Ratcatcher (film)
Ratcatcher | |
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Directed by | Lynne Ramsay |
Written by | Lynne Ramsay |
Produced by | Gavin Emerson |
Starring |
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Cinematography | Alwin H. Küchler |
Edited by | Lucia Zucchetti |
Music by | Rachel Portman |
Production companies |
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Distributed by |
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Release dates |
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Running time | 94 minutes |
Countries |
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Languages | English, Scots |
Budget | £2 million ($3.3 million)[1] |
Box office | $888,354[2] |
Ratcatcher is a 1999
The film won its director numerous awards including the Carl Foreman Award for Newcomer in British Film at the
Overview
Ratcatcher is set in Glasgow, 1973. The city, despite its Victorian grandeur, has some
Plot
The film opens focused upon James's friend Ryan Quinn, who is being forced to put on his
Ryan's family is eventually re-housed and on the day of leaving, Ryan's mother gives James the pair of brown sandals that she'd bought for Ryan on the day of his death.
The film follows the sensitive James as he tries to come to terms with his guilt, and make sense of the insensitive aspects of his environment.
James's one escape comes when he takes a bus to the end of the line and ends up in the outskirts of the city, where a new housing estate is under construction. He explores the half-built houses, and wonders in awe at the view from the kitchen window: an expansive field of wheat, blowing in the wind and reaching to the horizon. In a scene central to the film, he climbs through the window and escapes into the blissful freedom of the field.
James befriends a girl, Margaret Anne, whom he tries to help after her glasses are thrown into the canal by the local gang. James and Margaret Anne become close friends. She is his only other relief from his home environment. Margaret Anne has problems of her own, being abused by the local gang. The duo find comfort in each other's company.
One of James' friends, Kenny, receives a pet mouse as a birthday present. After the gang throw the mouse around in the air to make him "fly", Kenny ties the mouse's tail to a balloon, and the film shows it floating to the moon. Then, Kenny's mouse joins a whole colony of other mice frolicking on the moon.
Kenny later falls in the canal and is rescued by James' father, making him briefly into a local hero.
Though the military eventually comes and cleans up all the rubbish in the neighbourhood, James realises that his situation will most likely never change. He plunges himself into the canal, and a brief scene is shown, in which James and his family are moving into a new neighbourhood.
Cast
- William Eadie as James Gillespie
- Tommy Flanagan as George Gillespie
- Mandy Matthews as Anne Gillespie
- Michelle Stewart as Ellen Gillespie
- Lynne Ramsay Jr. as Anne Marie Gillespie
- Leanne Mullen as Margaret Anne
- John Miller as Kenny
- Thomas McTaggart as Ryan Quinn
- Jackie Quinn as Mrs. Quinn
- James Ramsay as Mr. Quinn
Reception
Ratcatcher received generally positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 86% of 42 critics gave the film a positive review, for an average rating of 7.6/10. The site's critical consensus is that "Critics find Ratcatcher to be hauntingly beautiful, though its story is somewhat hard to stomach." Metacritic, which assigns a rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, has a "generally favorable" score of 76 based on 18 reviews.
Awards and nominations
Year | Award | Category | Nominee | Result | Ref. |
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2000 | BAFTA Awards | Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer | Lynne Ramsay | Won | [6] |
Outstanding British Film | Lynne Ramsay, Gavin Emerson | Nominated | |||
Bratislava International Film Festival | Best Actress | Mandy Matthews | Won | [7] | |
Grand Prix | Lynne Ramsay | Won | |||
1999 | British Film Institute | Sutherland Trophy | Won | [8] | |
British Independent Film Awards | Douglas Hickox Award | Won | [9] | ||
Best Screenplay | Nominated | ||||
Most Promising Newcomer | Alwin H. Küchler | Nominated | |||
Cannes Film Festival | Un Certain Regard Award | Lynne Ramsay | Nominated | [3] | |
Chicago International Film Festival | Silver Hugo Award (Best Director) | Won | [10] | ||
Edinburgh International Film Festival | New Director’s Award | Won | [11] | ||
Film Fest Gent | Georges Delerue Award | Rachel Portman | Won | [12] | |
Grand Prix | Lynne Ramsay | Nominated | |||
2000 | London Film Critics’ Circle Awards | British Director of the Year | Won | [13] | |
Riga International Film Forum | FIPRESCI Prize | Won | [14] |
References
- ^ "Production snapshots". Variety. 14 December 1998. p. 76.
- ^ "Ratcatcher". The Numbers. Retrieved 24 June 2015.
- ^ a b "Festival de Cannes: Ratcatcher". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 10 October 2009.
- ^ "Ratcatcher - The Numbers". Retrieved 24 June 2015.
- ^ "Ratcatcher". The Criterion Collection. Retrieved 20 October 2021.
- ^ "Film in 2000". BAFTA Awards. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
- ISSN 2562-5764.
- ^ "'Carnages' at London Film Festival". The Independent. 22 November 2002. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
- ^ "Winners Nominations". BIFA · British Independent Film Awards. 24 October 1999. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
- ^ Garner, Bianca (8 April 2018). "Trapped in the Rat Race: Revisiting Lynne Ramsay's Ratcatcher". Filmotomy. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
- ^ "Rosebudding talent". the Guardian. 3 September 1999. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
- ^ "FESTIVALS: Over 88,000 Hit 26th Flanders, Hail "Himalaya"". IndieWire. 26 October 1999. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
- ^ "Beauty outshines the Bard". BBC News. 3 March 2000. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
- ^ "13th Riga International Film Forum Arsenals". Retrieved 5 January 2023.
External links
- Ratcatcher at IMDb
- Ratcatcher at AllMovie
- Ratcatcher at Rotten Tomatoes
- Ratcatcher at Box Office Mojo
- Ratcatcher at Metacritic
- Ratcatcher an essay by Lizzie Francke at The Criterion Collection
- Ratcatcher: A Flashlight Cinema an essay by Girish Shambu at The Criterion Collection
- Ratcatcher: Spine Number 162 an essay by Barry Jenkins at The Criterion Collection
- Sub-titled video clip from Ratcatcher on YouTube