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Morvern Callar

Canada, United Kingdom

2002

97 Min
Color
1.85:1
Spanish, English
  • Currently 3.7/5 Stars.
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DIR Lynne Ramsay

EXEC Leonard Crooks, Andras Hamori, Barbara McKissack, Seaton McLean, David M. Thompson

PROD George Faber, Charles Pattinson, Robyn Slovo

SCR Liana Dognini, Lynne Ramsay, Alan Warner

DP Alwin H. Kuchler

CAST Samantha Morton, Kathleen McDermott, Linda McGuire, Ruby Milton, Dolly Wells, Raife Patrick Burchell

ED Lucia Zucchetti

PROD DES Jane Morton

MUSIC Aphex Twin, Can, Boards of Canada, The Velvet Underground, Broadcast

SOUND Richard Flynn

Cannes (Quinzaine des Réalisateurs): Prix de la jeunesse, C.I.C.A.E. Award, San Sebastián: FIPRESCI Director of the Year, Toronto, AFI FEST (European Showcase), Rotterdam (Main Programme), Edinburgh (Opening Night), Stockholm (Tribute): Best Cinematography, Vancouver, Mar del Plata, Stockholm (Specialvisning)

Synopsis

Scottish supermarket shelf-filler Morvern Callar (Samantha Morton) uses her boyfriend’s inheritance after his suicide to escape from her boring life. Emotionally intense road movie by the director of the prize-winning Ratcatcher.

Making a film version of the cult novel Morvern Callar (written in the first person singular) needed a director with guts and vision. Lynne Ramsay stayed close to the book and made a very intense road movie with traces of black comedy and psychological horror. When the 21-year-old Morvern Callar (another impressive role by Samantha Morton) wakes up on Christmas Day, she finds her boyfriend with his wrists slashed on the kitchen floor. In this oppressive opening scene, the only sound is the crackling of the Christmas tree lights. Her boyfriend leaves Morvern a Walkman with a cassette compilation, a well-padded bank account and a book he wrote on a floppy disk – with an address list of publishers. Morvern grasps her opportunity, almost without emotion. To flee her dead-end existence in the Scottish town of Oban and her job filling supermarket shelves, she sends the book under her own name to the publishers. In the meantime, the action moves from the grey skies of Scotland to Spain, where Morvern has a wild holiday full of sex and drugs with her best friend Lanna. The powerful soundtrack, with music by the Velvet Underground among others, comes from her boyfriend’s Walkman that Morvern listens to throughout. –IFFR

Director

Original

Lynne Ramsay

Lynne Ramsay (born 5 December 1969) is an award-winning Scottish film director, best known for the feature films Ratcatcher and Morvern Callar.

Ramsay won the 1996 Cannes Prix de Jury for her graduation film, the short “Small Deaths”. Her second short film, “Kill the Day”, won the Clemont Ferrand Prix du Jury; her third, “Gasman”, won her another Cannes Prix du Jury in addition to a Scottish BAFTA for Best Short Film.

Ratcatcher (1999), Ramsay’s debut feature, won critical acclaim and numerous awards. It was screened at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival and opened the Edinburgh International Film Festival, winning her the Guardian New Directors prize. She also won the Carl Foreman Award for Newcomer in British Film at the 2000 BAFTA Awards, the Sutherland Trophy at the London Film Festival and the Silver Hugo for Best Director at the Chicago International Film Festival.

Morvern Callar (2002) won Samantha Morton the British Independent… read more

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Displaying 4 of 25 wall posts.
Picture of Paolo Simeone

Paolo Simeone

4May13

Primi 10 minuti da antologia. Perché lo scopro con 10 anni di ritardo?

Picture of film_lies101

film_lies101

26Jan13

The finest Scottish film I've ever seen, Samantha Morton is a revelation.

Katie Gokhshteyn likes this

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AMJ

2Jan13

perfect soundtrack!

Slowart and Nicole86 like this

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etblikk

3Dec12

En sanselig sensasjon

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Notebook Reviews: Lynne Ramsay’s “We Need to Talk About Kevin”

By Fernando F. Croce on December 10, 2011

Lynne Ramsay’s third feature is a mishmash of soiled diapers, leaden musical cues and underlined soul-sickness,

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deliciously hypnotic.

By Reno Nismara on February 2, 2010

after her highly acclaimed debut feature, ratcatcher, lynne ramsay needed 3 years to make another film. that film turned out to be morvern callar. a story about a girl’s journey at finding the best…  read review

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Morvern Callar - Lynne Ramsay

213 posts by 33 people 3 months ago