Gasman (1997) User Reviews

Merry Christmas, social realist style.

[twistedhooch · 6/10 · 25 October 2006]

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.

complicated

[user-704-392173 · 7/10 · 8 July 2013]

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.

The Fact Which Is Not Acceptable

[AdamHawkes · 8/10 · 12 July 2013]

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.

I like it, but I'm like that

[dshed · 3 December 2000]

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.

Gasman

[rumi-s0507 · 7/10 · 21 August 2013]

One day, the girl whose name is Lynne leaves home with her father and brother to go to the Christmas party. They walk along the long railroad. After a short time, one woman is waiting them and leaves her two children who are the same age as his children. So he go to the party with four children. There are a lot of mysteries in this film. I don't understand why the title of this film is gas man and who the woman was. It is just my guess, but I suppose that she is his former wife. I can understand her feeling. The girl who is just about her age is realistically portrayed very well. Probably, Lynne feels that the girl keeps her father to herself. But the girl might be lonely because Lynne didn't care about her. So she tried to attract Lynne's attention. I think understanding children's feeling is very difficult.

'Gasman'

[bgilch · 10/10 · 9 February 2005]

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.

The tale of Christmas

[benibeni4848 · 7/10 · 12 February 2014]

A little girl Lynne and her brother are taken to a Christmas party by their father. On the way to the party, a girl and boy join them. Lynne makes friends with the girl, but during the party, she sees the girl sitting down on the father's knee. It makes her displeased. After the party, the girl goes back home with her mother and Lynne stands with her eyes riveted on their back figures. In this film, the detailed circumstances are not explained. So I'm not sure whether I understand the story correctly, but the children may have blood relation.

The camera work in this movie is interesting. At the beginning of the film, we can see only backs or foots of characters. At the party scene, the screen sways uncertainly and it makes me feel as if I'm going to participate in the party.

A remarkable and poetic short film!

[karenflash · 10/10 · 22 April 2008]

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.

A Life Changing Point

[ayane-57200 · 7/10 · 9 January 2024]

"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.

unique camera work

[mindopener623 · 9/10 · 15 February 2014]

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.

family

[mxdshf · 6/10 · 14 February 2014]

It's a Christmas day and two kids are preparing to go to a party with their dad. There are a lot of shots that shows the moves of the hands or the moves of the legs, so at first it was difficult to understand where all the characters stand. At the scene where the kids and their dad left the house, there was a shot of their mother through a window. I couldn't see her face but after I saw this movie till the end, I understood the reason why the director took that shot. At the whole story, the main character is the daughter and I thought this film draws her complicated state of mind very well. Like the last part where the daughter picks up a rock with a anger to the girl but she puts it down. Showing that the girl, the daughter realized something. Till the end I couldn't get the reason why this movie's title is "Gasman"

the child-director

[onerpaz · 10/10 · 15 October 2005]

I was amazed by Ramsay's thorough understanding of children and their feelings. This film, a touching portrayal of a father-daughter relationship, is by far the best I have seen. Poetical depiction of the seemingly endless railways are reminiscent of the long and hard life. One has to accept the people you love as they are and realize that they may be loved by others. One needs to be able to share the beloved. Final scene is the best. The girl forgives her rival. It is interesting how the girl starts to hate her rival. I wonder how important was the fact that they look alike. I think I want to start shooting movies as well.

Gasman

[odette0515 · 6/10 · 16 September 2013]

There is one family, a father, a mother, one son and one daughter. The mother is trying to get her daughter to wear her dress. Children are about to go to Christmas party. The father is leading his children to the party. On the way, three people are waiting them, one older brother, one younger sister, and their mother. The father talks to their mother. And the brother and the sister join them. The father is asked to take them to the party with his children. At first, I thought this film is about the friendship between two young girls, but I was wrong. Maybe, that sister does not have her father, so she behaves like a baby and sits on the father. And for his daughter, it is not funny. It looks that may be the daughter thinks she is trying steal her father. At the last scene, the father holds two girls. It looks that they are made up with each other. But not, I understand how much the young girl loves her father and that girls can hide their claws.

The story of a family

[acingst · 5/10 · 15 September 2015]

The film is color film; however, the film screen is dark as black and white film. For two minutes thirty seconds since the beginning of the scene, faces of any characters not are screened. This shooting technique can say that interesting. While character's faces are not screened, at the first scene is that one adult person polishes men's black shoes. In the next scene is screened that someone mischief to put the sugar on the minicar. Then, the scene that a child who is running. After that, the young girl takes on the closes. She get dressed dress to mother. The first scene which appears someone's face, the young girl's face is screened. The audience knows that is before the landscape family go out. The family has a father, mother, elder brother and young sister. The father and children go to outside. Then, they meet another family; mother and elder brother and young sister. The father keeps another set of children. Then, those five people go to the Christmas party venues. The father and mother and another woman's likely to be adult circumstances; however, young children don't know the circumstances. This film is to predict the atmosphere of some secrets and some troubles to the audience in the whole volume.

This is fairly serious

[goto-kazoku-4 · 9 July 2013]

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.

Difficult short

[ks19 · 7/10 · 14 February 2014]

This film deals with a matter in a family. There are some words during the movie, but it is difficult for me to understand the detail situation of the family. You can see four children, Father and Mother in the short. It is a Christmas season, but it is not a happy one for the family.

There is appropriate use of light and dark contrast when they are walking up the tracks. I feel sorrowful because the season of winter is added to the scene.

Some people will think this film is a dull one and I got mixed feelings. I do not watch it many times. However, this 15 minute short is a masterpiece. You should watch it.

beautiful and impressive

[safrannene · 8/10 · 1 February 2014]

A girl is dressing for the Christmas party. Her name is Lynne. She, her brother and her father, walk on a railway track and meet a woman with her two children. Lynne doesn't know them, but her father decides to take the children to the party.

I was surprised at the first scene of the film. For the first few minutes, I can't see the face of actors. I can see only hands, legs and other parts of body of Lynne's family, but they seem to be busy and happy on the nice Christmas day. I like the unique camera work. The way of using light is also nice. For example, the straight metal rail track at night is quite different from the same place in the day. Though the rail is mysterious in the daytime, it is more beautiful and impressive with light at night. I like the camera work, acting, music, and story. However, I can't understand the title 'Gasman'.

visual story telling

[b-93813 · 7/10 · 3 March 2019]

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.

The mind of children

[yfm3594 · 8/10 · 8 August 2013]

This is a film made in 1998. Main characters are a father, his daughter and son. One day they walk to a party and meet two children, a girl and a boy, and their mother on a railroad. Later, the daughter of main side feels jealous of the other girl because she is familiar with her father. Actually, a remarkable secret among those characters is hidden.

Some children have a strong desire for exclusive possession, especially for their favorite things or people. In this case the daughter gets unpleasant for another girl since she feels as if another girl stole her father's love. Why do children show such intention? That's because, in my opinion, the world children know is too small. They cannot and are not allowed to take action by themselves. Therefore they try to defend the present position and surroundings. Don't describe them as selfish.

Please watch this film taking account of my remarks. Then, how do you feel about the girl, is she annoying or sympathetic?

Review

[mao-yana32 · 6/10 · 17 July 2013]

A father, his daughter (Lynne) and his son (Steven) go to a Christmas party with a woman's daughter and son who look like almost the same age as them. This short film describes the children's sensitive mind. Lynne is jealous of the other girl for sitting on her father's lap, while the girl feels sad and lonely because there are not her parents and there are many strangers in the party. When I was a child, I felt a little jealous of other girls for talking with my father and also I felt lonely when there were not my parents around me, therefore I understand their feeling well. I cannot understand the father's feeling yet, however I would understand it in the future. I recommend everyone watching this film because it describes not only children's feeling but also parents' mind in an unusual situation and the audiences would watch it from children's and parents' viewpoint.

Gasman

[shojijason · 8/10 · 5 September 2017]

This film is about a story couple kids that have a same father. The film didn't show much about the relationship of their parents and why they divorced, though the children made a great impact to the film. The girls fight was so realistic, I even felt tremor and also was able to think of the feeling of children who have divorced parents. The point I liked about this film is many things are showed very negative and dark. For example, the girl's jealousy, the boy's feeling, the parents secret, and the dark background. Christmas should be a happy time but in this film, it's a complicated event for them. Many short films have a happy ending, but this one is not really a happy ending or a sad one. I like this weird type of film.

Question remains

[b-63195 · 7/10 · 7 March 2019]

*Including spoilers The setting was a father who goes to Christmas party with his 4 children. The half of them are his present wife's and the other half. When the father meets a woman and her two children on the way to the Christmas party, their relationship was not clearly shown. I was a little bit confused because I could not understand the relationship between the father and the other half children. After that, since each daughter struggles for their father by insisting he is their own father I expected that the woman at a railroad track was his mistress. However, who would take children of both wife's and mistress's to Christmas party together? This question remains even after watching the film. Also, how father treats the girls when they struggle was also unclear. I could not see what he thinks and feels through that scenes. However, I personally like the old taste of this film.

Successful visual storytelling

[fefe222 · 8/10 · 27 February 2019]

"Gasman" is a short film about a small girl, Lynne, who goes to a Christmas party with her father and her brother, and meets a girl and a boy who are in the same age range. Her father has two families and Lynne and her brother have blood relationships with the girl and the boy.

I liked this film. Firstly, it is simply because kids are very cute and Lynne's action and her feelings were very honest and realistic. I liked the film also because the most of the scene are from children's eyes and standpoints. In addition, I could understand what was going on without understanding what they are talking. I think this is because the visual storytelling of the film is clear and successful.

I could see that Lynne feels strong jealousy. I think jealousy is the strongest feeling of human beings. I think Lynne is hurt a lot when she saw the girl sits on their father's knees. This film is very realistic because, in daily life, even after people become adults, they face a lot of scenes they feel anger and jealousy in relationships with others, for example, relationships with friends, family members, girlfriend/boyfriend, wife/husband, and so on. I think Lynne learns a lot of things through one night. I am very curious about, after the Christmas, what will happen between four children and how the relationship will change.

This story contains a difficult problem.

[betoexko · 7/10 · 19 July 2013]

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.

Christmas story

[doncns · 4/10 · 30 September 2013]

The music shows that this tale is a tale of the family of the time of Christmas. The boy is playing with the toy car and the girl has changed into the dress. Then, the father, the boy, and the girl went out. However, the mother's face is not projected on a screen. An unsteady motion of children feeling and confusion are often drawn. Although there are few words of characters, various feeling was mixed and confused touch has been transmitted. I was not able to understand this talk completely. It is because there is little conversation, and it has finished while the end has been ambiguous. I think this railway means walks along the way different from wives and children. The scene on which they are walking along the railroad, I was not able to understand well what is expressed. However, I could not well understand what the title of this movie expresses.