Andrew Haigh’s emotional masterpiece All of Us Strangers opens at the Lexi on Friday 2nd February. The film is a lush, sweeping love story, and a ghost story with novelistic scope (it’s very loosely based on Japanese writer Taichi Yamada's 1987 novel Strangers) and a romantic pop soundtrack.
Andrew Scott stars as Adam in All of Us Strangers
It’s been a critical smash hit, with The Guardian’s Film Editor Wendy Ide describing the film as “a remarkable achievement – a raw and potent piece of storytelling that grabs you by the heart and doesn’t let go.” and Little White Lies Hannah Strong saying “it’s a supernova of a film”. Empire’s Alex Godfrey has said “It’s hard to think of another recent drama that feels so brazenly personal, so yearning, so naked and vulnerable.” The internet is making the most of Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal’s undeniable on-screen chemistry.
Those of us who saw All of Us Strangers at the London Film Festival in November fell in love with it and we’re counting down the days until we can see it again on the big screen. There’s something so special about seeing a film like this at a festival and it finally arriving at the Lexi for our audience to enjoy. Viewing films before too much critical hype has built up is a privilege, and never more so when you are sitting in a preview screening aware that you’re seeing something truly special.
The tenderness (and sexiness) of the scenes between Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal is testament to both actor’s willingness to be completely vulnerable and when I read in an interview that the house where many of the key scenes are filmed is actually Andrew Haigh’s old family home – which he went back and location-scouted for filming – something really clicked for me. What a generous act, as a filmmaker.
Haigh found the house and the owner agreed to let him film there. “It was a strange choice, emotionally, because I knew it wouldn’t be the easiest place to be. But I wanted the film to have a certain honesty and vulnerability, to feel grounded in some kind of reality. The only way was to make it my own reality, as a way to make it specific in the hope that it would speak to all those details of life that end up feeling universal”.I think this is why audiences feel safe, with the level of emotion which Haigh evokes. This isn’t sentimentality, this is a deeply committed filmmaker who takes feelings seriously.
If you’re looking for Valentines plans, I can’t recommend anything better than coming to the Lexi on Saturday 10th February to watch Andrew Haigh’s wonderful 2011 film Weekend at 17:15, followed by All of Us Strangers, at 19:30.
With cinema love from us, to you!
Rosie Greatorex
Cinema and Programme Director
