Two Men, One Weekend

It’s about two gay men and there’s plenty of sex, but it’s the themes of human connection, hope and possibility that has helped Weekend find big audiences worldwide. On the eve its Australian premiere, director Andrew Haigh spoke to Colin Fraser.

“The way people feel about gay films is how they feel about gay people. There's a tendency to look down on films with gay content”. Andrew Haigh, director of gay love story Weekend, was speaking to London's Time Out, but it could just as easily have been one of the characters from his film. But let's be clear, Weekend is not another forlorn, woe-is-us narrative of discrimination and self-loathing. Far, far from it.

This is the story of two guys who meet at a club, go home, drink, talk, shag, take some drugs, shag some more and, possibly, fall for one another. Not love exactly, but certainly that feeling of hope and possibility that a pressure-cooker weekend will present any two people if they're ready for it. But are Russell (Tom Cullen) and Glen (Chris New) ready? Is anyone ready?

It is this universal concern, and the simple fact that Weekend could as easily be a straight story – Britain's response to Before Sunset if you will – that has helped it find relatively big audiences in the US and the UK. Its appeal has resulted in a slew of awards, from SXSW and LA Outfest to a win at the British Independent Film Awards for Best Newcomer (Tom Cullen, please step forward), as critics and audiences responded in the affirmative. So while there may be a tendency for some to look down on gay content, Weekend is proving that not all people feel the same way about gay films, and gay people.

Haigh has found himself in a unique position. On one hand, his is an unapologetically gay film: there's no escaping the fact that two men, Russell and Glen, really enjoy sex (those of a prudish disposition look away now). On the other, the way they come together to cross the divide from strangers to friends is no different from any potential couple since Eve first took a shine to Adam – the same fears, the same joy.

“Weekend gets billed as a love story which it kind of is,” Haigh tells SX from London. “But I just wanted to tell a story, a character drama, about two people who were gay and were struggling with some parts of their lives. I'm always fascinated by how people can change people. I think the story appeals because it's about people struggling to work out what they want from life; that's what most people can relate to.”

Weekend is set in the small city of Nottingham, a little because Haigh didn't want another London-centric story of beautiful media darlings, but also to underline the reality that gay people live everywhere.

“I'm kind of bored of gay films set in big, liberal, cosmopolitan cities,” he says. “I wanted to get away from this weird belief that if you're gay you live in the capital. There are gay people living all over the place doing all kinds of jobs. They don't all work in media, you know what I mean? Some people work in swimming pools.”

Likewise the weird belief that all heterosexuals are homophobes by design and acceptance is only skin deep. The idea is explored through Glen's pointy attitude regarding free speech and his 'right' to publicly declare the grittier details of his sexual encounters. “I wanted it to be more complex,” Haigh says.

“The point is there is still a lot of discrimination around but it's not always around. Not everyone hates the fact Glen is gay yet he struggles against the world to such a degree it makes him unhappy. He tells stories for effect, and in this case he was just talking too loudly and being a bit of a dick.” When asked to tone it down, Glen rallied to the charge. “Of course everyone should be able to talk about what they want to talk about, but we can't expect everyone will want to listen.”

Fortunately for Haigh, many are now listening to the editor turned writer/director. He trained under the wing of Merchant Ivory and has since worked on films as diverse as Shanghai Knights and Black Hawk Down. But it is Weekend that has caught people's attention. The Boston Globe declared it “one of the truest, most beautiful film made about two strangers”.

“We found ourselves in a list of the New York Times top films of 2011,” Haigh says. “It's crazy! It's gone nuts actually, especially for Tom. We were at BIFA when he won the award and I had drunk loads and loads of free champagne, was completely drunk at the ceremony. Then they called out his name and I remember thinking – Oh God, I really shouldn't have drunk so much!”

But who's to know. Like he says – is anyone ever ready for what comes next?

Weekend is out in cinemas on Thursday, January 26.