Andrew Haigh names his three favourite LGBTQ love stories
Countless movies since the dawn of the 20th century have attempted to bottle all the passion, anger, and torment that comes with the feeling of being in love, yet so few films manage to capture its essence accurately. In the modern century, some of the very best love stories have come in the form of LGBTQ tales, with the likes of Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name, Emma Seligman’s Shiva Baby and Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers being three of the very best.
In the world of British cinema, few LGBTQ filmmakers have thrived so much as Haigh, a writer and director whose focus lies in the agony, lust and fantasy of romance. From his breakout indie hit, 2011’s Weekend, to his Bafta-nominated All of Us Strangers, each of his films rides a delicate line between reality and fanciful make-believe, constantly questioning whether the characters in question should be together at all.
Speaking to Far Out about the similarities between Weekend and All of Us Strangers, he stated: “I knew this film was always going to be in conversation with that film…But it’s 11 years later, and everything has changed in 11 years for queer people. So much has changed, and in a weird way, there’s a lot of new things to talk about and discuss, but at the same time, the central feeling is similar”.
In the same conversation, Haigh expressed his fondness for three modern LGBTQ love stories, highlighting the trio among some of the very best of the genre.
The oldest of the three is the 1985 Stephen Frears classic My Beautiful Laundrette, starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Gordon Warnecke. Considered a great of British cinema, Frears’ film tells the story of the relationship between a Pakistani man and his boyfriend as they open a laundromat. Groundbreaking upon its release, the film went on to receive an Oscar nomination for ‘Best Original Screenplay’ thanks to Hanif Kureishi’s excellent writing.
Elsewhere, Haigh’s second pick was released over a decade, picking out Hettie Macdonald’s 1996 film Beautiful Thing. A deeply emotional film, Beautiful Thing starred Scott Neal and Glen Berry as two best friends from difficult families who steadily discover that the bond they share is romantic. Too often forgotten in the landscape of coming-of-age movies, Macdonald’s film was well ahead of its time.
The final film Haigh picks out takes things right up to the present day, choosing the award-winning Ira Sachs drama Passages. A favourite at the Berlin Film Festival, the love story explored the marriage of a gay couple, which gets confused upon the arrival of a beautiful young woman. Calling the film a “complicated version of love,” Haigh was spellbound by the lead performances of Ben Whishaw, Adèle Exarchopoulos and Franz Rogowski.
Andrew Haigh’s favourite LGBTQ love stories:
- Beautiful Thing (Hettie Macdonald, 1996)
- My Beautiful Laundrette (Stephen Frears, 1985)
- Passages (Ira Sachs, 2023)
