A2 Film Studies: Section C: Single Study Film: Morvern Callar

Morvern Callar (Lynne Ramsay, 2002) - "Dedicated to the one I love" by The Mamas and the Papas, Morvern listening to it near the end of the film, she hasn't forgotten her boyfriend.

- MC doesn't call emergency services for her boyfriend - not connecting with society. fish out of water? her accent?

- Morvern carefully unwrapping dress - takes her time in a different world.

- light/dark setting in hotel room - show importance (transparent ghost?)

- publishers meeting - mouthing "****", the amount of money that she is being offered.

- Morvern liking the ants - in touch with nature and life.

- sudden cut from orange to bleak light (binary opposites).

- lost in the world tuned into boyfriend - Morvern supermarket scene.

- three shot - Morvern and Gran

- just see the bathroom light - highlights Morvern cutting up her boyfriend - someone is watching her.

- Morvern's hand is more in focus than her face, her hand is shaking (trembling spirit of boyfriend). this is during the flour scene with Lanna.

- downtroden - not listening to music, contrasting with previous supermarket shot, no one smiling at work, her face is blank - sad after Lanna told her she slept with her boyfriend.

- Morvern eating monster munch - gobsmacked with it in her mouth.

- contrast between Scotland (dull/rain), Spain (bright/sunny)

- how different her name is - spanish guy not saying it right.

- Pantheisism - worshipping (during boyfriend scene) 'sacred hill'

- Morvern wearing red and white - beign cleaned, celebrating his death in a respectful way.

- keymotif - touch bud on tree - giving him new life.

- washing the blood off her hand - water is cold - like boyfriends dead body.

- fighting (playing with the flour) like someone watching them (slow motion) goes with music - we know what was on the floor - echoing death of boyfriend and cutting up.

- Morvern goes in taxi , not tour bus, wanted different experience.

- Morvern looking down from balcony - suicidal thoughts?

- Morvern and Lanna binary opposites - Morvern unhappy and black, Lanna bright colours and happy.

- hotel corridor - many doors to death?

- Morvern the girl with the faraway eyes, shell shocked.

- Morvern's necklace - "Jackie, Morvern unusual name.

- Christmas lights in street relates to christmass tree at the flat, cant escape death.

- Morvern looks like a ghost - dark scene - lake (transparent)

- Morvern putting her neck up (doing on purpose), scene is slowed down, boat sound emphasised wind comes in  (ghostly feel).

- out of sync, creating sense of drugs (boat scene).

- Morvern fondles the mistletoe meaningly (kissing).

- fondling christmas presents.

- Morvern's POV - slow music, going into work, hung up picture of veg - shows her deep thought.

- Morvern in hotel room before meeting with publishers - puts her hand out to the light (hand motif)

- all diegetic - very little dialogue in the film.

- handheld camera is used to make the audience feel as if they are locked inside the flat, tried to shoot it in a way that suggests an eerie presence of somebody else." - American Cinematographer ,sept 2002.

- many read the film differently. "See? you get your own impression of it, it's brilliant". this is what Samantha and Lynne want - Inside Film , Oct 2002.

- " I think you have a right as an audience member to make your own mind up about people, Lynne just gives you freedom" - Inside Film, Oct 2002.

- "Sometimes with sound in films it's everywhere, it's too much. if you focus on one thing, it can be very mesmeric. when Morvern is touching her boyfriend's body, we focus very much on the skin, so it becomes very sensual, i'm always looking for sensuality in sound". - Inside Film, Oct 2002.

- " The weight of her boyfriends suicide is always on her shoulders, and she finds that forgetting is more difficult than she imagined". - American Cinematographer, Sept 2002.

- "Ramsay was keen to establish a visual contrast between Morvern's surroundings in Scotland and Spain and the weather sometimes cooperated to s duprising degree". - American Cinematographer, Sept 2002.

- Kuchler shot the film in the standard 1:85:1 aspec ratio with a Moviecam compact." - American Cinematographer, Sept 2002.

- "but i'm not a star, i'm not a celebrity - i'm an actor" - Samantha Morton - Morton's Salt Article, jan 2003.

- "this is a mesmeric, startling and sometimes baffling movie". - Peter Bradshaw The Guardian review, Nov 2003.

- "None of her actions are easily explicable - you can't quite pin down whether she's numbed, crazy, on a revenge trip or performing some wayward act of mourning". - The Independent Review, Nov 2002.

- "Ramsay does something else; she doesnt exactly put us in Morvern's head, but into her skin." - The Independent Review, Nov 2002.

- "The shot of Morvern floating in a pale bath, staring celiingwards in dead silence, induces goose-pimples in more ways than one; Ramsay's imagery simply works into your bones". - The Independent Review, Nov 2002.

- "But what makes Morvern Callar really special is that this is one of those rare films made for the ears as with the eyes; quite seriously, go and see it twice, once with your eyes shut". - The Independent Review, Nov 2002.