All material herein is written by our team. Follow TFE on Substackd. We're looking for If you read us daily, please be one. The past is never gone. You think it is, fall into the comfort of believing it dormant, but one day, it awakens and rocks the foundations of the now. This is true of historical cycles, of political waves and culture and vales.
It's true of love affairs, too. Of marriage and cinema. It also brought Charlotte Rampling out of the rarefied, vaguely alienated, auteurist plane she existed within for many decades, turning her into someone less adventurous cinephiles came to know and cherish. She also became a first-time Oscar nominee thanks to Haigh's creation. The Berlinale Jury was right when it gave them both Silver Bears for their performances….
Based on David Constantine's short story In Another Country , 45 Years considers the lives of Kate and Geoff Mercer, an unremarkable, middle-class, childless couple who spend their days together in the foggy Norfolk landscape they call home. We meet them as they're about to celebrate the 45th anniversary of their matrimony. It's an odd number to make a party out of, yet it makes sense as delayed gratification.
After all, Geoff was sick when they were to celebrate their 40th, making that anniversary party a no-go. Compromises are the stuff marriages are made of, and so is practicality. For mature folk such as these, there isn't much reason to stress over such things.
Nevertheless, compromise can also be the hairline crack that grows unseen, spreading spiderweb-like through a rock slab, opening chasms from inside while the surface remains a perfect picture of solidity. Give it a push, a strong enough shove, mayhap a strike, and the fissure will finish its destructive promise. One moment, it looked eternal, a monument for all time.
