Lance Hammer\u2019s first film in 18 years is a heart-wrenching masterpiece about family, mental decline and sexual consent. He and supporting actor Juliette Binoche discuss how they brought unabashed realism to a condition rarely seen on screen<\/p>\n
The first time we see Martin and Leslie, the elderly couple at the centre of Lance Hammer\u2019s wrenching new film, Queen at Sea, they are walking together up a set of stone steps: one of their regular outings, we assume, in days filled with pottering and quiet companionship. They have their backs to us, and we can\u2019t see their destination beyond a bleached sky that fills the top half of the screen. Symbolically, it may be deemed a bit on the nose: two people near the end of their lives, moving gently towards the white light of oblivion. There\u2019s a whiff of sentimentality about it.<\/p>\n
But any doubts about this story\u2019s willingness to confront difficult truths are blasted away by the next scene. Leslie\u2019s daughter, Amanda, played by Juliette Binoche, pays a visit to the couple\u2019s house in drizzly, middle-class north London, her teenage daughter in tow. Unable to find her mother and stepfather, she arrives at the bedroom door. Opening it, she finds Martin (Tom Courtenay) on top of Leslie (Anna Calder-Marshall), who lies impassively beneath him, the mask of dementia obvious on her face.<\/p>\n
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