Gasman

Lynne Ramsey’s short film Gasman created in 1997 is centred around the lives of Scottish families in the late 1970s during Christmas time. The film won a BAFTA in 1998 and several other awards like the Cannes Jury prize. Lynne then went on to making her first feature film Rat Catcher.
The film follows a Scottish family, as they get ready for a party. The setting of the film is Christmas because of the decorative elements of the mise en scene. The only dialogue we hear between the family, is when they argue or shout at each other. The film continues with the father and his children leaving the house and starting of on their journey down a railway track. After a while the father stops and a woman arrives with two more children. It becomes obvious to the audience that this is the first time the two sets of children have met by the curiosity in the children’s expressions and how the brunette haired girl greets the other girl. The girls become friends and run hand in hand down the railway tracks. The family then arrives at a shabby looking hall with children running around. We see the fathers sitting on a table together drinking and smoking and having nothing to do with their children. The second girl decides to sit on the mans lap. The brunette girl sees this and becomes jealous and tries to get the girl off her dads lap saying repeatedly ‘That’s my daddy’. The other girl fights back saying ‘He’s my daddy’. The brunette girl feeling betrayed and confused continues to argue until a tipsy father pulls them away from each other and leaves the hall with the two sets of children. The family returns to the railway tracks, but what was once happy and hopeful has now become a darker and bleaker atmosphere.
Throughout the film there are representations and themes and issue. An important representation is age, the story revolves around the two young girls, and their reactions to each other and their behavioural patterns are all based around the age of their characters. The fact that they are young means they have an element of curiosity and have the means to explore and question things, which is prominent in this film. If the ages of the girls were to become older then the motives and the reactions of the girl would become more dramatic and more violent.
At the start of the film we see the older boy is playing with sugar and a toy car, using it like snow. This introduces the audience to the time of year that the film is set in and also the imagination and elements of curiosity in the film. In this scene we have a sense of irony, as the white of the snow represents the innocence and purity; which is something that is absent in the situation of the father.
We see vibrant imagination in the scene where we see the young girls legs and the girl tapping her shoes together saying ‘There’s no place like home’, from the film The Wizard Of Oz. As well as showing imagination of young minds this also represents the girls want and idea of an ideal home and family. At this young age family is one of the most important part of a Childs life as the structure of the family shapes the future character of the girl. From seeing this audience feels empathy toward the girl, as we know the father has been cheating and has not been there for his children.
In the film there are themes of neglect, alcoholism, depression and also lack of responsibility. In a later scene we see this themes present when the group of drunken fathers sit together ignoring their children instead of enjoying time with their children and paying them attention. This short scene shows the lack of responsibility and the neglect of the children as well as the introduction of alcoholism. Making the children’s needs second to their own happiness.
Regional identity is another factor in the film as it reflects the working class situation of the family. The accents of the characters indicate their Scottish nationality. Through close ups of the house we see that its quite shabby and then the shots of the railway tracks relates to the industrial era which was home to working class people. Many people would recognise that in the past there has been economic issues within northern areas such as Scotland. Using the railway tracks we have a symbol of industrial revolution, which creates a link to the economic climate. The tracks could also represent the space between the two families and the fact that we never see the end of the tracks could be interpreted as a long ongoing journey.

In this next scene we get a feeling of nostalgia. The shot with the father and his daughter on his back is the centre of the audience attention, because of the pinhole effect the camera is using. This is an old style technique, so it blends in well with the time period of the film and also does the main objective of having the relationship between the father and daughter as a main focus. Behind the characters in the shot we see the Glasgow skyline, the lighting is clear and bright. This is the only moment of the film that is positive. The reason for this is that so far we have seen issues of a depressive nature such as poverty or social alienation, so seeing this bright skyline makes you think that Glasgow isn’t all terrible and that only people of a lower class or status is being represented in this film.
We see a father and daughter moment between the characters as she is on his back and he is carrying her. The scene shows that the father does care about his daughter although sometimes in the film he doesn’t seem that bothered about his children.
The father then moves out of the frame and we seen both his son and daughter alone on the tracks, the children look as if they have been stranded and is a symbolic meaning that the father is not always there for the children. The scene then changes to a slow motion shot of the girl stepping into the line of the camera and looking at the scene in front of her. The expression of the girl is that something is dawning on her and that she is seeing something new to her that she doesn’t quite understand.
The two children see another two children who are unfamiliar to them. The girl insults the other girl by calling her a ‘tramp’. This suggests to the audience that there is a rivalry between them that could be related to siblings. There is a reverse shot between the two young girls as if they are eyeing each other up. The girl we have been watching throughout the scene has an expression of distain where as the newest young girl has an expression of shyness, this difference shows that there is a minor rivalry between the two girls.
We see close up shots between the father and the other woman in the scene, which is the first time there is a close up shot that is to do with his character and another. The director has done this to show that the man has his entire focus and attention on someone, which is a first in the film so far for him. The expression on his face is pained and troubled as if he is dealing with some emotional conflict inside of him. For the second time in this film we see a slow motion shot of the father reaching out to touch the woman’s hair in a tender gesture. The camera angle goes from a close up shot to an extreme close up shot of the mans fingers and the strand of her hair that slips away from his fingers. The reaction the woman has to this is a rejection to the man and it is backed up by the expression of distain and bitterness on the woman’s face and the sombre expression the man wears. The sequence of these shots between the close up and extreme close up build up a higher intensity and more importance between the characters. The fact that the woman pulls away when he tries to touch her makes it seem as if she is out of reach and goes with a reoccurring theme of wanting what you cant have. The rejection and awkwardness of this scene could be a symbolism of their relationship.
After what happens between the two adults we go back to a shot of the young girl standing and watching what’s happened. There is symmetry between this shot and the one just before we meet the others as the girl still looks lost in thought and is taking in all that has happened. The father then turns and walks along the tracks with all four children in tow. The young girl (the protagonist) runs after her father as to assume number one position with him, leaving the others behind them both. The gesture of the young girl running after her dad shows she has adoration for the man and wants his attention for herself and to stay as ‘daddy’s little girl’.
The girl then pulls back to talk to the other girl, she asks her questions about who she is and if that was her mother, to the audience this could be seen as harmless talk between the two girls but could also be perceived as trying to get information from the other girl to figure out why she’s here or if she is in anyway a challenge to her number one position. Whilst this is going on the two boys in the background start playing and messing about, this could be a stereotypical representation of boys of a young age as they just get on with the situation and try and enjoy themselves.
When the girls are walking along the train tracks together there is a high angle shot directed at the girls legs and feet, in this we see the hem of the dresses which look delicate and the choice of costume that the dress is white highlights on the idea of innocence within a young child. The hand holding of the girls in this part of the film shows happiness and the innocence of the two girls, but later on in the film this changes. This scene could be considered as ‘the calm before the storm’. By this point the audience click onto the fact that the two girls are in fact sisters and that there is a potential in this shot that the two could get along and have a good relationship with each other. The diegetic sound of laughter and joy and to the effect of happiness and relate to the idea that ‘ignorance is bliss’, as the two character get along best in this part of the film than anywhere else.
The father and the four children enter social club where there is a Christmas party going on. The father enters first followed by the two girls, who look excited then the two boys walk sluggishly into the room separately as if they would rather not be in the situation they are in right now. This tells the audience that the boys have knowledge about what’s to come, whereas the two girls have no knowledge, which relates to the situation they are all in.
There is a panning shot of the father with a pint of beer walking towards his friends with his back towards the camera and his children, showing no wanted interest in them. An issue within this short film is endemic poverty. There is a thought that the drinking culture among people is an aspect of endemic poverty and they both go hand in hand. The saying ‘drinking away your sorrows’ is relatable to this type of environment and situation, as the man has issues of marriage, children and poverty to deal with, which are his troubles that he tries to deal with in the film. But when we see that he is happy when he has alcohol and his friends the idea that the drink helps with his problems is right for this scene.
As the night goes on we see a medium wide shot of the mans son sitting in a big armchair alone. The armchair is so big that it makes him seem very small in comparison, the chair is pushed of into the corner of the shot, showing the level of importance he has with his father. On the other side of the shot we see a cheap and scrawny Christmas tree, this reflects the poverty situation the people in this social environment go through. We see the two girls dancing together and enjoying themselves, blissfully unaware that they are related. The next shot shows a close up focused shot of the mans face looking lost in thought, from this we understand that he knows the family situation. The behaviours of the man shows that he’s miserable about the truth, whereas the two girls are happy and excited even though they don’t know the truth of everything. This is seen as dramatic irony.

There is a continuation of the possible stereotypical representation of young boys, especially when they become bored and start throwing food around the place. Favouritism and the difficulty of giving both children attention comes across clear when we see the young girl dancing with a Father Christmas. In the background of this shot we see the other girl standing alone looking lost. We get candid shots and angles of the people in the social club, the style the director has done lets the audience know that the situation is going from order to chaos. The dancing between Father Christmas and the young girl continues and becomes in some way inappropriate. However the film was set in the 1970s when there wasn’t such a taboo or classification on what is deemed appropriate and inappropriate, giving a sense of verisimilitude to the film. So this part of the film can give off conflicting reactions toward what is going on depending on how you view it.
In the background we see the boys fighting with each other, showing the starting of out of control behaviour. There is a similarity between the behaviour of the fighting boys and the drunken behaviour of men, letting the audience see how the social environment the children are brought up in has an affect on how they act.
Jealousy plays an important part in the film. We see this when the youngest girl is starring at the dad and his daughter from a distance; this shows a longing to be involved in their closeness, bringing out the feeling of jealousy toward the people.
The camera changes to handheld at this point of the film and does various sweeping motions around the room. Most of the shots are off balance and in slow motion, indicating that the people in the room have become heavily intoxicated. The mess that the room is in reflects the social situation that these people are living in and how easy it is for chaos to start and for events to go wrong.
The father in the scene turns around in a nonchalant motion as if the surrounding events don’t bother him and is normal behaviour. The audience then sees that the social norms of this class of people are widely different to the normal behaviour of other societies, highlighting the major differences.
The scene swaps around when we see the girl who was standing alone watching her father, comes to sit on the dads lap. The girl who was originally sitting with her dad sees this situation. There is a slow motion shot of the girl starring at her father and the girl in recognition of what is happening in the situation. This is a moment of symmetry in the film between her first shot of recognition and her new shot of recognition, showing that she’s put the pieces together and now sees what’s really going on. The editing then changes to quick cutting, which relates to the feeling of aggression and loss of control that is going through the little girls mind. The two girls continue to fight with each other, creating a growing distance between the two of them. There’s desperation in the brunette girls voice, which is aimed at the father. The father doesn’t reply to the girl’s pleas, instead he reaches for a cigarette and is disappointed when it’s empty. The empty packet is a symbol of the fathers hopeless situation and no way of getting comfort.
The family then leaves the shabby hall and ventures into the darkness, there is a sense of irony as the characters are holding hands and walking together showing solidarity, where as we as an audience no that this is not to be the case and that the family is really falling apart.
A metaphorical idea is shown through the close up images of the girls hands. Earlier in the film the girls are holding hands in a friendly way. This is then contrasted when they start fighting and their hands become clawed. The hands are then clasped together in a vicious way showing that there is no chance of reconciliation between the two girls and also a loss of innocence. The father separates the girls and each grab onto one of his hands; this shows the story and their feelings toward each other.
They head of into the darkness shrouded by fog, showing the confusion and difficulty of the situation the father has gotten into. When the two children split and go in different directions we see lighter paths in the distance, showing that when they are all together there is only pain and sadness but apart there is a slim chance of happiness.
As the mother and the two children walk away into the distance, the brunette girl stops walking with her father and brother and turns to face the backs of the retreating figures, out of anger she picks up a rock; just like her brother did earlier in the film. The difference in this part is that instead of throwing the rock like her brother did, she instead drops it and walks away. This action shows maturity in the young girls character, and we see that as a person she has grown.
This is quite a harsh short film, which deals with the mundane aspects of life.