Lynne Ramsay - Career

Career

Ramsay took a break in-between "Black and White Town" and "We Need to Talk About Kevin" because of creative needs. As to her extended absence, the Scottish filmmaker explained that she thinks the film-making process is different for her, and other writer-directors, than it is for directors who don’t write their own material. The Harvard Film Archive welcomed Lynne Ramsay for a showcase of her films, including the three acclaimed shorts that inaugurated her career.

Ramsay experienced great personal frustration during her involvement with "The Lovely Bones" during which, personal and professional setbacks and mishandling saw her lose the job of directing to Peter Jackson, whose version of the film received largely negative reviews. She stated in an interview with Oliver Lyttleton that "People started to call it 'The Lovely Money,' they were getting greedy around it. And I could feel the vibes. It became like the Holy Bible, I kept handing in drafts and I thought they were good, but it was like 'But that's not exactly like the book, the book's going to be a success.' That was the mistake they made with the project." She stated additionally that she considered Jackson's interpretation of the film, with a desire to stick as closely as possible to the original story, was partially responsible for what she considered the lackluster quality of the finished product.