Weekend.

Weekend.

Weekend is a British romance drama written and directed by Andrew Haigh which was released in November 2011. The film focuses on the lives of two men who are starting a relationship after meeting in a gay bar. Masculinity, as a theme, is massively present in the film as they show a possibly controversial relationship to some people as 'normal', which the audience may not have seen in other films before. The film had a budget of £120,000 and in the opening weekend received £27,245. The film has won awards mainly in gay and lesbian categories but the director has also won awards such as breakthrough British film maker in 2012 at the London Critics Circle film Awards.

The film offers an insight into a world that they may not have seen before as it is not often shown in mainstream films. The film is centered around the building relationship and sex life of Russell and Glen and also show the problems they face in every day life. The film definitely focuses on masculinity within homosexual relationships.

A scene in which this is shown is when Glen and Russell explain how they cant talk about their relationship in public as openly as they would like to. They begin to go on to say that it could be because they are ashamed of who they are and how they come across to other people. This scene is significant because it shows that homosexual relationships aren't really accepted because it goes against the idea of what a man is. A man, according to the media, is supposed to strong and the alpha in the relationship who has to save the girl. Being in a homosexual relationship goes against this idea because homosexual men are seen to be less masculine than straight men. The film tries to target this issue by forcing the viewer to see the relationship from the perspective of Russell so that the audience sympathises and understands him and the situation he is in. The main message behind the film, in my opinion, is to open the viewers eyes to homosexual relationships and how they aren't any different from heterosexual relationships.

Another important aspect of the film is the way it is constructed and presented. Unlike mainstream films, this film doesn't follow Todorov's Narrative theory as clearly as other films. The film has a state of equilibrium which it starts on and then concludes on, but arguably there is no real big disruption to the state of equilibrium. The reason why this is important and the reason why i think the film makers have done this is to show a real depiction of life. Rather than creating a massive disruption to the story they have shown what relationships are really like to try and make it as realistic as possible. The film has gone against conventions to allow the audience to get a real understanding that homosexual relationships are normal and that it is a thing not just in films. In my opinion they have gone out of there way to try and make the film as realistic as possible.