Director Andrew Haigh’s follow up to Weekend is a riveting adaptation of a short story by Salford author David Constantine. Starring Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay, 45 Years follows a married couple whose relationship is shaken when husband Geoff receives news that pulls him back into the past. Our Artistic Director: Film, Jason Wood, caught up with Andrew to find out more.
Jason Wood: How did you come to David Constantine’s short story In Another Country, and did it immediately suggest itself as ripe for adaptation?
Andrew Haigh: It was about five years ago and I’d made a short film as part of a Film4 scheme called Cinema Extreme; that film was based on a short story in a collection by Comma Press, the publishing house based in Manchester. After that film, Ra Page from Comma Press sent me a collection by David Constantine. I was instantly obsessed by In Another Country. It was so clear and precise, so simple and yet so profound. The story lodged itself in my brain and would not leave.
JW: Love, and the choices we make in love, strike me as abiding themes in your work. Why do these subjects exert such fascination?
AH: I’m fascinated by our struggle to understand who we are and what we want, and then how we try to define ourselves to the world around us. I think our relationships are a vital part of this struggle. Look closely enough at someone’s relationships and you will get closer to understanding them. I am also very interested in our pasts, how we carry them around and how they influence who we are in the present. It is both a huge weight to drag around but at the same time it’s the thing that drives us forward.
JW: As with Weekend, 45 Years also looks at a relationship facing challenges and possibly also facing extinction. Would it be fair to link the two films and perhaps describe 45 Years as a companion piece?
AH: I think for sure they work as companion pieces. Weekend is about looking forward and 45 Years is about looking back. One is asking “What kind of life do I want to lead,” and the other is asking “What kind of life have I led”. It is very hard to know if you are ever making the right decisions in life, and yet those choices are the ones that dictate what happens to you and what will become of your life. For most people this is a messy and stressful process, me included. I think with both films, I also wanted to explore the unquantifiable nature of love.
JW: Tom Courteney and Charlotte Rampling are both exceptional and have been rightly rewarded at awards ceremonies for their performances. Did you target them for the two central roles?
AH: Casting is sometimes the hardest but also the most important thing you can do on a film. In the end, the performances are what make the film work. I was keen on finding two actors with a wealth of film history, but who did not feel over familiar. Charlotte and Tom are both wonderful actors and possess such incredible qualities. Charlotte can do more with a look that many can do in a whole scene. She has an ability to draw you close but not let you totally in. I love that quality. I think Tom has a sensitivity that is unlike any other actor of his generation, and that is all too rare.
JW: You have spoken of your desire to make films that contribute to the discussion of how we live our lives, politically, personally and philosophically. How would you like to see 45 Years contribute to this discussion?
AH: I think that 45 Years explores how important our choices are. The burden of having freedom, of having the ability to shape our existence, is incredibly stressful, which is why most of the time we ignore it. For me, it is vital that we always engage in our own lives however painful and hard it might be. We have to try and make the most of our short time here, for us and for others.
JW: In my opinion you have made two perfect films with this and Weekend. How do you feel you are growing as a filmmaker, and does the critical success of your work bring added pressure, self inflicted or otherwise?
AH: That is very kind of you and it’s great that my films are getting seen and people are responding to them. For me there is always pressure, much of it self inflicted. It is such a privilege to get to make films and I want to try and make them count. I want to choose the right projects. I want to keep developing and getting better as a filmmaker. The films I make are also very personal to me and I care a great deal about them, so it’s inevitable that they sometimes keep me up at night, in fact most nights, if not every night – but it’s worth it.
Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years screens from Fri 28 Aug. His film Weekend also screens on Mon 31 Aug. On Thu 3 Sep, David Constantine, author of In Another Country, the short story from which 45 Years was adapted, joins us to talk about the film and his new book, 45 Years: Selected Stories, as part of Manchester Literature Festival.