Rewind the clock
Andrew Haigh was determined to cast Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay in his new drama 45 Years, he tells Siobhan Synnot
have to watch that to see he was talented. But I will look at it, some evening.”
To net Rampling, Haigh went out to Paris where she lives, and spent three days with her. “I think she cares strongly about things, but she’s not interested in small talk. So we had a glass of wine and discussed the character. She was very clear that Kate should not be a weak character, so we talked a lot about that. She was wonderful and accommodating, and I find her a fascinating performer; there’s something so unknowable about her and her acting choices are always interesting. I love that she draws you in, and pushes you back.”
One conversation Haigh had early on with both actors was the staging of an intimate scene where Kate and Geoff dance to a favourite old song, then move upstairs to the bedroom in an attempt to rekindle their sex life. “Kate and Tom knew it was important to have that scene. You don’t often see sex between older people onscreen, but sex is such an integral part of relationships, whether it’s good, bad or indifferent.”
“It’s not about exploiting actors; the scene is tastefully done and it really is a key moment. The sex could have been great. It could have reminded them how much in love they were. Instead, it’s a turning point because after that things get worse.”
As it turned out, Sir Tom’s concern wasn’t the business of stripping down to his underpants and doing a Tarzan-style chestbeat in front of Rampling. “He was more worried about the dancing bit. Charlotte was very much at home with it, but in the end we sent Tom off for a few dancing lessons beforehand.”
In between shooting Weekend and 45 Years, Haigh has been in America, directing and executive-producing a TV show for America’s HBO called Looking about three gay men in San Francisco. Despite positive reviews, Looking was wound up this year after two series and a “special” finale. Haigh seems to be taking this on the chin. “TV is great, film is different. My film crews are about 30 people. TV is 200 people with bigger budgets. On TV you can’t do subtle things like sound design, so it can be a little constricting, and there are a lot of different voices that have to be listened to on TV. But I do enjoy TV.”
Haigh got his start through movies. His very first job was as an assistant to Ismail Merchant, of Merchant-ivory films, before moving on to work as assistant editor on noisy battle pictures such as Gladiator and Black Hawk Down for Ridley Scott. “I would say that 45 Years is identical to Black Hawk Down,” deadpans Haigh, “except there are cups of tea and watches, instead of guns and explosions.”
In these edit suites, he realised he wanted to tell his own stories, rather than piece together someone else’s narrative. “It’s a good training ground because often the story is created in the edit room, but you’re not very creatively involved. My desire to tell stories in a simple way also came from working on films where there was so much editing and cutting. I’d sometimes think ‘ I don’t feel the need for cutting here. I think it would be losing something.’”
Both Weekend and 45 Years are candid, persuasive and subtle snapshots of relationships, where the biggest jolt of the first act is that Geoff has taken up smoking again. “And it is important to the story,” says Haigh, smiling. “There’s this idea that cinema has to be expansive, when in fact you can understand a lot just from a closeup of someone’s face. Recently I watched the film My Dinner With Andre, a film that has two people talking for 90 mins. I thought that was fantastic.”
I rather like that their real past feeds into this film
45 Years is on general release from 28 August