Die My Love: The film Jennifer Lawrence and Martin Scorsese had to get made

Some films seem to will themselves into existence.

After reading a translated copy of Argentinian author Ariana Harwicz's novel Matate, Amor (Die My Love) for his book club, Martin Scorsese was flabbergasted by its forthright depiction of a strong-willed woman on the edge.

He passed Harwicz's book to Jennifer Lawrence's production company, Excellent Cadaver. Equally enthralled, Lawrence sent it to You Were Never Really Here filmmaker Lynne Ramsay, asking her to adapt it.

Ramsay wasn't automatically convinced, she reveals, speaking hoarsely from the London Film Festival through a cold.

"I didn't get back to Jennifer right away because I had to see how I could find my way into the book," Ramsay says. "It's quite a challenging piece."

Ramsay relocated the action to a sweltering hot summer in the middle-of-nowhere Montana, with Harwicz's blessing.

"I was really moved by meeting Ariana," she says. "It's a bit of a different animal, but the spirit of the book is still there, and she saw that."

Lawrence plays Grace, an aspiring writer hoping to pen the next Great American Novel, convinced to move from New York City by her partner, Jackson (Robert Pattinson), who has inherited a rundown house from his uncle.

Careening around that crumbling edifice in the heated throes of passion, Grace falls pregnant. After the birth, Jackson is frequently absent.

Ramsay has felt frustrated by reductive reviews pinning her increasingly extreme behaviour purely on postpartum depression.

"I want people to go into this film with no expectations because it's not black and white," she says.

There's a sense that Grace always felt throttled by the world and its suffocating views on a woman's place. Ramsay's films Morvern Callar and We Need to Talk About Kevin both painted incredibly complex portraits of women in shades of grey.

"Kevin is worried about the relationship between the mother and child, whereas Die My Love is more about the relationship between Jackson and Grace," Ramsay says.

Lawrence was willing to go anywhere with Ramsay.

"It's a love story with madness involved that's also about someone being isolated and their marriage starting to disintegrate," Ramsay says.

"But mainly it's about this completely unapologetic character that felt quite bold, very feral, very animalistic.

"You love her or hate her, but you know she's got some kind of honesty."

Lawrence's performance is astonishingly raw.

"Jennifer trusted me a lot because we did some pretty wild stuff," Ramsay says.

"She was pregnant while we were shooting it, which made it so much more powerful, and she embraced it in a way that could have been terrifying for some people."

Lawrence also shares remarkable moments with Carrie star Sissy Spacek, as her stepmother, Pam, and tender ones with Nick Nolte as Jackson's ailing dad, Harry.

Working with them was a dream come true for Ramsay.

"Sissy's an idol of mine, one of cinema's greats," Ramsay says.

"So is Nick Nolte, who has one of those faces. [Cinematographer] Seamus McGarvey and I were like, 'Oh my God, this guy is mesmeric.'"

For Ramsay, Pam is the glue that holds the film together.

"Pam sees Grace a bit more clearly than everyone else," Ramsay notes. "Grace is a punk rocker. She's setting the world on fire."

Knives Out star LaKeith Stanfield also plays a small but fascinating role as biker jacket-wearing Karl. Erotically charged sequences in which he circles Grace under an eerily blue moon feel dream-like.

"He's part fantasy for her, even though he's a real guy, and that was in the novel," Ramsay says.

"She's got these sexual desires that aren't being fulfilled."

A discombobulating shift from reality to dreamscapes is also a feature of one of Ramsay's favourite filmmakers, Ingmar Bergman.

"I've always been so fascinated by characters and getting into their psyche," she says.

"Bergman is really close to his characters."

Ramsay's mum, who died recently, raised her on the likes of Mildred Pierce, Imitation of Life and All About Eve. The latter's dark humour is present in Die My Love.

"Right from the beginning, through any discussions on the script [with co-writers Enda Walsh and Alice Birch], it had to have this absurdity," Ramsay says.

"A kind of gallows humour that Glaswegians tend to have, and Jennifer Lawrence has great comic timing."

From the screenplay, sound and cinematography to working with costume designer Catherine George and production designer Tim Grimes, Ramsay was across every inch.

"We were looking at colour palettes for different moods," she says. "I picked out the powder-blue dress Grace wears to her wedding, with its slightly 50s feel. At the beginning, she's bright and hopeful, then she starts dressing like everyone else."

But you won't forget her.

Die My Love's closing credits are accompanied by a Joy Division cover sung by Ramsay herself.

She also worked closely on the score composed by Raife Burchell and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds guitarist, George Vjestica.

"It summed up the movie, but it was never my intention that it was going to be in the film," Ramsay reveals.

"It was just a temp track we did for Cannes because we didn't have anything else. I love writing songs and jamming, but I don't want to sing."

International distributors insisted it stay in.

"I guess it works," she says.

Die My Love hits New Zealand cinemas on 27 November.