mulholland Dr. (2001) David Lynch, The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) Carl Theodor Dreyer, Persona (1966) Ingmar Bergman, Stalker (1979) Andrei Tarkovsky, The Wizard of Oz (1939) Victor Fleming.
Source: Sight & Sound (2022)
Lynne Ramsay / Fan Club
Glenn Kenny, Jasper Sharp, Kate Muir, Therese Grisham, Guy Lodge, Robbie Collin, Wendy Ide, David Jenkins, Sophie Monks Kaufman, Tim Robey, Mark Kermode, Lou Thomas.
You Were Never Really Here