Romance and Reflection, Hand in Hand

[w8liftinglady]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/movies/andrew-haighs-weekend-looks-at-a-gay-couple.html

MOST romantic movies are so determined to chart the course of a love story — how boy meets girl leads to happily or unhappily ever after — that they miss the intensity and import of beginnings. But the new British film “Weekend,” like its closest American predecessor “Before Sunrise,” lingers on the initial sparks of an erotic and emotional connection. As a one-night stand turns into something more, the film explores the notion that to meet someone new, not least a potential partner, is also to rethink who you are, an invitation to shape and refine the self you wish to project. A story about falling in love that is also a tale of identity and self-definition, it is perhaps all the more resonant for taking place between two gay men.


The rules of the marketplace dictate that “Weekend,” the breakout hit of this year’s South by Southwest Festival and now playing in New York, be considered a “gay film,” a designation that generally refers to the sexuality of a film’s maker, subject matter and target demographic. “Weekend,” which details the wary push-pull and palpable chemistry between Russell (Tom Cullen), a shy working-class lifeguard, and Glen (Chris New), a brash aspiring artist, fits the label to a T while making it seem inadequate.

“I wanted gay people to feel that it reflected something they understood, but I didn’t make it just for gay people,” the film’s writer and director, Andrew Haigh (rhymes with vague), said during an interview at the Ace Hotel in Manhattan in the summer. In town for the gay film festival NewFest, he noted that “Weekend” was partly a reaction to what he saw as the shortcomings of gay cinema. “I was always frustrated, and angry sometimes, about the stories that people were telling, which were either coming-out stories or frothy, sexy comedies which weren’t funny or sexy.”