45 Years, dir. Andrew Haigh - Berlinale 2015 Competition

by Martin I. Petrov

English director Andrew Haigh competes for the golden bear with a story about a couple about to celebrate their 45th wedding anniversary. But who said that after certain age, life cannot ring surprises? 

After directing Weekend, a multi-awarded film about a gay couple in London, Andrew Haigh became one of the most promising new talents of his age, turning also into a symbol for queer cinema which was back then starting to become the next global phenomenon. It might be the good timing, it might be his way of storytelling, but he returned last year as one of the producer and directors of the HBO TV series Looking, following the lives of a circle of gay friends in contemporary San Francisco. 

With 45 Years, the British director steps out of his safe waters, creating a story about Kate (Charlotte Rampling) and Geoff (Tom Courtenay) who live quite the years of retirement in a house outside London. Kate is in the process of organising their 45h wedding anniversary; Geoff is spending his days mostly at home. Their fascination for life seems totally absorbed by the routine of a careless lifestyle. One day, Geoff receives a letter informing him that the body of an old girlfriend of his, disappeared many years ago, was found in a glacier in Switzerland. 

Kate seems to be hesitant of the event, having left everything in the past. But as Geoff starts considering flying to Switzerland to visit again the spot of the accident, ghost reenter their quiet lifestyle. Fragmenting the film into event daily chapters, which work also as a countdown for their anniversary on Sunday, the couple is confronted with emotions and situations that were buried in long before closed pages of their married life diary. 

When Geoff reveals that his relationship with the girl was more serious than Kate had known, and old photographs are brought back on the table, she fails to decipher her husband’s needs, behaviour and incentives, along with an avalanche of unexpected feelings that hit back and forth, threatening to infiltrate her safety zone. 

With scenery from rural England, the monotonous, quiet tone of the film successfully transmits the agony of the protagonist, achingly trying to preserve a life she was building for many years. The title itself sounds prophetic, ringing the alarm that taking life for granted is never an option and it doesn’t matter how many years it takes to build something - be it trust, life or marriage - it can be ruined in a mere moment. 

45 Years cannot be compared to anything that Andrew Haigh has created so far, with all his directorial attempts being lively, wild, funny and humorous and even loud. Choosing a different path he manages well to build new environments and believable real life stories, failing though to be as engaging as he achieved so many times before.