“STREET SCENES”

By Raymond Benson

Scottish filmmaker Lynne Ramsay burst onto the scene in the late 1990s with the striking independent picture, Ratcatcher, which may or may not have been somewhat of an autobiographical meditation on being a young child in early 1970s Glasgow.

Ratcatcher brought Ramsay the Carl Foreman Award for Newcomer in British Film at the BAFTA Awards, as well as other prizes from various film festivals. It is indeed an art film of high quality that is filled with haunting imagery, melancholic moods, and wonderful performances by a host of young child actors (as well as adults).

The year is 1973 or thereabouts, and ghetto-like sections of Glasgow, Scotland, are on track to be demolished. The residents have been promised new housing in more modern structures that are being built. Life on these tenement-like streets is harsh. Often there are no utilities, a stagnant and dangerous canal runs along the street, and currently there is a garbage strike. Trash is piled on the sidewalks, creating a massive health hazard and an attractive gathering spot for rats. The children run around and play in this environment. Our protagonist, James (William Eadie), is a rather lonely, unhappy kid with few real friends. He is the middle child with two sisters (one older and one younger). James is often the target of bullies (a gang of slightly older boys who roam the streets causing trouble). His father (Tommy Flanagan) is a drunk and wife-beater, and his well-meaning mother (Mandy Matthews) does what she can to keep the family together and fed. After accidentally causing the unwitnessed drowning of one of his only friends in the canal, James buries the guilt and lives with it as he navigates the horrid conditions of his life. At one point, James befriends a slightly older girl, Margaret Anne (Leanne Mullen), who is unwillingly the community tart for the boy-gang. Ultimately, James must come to terms with what accounts for his existence, such as it is, while the family waits to be called to their new home.

The film is a slice of life, a combination of street scenes and life in tiny, decrepit flats. The squalor is tangible, and one can almost smell the stench. Director Ramsay has presented a visceral and yet poetic, impressionistic look at poverty. Her approach might remind one of the works of Terrence Malick, as there is much more visual storytelling than dialogue (and, in fact, one of the pieces of music heard in the film is what Malick used as the main title song for his Badlands, the Orff-Keetman piece Gassenhauer).

The dialogue is heavy Scottish, which may be unintelligible to North American audiences. When Ratcatcher was released in cinemas in the U.S., English subtitles accompanied the film. It is highly recommended to those outside of the U.K. to turn on the subtitle function of this superb Blu-ray disk produced by The Criterion Collection.

Upgraded from an earlier Criterion DVD edition, Ratcatcher comes in a new 4K digital restoration, supervised by Ramsay and cinematographer Alwin Küchler (Ramsay and Küchler attended film school together). The movie is in 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio.

Supplements on the original DVD are ported over: a 2002 interview with Ramsay, and three of her early shorts (Small Deaths, Kill the Day, and Gasman), and the trailer. New to the Blu-ray supplements are an updated 2021 interview with Ramsay, and a 2020 audio interview with Küchler. The booklet comes with essays by film critic Girish Shambu and filmmaker Barry Jenkins.

Ratcatcher is for fans of international cinema, modern Scottish culture and history, and independent filmmaking.

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