Gasman

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.

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.

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.

Many families have some kinds of secrets which are usually hidden by parents,and the important problem is that how parents explain their secrets to their children.If these secrets are not well explained to children,children cannot have complete trust in their parents.In that movie,Lynne must have not only envied another girl but also doubted her father.I wonder why the father could not explain to his daughter about another daughter.Maybe it's because he did not want to hurt his daughter's feeling by telling the truth.It's a shocking fact,but his father should have told her daughter the truth so as not to lose his daughter's trust.Relationships of mutual trust between parents and children are more important than any other things.