Dolores López, bookworm, writer, film buff, actress, walking encyclopedia, former student and good friend, recommended the movie 45 Years a while ago and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. Great storyline and impressive acting.
45 Years is a 2015 British romantic drama film directed and written by Andrew Haigh. The film is based on the short story "In Another Country" by David Constantine. Charlotte Rampling won the Silver Bear for Best Actress and Tom Courtenay won the Silver Bear for Best Actor.
Kate (Charlotte Rampling) and Geoff (Tom Courtenay) are Norfolk retirees awaiting their 45th wedding anniversary. Their lives are cosy and seemingly content – until the past rises to the surface, in a strangely literal sense. A week before the party, Geoff receives a letter from Switzerland telling him that the body of Katya (his lover in the early 1960s), has become visible in a half-melted glacier, miraculously unchanged by the decades. On hearing the news, Geoff goes into shock – throwing Kate off-balance, especially when she discovers that he's thinking of travelling to Switzerland to claim the body.
Synopsis adapted from http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/45-years-review-study-of-a-marriage-under-siege-leaves-much-unsaid-20160217-gmvdc7.html#ixzz44142GNBm
The action unfolds over a week and through the repetition of mundane events (strolls, cigarette breaks, shopping trips), Haigh builds up a picture of the couple's life and how things stand between them. There's something disquieting about these ritualized repetitions, hinting that habitual gestures can become a "second nature" that leaves the real self unexpressed. The main characters have spent most of their lives together, yet remain further from true intimacy than either might think.
The acting, as I said, is impressive. Rampling is outstanding, what a dramatic presence! Deep-set green eyes, challenging smile, assured walk. Courtenay nails it as her counterpart: a stammerer, unable to meet his wife's gaze, sickly.
The body language counts almost as much as the dialogues, especially their hands: used to reach out or deflect, to convey playfulness or anxiety.
I think it would be interesting to read "In Another Country", the short story by David Constantine, since a real event sparked his short story. Constantine told The Telegraph that, while holidaying in France some 15 years ago, he heard of the discovery of a twenty-something mountaineer who had fallen down a glacial crevasse in Chamonix in the 1930s. Seventy years on, the retreating ice released its hold on the guide's body, which the son he had fathered before his death was taken to identify. The shocking sight of his father - perfectly preserved in his prime, while he himself approached his eighties - tipped the son towards insanity.
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