Lynne Ramsay reveals she is working on a Glasgow-based project, talks ‘Die My Love’

Lynne Ramsay, the UK director of Die My Love, said she has a script “in treatment” for a film set in Glasgow.

“I’ve actually written something,” said Ramsay, during her Screen Talk at the BFI London Film Festival on Saturday (October 18). “It’s in treatment mode.”  

“I’m not going to give details,” she continued, before joking it would be a sequel to her feature debut Ratcatcher called Roadkillers.

Ramsay said she was unsure she would make another film after 2017’s You Were Never Really Here. “I got so depressed – [I thought], Am I ever going to make another film?” 

During post-production for the Joaquin Phoenix-led film, Ramsay recalled being told by the project’s financier, “this is really sh*t, but Joaquin’s okay”, noting there was an overwhelming expectation for the film to make it to Cannes.

“It was soul-destroying. I ended up cutting the film to the bone. I thought [the financier] hated the film and was going to pull the plug. It was so economical.”

Change

After that experience, Ramsay said she reflected on a change in approach. 

“It’s good to start thinking about making films in one space, and doing them really well,” she said, while discussing the “ambitious” projects she was unable to get produced between You Were Never Really Here and Die My Love. “Sometimes [you have to] just jump to something else, go write something else, swim and take long walks.”

Ramsay has previously talked about working on an adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s novella Stone Mattress, set on a boat in the Arctic, and a film based on Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. 

Ramsay also discussed the state of AI, saying, “Oh God, it terrifies me” when asked by an audience member to consider its future role in the film industry. “There’ll be an AI me, quite soon, and I’m sure they’ll get rid of me.”

Die My Love follows a young mother slipping into madness, leaving her partner increasingly worried and helpless. Ramsay explained how she made stars Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson “crawl like animals and roll around in the grass” during a crucial sequence. “They were like, ‘Are you sure about this?’, but they trusted me. People are going to hear about this film as a story about postpartum depression but really, it’s a love story.” 

The film is being released by Mubi in North America, UK-Ireland and mutliple territories from November. 

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