On the podcast, Alex Heeney and Lindsay Pugh celebrate the 10th anniversary of Andrew Haigh’s film 45 Years, a film that never stops surprising you on rewatch.
Ten years on, Andrew Haigh’s film 45 Years hasn’t lost an ounce of its emotional weight. In fact, it might just cut deeper.
On this episode, host and Seventh Row Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney is joined by Lindsay Pugh (Woman in Revolt) to revisit Andrew Haigh’s masterpiece about a childless couple celebrating their 45the wedding anniversary in the same week that a traumatic secret from the past comes to light.
We talk about:
- What makes this story hit differently as we have aged
- Why the film’s focus on emotional repression, delayed gratification, and public performance feels so radical
- How Haigh’s queer lens shapes his portrayal of a straight relationship
- What gets added (and deepened) in the move from short story to screenplay
- Why Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay deliver two of the most nuanced, unforgettable performances of the century
- How Haigh’s blocking — the way actors move through space and interact physically — works hand-in-hand with the dialogue to show us what’s shifting beneath the surface, like tension, avoidance, closeness, or control
Whether you’re watching for the first time or the fifteenth, 45 Years is a film that evolves with you — and we unpack why.
Links mentioned
🎟️ Reel Ruminators: seventh-row.com/reelruminators
🎥 Guide to One of the Best Films of 2024: seventh-row.com/guide
📚 Book on Andrew Haigh’s film Lean on Pete
💡Read Alex’s interview with Andrew Haigh (2021) – audio excerpted in the episode
Referenced episodes
If you enjoyed this podcast episode on Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years, you may also enjoy these episodes on Haigh’s other films, as well as these recent episodes featuring Lindsay Pugh.
- Ep 155 Halina Reijn’s Babygirl with Lindsay Pugh
- Ep. 163 Joan Micklin Silver’s Chilly Scenes of Winter and Crossing Delancey feat. Lindsay Pugh
- Ep. 117 The North Water (dir. Andrew Haigh)
- Ep. 110 Weekend (dir. Andrew Haigh) and End of the Century: Brief Encounters
- Ep. 94 HBO’s Looking
- Ep. 7 Andrew Haigh’s Lean on Pete
Podcast Credits for this episode on Andrew Haigh’s 2015 film 45 Years
Alex Heeney edited, produced, and recorded the episode.
Follow Seventh Row on Twitter, Bluesky and Instagram. Read our articles at seventh-row.com.
Follow Alex Heeney on Bluesky, Twitter and Instagram.
An AI-generated transcript for the episode is available on Apple Podcasts.
