Blu-ray Review: Lynne Ramsay’s Ratcatcher on the Criterion Collection

Agony and ecstasy walk hand in hand in Lynne Ramsay’s feature-length directorial debut.

RatcatcherLynne Ramsay’s Ratcatcher opens close on young Ryan (Thomas McTaggart) playfully tangling himself up in a white, sheer curtain before eventually getting slapped and scolded by his mother (Jackie Quinn). Ramsay’s use of slow motion lends this shot an eerie, abstract beauty that works as a distinct counterpoint to the feelings of misery, alienation, and frustration that dominate life in the rundown Glasgow tenements where most of the film, set in 1973, takes place.

In the very next scene, Ryan drowns after 12-year-old James (William Eadie) accidentally pushes him too hard while they’re roughhousing in a canal. And by placing the delicacy of the curtains and the utter filthiness of the canal in direct opposition, Ramsay gets at how the innocence and wonder of children can so easily be snuffed out in a despairing environment such as this one. Agony and ecstasy walk hand in hand in Ratcatcher.

Beyond its decrepit buildings and abject poverty, the Glasgow neighborhood depicted in Ratcatcher is littered with trash, which fills sidewalks and most of the residents’ yards. It’s the result of a lengthy sanitation strike, and the sheer amount of garbage glimpsed throughout the film serves as a reminder of how a community has been left behind by the city.

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But while there’s an unvarnished quality to Ratcatcher’s depiction of destitution, the film isn’t content to merely revel in hopelessness. A major through line of Ramsay’s feature-length directorial debut is tenderness as a coping strategy. From James covering the toe from his drunken father’s (Tommy Flanagan) hole-filled sock to him awkwardly showing affection for the slightly older Margaret Anne (Leanne Mullen), Ramsay enhances small moments of human connection with poetic flourishes that transform them into grand gestures of beauty.

In an especially whimsical sequence, James’s friend Kenny (John Miller) is tormented by several kids who toss around the mouse that he just got for his birthday. Kenny, having been told that the mouse can fly, ties the critter to a balloon so that it can escape the reality that the boy himself seems to know that he cannot, and Ramsay caps the sequence with a gesture of poetic wish fulfillment, of the rodent floating in outer space on the way to the moon.

The theme of escape also recurs throughout James’s adventures. After seeing his older sister, Ellen (Michelle Stewart), board a bus to visit her secret boyfriend, James steals a few coins from his father and hops on the bus, only to fall asleep and end up at the last stop near a new but half-constructed housing development. It’s here that the poetic and the real intermingle most compellingly in the film. Exuding a dreamlike quality, these clean, spacious homes and the pristine, golden field of wheat that surround them suggest a promise of liberation.

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Ratcatcher returns to this idyllic locale again in the coda, where it teases that James and his family might just find release from their present-day lives. It’s perhaps a bit of a cheat for Ramsay to leave her protagonist’s fate so ambiguous, but it’s also a fitting finale for a film where hope and despondency are so inextricably bound. And while a lifetime of despondency may end up being a more likely outcome for James, Ramsay’s gesture toward hope pays tribute to the tenacity and fortitude of her flawed, deeply troubled characters.

Image/Sound

The Criterion Collection’s Blu-ray, transferred from a new 4K digital restoration, attests to how Ratcatcher owes much of its emotional power to its gradual accumulation of minutiae. The overall image is sharp and richly film-like, while the dynamic range of colors is incredibly vivid. In terms of brightness, clarity, and detail, this is a huge upgrade in quality over Criterion’s 2002 DVD release. And in regards to the sound presentation, the 24-bit stereo track is more than serviceable, with a balanced mix and clean dialogue.

Extras

Criterion has ported over the interview with Ramsay that was included on their DVD release, where the director discusses the inspiration she draws from still photography and the importance of loading the frame with small but crucial details. A new interview with the filmmaker offers an interesting counterpoint, as she focuses here more on the difficulty of the shoot and the challenges of learning on the job. A third, audio-only interview with cinematographer Alwin Küchler confirms the extreme difficulty of the production, but he goes on to praise Ramsay for leading the charge through every challenge, be it weather, scheduling, or technical issues. Three of Ramsay’s early short films are also included, along with a booklet with a personal essay by director Barry Jenkins and a second by critic Girish Shambu, who deftly connects the film to Maya Deren’s work and an esteemed lineage of Scottish cinema.

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Overall

Criterion has fitted their Blu-ray of Lynne Ramsay’s feature-length directorial debut with a stellar A/V upgrade that blows their 2002 DVD release out of the water.

Score: 
 Cast: Tommy Flanagan, Mandy Matthews, William Eadie, Michelle Stewart, Lynne Ramsay Jr., Leanne Mullen, John Miller, Jackie Quinn, James Ramsay  Director: Lynne Ramsay  Screenwriter: Lynne Ramsay  Distributor: The Criterion Collection  Running Time: 93 min  Rating: NR  Year: 1999  Release Date: October 19, 2021  Buy: Video

Derek Smith

Derek Smith's writing has appeared in Tiny Mix Tapes, Apollo Guide, and Cinematic Reflections.

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