Morvern Callar

^ Haha, scrolling down this thread I was just about to compile one on Spotify as well.

Just watched the film for the first time - bloody fantastic the way the soundtrack works within it, especially the reverie inducing 'Dedicated To The One I Love'.

Lynne Ramsay's approach to editing in both this and YWNRH is acute and graceful. Love for example the switch from Kathleen McDermott's character crying and apologising and the look from Morvern which sort of gives away that she's going to forgive her. And then we switch to them running together through the airport for their flights off to Spain.

I'm not saying this film exacts reflects my "Scottish experience" but the two visits to the Grannies felt like scenes from visiting my Granddad in Gorebridge, and the house party scenes evoked Hogmanays and free houses from 16 to 21 years old better than anything else I can remember on film.

The way you guys talk about this movie and its soundtrack makes me wish I didn't have the experiences with it that I have.

I was married at the time I first became aware of this film. My at the time wife was a really big fan. I've alluded to this elsewhere on ilx, but she was a very heavy drinker and was a very aggressive, very angry drunk. It usually escalated into raging, one-sided shouting matches and sometimes even more unpleasant situations. I do not mean this in an insulting or malicious way at all, but I do honestly feel like she had some sort of undiagnosed mental illness. Be it borderline personality disorder, bipolar, or something even more extreme, she was definitely struggling. In any case, I was working mostly evening and night shifts at Tower Records, so I would get home fairly late during the week and very late on the weekends. Nine times out of ten, I would arrive home to the apartment with all of the lights on, this movie blaring out of the stereo, and her just sloppy drunk, wandering around the place, reciting the dialogue and acting along with the film. I would ask if she would turn the stereo off and just have the audio come through the television speakers so I could try to go to bed and that would ignite her agitation. Over time, I started to feel kind of unsafe, as she was getting too fixated on and attached to the story. She would bring the DVD along to family get-togethers and put it on and force anyone who was willing to listen into these bizarre discussions of whether or not it was immoral for Morvern to dispose of the boyfriend's body and take the credit for his novel. She would bait the opposition in by initially siding with them on the stance that Morvern was doing something questionable, if not illegal, and then she would flip on them by arguing that it didn't matter, because Morvern was depressed and living an unfulfilled life with the boyfriend and that, by taking credit for the novel and subsequently coming into a more comfortable financial situation, she was claiming independence — or something, I don't know. It reached a point where I honestly did fear that she was having ideation of killing me and carving me up, so she could become "independent." Luckily, we moved house soon thereafter and the DVD got "lost" in the move and she moved on or forgot about it.

Christ - that's intense, Austin. I hope she is doing better now.

And I mean, everything else aside, there are far far too many breast shots to pull out the DVD at a family gathering. My uncle will point out stiff nipples on TV presenters so I could not imagine sitting through this with him and the rest of the family.

Upthread someone mentioned having the soundtrack but not having seen the film. I can't imagine doing things in that order, is that a common thing? Have any of you guys bought soundtracks without seeing the associated film (especially ones that are just compilations/mixes rather than an artist created work)?

Spawn soundtrack 4 eva

Have any of you guys bought soundtracks without seeing the associated film (especially ones that are just compilations/mixes rather than an artist created work)?

Yes, a lot in the mid-90s. All those movies with hip hop-themed soundtracks. OutKast put out some of their best material in those days —'Benz or Beemer', 'Phobia', 'In Due Time', 'Everlasting'— on soundtracks.

Christ - that's intense, Austin. I hope she is doing better now.

I was very young when I got involved in that relationship (nineteen, to be exact) and I was so hellbent on not floundering through two or three marriages like my parents that I was determined to stick it out and wait for her to "settle down." Needless to say, that didn't happen. Last I knew, about five years after we were divorced, she had been arrested (again) for public intoxication and carrying an open container not too long before I moved to southern California. That was a few years ago. So, sadly, I don't think it ever will happen.