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177. 45 Years (dir. Andrew Haigh) with Lindsay Pugh (10th anniversary)

Seventh Row Podcast

Release Date: 06/27/2025

184. What Happens When You Apply ‘Yes, And’ to Film Discussions show art 184. What Happens When You Apply ‘Yes, And’ to Film Discussions

Seventh Row Podcast

What if the most powerful insights about a film don’t come from watching it alone — but from talking it through with curious people who notice what you missed, and help you turn half-formed thoughts into something deeper? In this episode, I share why I built The Long Take — A space for deep, layered, perspective-shifting conversations about film — and how a spirit of collaboration, attention, and trust can transform how we see movies…and ourselves We kick off Nov 2 with a zero-prep welcome session. 👉

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183. The Choral (TIFF 2025) with Ralph Fiennes: When queer characters don't make a queer film show art 183. The Choral (TIFF 2025) with Ralph Fiennes: When queer characters don't make a queer film

Seventh Row Podcast

How can a film with a queer protagonist, written by a queer playwright, and directed by a queer man… not be a queer film? That’s the tricky question I'm tackling with The Choral, the WWI period drama that just premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). In this episode: my Ralph Fiennes/Nicholas Hytner fangirling, why the film works as a crowd-pleaser but flattens queerness and other marginalized identities, and the bigger questions it raises about reclaiming — or sanitizing — queer history. 🎟 Plus, a sneak peek at Living Out Loud, my FREE three-day summit on queer...

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182. Couture (with Angelina Jolie) and Alice Winocour's traumatized bodies (TIFF 2025) show art 182. Couture (with Angelina Jolie) and Alice Winocour's traumatized bodies (TIFF 2025)

Seventh Row Podcast

Alice Winocour's Couture is a backstage film about the fashion world — less about the clothes than the bodies who wear them, shape them, and photograph them. It's a film about the ways that commerce and fashion (and medicine) shape and damage women's bodies.  As a Winocour fan and researcher since 2015, Alex Heeney connects Couture to Winocour's explorations of traumatized bodies, outsiders, and backstage stories throughout her body of work.  🎟 If you want to explore a film together in conversation — not just listen in — join me for Living Out Loud, my free Queer and...

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181. Between Dreams and Hope and queer survival (TIFF 2025) show art 181. Between Dreams and Hope and queer survival (TIFF 2025)

Seventh Row Podcast

At TIFF, Alex dives into Iranian filmmaker Farnoosh Samadi's Between Dreams and Hope, a powerful film about a trans man in Iran navigating the dehumanizing maze of gender-affirming care — and connects it to two others, from Canada and France, that reveal how patriarchy, money, and bureaucracy shape queer and trans survival. These aren’t straight reviews so much as reflections on how films spark curiosity, uncover hidden systems, and resist erasure. ✨ Don’t miss it! This October, join me for Living Out Loud — a FREE three-day live online summit all about queer and trans stories and...

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180. Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value (TIFF 2025) show art 180. Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value (TIFF 2025)

Seventh Row Podcast

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179. What if we told stories about women beyond their love lives? show art 179. What if we told stories about women beyond their love lives?

Seventh Row Podcast

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178. What happened when Hazel trusted my film curation show art 178. What happened when Hazel trusted my film curation

Seventh Row Podcast

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177. 45 Years (dir. Andrew Haigh) with Lindsay Pugh (10th anniversary) show art 177. 45 Years (dir. Andrew Haigh) with Lindsay Pugh (10th anniversary)

Seventh Row Podcast

Ten years on, 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 () to revisit Andrew Haigh’s masterpiece about a childless couple celebrating their 45 the 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...

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176. Materialists (dir. Celine Song) show art 176. Materialists (dir. Celine Song)

Seventh Row Podcast

In this episode, Alex Heeney digs into Celine Song’s Materialists, a film about Lucy, a matchmaker struggling with her own love triangle. Will Lucy (Dakota Johnson) choose love — in the form of her poor ex John (Chris Evans) — or money with eligible bachelor Harry (Pedro Pascal)? And can love and money even co-exist? With its charming cast, elegant blocking, and standout sound design, Materialists could have been a sharp, class-conscious rom-com. But for all its promise, it ends up skimming the surface. You will hear: What works well in the film, including the visual...

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175. How three very different films ended up in conversation show art 175. How three very different films ended up in conversation

Seventh Row Podcast

Join me (Alex Heeney) on a journey through three films I programmed inside Reel Ruminators — a British political thriller, an Indigenous Canadian documentary, and a queer South African drama — and discover how their contrasts actually illuminate one another.  By the end of this episode, you’ll see how exploring differences between films can reshape your own viewing of film as an art form. 🎧 In This Episode You’ll Discover Hidden threads connecting three very different films—and how noticing those threads can deepen your own film palate. Time as a storytelling tool in...

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More Episodes

Ten years on, 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 45 the 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: http://seventh-row.com/reelruminators

🎥 Guide to One of the Best Films of 2024: seventh-row.com/guide

🪩 Find Lindsay Pugh at Woman in Revolt 

📚 Book on Andrew Haigh's film Lean on Pete

💡Read Alex's interview with Andrew Haigh (2021) – audio excerpted in the episode

🎧 Andrew Haigh films/TV on the Seventh Row Podcast 

Referenced Episodes:

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