Lynne Ramsay, the director of films likeWe Need to Talk About KevinandYou Were Never Really Here, knows that her films tend to be deeper than the conventional Hollywood movie. She also isn’t afraid to call out those who misunderstand her work. Her latest film, the psychological thrillerDie, My Love, is dividing audiences at theCannes Film Festival, and early reviews have convinced Ramsay to speak her mind. She says that the film starringRobert PattinsonandJennifer Lawrenceis being greatly misinterpreted by critics.
Mubi has acquiredDie, My Lovefor $24 million at Cannes in one of the festival’s most interesting deals so far. Their listing of the film already includes the following plot synopsis: “Grace, a writer and young mother, is slowly slipping into madness. Locked away in an old house in and around Montana, we see her acting increasingly agitated and erratic, leaving her companion, Jackson, increasingly worried and helpless.“Die My Loveis based on Ariana Harwicz’s novel of the same name, and it stars Pattinson and Lawrence alongside Sissy Spacek, LaKeith Stanfield, Marcus Della Rosa and Nick Nolte.
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Already boasting an 87% score on Rotten Tomatoes,Die, My Lovehas drawn attention from critics who attended the screening at Cannes. However, per Deadline’s report, Ramsay is not sure whether they have understood the film. The director sat down with film critic Elvis Mitchell, and candidly offered her opinion of the headlines she’s been reading…
“This whole postpartum thing is just b**sht. It’s not about that. It’s about a relationship breaking down, it’s about love breaking down, and sex breaking down after having a baby. And it’s also about a creative block.”
During the interview, Ramsay also talked aboutLawrence’s persistence in wanting to make a movie with her. After making her wait “for six months,” the director agreed to talk with the actor: “She said, ‘What about this Die My Love’? But I said, ‘I don’t want to do something like We Need to Talk About Kevin. I’d like to do something light. Because people like to box you in.'”
Lynne Ramsay Always Gets People Talking
The Scottish director has a short catalog of movies, but they’ve been enough to keep the discourse alive. Her films always make people talk. The hard-to-watchRatcatchertook Cannes by surprise in 1999. In 2002,Morvern Callarshowed audiences one of Samantha Morton’s best performances in a film that is also difficult to watch. The difficult themes she usually addressed became common in Ramsay’s filmography, and thisdidn’t change whenWe Need to Talk About Kevinwas releasedin 2011.
Although it wasn’t based on an original idea (the book is based on Lionel Shriver’s novel of the same name),We Need to Talk About Kevinstill employed Ramsay’s style. Themes of guilt, grief and motherhood were the undertones of a story that flowed into a realization that a teenager harbored something sinister inside.
Ramsay followed up with the thrillerYou Were Never Really Here, a terrifyingly bleak exploration of PTSD. StarringJoaquin Phoenix in one of his absolute best performances, the film told the story of an FBI veteran turned mercenary whose latest mission consists of rescuing a child from a human trafficking ring.You Were Never ReallyHerestands out as one of the decade’s most jarring cinematic experiences. And it certinaly sounds likeDie, My Lovecould follow suit.
