We Can’t Wait #7: 45 Years
Saturday, March 14, 2015 at 12:30PM
Team Experience is counting down our 15 most anticipated for 2015. Here's Manuel...
Who & What: Directed by Andrew Haigh (Weekend, HBO’s “Looking”). Starring Charlotte Rampling & Tom Courtenay. I actually love the succinct synopsis Haigh offers over at his own site: “A marriage is thrown into turmoil with news of a long dead lover,” though if you want a more detailed version it runs something like this: Kate, “who is in the middle of preparations for her 45th wedding anniversary when her husband Geoff receives the news that the body of his old girlfriend, who died 50 years earlier in a fatal accident in the Swiss Alps, has finally been found, frozen in ice and time. Geoff retreats into a distant world of memories while Kate endeavors to suppress her burgeoning jealousy and anxiety with pragmatism.”
Why We're Excited About it: After charming festivalgoers and indie film lovers with his quietly successful sophomore effort, Weekend and transitioning quite easily into cable television with the exquisite Looking (may I direct you to my recaps?), Haigh tackles slightly different territory with this film adaptation of David Constantine’s short story. It took Berlin by storm and won Rampling & Courtenay twinned Best Actress and Best Actor honors. Thus this went from a curio title to a highly anticipated one, the type of festival find that’s always a treat to anticipate.
What if it all Goes Wrong? Thankfully, this is one of the titles on our collective list that has already screened and from all the reviews out of Berlin it seems we have little to worry about, as they all point to another strong offering from Haigh, who might have found his stride as a keen filmmaker of quiet yet poignant revelations: “a quietly moving and deceptively tragic look at aging romance haunted by past mysteries," “a drama of quiet restraint," “The emotional disquiet builds like an orchestral crescendo from near-silence to a roar," “a quietly powerful study of a long-term marriage."
When: 28 August 2015 (UK Release) and we should be hopeful that a US release date will follow shortly thereafter. The film is being distributed by Sundance Selects, which managed Haigh’s Weekend.
Courtenay, Rampling & Haigh doing press in Berlin
Reader Comments (12)
This one looks great. Really looking forward to it. Rampling rarely fails to impress.
The film itself sounds interesting and with those two great artists in the leads is definitely one to look forward to.
How wonderful it would be if this at long last could snag the brilliant Charlotte Rampling her first Oscar nomination, and perhaps win. How appalling that it hasn't happened before now!
Criminal that Rampling was never recognized by the Academy.
Manuel: So she IS dead and this isn't an unfreezing story by a high class director? I mean, not that I expect someone like Andrew Haigh to go there, but that would be the higher drama approach, wouldn't it?
Volvagia, seeing her dead and completely preserved as she was in their youth seems like the highest (adult) drama approach to me. If she were alive, it would be rom-comedic, even farcical, or reminiscent of Captain America or Interstellar.
I can't wait, either! I love Weekend so much!
This and Carol are the two movies I'm most looking forward to.
Oh, yes! Yes, please! Can't hardly wait. Let's hope that it will find its audience and that Courtenay and Rampling will receive all the attention they deserve in terms of statues.
Let's start an Oscar campaign for Charlotte Rampling. She's overdue for an Oscar.
A big yes to Charlotte Rampling, a criminally underrated actress IMO.
I wouldn't be surprised if Rampling and Courtenay scored Oscar noms for this.
I am really happy to hear about this film and very encouraged by the response in Berlin. Charlotte Rampling has always been impressive, and in recent years with supporting parts in "The Duchess", "Never Let Me Go", and in "Broadchurch"(season 2), she has been gaining attention. I don't want to get into Oscar talk, it will be nice to see a good release, critical acclaim, and a modest hit.
Tom Courtney was incredibly moving in The Dresser, with Albert Finney. Ian McKellen and Anthony Hopkins are remaking it now as a TV movie in the UK. I have always thought that it would have been great to see a version with Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud back in the 1960s. That would have made it a triple crown of British acting royalty!