Death is a recurring theme in the work of Lynne Ramsay.
Through three films, we can see how Ramsay portrays the impact death has on her characters.
Ramsay’s first feature, 'Ratcatcher,' deals with the aftermath of the death of a young
boy, when play-fighting turns to tragedy.
His death is shown as a slow realisation, a child’s understanding that something has
gone wrong.
In 'Morvern Callar,' our protagonist’s boyfriend commits suicide.
Movern takes a more proactive role, seeking answers and finding a suicide note and a mixtape.
'We Need to Talk About Kevin' sees a mother try to come to terms with her son’s mass
murder and murder of her Husband and Daughter.
In each film, material objects become weighted
by each death.
In 'Ratcatcher,' James is given the shoes of his dead friend.
He has to literally step into his shoes.
The music on the mixtape left by her dead partner becomes 'Movern's' soundtrack,
the cassette becomes the only article she has left of him
and Eva wears the shirt of her dead husband,
trying to recall his presence through the material.
Death also becomes spatially realised.
James constantly returns to the scene of the drowning, often putting his own body in the water.
The domestic space of the apartment that Movern shared with her partner takes on new meaning
as the space of his suicide.
This is taken further in We Need to Talk About Kevin, as Eva needs to expunge her domestic
space of the constant reminders of death.
But the tragedy of the events caused by her
son are inescapable and permeates everywhere she goes.
Ramsay shows us that the aftermath and effects of death are weighty, material and inescapable.
Even when characters do find ways to break free, these are only in brief fleeting moments.
Death becomes lingering trauma.
Ramsay's preoccupation with trauma is perhaps most explicitly displayed in her latest film,
'You Were Never Really Here.'
The film follows Joe, an ex-FBI officer as he tracks down a missing girl.
The film shows us Joe's traumatic history through flashbacks, as it seeps its way in
to Joe's present.
Here, we can see Ramsay move past the event of death itself, to explore the trauma it
leaves behind.