Andrew Haighis a filmmaker who can tell beautiful stories with various degrees of sadness.All of Us Strangersis his most recent and is brimming with poignancy about ghosts of loved ones, unresolved childhood pain, and adult loneliness. After tears or heartache are shed while watching, audiences might notice Haigh’s filmmaking style is both naturalistic and stylish.Long beforeAll of Us Strangers, the director made the romance dramaWeekend.This is where Haigh developed what his later projects would frequently depict: a grounded portrayal of everyday life inhabited by characters that anyone might pass by on the street. More importantly, as an openly gay man, Haigh centers his best projects onqueer life.Weekendshows how obstacles that gay men face may repeat but proves overcoming them isn’t impossible. Sometimes, it’s the people you meet in a short amount of time that leave an enormous impact.
Weekend (1967) follows a couple’s journey as their countryside trip spirals into chaos amid traffic jams, societal collapse, and unexpected violence. Through this narrative, the film critiques the disintegration of French bourgeois society, highlighting the underlying tensions and excesses of consumer culture.
A One-Night Stand Is Not Enough in ‘Weekend’
The story follows Russell (Tom Cullen), who lives alone in a high-rise apartment. His day may consist of working as a lifeguard, avoiding joining the chats of his crude, straight coworkers, and visiting his married best friend, with whom Russell avoids sharing anything related to his sexuality. Russell is comfortable in this life, even if he’s closed off.Things change when he goes to a club and hooks up with Glen (Chris New). The morning after, they can’t seem to part ways for too long, finding themselves drawn back together.
It begins a meaningful connection and an unexpected awakening for them as they break down the walls they have each put up, all of this happening throughout the weekend before Glen plans to leave the country indefinitely.Andrew Haigh creates a realistic tale of how people can be profoundly changed when they least expect it.Never doesWeekendfeel tied down to the year it was released. Instead, it feels timely. While it can be sensual, the chemistry between the leads isn’t emphasized when they jump into bed but when they hold conversations, engaging and arguing with one another.
Andrew Haigh Finds Intimacy Away From Sex Scenes
Haigh’s directorial debut,Greek Pete, was made to seem like a documentary on male prostitution, butWeekend,Haigh’s breakout film, expands on this film style to help the world and characters feel lived-in without blurring the lines between narrative and documentary. It’s not devastating in the same way asAll of Us Strangers.Weekend’s slice-of-life approach is closer to the director’s HBO series,Looking, where life and love don’t always blend seamlessly for the central gay friends living in San Francisco. InLookingSeason 1, Patrick (Jonathan Groff) plays hooky from work in Episode 5 to spend the day with Richie (Raúl Castillo), the two testing the waters of being a couple while they wander around the city. They chat, opening up on what was their first sexual experience, how their parents took their coming out, and other details in their lives to get to know each other better. Thismumblecorestorytelling (a focus on dialogue over plot with naturalistic performances) is found inWeekend, which is how Russell and Glen’s relationship grows.
Their first hookup isn’t shown to the audience. Haigh waits to show them having sex. By holding back,Weekendshows how intimate talking can be, which can be just as electrifying. Glen wants to make an art project that focuses on gay sex, bringing awareness to how it would make a straight audience uncomfortable. Russell agrees to record his memory of their hookup for the project,but as he does, his discomfort and shyness are evident. He sits up, pulling his legs into himself, while Glen lays out on the mattress in his briefs, his hand extended with the recorder on. With the camera close on them, Glen appears more comfortable, as if it’s his bedroom rather than the other way around.
Opposites Attract in ‘Weekend’
When Russell tries to avoid getting too personal in the recording, Glen pries in an abrasive manner – shy, he is not. But this pushing leads to Russell leaning toward the recorder, and instead of a salacious, candid remark, he replies, “I just thought that we were having a really nice time, and it was lovely. It was more than enough for me.” Glen quiets down and ends the recording, taken aback at Russell’s earnest answer.These two couldn’t be more different, but there’s a spark as these opposites start attracting.
But like Russell, Glen keeps people at a distance. He bursts with self-confidence, and then he can quickly say he doesn’t believe his art will have any value or effect on anyone.Russell looks the other way when homophobia rears its ugly head, choosing to ignore it, but Glen chooses to be confrontational. He yells out Russell’s apartment window when he hears someone saying a slur down below, making Russell nervous the bigots will throw bricks at the glass, despite living far above ground level.
Like his reaction to his art project, Glen’s confidence isn’t as strong as he lets on. When they hang out again, Russell seems to be making an impression, and Glen starts losing his cool demeanor. He leaves Russell, then keeps returning and exiting through the same door as he tries to finish his train of thought. He reveals his upcoming departure at the end of the weekend before eventually asking Russell to join him for a get-together with friends later that night.There’s avulnerability that Glen needs to let out, while Russell has a self-confidence that’s begging to be let loose.
‘All of US Strangers’ and ‘Weekend’ Explore Similar Themes
LikeAll Us Strangers,the theme of loneliness among queer characters is crucial toWeekend.Russell’s height within his tiny apartment could make the location seem confining. His legs dangle over the edge of a sofa when he’s stretched out on it. His body hardly submerges in his bathtub’s water. But the home is a cozy, safe space where Russell can keep to himself and avoid opening up to the world.
Among the main couple, Russell is the quieter, most reserved of the two, uncomfortable with his sexuality in public. Meanwhile, Glen is blunt about sex and anything else, never failing to dig into his anger about how gay men need to assimilate themselves in a predominantly heteronormative society. “I hate new things,” Russell says to Glen, explaining the second-hand, thrift store items around his kitchen. He treasures the magnets and cups he’s gotten, but this extends to how he chooses to live as well. New, unexplored experiences make him nervous. Glen has been hurt in the past, which is why he has decided to look for new experiences but leave before anything can get too real.They are both lonely, and Andrew Haigh uses a recurring motif to show this.
The Visual Style of ‘All of US Strangers’ and ‘Weekend’
Reflections are important inAll of Us Strangers, such as in the opening where the camera is on a wide shot of a city as the sun rises, the heated colors shining off a building, getting brighter, until it glows onto Adam looking out, changing the perspective of the camera by making the framing less aerial, more personal. Due to the supernatural element, windows and mirrors have a different meaning inStrangersthan inWeekend. Reflective surfaces show how Russell is detached from the world or how he feels self-conscious when he goes outside. At work as a lifeguard, he stands on patrol, his figure seen in the stagnant water as swimmers chat and splash with friends on the other side.A mirror on the club’s wall closes the distance between Glen and Russell when they first spot each other. And there is Russell’s tendency to stare out his apartment window, similar to Adam inStrangers, observing the city or watching Glen walk away after they part.
‘Weekend’s Russell and Glen Deal with How to Be Openly Gay
Russell and Glen share different views on what it means to not be straight in the current day, gay marriage being among the topics they discuss and argue about, which, off-screen, wouldn’t be legalized in England until a few years later, in 2013. For Russell, marriage is a radical stance against conservative and religious criticism and hate; for Glen, he views casual dating without labels as a more radical stance. In a painful scene inAll of Us Strangers, Haigh returns to this question, wondering about the progress that has been made. Does it make queer life better nowadays? The answer isn’t an easy one.
Haigh knows this because while the world is getting better and more tolerant of the LGBTQ+ community, that doesn’t mean happiness is instant. Due to the premise of Adam being able to visit his late parents’ ghosts, he can finally come out to his mom (Claire Foy), but her reaction is ignorance-filled concern. “They say it’s a very lonely kind of life,” she says. He’s lonely, but he tries to clarify, “If I am, it’s not because I’m gay. Not really.”InWeekend, Russell and Glen shut themselves off from relationships, knowing that commitment can make anyone hurt, but meeting each other forces them to realize shutting people out isn’t the answer.
The various ghosts Andrew Scott faces make the closing minutes of Haigh’s recent film depressing. While it’s beautiful, watching what Adam must go through to heal and move on in his life is incredibly tragic from beginning to end.The final minutes ofWeekendhave a more hopeful outcome, but that gives it a different kind of heartache. Through the various times they meet up, Glen eventually allows himself to be more vulnerable, and Russell gains more confidence in himself. They meet one last time at the train station, where Glen will depart for a journey he hopes will help his career and future. Unlike the kind of resolution the mosticonic rom-comsmight have at this moment, there is no outburst of love. Whatever their relationship could have been, a final goodbye closes them off from knowing the answer.
Weekendis the breakout film for Andrew Haigh and an acting showcase for Tom Cullen and Chris New. For people who want their romance with unsentimental realism, this queer film is for them. Haigh isn’t afraid ofdownbeat endings, but they usually feel like the right choice for how the stories he made should end.Weekendtakes the time to feel authentic in creating the romance between Russell and Glenwithout choosing to give them an easy happily ever after, even if some viewers want it. The train leaves, but Russell and Glen won’t be forgetting each other anytime soon.
