Sometimes the ‘surprise’ films of the year appear in parallel competitions, not in the official sections of major festivals. Presented at the last Cannes Critics’ Week Aftersun, Charlotte Wells’ debut film and from the first moment the rumor started to spread about how special he was. It went through different competitions and continued to fall in love with the audience until it became the most valuable independent film of the year, both on the charts of specialty magazines and in various critical circles of New York or Los Angeles. It swept the BIFA (British Independent Film Awards) with seven awards and earned 5 nominations at the Independent Spirit Awards.
What is special about ‘Aftersun’? Director, a young father (Paul Mescal) and his eleven-year-old daughter (Frankie Corio) For a few summer days that will mark their lives, even if they didn’t know it then. The real moment will be mixed with fictional recreation, home videos, nineties music, and each day will be replaced by a series of deep emotions about what it means to get old and how to manage pain and loss. .
-Recently speaking about his childhood in ‘Armageddon Time’, James Gray said that it is better to start directing where he knows best. Was this your case?
-I think so. Even if I don’t realize it, everything I’ve ever done is due to something very much mine, a need for personal expression. My first short film was about loss and it was something like the seed of ‘Aftersun’.
-Stories about mothers and daughters are more common, but stories about a father-daughter relationship are not so common, why?
It’s hard to know why. In any case, I wanted the conflict to come out of their own private experience, not from a relationship of love and affection. Most of the movies about parent-child relationships are very exaggerated, and above all, when it came to delving into their fears, I was tactfully interested.
-a film about how we age and what it means to mature?
-Yeah, totally. Eleven is a very special age when you are on the chasm between childhood and adolescence. So the karaoke scene (where the main character sings REM’s ‘Losing my Religion’ and her father leaves her alone on stage) is a turning point for me, like the moment you walk through a door and lose some of your naivety. and you enter a darker area.
-It makes me feel like I want to tell the story in a different way.
-Every time I tried to write a traditional screenplay, I never succeeded. I love writing because I see it as an expression of my feelings and cinema is the language that helps me when it comes to shaping them. So I tried to structure the movie through different layers: archival footage, vacation, daddy’s hanging frenzy, and snapshots from Sophie’s current world. I’m interested in Terence Davies’ early work, in which the montage is handled emotionally rather than ephemerally.
-How do you think the sincere voice connects with universal feelings?
-I feel very attached to films directed by women that tell very small things that resonate deeply with me. For example, it happens to me with Chantal Akerman. It’s important that we can validate our stories and feed off each other.
How was the casting?
– I decided to deal with the casting myself. I was very lucky with Frankie Corio, she was just like me when I was little and a very expressive girl. But in your father’s case I think he was chasing the wrong idea, she really looked like my father. When I came to Paul Mescal I realized that it didn’t matter, but the energy he gave was similar. And she had this warmth, this charm, but also resounding and vulnerable, because after all, there’s a big fight inside her, even though Sophie only realizes it from time to time. And that’s what I wanted to tell you, how much you can love a child and how unhappy you can be at the same time. And also the legacy that all of this entails, associated with mourning and suffering.