Charlotte Wells On Her Feature Debut 'Aftersun': 'It Became Personal'

Table Of Content

• Sex in Movies Has Dropped Sharply, Yet Gotten More Graphic, Study Says
• In ‘Aftersun,’ Charlotte Wells makes a shattering debut
• Vanessa Bryant Celebrates Late Daughter Gianna’s 18th Birthday With Capsule Collection
• Aftersun
• Director Charlotte Wells on her debut Aftersun — the most lauded British film of the year
• “Collaboration” before “Convention”: Aiko Masubuchi and the Future of Japanese Film
• 'Aftersun' follows a father and daughter's last summer vacation together
• ‘Aftersun’ Ending, Explained: Did Sophie Get To Meet Her Father?

It should come as no surprise, then, that “Aftersun” was shepherded along by Pastel, the production company co-founded by “Moonlight” director Barry Jenkins and his longtime producing partner Adele Romanski. It was Romanski who pushed her old film school pal Jenkins to get cracking on “Moonlight” after years of hesitation, and she found herself in a similar position when she first encountered Wells in 2017. As a metaphor for the difficulty of giving vent to painful emotions, a spout clogged with leaves is almost too apt.

Sex in Movies Has Dropped Sharply, Yet Gotten More Graphic, Study Says

Because much of the tone is upbeat, it isn’t the saddest movie ever but it doesn’t shy away from making its audience feel melancholy when it all ends. It was a huge investment of my time, and I didn’t always connect with people. The curse and gift of having a kid on set is that time is so limited, so there’s this strain on production to get through the material with the enforced breaks that come with working with a child actor.

In ‘Aftersun,’ Charlotte Wells makes a shattering debut

Wells prioritizes mood, treating every beat’s pacing as “a delicate thing,” and her screenplay is packed with subtle camera movements rather than expository conversations. Scenes of Calum alone, for instance, come with unexpected angles—the camera peers up at him on a balcony railing or zooms in uncomfortably close as he breathes with a wet towel on his face—and many of them are cut short. Their strange brevity underscores the adult Sophie’s discomfort. She’d rather not think too deeply about Calum’s behavior when she wasn’t around.

Vanessa Bryant Celebrates Late Daughter Gianna’s 18th Birthday With Capsule Collection

Gently poised from the perspective of an older Sophie we only vaguely see, the film is a memory piece. Sophie, teetering between childhood and young adulthood, is attracting the attention of older kids. But we gradually grasp that it’s not Sophie who’s sliding away from her dad.

Aftersun

In an interview with Brief Take, director and writer Charlotte Wells states that the overall arc of the movie is adult Sophie looking back and reflecting on this trip and her father. At the very beginning, the recording freezes and you can see a reflection of adult Sophie watching these home videos. Ultimately, I was flipping through some old holiday albums and I think that’s where the idea really crystallized. I was struck by how young my dad looked — I was probably around the age that he was in the photographs. I continued to work on it and took myself on a holiday after finishing film school to Cypress with one of my classmates. Getting permission for the music you want is a very real thing.

Director Charlotte Wells on her debut Aftersun — the most lauded British film of the year

If we’re lucky to grow up with parents or close guardians, we build our portraits of them first in broad strokes of primary color. They’re defined in relation to us; they’re the most important adults in our still-small world. We stop depending on them; we grow up—maybe even face some of the same challenges they did. And yet, envisioning who they were without us can still be difficult. Another moment from the Jubilee celebrations saw Charlotte encourage her little brother to stop waving as they headed to Horse Guards Parade for Trooping the Colour. Louis was very excited to greet members of the public from their carriage but was interrupted by his elder sister, who pushed his hand down as his excitable waves peaked in speed.

Review: ‘Aftersun’A Father And Daughter Share A Heartbreakingly Beautiful Bond In Charlotte Wells' Feature Debut - Punch Drunk Critics

Review: ‘Aftersun’A Father And Daughter Share A Heartbreakingly Beautiful Bond In Charlotte Wells' Feature Debut.

Posted: Fri, 28 Oct 2022 07:00:00 GMT [source]

And yet sometimes I still forget to point the camera at things that you might wish you had later on. I don’t think that feeling necessarily would ever change, of always reaching for something you don’t quite have. Yet for all the universality out of specificity, there are very fundamental themes that a lot of people can connect with, and a core parental relationship that I don’t think is unique. Even if the one portrayed on screen [between a young father, Calum, and his daughter, Sophie] is one less often portrayed on screen. The film is certainly open, and I have seen people bring many different kinds of experiences to it, but that was certainly an unintended expression – yet it was so immediately legible to this young man. It meant so much that it connected that personally and so specifically.

She then earned a Master of Fine Arts and a Master of Business Administration at the Tisch School of the Arts. She was supported by the BAFTA New York Media Studies Scholarship Program while in school and wrote and directed three short films. In 2018, she was named one of Filmmaker’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film, and in 2020, she became a fellow at the 2020 Sundance Institute Screenwriters and Directors Labs. NPR's Scott Simon speaks with director Charlotte Wells about her new movie, "Aftersun," a story that follows a father and daughter as they remember the last summer vacation they spent together. Calum is a thirty-something father, and even though he had separated from Sophie’s mother, he continued to maintain a healthy relationship.

The adult perspective is her looking back at the memories and imagining what her father might have experienced during that time. Sophie stayed with her father at an all-inclusive under-construction hotel. The room was a tiny one; Sophie slept on the queen-size bed while her father settled in a cot. Sophie’s happiness meant the world to Calum, and he wanted her to enjoy every minute that they spent in Turkey. As Sophie fell asleep, Calum stepped out onto the balcony and smoked a cigarette.

He wanted to become that person for Sophie—someone she could trust with all her secrets, someone who would not judge her and help her make sound decisions. Wells was interested in film from a young age, but did not initially pursue it. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Classics from King's College London and then a Master of Arts from Oxford University. She completed a dual Master of Fine Arts and Master of Business Administration at Tisch School of the Arts and the Stern School.

You can just feel the weight of his absence so much that it seems like the movie makes a big declaration about his fate. As Philip Roth observed, getting people wrong — again and again — is a common human pastime. Best of all are the ellipses the film elegantly leaves, gradually drawing the viewer in with its woozy atmospherics and unspoken questions.

Mescal, meanwhile, has completely outdone himself in the role of Calum, a young father clearly lost in life and wrought with mental health issues. Aesthetically, Aftersun is decidedly pared back – a simple, heartbreaking story of the relationship between a father and daughter. Though it’s a bittersweet tale, it still leaves viewers with a warm glow. The film’s director is Charlotte Wells, who hails from Scotland, and this is her first feature-length film.

It stars beloved Irish actor Paul Mescal as a young father, Calum, while breakout actress Frankie Corio portrays his 11-year-old daughter, Sophie. The driving force behind the film was my desire to represent that kind of father. At the same time, it presented challenges because people are accustomed to seeing the deadbeat dad onscreen, and that’s what they want to see.

“I am interested in exploring the unknowability of ourselves and the people closest to [us],” Wells explained. “I think, even as you grow older, it’s hard to see your parents as people. But they’re still your parents.” Trying to understand anyone, the film posits, is an act of love. When a child tries to understand a parent, it’s the deepest kind of love there is.

Spent most of my life in various parts of Illinois, including attending college in Evanston. I have been a life long lover of pop culture, especially television, turned that passion into writing about all things entertainment related. When I'm not writing about pop culture, I can be found channeling Gordon Ramsay by kicking people out the kitchen.