It was about time someone made a realistic relationship drama and a good gay film thought British director Andrew Haigh. And so he made the widely praised Weekend, about a relationship that starts as a one-night stand, but unexpectedly becomes more serious.
At the end of booze-laden night, Russell takes a guy called Glen home with him. Next day, there proves to be more between the two than a merely erotic attraction. They spend the weekend together, fully aware that it can’t last. After all, Glen is about to move to America and intends to stay there for at least two years. "I see very few films that portray life the way I see it, particularly when it comes to homosexual relationships," explains director Andrew Haigh. "I wanted to make a film about what it’s like to be gay, but in the context of a relationship. And, to be quite honest, the film also had to be made on a budget."
After a flood of gay & lesbian-films in the 1980s and the early 1990s, the supply more or less dried up, observes Haigh. "I think it’s primarily a matter of funding. Producers are afraid such films won’t generate enough income. Of course there was
Brokeback Mountain, but that was in a different league entirely. That involved famous people who - incidentally – were all heterosexual, including the director. This made it okay for straight people to go and see it."
Weekend is Haigh’s second film. The director also worked on Gladiator and Black Hawk Down as an assistant editor. When asked what those experiences taught him he answered: "Mostly how absurd filmmaking can get. Huge sets, fifteen cameras. Loads of material is shot and emotions are primarily created during editing. There are dialogue scenes whereby one actor reads his lines, while the other is back at the hotel already. It’s all mad really. My films are basically, primarily a response to working on those films."
Haigh has noticed that the – modest – success of Weekend, which did well at film festivals and has been released in the US, has changed his status. "I’m being sent more offers. Mainly from the US, admittedly. In the UK, directors like Lynne Ramsay, Steve McQueen and Andrea Arnold are the stars. There is almost no room for anyone else. A difference with America is that the latter also has a network of low-budget filmmakers who help each other and we don’t. I think that’s because everyone’s fighting for the money the British film fund has to offer. The competition’s vicious."
One of the things that makes Weekend so special is that the two leads are so realistic. During a Q&A at the IFFR this week, Haigh caught himself discussing the characters as if they were real people. "When I see the actors, I keep briefly forgetting that their names aren’t Russell and Glen, but Tom Cullen and Chris New. I care about the characters I write; I want them to be happy, to get what they want. I also spent a lot of time thinking about what they’ve been through in the past, before the film starts: what their parents were like, their friends at school." Audiences often ask Haigh how the pair’s story continues after the end of the film. "They really want to know, but the story doesn’t go on. The film ends, it’s over."
Weekend - Andrew Haigh
Friday 3 February 2012 19:15 LV 1
Door: Sietse Meijer