Lynne Ramsay Is Still Cutting 'Die My Love' - in Her Mind, at Least

"There was her 1999 debut, "Ratcatcher," about an impoverished Glasgow boy suffering tragedies and drawn almost telepathically to an eerie canal. Then, "Morvern Callar," in which Samantha Morton assumes the authorship of her dead boyfriend's manuscript, a man she has dismembered and buried in the Scottish mountains. "We Need to Talk About Kevin" became one of 2011's most controversial films, dousing us in the mental wreckage of a woman (Tilda Swinton) after her son shoots up his school with a bow and arrow."

"Her first film in eight years, " Die My Love," rippled divisive aftershocks along the Croisette, however, this past May. In this intense, no-apologies adaptation of Argentine writer Ariana Harwicz's surrealistic novel, Jennifer Lawrence plays an "unfit" or "unlikable" recent mother suffering postpartum distress and basically going crazy in the Montana forest, in a small house, alongside her husband, Robert Pattinson, who doesn't understand her or what to do with her."

"Some critics called for more editorial discipline in the film, or found Lawrence's onscreen spin cycle of anguish, which involves literally clawing her way up walls or flinging herself through glass doors, to be repetitive. Others said the Cannes best actress prize was Lawrence's to lose (as I surely did at one point). That didn't happen, but now this bold and precisely directed new movie is set for release from Mubi this week, and into the awards circuit."

Lynne Ramsay has brought all her films to Cannes, delivering confrontational tone poems centered on solitary, fissuring psyches. Her notable films include Ratcatcher (1999), Morvern Callar, We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011), and You Were Never Really Here (2017), which won Cannes Best Screenplay. Die My Love, her first film in eight years, adapts Ariana Harwicz's surreal novel and stars Jennifer Lawrence as a mentally distressed recent mother alongside Robert Pattinson. Die My Love drew divisive reactions at Cannes, with some critics criticizing editorial repetitiveness and others praising Lawrence's performance. The film is set for release from Mubi and will enter the awards circuit.

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