Capital Celluloid 2012 - Day 91: Saturday Mar 31

Weekend (Haigh, 2011): BFI Southbank, NFT1, 1.50pm

This film, one of the best of last year's crop, is being screened at the BFI Lesbian & Gay Film Festival. Director Andrew Haigh, Heat magazine film editor Charles Gant, Weekend star Chris New and film-maker and Weekend producer Tristan Goligher will be there for a Q&A after the screening.

Daily Telegraph review:

'Twentysomething Russell (Tom Cullen) lives, alone and a bit dolefully, on the 14th floor of a Nottingham high-rise. He works as a lifeguard at the local pool and drags himself out one Friday night to dinner with friends, but his heart’s not in it. He’s gay and looking for companionship, which he finds at a club later on, clapping eyes on Glen (Chris New). They go back to Russell’s. Relationships start this way everywhere in the developed world every day. They end this way, too.


Haigh’s film is written with a shrewd, unpretentious feel for the way young people behave when they’re getting to know each other, shot with a keen eye for urban solitude, and completely nails its seemingly modest tasks: frank talk about the challenges and politics of growing up gay, which never underlines itself or comes crashing down on us as a message. It could all be beautifully thought out and still not work without the chemistry and ignition the actors provide. They’re so persuasive as a couple that the future – which poses one huge problem – quivers as they discuss it. Their bond hangs in the balance, but the film’s pure human warmth radiates long after you’ve left.' Tim Robey

Here is the trailer.

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