User:Hunter Kahn/45 Years

45 Years

Production

Writing

• Based upon the short story "In Another Country" by David Constantine.
• The story was based upon a true event of a mountaineer in his 20s who fell down a glacial crevasse in Chamonix (the Alps?) in the 1930s. 70 years later, the retreating ice released the body, and the guide's son, who was in his 80s, was asked to identify the body.
• The sight of his father's body preserved in his 20s, while he himself had aged, "tipped the son towards insanity".
• Constantine heard of the story while vacationing in France in 2000.
• Constantine: "It's a reversal for how it should be, the young man and the old man."
• Constantine: "Everything I've ever written is based on a concrete image – and that young man frozen in the ice is particularly haunting."
• "In Another Country" was first published in 2001 in a literary magazine called The Reader.
• The story came to the attention of Andrew Haigh, who sought to turn it into a film. Constantine gave his approval, but was told by fellow writers that it would likely not happen, so he did not hold out much hope.
• The film adaptation stays faithful to the short story.
• Constantine had not involvement in the film
• Constantine had not met Haigh even after the film was release (through August 25)

Setting

• The action in the story was moved to Norfolk, but the house in which they live is based upon the one Constantine's parents lived in Deganwy, a illage near Conwy, North Wales.
• "It was a little house on an estate with lots of very similar houses.

Themes

• "the silently crumbling relationship" of a supposedly happy marriage after the body of his first love is found
• "how to handle the past, live in the present and make love last"
• "For Geoff, the thawing of this passion frozen in his past taunts him with thoughts of what might have been."
• "how can a love, weathered by day-to-day living, ever compete with one cut off in its prime?" "For Kate, the discovery of a former lover she cannot compete with casts a sad, new light on the couple's future - and everything she thought their marriage was."
• Daily drudgery in the Mercers' marriage; "the minutiae of their daily routines"
• "how much can you truly know of another person, however long you have been married?"
• The house in which they live: "The point about it was there was a loft stuffed full of things which had never been thrown away." Those things weigh heavily on the Mercers' marriage.

Release

Rating

The British Board of Film Classification gave 45 Years a rating of 15, meaning it is suitable only for persons of 15 years and over. It received the rating due to the presence of strong language and sex. The work was passed without any cuts being necessary.

Reception

• The film brought Constantine more attention than he had ever received in his career. He and his wife Helen were invited to a press screening a few weeks before the wide release.
• Constantine said of the film: "Helen and I were both profoundly moved by it. The gratifying thing is it is extraordinarily good."

• Joe Shute of The Telegraph called it "the most talked about film of the week" and "the late summer must-see".
• "bleakly truthful treatment of themes that concern us all"
• "How can a love, weathered by day-to-day living, compete with one cut off in its prime?"

(Acting)

• Rampling and Courtenay "in perfectly understated form"