SHORT MOVIES DIRECTED BY LYNNE RAMSAY

Many close-up shots and few words illustrate Lynne Ramsay's portrayal of the unique 'little deaths' experienced by the characters in her early short films. These films capture great hopes and lost illusions using both static and wildly shaky camera shots. The director captures the essence of the worlds she portrays on screen through her visuals rather than through dialogue, which is limited and often not the primary content.

In her debut and Cannes award-winning SMALL DEATHS (1996), she observes a girl at different stages of maturation - from childhood to adulthood - each time experiencing bitter disappointments. In the next one - KILL THE DAY (1996) - she watches a drug-addicted man who has just been released from prison to face the struggles of existence anew.

A disappointment also befalls the little girl in GASMAN (1998), who discovers the painful truth about her father at a Christmas party. A glimmer of hope only accompanies the impressionistic, black-and-white, coincidentally shot during the London Olympics SWIMMER (2012), in which the titular character swims through life and is reborn through immersion in water.

She is a portraitist contemplating photographer Brigitte Lacombe at work, but also a model being captured by someone else. The solutions used in these short forms - both narrative and visual (most of these works were born in collaboration with editor Lucia Zucchetti and cinematographer Alwin H. Küchler) - can be found in Ramsay's full-length work.

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Rafał Glapiak