捕鼠者1999

梦想中金灿灿的生活，和恶臭腐坏的现实之间的距离，可能比死与生之间的距离大得多。电影中阴雨不绝的格拉斯哥，垃圾遍地、老鼠四窜的居住环境，让偶尔的几个想象镜头显得尤其宝贵。镜头暗下去的时候我心一直揪着，喊着快起来啊！还好结尾看到了麦田中他的笑脸，一切美好的像什么也没发生过一样。男主角的演绎不错，给他点赞哦。

Ratcatcher is the first feature-length film by British female director Lynn Ramsay. Since being released in 1999, it has won lots of awards at various film festivals, because of not only the delicacy of its shooting but also its profound reflection on British society in the 1970s.

Fig 1 The death of James' friend 0:06:33

This contemporary film’s realistic focus on the working class inherits the spirit of social realism in the British New Wave in the 1950s and 1960s. At that time, on the one hand, the British economy was devastated by the war, the middle class was weakened and the working class appealed to a fair and stable social environment (Winson, 2013, p. 22). On the other hand, the success of the Soviet Union has raised people’s doubts about the capitalist system. Hence, the image of the “angry young men” began to appear in literature and film, usually showing the discontent of the working class with class society (Luo, 2019, p. 24). The films of this period are known as British New Wave and social realism, or working-class realism from the content, poetic realism from style.

Furthermore, the Labor party, which represented the interest of the working class, began to dominate in parliament, and strongly promoted nationalization and welfare policies. However, after some degree of economic recovery, the defects of the welfare system unveiled gradually and led to stagflation (Winson, 2013, pp. 5-6). Until 1975, Margaret Thatcher of the Conservative party came to power and advocated neoliberalism, cutting welfare spending, and encouraging market competition (Scott-Samuel et al, 2014, p. 54). The British economy was boosted but also brought a widening of the class division and the decline in the living quality of the working class. Therefore, in the 1980s, British social realism was revived and lots of films focusing on the working class appeared again (Shafer, 2001, p. 9). The story of Ratcatcher happens in 1973 and reflects the life of the working class at the end of the welfare society, many of the details in the film are closely related to the social background at that time.

l Laborers and Rats

Rats is perhaps a metaphor for laborers. The welfare system provides enough living security and seriously discourages the laborers’ enthusiasm for work. The traditional virtue of labor is replaced by the lazy pleasure of consumerism (Zhang & Lin, 2018, p. 40). In the film, James’ father is a representative of the working class, sleeps all day instead of working, indulges in TV, beer, and football. His only wish is for the committee to allocate a new house.

Fig 2 James' father is watching TV 0:19:24

Moreover, any attempt to reduce welfare will cause public discontent, like this cleaning workers’ strike. The garbage in the streets and the television news reports all hint at this situation.

Fig 3 The report on the strike 0:12:47

Under this circumstance, tax revenue falls but welfare spending stays high. The government is in a passive position and the national economy is in a downturn. The working class does not create social value but lives in the burrow of the welfare system like the rat. The strike in the film leads to a chaotic community where rats live with people, implying they are homogenous, dirty, poor, and living at the bottom. The ratcatcher is referring to the coming Thatcher reforms, to the abolition of the welfare state and the elimination of the welfare-dependent working class. At the end of the film, the army, representing the government, is deployed to clean up rats and rubbish, while residents shout abuse upstairs.

Fig 4 The army is cleaning up the rats 1:20:02

l Males and Soccer

As a female director, Ramsay pays deep attention to gender identity. The identity of the male is lost at that time. When livelihoods depend on welfare, the role of men as the source of income is weakened. By contrast, when the center of life moves from society, the public sphere, to family, the private sphere, consumerism overwhelms the culture of the working-class, the status of the female is promoted (Zhang & Lin, 2018, p. 40). Therefore, for the male, on the one hand, they feel a sense of marginalization in this loss of identity, so they try to acquire a sense of self-satisfaction through a kind of arbitrary, which includes contempt for the female and arrogance towards their juniors, such as James’ father slaps his wife when drunk or the teenagers humiliate Margaret and tease James and Kenny.

Fig 5 The teenagers are teasing James 0:31:44

On the other hand, soccer, as a sport that relies on unity and physical strength, becomes the last symbol of working-class culture, and the spiritual sustenance of the male. In the film, boys play soccer in the street, James’ father persistently gives James a pair of soccer shoes as a gift, and even the teenagers throw Kenny’s mouse back and forth like soccer.

Fig 6 The teenagers are teasing mouse 0:50:00

l Children and Water

In the Ratcatcher, children may be more like “angry young men”. The story is narrated from the perspective of James, a child. Compared with the frustration of adults, children’s psychological activities are more complicated. Vitality is a child’s nature, which is suppressed by a negative social atmosphere. The desire of young men to break through the social hierarchy by working hard is limited by a lazy welfare system, like carrying the death of a friend.

Fig 7 James suicides in the canal 1:27:55

Water is perhaps a metaphor for the welfare system. Water can either support life or deprive it. The bathtub full of water brings James happiness, but the endless sewage in the canal drowns his friend like an overdose of welfare, which is gently but fatal, so neither James nor his friend struggles in the canal.

Fig 8 James and Margaret play in the bath 0:59:57

Therefore, children are the only ones having hopes for the future, because the future is an escape from reality, which is the origin of the poetic element. The suburban house for James and the moon for Kenny, are all the places with poetic background music, and without water.

Fig 9 No water in suburb house 0:40:51

Furthermore, under this repression, children are eager to grow up and have a voice, so they imitate the elders. James tried to join the teenagers and control his sisters. Whereas, when the suburban house is locked and Margaret is still humiliated by the teenagers, James realizes his helplessness and gives up and suicides in the canal. But for Kenny, after being rescued from the canal, he joins the camp of ratcatcher.

Fig 10 Kenny is catching rats 1:24:25

Ratcatcher is a calm and slow film. What Ramsay expresses is not simple criticism of Thatcherism or sympathy on the working-class, but the two-sidedness of policies and their great impact on the public. After two decades of Thatcher's policies, it is worth wondering what Britain is and about to face.

Word Count: 1080

（excluding 84 words on remarks of figures）

l Reference List (APA)

Calderwood, A. (Producer). Ramsay, L. (Screenwriter/ Director). (1999). Ratcatcher [Motion Picture]. Britain: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

Luo, X. (2019). 论英国新浪潮电影的“厨房水槽”现实主义美学特征 [the Realistic Aesthetic Characteristics of "Kitchen Sink" in British New Wave Films]. Journal of Guizhou University (Art Edition), 33(2), 22-26. doi: 10.15958/j.cnki.gdxbysb.2019.02.004

Scott-Samuel, A., Bambra, C., Collins, C., Hunter, D. J., McCartney, G., & Smith, K. (2014). The impact of Thatcherism on health and well-being in Britain. International Journal of Health Services, 44(1), 53-71. Retrieved from JSTOR Journals. Retrieved from //www.jstor.org/stable/45140692

Shafer, S. C. (2001). An overview of the working class in British feature film from the 1960s to the 1980s: from class consciousness to marginalization. International Labor and Working-Class History. (59), 3-14. Retrieved from JSTOR Journals. Retrieved from //www.jstor.org/stable/27672706

Winson, A. (2013). Social realism of British New Wava “Left” films: The working-class border character. (Master’s Thesis) Available from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Database.

Zhang, J., & Lin X. (2018). 20世纪八九十年代英国工人阶级电影特征 [The characteristics of working class in British working class films in the 1980s and 1990s]. Movie Literature, (10), 39-41. doi: 10.3969/j.issn.0495-5692.2018.10.013

这是一部非常耐看的电影，我也是看了三四遍才逐渐发现其中的魅力。这部电影非常赤裸地展示了琳恩曾经作为摄影师的扎实功底，大部分的场景都将运动的画面呈现出类似静止的状态，这就巧妙地通过对时间的攫取来使某个瞬间得以延长，这种近乎静止的时刻就非常容易让人们把握事物的存在，哪怕是暂时的。比如影片的最后James的笑容仿佛被定格在麦田中央，让人们能够抓住那一刻James“愿望实现”的幸福感。同时这种类似摄影的拍摄手法还能改变影片的叙事速率，从而带来一种创伤性重复的状况，那些近乎静止的场景就是在反映影片叙事中创伤反复中的暂时中断感。简单来说，James作为一个孩子，在瑞恩死了以后会一直处在负罪感之中，而这些几乎静止的画面就好比一个休息站、庇护所，让他能喘口气或是感受其他美好的情感，我觉得这种以拍摄手法的不同来切换叙事速率，从而给观众带来不同情感体验的方式真的非常巧妙。比如34:20这里James趴在Margaret-Ann身上的俯拍镜头，画面和人物都近乎静止，但总能感受到画面中散发的不掺杂质的单纯的幸福感，这大概就是James所渴望的庇护所吧，平静而舒心；42:23这个James站在麦田中央的中景镜头，满屏的暖色调溢出James来到梦幻之地的放松与舒心…这些不仅是James的休息站，也能让观众从压抑的情绪中得以喘息。虽然画面给人以静止的感觉，但里面的情感确实交织涌动，让人扎身于其中，随其波动。

以写实的手法刻画： 孤独、压抑、敏感的少年内心世界， 成长的自我。 更何况还有恐惧和内疚， 只好将好像永远消耗不完的精力发泄在荒诞与暴力。 他们既是捕鼠者，也是被捕的鼠。 有着自己的生活，自己的个性，自己的境遇的父辈们， 他们也有他们的程度，也有他们的难处， 成长的家庭。 肮脏的社区，混乱的街道，昏庸的政治， 成长的环境。 … 但是， 少年的内心深处其实是温暖和柔软的， 他们渴望被尊重和了解， 不只是吃饱喝足，更需要精神与心灵的关怀，与爱。 父辈们虽可以理解，但也可以做的更多。 … 那窗明几净，那蓝天白云，那金色稻田， 和那少年的笑容， 是最美好的期许！

这不是一部闷片，而是一部直击心灵的影片。“无助、孤独、暴力、贫穷、性...”并不是每个人的童年都过的很美好，大多数人因为年少时做过错事而困扰一生，影片中一直用很平淡的社会手法拍摄，除了男主回来看一窝的老鼠以外，片中只有几处有背景音乐现在我还记得最深的是小男主坐在没有一人的公交车上望着车外，还有小男主在新房子里看着窗外好大一片草地在上面打滚，然后天快黑色一个人走在路上踢着空易拉罐回家，还有就是最后男主角选择自杀沉在河里幻想搬进新家的时候也是小男主全片唯一一次笑了的场景。 不仅是在国外，这种情况在中国有过很多，大人太忙或有自己重要的事情做而忽略了自己孩子，我也有过一个人太孤独的时候搭着公交坐在窗户边上一个人坐到终点站又坐回来，然而就像影片里的主要不是出现生命上的危险大人是不会管你的。“太阳和人心是我永远都不敢直视的。”