In 2011, openly gay writer/director Andrew Haigh made a splash with Weekend, his instant LGBT film classic about a pair of gay men, Russell and Glen, who meet, fuck and connect deeply over the titular time frame, yet must part by the end. The film and its characters resonated so strongly that many fans have hoped for (and stirred rumors about) a sequel.
“I’m convinced that 45 Years is the sequel to Weekend,” Haigh says, referring to his long-awaited follow-up feature, which hits theaters on Dec. 23. Dressed in a flannel shirt, bearded, having coffee at NYC’s hip Marlton Hotel, the 42-year-old personable British filmmaker blends in easily with the crowd from his HBO series, Looking, which will wrap up its two-season run with a special finale in April.
Based on a story by David Constantine titled “In Another Country,” 45 Years stars Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay as Kate and Geoff Mercer, a childless couple in their 70s. The pair is about to celebrate their 45th anniversary when a letter arrives, informing Geoff that the body of his previous lover, Katya, has been found in Switzerland, where she went missing decades back. With this news, Geoff becomes possessed by her memory, while Kate makes a discovery or two about the man she thought she knew that threatens to undermine the very foundation of their relationship.
“In a weird sense, Weekend and 45 Years are similar films dealing with similar issues and themes,” Haigh elaborates, “just in a very different context. Certainly Glen might not tell Russell about his past, because when they met he was trying to redefine himself. Every time you forge a relationship, you say, ‘I get to start again and show you the person I want to be.’ If there’s something in your past you want to put behind you, there’s a chance you might not discuss or talk about those things, and suddenly 15, 20, 30 years have gone by. The tragedy of 45 Years is this couple does love each other, but this thing has come up and made the ground incredibly unstable and made it fall away. And it doesn’t need to. Relationships, no matter how long, are always fragile, because it’s still two individuals trying to make something work together.”
Happily married to author Andrew Morwood (they’ve been together for a decade), Haigh first came across “In Another Country” thanks to its publisher, who also sent him the story upon which Haigh’s 2009 short film, Five Miles Out, was based. Haigh made his feature debut that same year with a documentary, Greek Pete, about a London rent boy, but only got around to reading Constantine’s story while making Weekend.