Exquisite Corpse
Exquisite Corpse
Exquisite Corpse
Interview with Seamus McGarvey
November 2025
We had the pleasure of interviewing Seamus McGarvey, the cinematographer of Die My Love (2025), a film directed by Lynne Ramsay, starring the formidable and swoonworthy pair of actors Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson.
Adapted from Ariana Harwicz’s 2012 novel, Die My Love tells the story of a young mother, Grace, grappling with postpartum depression and psychosis in rural Montana. As her grip on reality unravels, her marriage to her husband Jackson and their pastoral life start to take a sinister turn.
Seamus talked to our editor Yi An about the creative decisions he made for the film, his experience shooting with Ramsay, Lawrence and Pattinson, as well as his extensive body of cinematographic work.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
Seamus and Lynne on the set of Die My Love
Yi An Chen (YA):
Something that stuck out to me in the film was the 4:3 ratio — what was the creative decision behind that?
Seamus McGarvey (SM):
Well, deciding to shoot Die My Love on the 4:3 aspect ratio was a decision that Lynne and I arrived at together. Preparation is very important in filmmaking. So it was something that we realised would help the claustrophobia of the film, especially claustrophobia in the midst of this vast landscape where we were shooting. Typically you would shoot those sorts of landscapes, the exteriors, in widescreen or even in CinemaScope. But we wanted to frame the house in a way that created these boxy frames within frames. It worked out perfectly for the production designer Tim Grimes — he found this amazing house where he made these frames within frames and patterns upon patterns with the wallpapers.
It was a really lovely way to make films because in the Academy ratio of 4:3, you've got more headroom on a cinema screen than the widescreen format. That sort of worked compositionally for us in terms of framing things that were above people's heads or to the right or left of people's heads. That was really interesting. And it also created this kind of corralling or restriction of the landscape. We weren't lulled or lured into luxuriating in Vista. It was all about what was in Grace's head, Jen Lawrence's character. It was all about the limiting of her scope.
Lynne Ramsay, the director, started off in cinematography. So these conversations come quite naturally to her, those discussions that are photographic, cinematographic. She knows her lenses. She knows all about film stocks. She studied that before she became a director. So it's nice to have that photographic rapport at the outset and that also extended into the choice of film stocks and everything on the day-to-day shooting of the film.
YA:
I really liked how the film started with this long static opening shot where you’re able to see through the whole house and you see them moving in.
Were there any specific choices that you made with the cinematography that, maybe from what you mentioned with the production design as well, was to create this sense of claustrophobia or entrapment in the house? The house felt like it was its own character in a way.
SM:
Well, exactly. The stasis of the camera was meant in that sense, because we did not want to start with an exterior shot of the house, like, here we are, here's the house. We wanted the camera, the audience to be inside the house, like the house was looking and then suddenly [the characters] appear outside and enter the house.
The camera is kind of the soul of the house and almost like a phantasmagorical presence of the place itself. Lynne and I are both very interested in architectural space and how space and light feed into character and movement. There are real [correlations] between architecture and cinema. [The house] was a spectral, ghostly presence of the camera and Lynne is very good at the synthesis of image and sound. So in that opening static shot that goes on and on, you gradually hear rats upstairs, you hear their voices. Either from behind you or in front. It’s like, you want to turn left or right. You want cinema to give you the luxury of moving away from just this ‘rectitude’ of a frame. But you can't. So that juxtaposition — the sudden jump to the punk track that kicks in directly after with Jennifer and Rob riding around on the floor and dancing and having fun is something that is one of Lynne's fortés. The use of sound with pictures.
YA:
Yes, the sound design really struck me as well in that scene where you know that they're in the house but you don't see them. What was it like to work with the sound designer on that? Did you have a conversation while you were filming or was it something done in post?
SM:
Lynne works very closely, and has done on all her films I think, with Paul Davies, who is a genius sound designer — not sound recordist, he does the sound and mixing afterwards [in post-production]. He's really brilliant. I was aware of what Lynne was planning, but I don't really get involved in the editing or the post-production beyond the grading, the colouring of the film with Adam Inglis from Harbor [Picture Company], who is the colourist. We had the rushes every day. We had a dailies colourist called Darren Rae from Cinelab in London. All the rushes were sent from Canada where we shot in Calgary back to London every day, which was important because there aren't many labs that can process Ektachrome.
YA:
Oh it was on Ektachrome? That’s so cool.
SM:
Yes, yes, we shot on Ektachrome film for the most part. We also shot negative for the night stuff. I mean, it's not night, it's obviously day for night. But we used [negative] for the night interiors. For the day-for-night photography, we used negative film that was heavily filtered and we used all these crazy smoked-up, candle-smoked filters that darkened the skies. It was a very ‘hand-knitted’ film. We didn't leave a lot to post-production. It's like we burnt it into the film, literally, and painted out the bits that we wanted to see, but let the smoke filter do the rest and make it night.
YA:
I really like the colours in the film, especially for the night scenes because they all felt really surreal and dreamy. Was that all done with the filters?
SM:
It was, yeah, we shot that on negative mostly. We had a look, a sort of cyanotype look. We were heavily influenced by Edward Steichen and the pictorialist photographers of the turn of the century and the 20s who used this process called cyanotype. That wash of moonlight [in those images] was shot by day, so they have this dreamscape imagery, as you say.
YA:
I thought they were all shot at night — they were actually shot in the day?
SM:
Yes, and that was leaning into the discussions about motherhood and about how when you're slightly unhinged, if you're a young parent, there is that sense that days and nights meld and kind of fold into each other. They superimpose. So we wanted the night scenes not to feel like Hollywood night. We wanted it to feel like a fever dream of ‘is this day or is it night?’ Or it's just simply weird and strange. And the Ektachrome was part of that as well because its colour is far from true and real. It's very beautiful, I think, the way that Ektachrome registers the real in a kind of completely askew way. It doesn't look like what you're looking at. When you get the dailies back, you go, “Oh my God, that does not look like what we were looking at.” But I love that about it because it sort of coalesces with Grace's unhingedness and increasingly wavering mental health.
YA:
There are also some scenes that had mirrors placed around and were playing with reflections. What was the conversation around that and the reason for them?
SM:
Well, I love mirrors, but I like that they kind of fracture the ‘normal’ shot that’s easy to ‘digest’. So they make something cubist and kaleidoscopic. You're just seeing different perspectives in the same frame. When Grace is doing Pam's (Sissy Spacek’s character) hair, there's basically four or five images in that one frame. That was fun to do, just to mess with ways of seeing. But it basically means that there's no clear-sighted image that's digestible. It's a myriad.
YA:
Were there any other details with the cinematography that maybe I didn't catch upon first watch? Were there any creative decisions you made to make it seem a little bit more interesting or to represent Grace's state of mind in the film?
SM:
Yes, sometimes we use these PVintage Panavision vintage lenses — they're ultra-speed lenses, and they're older glass. So we used them predominantly and they have a particular quality that adds opalescence to the highlights — they're quite beautiful lenses. I normally shoot with the sharpest lenses I can possibly shoot with and filter things with camera filters rather than fancy glass or vintage glass. Sometimes you get surprises that you don't want with vintage glass.
We also use these, my favorite lenses that I have two of, which are called Petzval. One is a 58mm and the other one is an 85mm Petzval. They're old lenses that have been rehoused in modern houses. So the focus puller can actually pull focus with them, but they're tiny little jewels to begin with for lenses. The effect was very useful in depicting Grace's inner mind, because their effect is the bokeh — the out-of-focus parts around the portrait lenses. If you shoot Jen against trees, out of focus in the background, there's a swirling bokeh around her head. And that's kind of a wordless way of describing the inner machinations of her mind.
YA:
There was one scene that I wanted to ask about, which was the one where Jen Lawrence had breast milk dripping onto paper, and it was mixing with the ink and then it transitioned to the night sky. I felt that it was a very considered decision. Was that decided before you started filming? How did you get to that sequence?
SM:
That was just an idea that Lynne had. She wrote it in the script and she's so visual. She's such a poet of cinema, Lynne. She's a mum herself, so it was a lovely idea that Grace's breast milk would meld with the ink and create this constellation like a universe. That's why the telescope scene came in. That's one of my favourite scenes as well. I think that really worked on a thematic and poetic level.
YA:
Were there any happy accidents while you were trying to get a shot in the film or was everything planned out?
SM:
That’s the beautiful thing about making films — you can plan all you like and you can devise shot lists until the cows come home, but ultimately, happenstance and accidents are really important. Sometimes you just [come upon] little happy accidents unexpectedly.
One of those was a scene we shot by a lakeside when Jackson and Grace are lying by the water. We'd been shooting a scene previously where I had a lot of filters stacked in front of the camera. And we were shooting on film, obviously. We had neutral density filters, polarisers, and some diffusion. And when we set up this wide shot, I hadn't had time to select the filters. The camera assistant and I were setting up the camera and we were looking towards a sort of silvery, sparkly backlit water. When I closed the matte box, suddenly there was this refraction all happening within the thing and Lynne was like, “What did you just do there?” I was like, “I have no idea, but it's wonderful, isn't it?” And she said, “Yes, let's just not change a thing. Let's just shoot it like this.” And it was the bounce of filters and double imagery and superimposition of the water into people. The people were scintillating with the reflections in the shadow and the silhouette and it just looked really, really interesting. It also felt like maybe a psychic POV of the altering of reality and it was when all was going nuts in Grace's head.
YA:
I love that shot. I actually wrote it down in my notes. I was like, ‘shot by the beach’.
SM:
Beautiful.
YA:
What was it like working with Jen and Robert? They get quite active in some scenes. Was it improvised or do you actually have to choreograph some of the camera sequences?
SM:
Yeah, it was a lot of improvisation that was guided by our ringmaster, Lynne, but they also sort of went free range as well. I like the way that they approached it. They're very brave performers. When you work with actors of that kind of stature, you're in for a real treat because you just have to sit back, let the camera take a back seat and just photograph it. It's like wildlife photography sometimes. I had this brilliant camera operator called Chris Chow who did a lot of the Steadicam — he was the A Cam operator — and he was brilliant with handheld as well. He was really sensitive to the unexpected nature of their performances and where they went in the room.
I lit the rooms in a way that the actors could basically move everywhere. I was shooting on Ektachrome 100 ASA, so it's very, very slow [film] stocks. You need a lot of light to expose it. In digital films you hardly need any light, at least at such a low level. So I needed to pump a lot of 18K HMIs through that room in order to get a basic exposure. That affected the light and the direction of the light and made me light [the set] in a way that I hadn’t lit before.
The rooms were lit by the big light coming through the window and they bounced off the walls, so we could point the camera wherever [the actors] went and go around them and just accept that that was what the light was doing. I found tremendous freedom in doing that actually, because normally you set up a shot and you hope you lit it beautifully. But this was just like, no, we're going to live in a room that feels lived in and where the light is coming through the window, which it was.
YA:
How was it working with the dog and the baby? They must’ve been very unpredictable.
SM:
Yes! I mean, children and animals. You can't hope for a more volatile combination of actorly elements than that. We had twins for the baby. Two little girls, actually. I know that they play a boy. But the animals are trained — I mean, supposedly. We had an animal handler and trainer. That little dog was trained to pull all the stuff off the table and to bark on cue. It was trained to just bark and bark and bark and bark and bark. When you hear a dog barking all day long, I felt like Grace by the end of the day because I was just like, “Can the dog just stop barking?”
YA:
The dog felt very annoying, just from watching the film.
SM:
Yeah, but the babies were absolutely sweet. I love a quiet set. I like a sacred set where, you know, the quiet is respected. And that happens a lot when you shoot on film, because on digital, there's less discipline. On film, there is a lot of hullabaloo as you're setting up shots. Suddenly when you have to shoot the film, it's like, okay, silence. There's a sort of sanctity to knowing that this is film going through the camera. The take is probably going to be a few minutes long. It's really expensive to shoot and process, so we're not going to do fifty takes and we're not going to let the camera run for forty minutes, which sometimes happens on digital. That was really good for the baby because we knew that babies have a limited attention span. So we respected the fact that we’re working with a little child, a newborn child. And the baby delivered a performance because we were silent, because we filmed on longer lenses away from the baby. We were very careful about being quiet around the child, and Jennifer and Rob were incredible with the kid. They’re both parents — they treated the kid as their own and the kids’ mum and dad were there throughout. There was this sort of really lovely familial atmosphere and a sense of quietude and calmness while we were shooting.
YA:
I've heard Jennifer was also pregnant during shooting?
SM:
Yeah, she was five months pregnant, which fitted really well for the post-pregnancy imagery, you know. After she'd given birth, there was obviously that residual bump and post-delivery baby body. She was very comfortable with that, and that was amazing to see. We did shots with her by the mirror where I was tilting the camera around her as she was looking at her body in the mirror. Those are, I think, some of the truest shots I've ever shot of an actor who's probably the most famous actress in the world right now. And there she is at home with herself, and the way [she’s being] photographed. And similarly, the same extends to the lovemaking at the top of the wild dancing that takes place at the opening of the film. I love when actors have the safety in knowing that they can just be and act a character with total abandon and fearlessness.
YA:
I wanted to get into the other films that you've shot. I had a look at the films that you've done, with the likes of Atonement (2007), Anna Karenina (2012) and Nocturnal Animals (2016), which are all films that I love. How did you approach each project and was there one that was particularly special for you?
SM:
Well, every film is special. I just love what I do because it's really, really exciting. It's lovely to work with different directors and be a different cinematographer with every single film I get a chance to work on. It's a complete privilege to shoot films. I mean, if I am driving down the road [near a film set], I nearly crash the car because I'm like, “Oh my God, they're making a movie!” I just love seeing films being made and I love being on a film set because it's really exciting to look through a camera and know that you're the first person to see this before hopefully millions will see it.
In the disparate films, people have said to me, “Oh God, everything you do, there's no particular style that you have. Everything looks different from film to film.” And I said to them, “Well, I'm a different cinematographer with every director I work with because the scripts are all different and the directors make me a different cinematographer.” I'm working with Greta Gerwig at the moment. She's made me into a different cinematographer because of her sensibilities that are fusing with mine. You're in service of their script, but also being live to the moment and whatever story we're trying to tell at that moment. And that's quite exciting because it's that sort of one-plus-one-equals-three idea of collaboration.
YA:
Well, they're all really beautiful films. I was looking through the list.
SM:
There's some terrible ones in there too, I've got to say, Yi An.
YA:
Do you think?
SM:
God, yeah, there's a couple that I would like to get off of IMDB. Even the ones that are not so great, I had great fun doing and working on because it's a great job. For any filmmaker to get the opportunity to work in what you love is just such an honour. I love it.
YA:
And I'm guessing with every film you learn a little bit of how to shoot it differently. With Die My Love, because it was so catered towards Lynne's vision of a mother having postpartum depression, you probably worked towards that to find your filters and did everything based on that vision.
SM:
Lynne actually thinks of it as a comedy. It is funny in parts but it's really fucking heavy. I didn't think that we were making a comedy but Lynne does.
YA:
I didn't see it as a comedy. [laughs]
SM:
There are comedic elements, certainly. Greta did a screening of the film during the weekend. And it was lovely to see it in a different environment with my friends who I'm working with on my new film. I saw the film in a different light and actually, I did see the comedic elements in there coming through, which I hadn't before because the shoot was quite hard and it was quite tense. I didn't really absorb the comedy when we were filming.
YA:
So how is the project now with Greta? Are you able to share anything about it?
SM:
I would love to, Yi An, but I can't. I'm not allowed, I'm on these very strict NDAs. I can't say anything about it, sadly. But all I can say is she's wonderful, a wonderful director, but everybody who's ever worked with her knows that and her films are testament to how brilliant she is.
YA:
I feel like you sort of feel Greta through her films. Her films are very specific to her. I'm excited to see that. Any other projects that you are working on that you want to share or anything that's coming up?
SM:
When I finish this one I'm on now, I'm going to start a film with Lorna Tucker and it's based on her book, Bare, and that was a semi-autobiographical book which she's going to make into a feature film. That happens next year in late spring into summer. And I'm very excited by that. It's a family affair because we're married, Lorna and I. It's going to be a lot of fun devising that. And we've got a lot of time. We talk about it every night — what we're planning on doing. It's a very low-budget film, but it's going to be an exciting one to do.
YA:
It must be so exciting to work with your wife on a film. Have you worked on a film with her before?
SM:
Yes, yes. I shot a documentary for her about the pianist Yuja Wang and I did a short film called Shelter and we've done lots of photographs together. It's just a wonderful creative excitement when we get a camera out and go off and go on a photographic safari, whether it's for stills or film or whatever. I just love what I do, so it's really nice. She’s made lots of documentaries that have been well received. Now she's moving into fiction, so it's an exciting phase in her life.
YA:
I love hearing you talk about cinematography after you've done it for so long. I love that you still love to do it.
SM:
God, well, it's the best job in the world. If anybody's listening who's interested in doing it, all I can tell you is if you love photography, if you love art and you think that cinematography and telling stories with a camera in features and documentaries and in anything [else] is what you want to do, you will not be disappointed if you can bring something you're enthusiastic about; if you can bring your eyeball and brain and heart to make something special or more special with your [point of view]. There's no greater job in my view.
YA:
What advice would you give someone wanting to start out in cinematography?
SM:
Well, I would say that making films can be quite expensive, less so now with digital cameras. I've been shooting a lot with the Sony A7 or the Canon cameras. Even with my iPhone — I shoot a lot with my iPhone. Lynne and I did some tests for Die My Love using the iPhone, just little sketches. Lorna and I made three short films with an iPhone. So I would say, just keep on looking. It's good to do cinematic pilates. That's what I call it — when you just are looking all the time and using the camera and exercising the camera and looking at things and seeing what inspires you as you walk down the street. Look at how light dapples through the trees. Look at how colours juxtapose on a snowy day. Look at how the shadows turn lilac when the sunlight is orange. Look at the face of somebody you are interested by or love. Look at light and shade and all its manifestations.
It's basically like gigging, like the Beatles when they were in Hamburg and just playing guitar, fucking four or five gigs a day. Exercise your eyeball, brain and heart with the camera because the translation of the reel through that little lens is strengthening your cinematographic muscles and it also coalesces with your heart. That's the most important thing, knowing that you're an artist and using the camera, not flagrantly, not for cinematic effect or bombast, but using the camera as a pen, as a writer would a pen. It's a potent tool. It's like respecting the art form and saying, “I'm an artist.” I've said to young people, “Believe that you're an artist.” Know that cinema is art and have faith in your own artistic vision. Depict that through your camera and you'll develop your way of seeing.
YA:
Well, I think that's a great way to end. It was so nice to interview you, Seamus.
SM:
And you! It's lovely to meet you, Yi An.
YA:
I'm such a film geek, and it's always so nice to hear from people who are passionate about it and make films.
SM:
It's great! We're so lucky.