Gasman by Lynne Ramsay

                Gasman was made in 1997 by a Scottish director called Lynne Ramsay. This was her third short film and the one that gave her the most recognition as this led to her gaining awards at the Cannes Film Festival and earning a Scottish BAFTA. Due to this acknowledgement of her work, she has gone on to create feature films like Ratcatcher and We Need To Talk About Kevin. Gasman is a short film that is about a working-class man who lives a double life as he is married and has two children with one woman and then another two children with a mistress. This short encompasses controversial themes and issues of child rivalry, unemployment and neglect.

                At the beginning of the film, no faces were shown, and instead the only sections of characters the audience are exposed to are arms, legs and hands. Lynne Ramsay has done this purposely so the audience do not see the main character which creates an enigma and keeps the audience hooked until a character is established. Throughout the series of close ups of the different scenes of the family, different framing is used with each shot. No object is central in the frame which produces a different ambience as this creates a realistic viewpoint for a working-class family as nothing in the house would be perfectly symmetrical and neat. The diegetic sound is heard which lets the audience know what time of year the short film is set as Christmas songs were played loudly. The joyful aura around these Christmas songs is juxtaposed by the shouting and arguing of the family, this sets the tone of the film and gives the audience the impression that this family isn’t particularly in harmony.

There is a long tracking shot which shows the daughter, son and the dad walking along an abandoned railway track. This shot is significant because this, paired with the grey, washed out colour scheme, presents the idea that the family is going to be in this situation forever and displays the sense of hopelessness. Eventually the trio meet another boy girl and their mother. The other children’s clothing is dirty and the opposite of the brightly coloured style of the father’s daughter. This gives the audience the sense of the economic status of the other family. The children’s clothing is also pointed out by the girl, ‘’Look at what they’re wearing, they look like tramps’’. The theme of poverty is significant in this scene, and the theme of adultery rises when the boy says to his sister, ‘’She looks like you.’’. This then creates an omniscient narrative as the audience then realises that the father is all the children’s fathers, however the children don’t realise and this gives us a foreshadow of what may come up later in the short film. The dirty state of the clothes is then understood as it shows that the father isn’t wealthy enough to pay for both sets of kids he has.

A conversation between the father and the mistress is shown through a series of close-up shot reverse shots displaying both of their emotions towards each other. The intimate conversation plays out and we can see from the haggard expression from the man that he is under a lot of stress but we can interpret that he does care for this woman, however she clearly expresses that she doesn’t feel the same way. When the man affectionately touches her hair she backs away, therefore rejecting his advances. The camera then cuts to a mid-shot of the girl watching the interaction between the new woman, this is important because it displays the beginning of the loss of innocence she once had towards the situation.

The father and his two sets of children end up at a run-down pub that is having a party for Christmas. The mise en scene creates the idea that it is set in the 70s, the clothes, music and wallpaper are all stereotypically from the 1970s. The adults are all sitting on their own in the corner of the room, drinking and smoking whilst leaving the children on to their own devices, this shows the negligence that some families show to their children. The girl with the nice dress is later shown dancing with Santa whilst the other girl watches on, isolated. This represents how the girl with the dress is more fortunate than the other little girl, the father gives the other girl the most money and sees her more often and she gets to dance with Father Christmas. Because of the alienation the girl is feeling, she goes over to her dad and sits on his lap, the other girl, noticing this goes over and tries to pull her off, continuously shouting ‘’That’s my daddy’’. The father eventually tries to break up the fight, meanwhile looking for a drink or some cigarettes, this shows the lack of parenting skills as he isn’t able to solve the conflict without the comfort of alcohol or nicotine. The quick cuts that show the fight and his searching create an uncomfortable scene to watch and the fast pace produces the sense of the loss of control the father has on the situation.

The family leaves the pub and on their journey back shows the father with a girl either side of him holding his hands, representing reconciliation between them all. When they meet the two children’s mom by the railway tracks, no words are spoken and they all walk in opposite directions. The little girl with the brightly coloured dress then runs back and a lengthy shot that displays her back and the view of the mother and the other two children walking away. The girl picks up a stone and the audience is hit with the realisation that she might throw it at the trio. This symbolises hatred and gives us the impression that the girl looks up to her brother and learns what he does as he threw a stone at his dad earlier in the short film as a joke. The dark lighting suggests how morbid this short film could end if she decides to throw it, and the audience cannot deduce whether she will or not as they can’t see her face and the emotions that play on it. Eventually she throws the rock down and catches up to her father and brother. The shot just shows the abandoned railway tracks that are dark with the only lighting created is by the moon. The railway tracks could be a metaphor suggesting the hopelessness that will never end for both families.