Charlotte Wells: "We never quite get to know the people we care about"

The cinema has reflected for years and in many ways parent-child relationships.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
16 December 2022 Friday 00:50
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Charlotte Wells: "We never quite get to know the people we care about"

The cinema has reflected for years and in many ways parent-child relationships. If we take a look specifically at the relationships between fathers and daughters, it is inevitable to remember Sean Penn in the shoes of a man with a mental disability who fights to keep custody of his little daughter in the sentimental I am Sam. Or Russell Crowe in From Fathers to Daughters, as a novelist whose life is complicated after his wife dies in a traffic accident and must face the education of his five-year-old daughter.

Now it is the Scottish Charlotte Wells who proposes to raise the list with a partly autobiographical story that has excited the indie circuit. So far, Aftersun has won seven awards from the British Independent Film Awards, New York critics have named it Best First Feature and the National Board of Review has applauded the director for Best New Director. There is nothing.

Presented worldwide at the Critics' Week of the Cannes Film Festival, where it was awarded the French Touch by the Jury, and recognized with the Best Film award in the Las Nuevas Olas section of the Seville Festival, the film tells the story of a 11-year-old girl, Sophie (Francesca Corio), who goes on vacation with her father, Calum (splendid Paul Mescal, known from the Normal People series), at an old resort in Turkey in the late 1990s. explained from the point of view of an adult Sophie, who looks back at that time with nostalgia.

Father and daughter always carry a video camera in hand to immortalize the trip. In fact, the film begins with the girl recording her mother, only thirty years old. As he dances, she asks him what she thought she would do at eleven years old. You can tell there is good chemistry between the two. Laughter, confidences, relaxed baths in the pool and on the beach, where they sunbathe and have ice cream, pool games, as well as scenes where they are sleeping, flood every shot of an unforgettable vacation days before starting school classes again. .

"Making this film came about right after shooting my first short Tuesday, which explores a similar setting but in a different time. I felt like I had something to say, something to discover about myself. I also happened to be looking at various family albums on vacation when I was a I was a girl and I was with my father, now deceased, and that's where it all started. Aftersun is the story of a father and his daughter who could pass for brothers. I wanted to draw on the thread of my own childhood memories with other fictitious ones to write a script that played with the idea of ​​memory and perspective," Wells explains in conversation with La Vanguardia.

One of the most surprising things is the degree of intimacy that the emotional relationship between the two reaches, with unusual conversations on the big screen. "I was aware that this type of relationship is not normal, even though it was the one I had. Calum's portrayal is not ordinary and I wanted his character to evolve. He is a very good father, very open and caring. He tries to be at his daughter's important moments and support her, although he doesn't always succeed, but outside of that role he is a man with a lot of insecurities," says the director, who cites Chantal Akerman, Joanna Hoggs and Claire Denis among her favorite directors. .

The story navigates through numerous flashbacks and archive images until we get closer to a Sophie-turned-mother who tries to recompose her father's portrait with the information and experience of those 20 years while reviewing home video recordings. The image of her in a disco breaks through flashes and music with flashes of Calum dancing through the crowd. "Sophie is trying to rebuild her father in some way," Wells continues.

And, as her adolescence blossoms, Calum's desire for a life outside of parenthood grows as he tries to prevent his precocious daughter from witnessing his mental health problems. She does not want to return to a Scotland that means the past: "When you leave the place where you grew up, you are no longer part of it," she confesses. Between those moments of summer fun with karaoke and musical shows featuring the famous Macarena from Los del Río, Sophie has a hard time realizing that her father is depressed. How well do we know the people we care about? "I think we never quite got to know them. We are mentally alone in the world," admits the director, who had to process emotions and feelings of loss after the death of her father. "From this arises big questions: can two people share positive, happy and fun experiences and more complicated individual experiences? Can you really know a parent, especially as a child? What is your perception of them outside of the role they play for you ?".

Sophie's parents have just separated, but they get along well with each other. Even Calum says on the phone to her ex: "I love you." Sophie believes that her relationship with her mother is not ideal, although she is "getting better". The chemistry and complicity between Corio and Mescal is the strong point of the film. "We gave them time to create that unique relationship. Two weeks before we started shooting in Turkey. Paul started to feel what it felt like to be responsible for someone, but it was really their job to build that bond. And they did it in an authentic way. I'm so appreciative of how the entire team poured themselves into this movie."

Finding Frankie was a long process. "We auditioned 800 kids and then narrowed it down to 60 and from there we picked her. We were amazed at how talented she was. Then we looked for Calum. Paul entered the casting phase early but was busy with another shoot. I connected with him again. right away and soaked up the essence of the script, so we're waiting for him". Aftersun is produced by Barry Jenkins -director of the Oscar-winning Moonlight-.

"Barry has been very involved in the whole process, it has been incredible to have him present the film to the world. I admire him so much," says Wells, delighted to have been able to "connect with so many people who have seen the film and who have recounted similar experiences". The filmmaker says that she lives in the moment and still doesn't have a new project in mind: "I need time to write calmly, tidy up my desk, sit down, have a coffee and figure out what it's going to be."