EDGE Philadelphia

When you think of what happens to a gay couple between falling in love and saying goodbye, you imagine it to be filled with nights at home on the couch, shared vacations, petty squabbles and maybe the occasional three-way. But things are a lot more interesting in the latest movie from gay writer/director Casper Andreas, Between Love & Goodbye, which opens this month in New York after premiering at NewFest last June.

"It is inspired by a relationship, my first love affair, that went downhill," Andreas says of the breakup story, adding that it isn’t entirely autobiographical. "I personally relate a lot to both of the characters. I’ve been the one not willing to let go and who wants to stay in the relationship and I’ve been in situations where I wanted to end it and being on the other side of that."

We can all hope that things in our own lives don’t get as messy as they do in the film! The story starts as gay couple Kyle (Simon Miller) and Marcel (Justin Tensen), a French expat, move in together to an East Village apartment across the hall from Marcel’s wife, Sarah (Jane Elliott), a lesbian who married the beautiful blond so he could stay in the country. Soon after, Kyle’s trans sister, April (Rob Harmon), moves in with the couple because she has no place else to go.

As Marcel’s acting career takes off and tension over April being in the house escalates, the pair start to see the cracks in their relationship, which is on a quick course for destruction. What could have been a normal breakup story takes a turn for the worse in a way that can only happen in New York, when the drama over names on the lease and who is siding with whom in the "divorce" takes on a life of its own.

"I think it’s more of a cautionary tale of what happens when people aren’t thinking and following their emotions too much," says Andreas.

The serious nature of the movie might be a curveball for some who are familiar with the lighter work of the 36-year-old Swedish director.

His first movie, Slutty Summer, was a sexy comedy that shows a group of boys having a season of promiscuity in New York. The follow-up, A Four Letter Word, which came out last year, follows one of the characters from Slutty Summer as he tries to make monogamy work for him, often with hilarious results.

"I don’t just want to make sex comedies, so it was a deliberate step to make a different film," Andreas explains, adding that he had written this script first, but waited a few years before making it. "I think I’ve learned a lot as a filmmaker. I’m self-taught, so I learn a lot every time I make a film. Technically this is my best film. I’m very proud of it."

And he is also proud of New York, which he says is easy to film in, especially in gay bars, clubs and restaurants. Savvy New York viewers will notice locations like Splash, The Phoenix, Pyramid and elmo amid the many interiors. The apartment, the scene of so many battles in the movie, is actually in a condemned building in Harlem that the City of New York let Andreas and crew use for free.

"The apartment was completely filthy like a drug den, and we had to throw [out] all these stained mattresses and paint everything," Andreas laughs like a veteran telling a war story. "It was awful, but it was free."

That may explain why, for his next film, Andreas is off to Los Angeles to shoot a story about a gay man trying to start an acting career.

But no matter what, don’t skip going to see the movie in the theater to wait and see it on DVD or on Logo this spring. "Like all films, it’s better if you see it with an audience," he says.

And, who knows, you might even find the next boy you’re going to have a spectacular breakup with!