Translating a Novel’s Miracles and Silences into the Screenplay for Midwinter Break
An exclusive Q&A with author and screenwriter Bernard MacLaverty
In Polly Findlay’s Midwinter Break, a pleasure trip to Amsterdam leads to Stella and Gerry (Lesley Manville and Ciarán Hinds), a long-married couple living in Glasgow, to reexamine their lives and relationship. Adapted from Bernard MacLaverty’s acclaimed novel by the author and screenwriter Nick Payne, the film brings to the screen the novel’s poignant exploration of how being in a scenic European city evokes in its two characters unrealized feelings of loneliness and longing.
After reading the novel, producer Guy Heeley envisioned this European sojourn as a deeply emotional movie, saying in the production notes, “I was excited about what this story could be and how it could be a grown-up piece of filmmaking.” Having lived with the spark of the story for years before writing the book, MacLaverty created what The Guardian describes as “a quietly brilliant novel, which makes for essential reading at any stage of life.”
We spoke with MacLaverty about his inspiration, writing novels, and how Manville and Hinds brought his characters to life in a special way.
The official trailer for Midwinter Break
What inspired the novel Midwinter Break?
What inspired the novel was the need to write a novel. I must have been doing a reading in Amsterdam in 2001. It’s really the first time I have been influenced by a sense of place. I discovered the Begijnhof. I wandered into it off the street and was much taken by it. It was from medieval times and was a religious institution for single or married women. The last nun died in 1971. Despite being in the middle of a city, it had an air of complete silence.
Several of your books have been turned into films. When writing the novel Midwinter Break, did you imagine how it would look as a film?
A number of my writings have been turned into films. My Dear Palestrina was made for TV. Cal, Lamb, and Bye-Child were adapted into films. I didn’t imagine how the novel would look as a film. I write the words which create the pictures in the novel. On reading those words, every reader gets their own set of pictures. I realize that each craftsperson who works on a film (director, cameraman, composer) will create their own different pictures.
What were your thoughts when you were first approached about adapting the novel?
How will the flashbacks work? Will the audience realize that they are looking at Gerry and Stella at different ages?
Lesley Manville and Ciarán Hinds in Midwinter Break
When did you know that Lesley Manville and Ciarán Hinds would be playing the couple?
I knew about the casting about a year beforehand. I had worked with Ciarán Hinds before when I wrote a drama-documentary, Hostages. He was playing Brian Keenan when he was held hostage along with John McCarthy in Beirut. I knew that Ciarán was such a good actor. I was confident he would create a totally believable Gerry. I only knew Lesley Manville by reputation—and that was brilliant enough.
In revisiting this story of a marriage as a film, did you learn anything new about the characters that you didn’t see when you wrote the novel?
I became more aware of their silences and conversations—especially Stella’s intensity, her ambition to live a more devout life. It’s a complex love story which also involves the existence of God.
When you saw the film, what surprised you about the story you had written?
I was much moved by Lesley Manville’s portrayal of Stella. And, of course, Gerry’s devious drinking. I was surprised by Stella’s believability. And what she had suffered from her Belfast days. Her belief in miracles. And also, the believability of Gerry’s love for her.
What would you like audiences to take away from the film?
What would I like people to take away from the film? That love is a long journey.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.