Aftersun Charts the Paradoxes of the Parent-Child Relationship

Table Of Content

• Barry Jenkins and Adele Romanski Had to Give Up on ‘Aftersun’ Before Charlotte Wells Could Finish It
• Nicole Kidman’s Daughters Make Their Red Carpet Debut at AFI Life Achievement Award Gala
• Sex in Movies Has Dropped Sharply, Yet Gotten More Graphic, Study Says
• optional screen reader
• ‘Beautiful Rebel’ True Story, Explained: Did Gianna Nannini’s Lose Her Fingers In Real-Life?
• The Pringles x Crocs Collab Is the Crossover We Didn’t Know We Needed — Until We Did

Sophie went to Turkey with her father when she was 11, and she had innumerable fond memories with him while staying at a cheap all-inclusive hotel. But as an adult, when she visits those memories, she realizes that her father was emotionally broken and needed a shoulder to cry on. She was too young then; she perhaps sensed that all was not well, but she was not capable of completely understanding her father. Now, as an adult, she realizes what her father went through, and she only hopes to hold him close. Aftersun is a coming-of-age drama which tells the story of a young woman, Sophie, recalling a holiday she took with her father, Calum (Paul Mescal), 20 years prior, for Calum's 31st birthday. The 11-year-old Sophie (Frankie Corio) does not spend a lot of time with her father, who does not live with her and her mother anymore.

Barry Jenkins and Adele Romanski Had to Give Up on ‘Aftersun’ Before Charlotte Wells Could Finish It

Aftersun review: subtle father-daughter drama - The Skinny

Aftersun review: subtle father-daughter drama.

Posted: Tue, 23 Jan 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Wells intersperses a jarring rave sequence throughout the movie, which finds the adult Sophie confronting her father under allegorical circumstance through the abstraction that pure movement provides. It’s a powerful device that takes a rather straightforward scenario and elevates it to lyrical heights. We meet young, separated father Calum (Normal People’s Paul Mescal) and his 11-year-old daughter, Sophie (screen newcomer Frankie Corio), on holiday together in Turkey in the late 1990s. When we filmed that scene in the warehouse, we used proper rave music but just to help the actors. I had been aware of this stripped-back version of “Under Pressure,” where you can hear David Bowie and Freddie Mercury really going for each other, and I pulled that into the edit — I don’t even know why I did it.

Nicole Kidman’s Daughters Make Their Red Carpet Debut at AFI Life Achievement Award Gala

Is Calum Gay in Aftersun? Theories - The Cinemaholic

Is Calum Gay in Aftersun? Theories.

Posted: Wed, 21 Dec 2022 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Our music supervisor had originally asked me to come up with alternatives for “Losing My Religion,” which was a problem because I felt that nothing else would be remotely appropriate. The lyrics in that scene are going to be read into, it’s completely unavoidable. I had chosen that song instinctively; it was probably the first song I ever knew all the words to at age 5 or 6. That’s a completely absurd image now, but it’s the product of having had young parents, I’m sure. But it was a song I have strong emotions about, that I connect to my dad and I’m really grateful we got it. I also have to give credit to Frankie because we only had one and a half takes to get it.

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

Before starting her career in the film industry as a producer, Wells helped run Digital Orchard, a company specialising in film, finishing images, developing film and digital imaging. Wells was a fellow at the 2020 Sundance Institute Screenwriters and Directors Labs with her feature film debut Aftersun, which premiered at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival to critical acclaim. She received many accolades as a breakthrough director and appeared on numerous year-end lists. Aftersun received an Academy Award nomination for Paul Mescal's performance. The above makes it sound like Aftersun is a heartwarming story about family, but it takes an unexpected turn as the film progresses.

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.

“There was an understanding between us that he would add his own nuances and understanding of Calum to his performance,” says Wells. And yet the highs they share on the trip are no less real for it, from heckling the dreary in-house entertainers to impromptu games of water polo in the pool. She wanted to sing karaoke with him, but he was not confident enough to go onstage.

But yes, tai chi and raving are coping mechanisms for different sides of Calum. Making a feature film, though, meant toiling over every detail, carefully sculpting the film’s precise but organic flow. “I was always preoccupied with keeping a record of things visually,” Wells said, describing how she shot friends and parties, including a last-day-of-school celebration before reluctantly changing schools. Romanski and Jenkins signed on to produce through Pastel, their production company formed with the intention of enabling young directors similar to how Plan B helped them make Moonlight. But I’d also like them to come away knowing that memory is a very powerful thing, and it’s warm. For Calum, it’s something he will never get to look forward to or dread again, because he’s now forever frozen in his early 30s.

The Pringles x Crocs Collab Is the Crossover We Didn’t Know We Needed — Until We Did

Frankie Curio is extraordinary as young Sophie and Paul Mescal brilliantly depict the complexity of Calum’s character. It is exciting to think of Charlotte Wells’ future endeavors after this promising debut. Which isn’t to say you don’t consider the audience, but consciously trying to cater to other people while using it as a medium of self-expression seems a dangerous path to walk.

Film

He was compelled to become responsible, but he struggled to keep up with it. He had neither a satisfying personal life nor a successful professional life. He was drifting from one job to another, trying new things without knowing if they would ever work or not. At one point in the “Aftersun,” he even mentions how he never thought he would make it to 30 and that he could never imagine being 40. It was only because of Sophie that he returned from the beach to the hotel room that night. She was his reason to not completely give up, to return and carry on with his responsibility.

If they want to, they’ll overlook the character’s every positive action in favor of arriving at that interpretation. I occasionally see Aftersun being described as a story of an estranged father and daughter. I don’t know what more I could’ve done to convince them otherwise. Perhaps there’s no winning for people who want to see a positive depiction of fathers. As an adult and a mother, Sophie now knew what it was to be a parent.

This seems, in my opinion, to act as a way to show the fading nature of Sophie’s memory of her father. When I originally saw Aftersun in October, I was convinced that the film clearly reveals that Calum died after the vacation. Rewatching the film, it became apparent that my memory of the ending has become slightly distorted.

The fear of aging seems entangled with his depression and anxiety about his life. In some moments, it even seems like Calum would love to switch places with Sophie and have the ability to do it all over again, so he'd have more time to get it right. Calum walks away, not going back into the real world, but into Sophie’s memories. You see the strobe lights coming from behind the door, and this seems to imply that this becomes Sophie’s final active memory of her father. It’s the final night of Sophie (Frankie Corio) and Calum’s (Paul Mescal) Turkey vacation. They celebrate with some ice cream and some dancing to “Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie (it’s one of the best movie dance scenes of 2022).