User Reviews

It's grim up north the old saying goes; Gasman by Lynne Ramsey won't change that stereotype but it does illustrate the talent of this director. This short film shares similarities with the both work of Mike Leigh and social realist 'kitchen sink' films of the sixties, in showing a slice of life story from the lower classes. Read; bleak setting and diegetic sound.

Set in an undisclosed Scottish city at Christmas, the story concerns a day in the life of lower class father (James Ramsey), daughter Lynne (Lynne Ramsey Jr) and son Steven (Martin Anderson) as they walk the tracks. En route, they mysteriously pick up more children from a woman (Jackie Quinn), Lisa (Lisa Taylor) and Robert (Robert McEwan).

Gasman is a powerful piece, due in no small part to the performance by Lynne Ramsey Jr. It is a powerful portrait of a working class young girl and the confusion she faces. When pretending to be Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, you really believe that 'There's no place like home.' The supporting cast are also suitably bedraggled for their characters to be believable. There are some fine visual flourishes in this short piece; the close shots of people getting ready for their day out give the film a very intimate feel, as if you are really looking into their family life. There is appropriate use of light and dark contrast, in particular as they are in wide shot walking up the tracks. Also, the working club Christmas party is visual delight, with child POV shots, slow motion and chopped up editing.

At times the Scottish dialect is quite hard to follow with the sound quality being quite raw. My main issue with the film would be that Gasman doesn't have anything original to say. Gasman is suitably bleak according to genre convention but its essential message being that it's challenging growing up in a lower class environment has been a mainstay of social realist cinema since before Kes. Still grim it would seem.

One of the most difficult problems to solve is the people relationships.

The father has two families, which means the four little children have blood relations. However, maybe of course, they do not know that.

In the Christmas party the main character girl is coming to feel uncomfortable about the other girl who is her half sister indeed. In the last scene, when they are coming back home, the order of the people especially the girls mentions the very touchy feelings of them. The girl is so confused but does not know the truth. This is a very interesting film and is questioning us about what to do with such a problem.

A little girl, Lynne, puts on her yellow dress with her mother's help, while her brother is playing with a toy car and sugar. They are taken by their father to a Christmas party. On the way to the party, the three people meet a woman with two children. One of the two is a little girl who is as old as Lynne. Lynne talks to the girl and they become friends, so they just are friends. However, things are not so simple. They arrive at the party and a lot of children including Lynne enjoy themselves. While Lynne is dancing with Santa, the girl feels lonely and sits on the knees of Lynne's father. Looking at the scene, Lynne realizes that the girl is not just her friend. Lynne feels jealous of and anger with her. Since this moment, her mind is very complicated.

First, this film is very difficult to understand. Therefore it was not until I watched this film three times that I figure out what is represented. However, the director made it so on purpose, I think. Metaphors used in this film are all elaborate. Therefore it is hard, though, it made a sophisticated impression on me.

This film is a kind of masterpiece. I mean the great actors, actresses and director excel. Without them, this film couldn't be like this.

Gasman is a proper short film - little plot, none of it told explicitly, but a larger story going on around the camera. Like most of Lynne Ramsey's stuff (Ratcatcher being the best and most enjoyable example, because it isn't a short)it feels like and probably is 1970s/80s East-end Glasgow, the struggling classes and a fairly grim outlook, but you see the little sparks of interest in real lives, and being a small story told very much from a child's point of view, it's much more hopeful, interesting and happy than it could have been. The characters, so few, and so little seen in the short still have immense believability and completeness. Most people will find this dull, but if you're the kind of person who knows how to get hold of a copy, you're probably the type of person who'd enjoy it. Arty, but not impenetrable, simple but thought-provoking.

On Christmas Day, a young girl leaves for a Christmas event with her father and two other children also join with them on the way there. The young girl's feeling about the other girl changes as the time goes on.

The music is used effectively because there are Christmas songs and happy songs in accordance with the dance. As for the Christmas song, it helps to depict that children are high spirited and cannot wait for the party. In the last, the scene which a young girl is standing on the rail track and staring at the other children plays a role of summary of her conflict. We cannot see facial expressions of characters because of the few lights. By using this effects and showing same scene within ten seconds, it makes us think how the girl feels. The film expresses an important part in an indirect manner.

Although this is interesting film, a question remains what the title of this film means and what the connection with the content is.

I've never been a fan of short films for their 'art-school' and 'experimental' qualities. Simply being a product of those two is not enough. They are almost always too personal, too opaque, and too much obviously serving as 'stepping-stones'.

I was therefore happy to see Lynne Ramsay's short films as the chrysalis for her superb feature films. I was also impressed to learn that she won the Cannes short-film prize, *twice*. And now I can see what others saw in her, for _Gasman_ is the best short film I have ever seen.

Available on the Criterion DVD with _Small Deaths_ and the less good _Kill the Day_, _Gasman_ is a fully-fledged, visionary film that translates directly into the skill and grace of _Ratcatcher_.

_Gasman_ moves directly from the first piece of _Short Deaths_, with the distant father and Lynne Ramsay Jr. again taking centre screen. But _Gasman_ comes to a kind a fruition--a full story with many of the same themes and techniques of _Ratcatcher_: closely observed yet elliptical human behaviour, housing projects, slum-beauty, children's natures, a jumbled impressionistic world caught in partial body closeups and shots from behind people.

The film 'tells' nothing, but the story is dead clear and builds slowly to an emotional pitch that is almost unbearable.

This is a film of jaw-dropping beauty. Sounds trite, but that's how I feel. When the Da and two kids walk on the tracks, the camera is set to a partially closed iris which intensifies the available light and colour in an otherworldly sheen--one that is gone when they return on the same tracks at night, in disappointment. Beauty in service of story is the key.

This *is* the best short film I have ever seen.

Lynne, 8-9 year - old girl goes to a Christmas party with her father and brother. At the party, she notices that another girl treats his father as if he is her real father and get jealous and learns something surprising then. Although the story turns out to be not that complicated, I love this movie because it has a nice structure. While I am watching this film, it leaves many questions to my mind, for example, "Why mother does not go to the party?" "Why are there only father and their children in that party?" or "Why the girl is so familiar to Lynne's father even though she is supposed that they are stranger?" and all those questions are answered at the end of the film. I thought that this structure makes the movie interesting and the audience satisfied.

This short film from Lynne Ramsay is extremely impressive on a technical level as well as emotionally stirring. The director has an uncanny ability to capture those seemingly small and insignificant moments in a child's life which have a lasting and profound effect; those moments when everything changes, innocence is lost and nothing will ever be the same again. The children in her films learn the facts of life the hard way and quite often have to make sense of them on their own without the aide of an understanding parent. I was more moved by "Gasman" than I was with "Ratcatcher" (her first feature length which is a must see for true film connoisseurs) for this reason. The director keeps information from the audience, so that when we discover what the little girl discovers it's just as new and poignant for the viewer without being predictable. Lynne Ramsay is a true "auteur" who possesses the uncanny ability to capture beautiful and haunting moments of life.

When I was a child, I expected that some good things happens at Christmas every year like Christmas present, dinner or something like that. At a Christmas day, usually people have good memories, and at the day, people spend it gaily with someone or alone, but this movie betrays such rule, or expectation. The little girl also predicts such things like me, but she has to know that she can't monopolize her father, and has to face reality. One of the harshest and thing for human is to face reality like money, your looks, complicated human relationships and so on. When humans meet the point to face it, their life changes dramatically and clearly. Almost people, especially people who are used to watching a happy end movie can't understand the reason why directer made such black ending, but it is happy for the little girl, because she can go through reality in early day. People have to face it someday sooner or later, so if they meet it early, they can early get the ability to patient something harsh. I think, therefore, she is a lucky girl. Anyway, this movie is complicated and difficult to understand, but this movie tells everything without saying words, with visuals, so I recommend people who are tired of usual movie or boring ending to watch this movie.

Gasman is a 1998 film by Lynne Ramsa. This film won Best Short Film at the Cannes Film Fest, the BAFTA Awards, and the Atlantic Film Fest. The direction and the camera work of this film are very strange. There is a little girl and a little boy. There is Christmas music. The girl gets dressed. The boy gets sugar on his toy car and plays with it. There is a mother, hurrying them up. In this scene, you can see the face of the characters hardly. Then, they go out and walk along the railway. The family arrives at a Christmas party. The visual and sound are somehow filled with uneasiness. This may be because of the strange direction and the unstable camera work. So, you will be drawn into the screen although it is very short film.

I can't make sense of this film from the beginning to the end. In the film, it is Christmas time. A girl, her little brother and her father dress up and go to a pub to have a Christmas party. They go there without the girl's mother. Walking on a railroad track, they meet another family that is composed of a girl, a boy and their mother and they go there without the second mother. In the party, the girls have a dreadful row over the father. First of all, it is difficult to listen to the voices of the characters of this film. They speak quietly and unclearly. I can feel the intention of the production but as long as we can't listen to the voices, it is ineffective. In this film, the technique that they don't demonstrate directly but hint at is used a lot of times, however the hints are so difficult that to understand them disturbs watching this film. As usual, the end of this film isn't demonstrated directly, so when we finish watching this film, we can't feel catharsis. In brief, I want to say that overdone technique spoils the film.

One winter day, a daughter, a son and their father go out, and they meet a family, a daughter, a son and their mother. Children are very alike, and children and their father go to Christmas party. At the party, first the two girls play, but a short time later, they get into fight, because of scrambling for their father. The story of this movie is so complicated, and it is difficult to understand the story. This movie draw Christmas day, and the day is happy day for common people, but for this family, it is not. When two families meet on the railroad, a befuddled looks appear on their faces. In this movie, jealousy of children and mental conflict are shown. This movie is short, but a lot of things which we have to analyze are included. So I want many people to watch this movie and consider the meaning of this movie.

I guess I am the dissenting vote here, but I didn't particularly like GASMAN. Some of it isn't the fault of those who made the film, but was the fault of the people who put this film on disk. That's because the accents were at times very hard for me to understand and there was no captioning on the DVD. To the average American, some British accents are tough to understand and my mild hearing loss made this a particularly frustrating film. However, what the film makers could have done better was providing a context for this short film. You gather that the man has two families but you are left asking so many questions that aren't explained in the film. In other words, it's a short film that has left out key portions of the narrative--and this just seemed sloppy. It's too bad, because the basic idea behind the short was interesting.

By the way, this film is part of the CINEMA 16: European Shorts DVD. On this DVD are 16 shorts. Most aren't great, though because it contains THE MAN WITHOUT A HEAD, COPY SHOP, RABBIT and WASP, it's an amazing DVD for lovers of short films and well worth buying--it's just a shame about the captioning.

A girl and her brother get dressed up and go out with their father. On the way, they meet a woman, a girl and a boy. They look like the same age with the brother. Two girls, two boys and their father go to a Christmas party. The girl looks happy, however, she sees the girl who she met a while ago is on the lap of her own father. She is angry. Probably, they are half brothers. However, the children are good friends.

This is a fairly serious story for me. I don't understand why their mother and father take them to the party together. I think that it is not good that a half-brother and half-sister met each other when they are children. The scene of the railroad track where father and his divorced wife talk is deeply impressive. I feel sorrowful because the season of winter is added to the scene. However, the girls are very cute. The blonde hair and the dress are charming. The party looks lively and happy, therefore I want to join such a party. I like the party scene.

This story's main character is a young girl. Her father goes out with her and her brother to a Christmas party. On the way they meet a woman, a girl and a boy. Her father takes the girl and the boy to the Christmas party too. At first, girls go and play, and do not fight but the main character starts to do something spiteful to the girl.

I think this movie takes up difficult problem because if I were in her position, I could not find a key to the settlement by myself. I think this shows complicated children's mind well. The last scene in which the main girl is watching the girl and her family is a very touching sight to see. And I think the heroine's performance is so good and moves me. She is so cute, too. I wondered how to link this movie with "gasman".

The movie's conclusion is sad and a worrying ending for the main character. Everyone did not smile at the end. I think this movie is difficult a little but it is worth to watch. I recommend this movie.

"Gasman" is a short film which is about a girl's life changing point. One day, the girl goes out with her father and her brother, and she meets a little girl who looks very similar to her. I like this film's introduction. In the house, the girl polishes her shoes and puts her cute dress on. Her mother cares about the girl, and the boy plays with his toy car. We can't understand why she polishes her shoes and wears a dress, so we can guess the destination. And it makes us very excited. The last scene is also one that I like. We can consider her feeling and her thoughts from now on as we like. This film is not bright, but I think this film has something attractive. When you finish watching this film, you may bask in the afterglow of this film. I don't like thisk ind of dark film usually, but this movie is interesting. So, if you like dark films, you should watch it, and even if you don't like dark films, you should try to watch it.

This short film is about one family whose father and mother has gotten divorce. There are four children. Two kids lives with the mother and one girl and her brother lives with the father. They gather on Chistmas and go to a Christmas party without the mother in this story.

The most exciting part of this story is how the girl with the father thinks and acts to her sister. It is kind of sad feeling that the viewers gets when they watch this film. In my opinion, viewers might watch this with a deep emotion even though their circumstances do not match to the characters in the story at all.

The message this short movie has is that even though they are separated, a family is a family. Your sister is your sister forever.

In conclusion, this is a wonderful film which makes viewers think deeply.

The father who has two kids meets a woman who has two kids to go to the Christmas party. He hides that he has another family and has another two kids. The two kids meet the other two kids suddenly. They must be confused, and they never thought they are brother and sister. The little girl is jealous of the other girl, because the other girl sits on her father's knees. If I were the little kid and faced with the same situation, I would get angry, so I can understand the daughter's feeling. I think it is difficult to make friends with each other. Many little children want their parents to take care of their kids. I want to ask the father why he has two families. Not only his wife but also their children must be depressed. Through this movie, I think we had better not associate with various women. We should cherish our family.

A mother is helping her son and daughter to get out and two children leave for the Christmas party with their father. On the way to the party, they meet a woman with her son and daughter and they go with the family. At the party, the daughter feels it is strange that the other daughter is so attached to her father. This story is very confusing, but I guessed that all four children are his, though they have a different mother. By watching the film, I could feel stress of the children which they can't monopolize their parent' affection, moreover it wouldn't be surprised if that might cause a serious social problem. This film expresses the child's emotion well and tries to tell us the problem.