捕鼠者1999

This blog post will engage with the main themes in the popular reception of the film Ratcatcher (Ramsay, 1999), using as a sample 25 user reviews and comments from the Chinese review-aggregation website Douban, selected on the basis of their length and complexity.

One of the most frequently encountered opinions, 10 of the reviews that I examined interpreted the film from the perspective of teenagers. They think this film depicts the inner world of a depressed, lonely, and sensitive teenager in a realistic way, and reflects the poverty and unbearable life of working-class life in Britain through the vision of a child. In particular, users write of ‘the growing pains of a teenager at the bottom of the pile’. Most people are saddened by the desperate emotional rendering of the film – a story of a traumatized teenager's confusion and sadness in the face of society and the world. For viewers of Douban, the film has reaped the most accolades for its portrayal of British society. Similarly frequent are views about the director’s shooting technique and cinematography, with users often remarking on Ramsay’s solid work as a photographer, revelling in the close-ups and contrasts between the movements and stillness of the shots in the film’s scene.

The film does reflect the oppression and suffering of the British working class through the eyes of the child, James, and many social contradictions are further revealed through James’s interactions with his family and friends. Although Chinese audiences are immersed in an atmosphere of despair and sadness, in my viewpoint, there is still a sense of redemption and hope in some scenes.

In the Ratcatcher, the story is set in the 1970s during a general strike by rubbish workers in the Glasgow area, where the streets were littered with rubbish, houses were in disrepair and rivers were muddy. Like many films typified by the British Kitchen sink Drama, Ratcatcher exposes the grim characteristics of society. It focuses on the lives of poor communities and the impact of poverty on families, and shows the depression and powerlessness of working-class life (Williams,1977; Higson, 1984). But Ramsey largely rejects institutional context and history, abandoning traditional political drives in favour of a more symbolic, suggestive, obscure narrative (Carlota, 2016). Thus, the Ratcatcher can be seen as a film of poetic realism and viewers can feel its hints of hope and redemption in scenes of despair.

Figure 1: The city streets are full of rubbish

Kenny's Snowball seems to be an amalgamation of destruction and hope. James has to endure the violence of those older than him but also wants to protect this cute little mouse. In the next series of shots, which are James's fantasy, the mouse flies to the moon in a red balloon and joins other mouse companions. This fantasy is also James's longing, which also represents the innocence and hope of children. As Aitken (2011) points out, Ramsey's use of fantasy techniques belies some of the tones of realism and makes surprises to create a form of poetic realism. Because at this point, James hopes to find his true playmate, who will no longer have to endure violence and pain. Just like rats fleeing from the earth, he wants to escape this awful community. Thus, poetically, the Ratcatcher gives the audience a child's perspective of how the underclass grows from the rubbish and how James releases his guilt and pain in his fantasies. James' fantasies seem to escape the mire of life and this moment of innocent simplicity contrasts with the dreary tone of the film, which makes the audience realise that these underclass teenagers still harbour hope, only to slowly fade away in the struggle of reality.

Figure 2: James’ fantasy of Snowball flying to the moon

If the fantasy of a snowball flying to the moon represents the innocence and hope of a child, James in the wheat field has a sense of redemption in the film's desperate and heavy tone. The golden fields of wheat are a stark contrast to the dirty canals and rubbish-strewn city streets, where James can run freely through them without suffering violence or pain. In this poetic scene, James steps through the window and jumps into the wheat field. And at the same time, the cheerful and melodious music brings the audience to the romantic world of the child. Here he fantasizes about having a new house built in a field, which is also James' hope. The Ratcatcher seems to set up a 'paradise' in which the hope of society is rediscovered in the children’s vision.

Figure 3: James in the wheat field

Sadly, at the end of the film, James is unable to cope with the growing pains in a society of inequality and despair, and he chooses to die. However, the scenes immediately following add some imaginative warmth as he and his family arrive in the wheat field carrying belongings with the smile on their face, where their new home has been built. But they are still framed beyond the window, which seems to suggest their isolation from real life. After this scene, there is still a grey scene in which James sinks into the dirty river. This is a combination of landscape and narrative; thus, the dialectic of illusion and disillusionment is carried out, from the good mess into the bad mess (Trotter, 2008). Moreover, this tragic ending seems to hint at the disillusionment of James’s hope, but some pauses in the scenes, such as the pauses in the shot as James sinks and the pause in the running through the wheat field, still give the audience a powerful sense of redemption.

Figure 4: James’s fantasy of moving to a new house

Figure 5: James sinks into the canal

In sum, Ratcatcher is a poetic realist film that places individual confusion and social trauma in the scenes of despair and sadness through the eyes of children. However, the film leaves room for hope and redemption for the children, preserving them between fantasies and camera pauses.

Words: 1013

Reference list:

Aitken, S. C. (2007). Poetic child realism: Scottish film and the construction of childhood. Scottish Geographical Journal, 123 (1), 68-86.

Higson, A. (1984). Space, Place, Spectacle. Screen25 (4/5), 2-21.

Larrea, C. (2016). Ratcatcher. Senses of Cinema, 80, 1–5.

Ramsay, L. (Screenwriter/ Director). (1999). Ratcatcher[Motion picture]. France: Pathé Pictures International

Trotter, D. (2008). Lynne Ramsay’s “Ratcatcher”: Towards a Theory of Haptic Narrative. Paragraph, 31(2), 138–158.

Williams, R. (1977). A Lecture on Realism. Screen18 (1), pp.61-74

本以为James的父亲George成为救人英雄后一家人可以顺利地搬进新家，可救人之后偏偏迎来了检查人员，家中的凌乱及浑身的污泥使搬家的梦想泡汤。

试想George或者说一家人实际上赚到了什么呢，我第一时间想到的只有受颁的奖状与奖章，以及那件免费清洗的西服外套。这很难不让人联想起理想与现实的差距，有时你以为突如其来的“好事”能为理想助燃，不料却将火苗一把掐死。

《捕鼠者》在结尾前始终维持着某种动态平衡关系——于James而言，父亲的责骂、不良少年的欺压都可以与同受欺负的Margarita相互慰藉；幻想住进麦田后的新房也能些许抹平肮脏混乱的居住环境于身心的荼毒。但这就像是一个左右摇摆的天平，本质上是不稳定、不可持续的，因为天平两侧不同的质量终会导致有一侧先落地，以结束这一病态的平衡关系。当James发觉无法拯救“心爱”的Margaret，心底的秘密又被Kenny戳穿，自己也无法进入麦田后的房子时，混乱于James上叠加到了峰值，天平崩塌沉入水底。

这不是一部闷片，而是一部直击心灵的影片。“无助、孤独、暴力、贫穷、性...”并不是每个人的童年都过的很美好，大多数人因为年少时做过错事而困扰一生，影片中一直用很平淡的社会手法拍摄，除了男主回来看一窝的老鼠以外，片中只有几处有背景音乐现在我还记得最深的是小男主坐在没有一人的公交车上望着车外，还有小男主在新房子里看着窗外好大一片草地在上面打滚，然后天快黑色一个人走在路上踢着空易拉罐回家，还有就是最后男主角选择自杀沉在河里幻想搬进新家的时候也是小男主全片唯一一次笑了的场景。 不仅是在国外，这种情况在中国有过很多，大人太忙或有自己重要的事情做而忽略了自己孩子，我也有过一个人太孤独的时候搭着公交坐在窗户边上一个人坐到终点站又坐回来，然而就像影片里的主要不是出现生命上的危险大人是不会管你的。“太阳和人心是我永远都不敢直视的。”

这是一个容易在回忆里退色的夏日午后，东中街明晃的太阳下，脑中阴凉的潮水泛起。想起这部电影。 70年代的夏天，苏格兰的格拉斯哥。垃圾工人罢工，垃圾袋侵入了门前的领地与人们的生活。大人们忙碌生计，或许做着搬进新房的美梦。孩童在恶臭的池塘边混乱垃圾堆上玩耍。混混叼着香烟，嘴角弯起嘲弄的笑，近视的女孩乖从地褪去衣服。傻子幻想他的雪球白鼠能飞上月球，在那里愉快地繁衍生息。James 是一个掌扣在此般氛围中生长的孩子。对这一切有着似懂非懂的眼神和忧郁的天真。有对玩伴意外死亡的阴影。有与同一屋檐下父母姐妹的疏离。对傻孩子的友善。对安妮温暖的向往。偷拿了父亲口袋里的钱，搭上莫名其妙的公车，去探寻自己的小小出口——彼岸某地，窗外一望无际的麦田。远离肮脏污秽的城镇，远离病态阴郁的现实。

梦想中金灿灿的生活，和恶臭腐坏的现实之间的距离，可能比死与生之间的距离大得多。电影中阴雨不绝的格拉斯哥，垃圾遍地、老鼠四窜的居住环境，让偶尔的几个想象镜头显得尤其宝贵。镜头暗下去的时候我心一直揪着，喊着快起来啊！还好结尾看到了麦田中他的笑脸，一切美好的像什么也没发生过一样。男主角的演绎不错，给他点赞哦。