The Weekend

The week end is a film directed by Andrew Haigh. The genre is coming of age, drama and romance. it is a romance because the story revolves around two main protagonists who fall deeply in love with each other. it is coming of age because the main protagonist is on a self discovery journey and wants to express him self publicly as gay. Its a drama because the story relies heavily on realistic character and story development. The theme of the film are love, sexuality, relationships and acceptance. love is shown through out the scenes where the two main protagonists are having sex. Relationships theme is displayed through the the scenes where the two protagonists are together talking and deciding whether to be boyfriends. sexuality is a theme because the story line follows a gay man and gives the audience a feeling what it is like to be a gay man for a weekend. Acceptance is the final theme. all through out the film the main protagonist is scared about coming out being gay and how the sub protagonist is teaching him to be open about his sexuality. The film in summary is about a man named Russel who meets a man named Glen at a bar, has a one night stand with him and then spends the rest of the weekend with him and how they start to become inseparable.  

The micro feature sound I believe plays a big part in creating the illusion that the audience is in the moment with the characters. Through out the film there is no non diegetic sound track All through the film it is simply the noise which is going on around the characters. I'm not saying that all the noises which are going on around the characters are diegetic I'm saying that its all very common sounds you would here on a average day. For example when Russel, the main protagonist, is cycling down to his job in the morning. The noise of birds churpping, the sound the bike wheels riding on the ground and the noise of the car in front of him. This lack of sound track use is very minamilistic and the director is using it to create the illusion for the audience as though they are with characters in the film. The moment where there is a sound track. just before the final sex scene the song TC and Honey bear comes on. This song has a very slow rhythm and an acoustic guitar. i think the reason why Andrew Haigh wanted a song in this scene is because its there final night before glen has to depart and may be the final time they can have sex together. Therefore this soundtrack creates a romantic and sexy atmosphere. Even the sound track sounds like it is being played out a stereo system or a record player. therefore putting the audience as though they are in the same room as the characters. 

The Performance I believe was one of the most crucial micro features in the film. You can tell that the the two protagonists have a very close relationship by the proxemics between them two though out the film.  Within the second bar scene for glens leaving party Russel and Glen arnt scared to get very close to each other. I believe this to show that they have a sexual tension between them two and arn't scared to let it out in public. But Russel's physical interactions with glen are much less then glen's physical interactions with Russel. This to high light how Russel isn't as open about his sexuality because hes nervous what other people's reactions would be. In the scene where Russel answers Glen about how their night was Russel is nervous and feels very awkward. He is reluctant to speak and the rhythm of his speech is slow. Glen's ,on the other hand , speech rhythm is fast paced and he doesn't hesitate to ask Russel any question. The meaning of this is show that Glen is much more open about his sexuality and wants to spread the news about gay sex relationships and Russel is much more enclosed about his sexuality and scared about coming about publicly.