AFTERSUN
*****
Director: Charlotte Wells
Screenplay: Charlotte Wells
Principal cast:
Paul Mescal
Frankie Corio
Celia Rowlson-Hall
Sally Messham
Brooklyn Toulson
Spike Fearn
Country: UK/USA
Classification: M
Runtime: 102 mins.
Australian release date: 23 February 2023.
The Scottish director and screenwriter, Charlotte Wells, describes her feature film debut, Aftersun, as “emotionally autobiographical”, as it delves into the reflections and emotions of an adult woman looking back at digital footage shot on a MiniDV camera while on holiday in Türkiye with her father when she was 11-years-old, 20 years earlier. Her movie has been lauded as one of the best British films of the year and won its creator a BAFTA Award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director, or Producer. In addition, its lead actor, Paul Mescal, has been nominated in the Best Actor category in this year’s Academy Awards.
It is sometime in the late ‘90s, when Calum (Mescal) and his daughter Sophie (an outstanding debut performance from young Frankie Corio) spend a fortnight together at a Turkish resort. Sophie lives in Scotland with her mum, who is amicably separated from Calum. His relationship with his daughter is a loving one, even if he seems to be a little detached, but he tries to instil some lessons about life in her when they’re together. Sophie is a willing listener and, as she films fragments of their time together (and he films her), the bond between the pair is evident. Calum has financial difficulties but he doesn’t burden his daughter with his problems - on the contrary, he endeavours to make their experience a special one by buying her a couple of expensive gifts. But, as the days pass languidly with swimming, eating and doing the things tourists do while on holiday in foreign lands - Sophie befriends a boy her own age - you detect a sense of dread in the air, as if Calum is keeping a secret from Sophie. There is an air of melancholy about him although Sophie is unaware of it. Is he depressed or is something else concerning him? As the film unspools via flashbacks to the vacation, we realise that we are seeing an adult Sophie (played by Celia Rowlson-Hall) trawl through her memories of that time and that she, too, is trying to unearth the mystery of her father.
Aftersun is a breathtakingly beautiful film. Wells leaves her audience with feelings of loss but also of poignancy and tenderness at having observed a beautiful relationship. You feel as if you have been privy to recorded memories that are intensely personal and ultimately heart-breaking, which, in a way, you have. The director says, “Working on [the film] for so long meant a lot of reminiscing about my own adolescence, my parents, and my dad specifically. That process of reflecting while writing lent a retrospective gaze to the script and what began as more conventional fiction slowly gave way to something more personal, more emotionally autobiographical I suppose.” The performances by Mescal and Corio are superb; the two actors became genuinely friendly on set and it shows in the easy nature of their scenes together. The look of the film is also a highpoint. Wells and her DoP, Greg Oke, opted to shoot on 35mm. film as a means of staying true to the bright, ‘90s, holiday aesthetic they wanted to capture. They recorded much of the action (lethargic as it is) via images caught in water, glass doors, mirrors, TV screens and so on, reflecting the distance between Paul’s interior and exterior worlds. Wells explains that, “… the cinematographer and I invested a lot of time in discussing our strategy for shooting. It's the part of the process I find most creatively challenging and interesting, allowing the most subtle visual choices and observations to accumulate to the film’s ultimate feeling.”
This is an unusual movie and an exceedingly bold one for a first-time feature writer/director to make. The fact that Charlie Wells has pulled it off so successfully marks her out as a filmmaker to watch; that BAFTA Award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director, or Producer is richly deserved. Aftersun shines brightly.
Screenplay: Charlotte Wells
Principal cast:
Paul Mescal
Frankie Corio
Celia Rowlson-Hall
Sally Messham
Brooklyn Toulson
Spike Fearn
Country: UK/USA
Classification: M
Runtime: 102 mins.
Australian release date: 23 February 2023.
The Scottish director and screenwriter, Charlotte Wells, describes her feature film debut, Aftersun, as “emotionally autobiographical”, as it delves into the reflections and emotions of an adult woman looking back at digital footage shot on a MiniDV camera while on holiday in Türkiye with her father when she was 11-years-old, 20 years earlier. Her movie has been lauded as one of the best British films of the year and won its creator a BAFTA Award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director, or Producer. In addition, its lead actor, Paul Mescal, has been nominated in the Best Actor category in this year’s Academy Awards.
It is sometime in the late ‘90s, when Calum (Mescal) and his daughter Sophie (an outstanding debut performance from young Frankie Corio) spend a fortnight together at a Turkish resort. Sophie lives in Scotland with her mum, who is amicably separated from Calum. His relationship with his daughter is a loving one, even if he seems to be a little detached, but he tries to instil some lessons about life in her when they’re together. Sophie is a willing listener and, as she films fragments of their time together (and he films her), the bond between the pair is evident. Calum has financial difficulties but he doesn’t burden his daughter with his problems - on the contrary, he endeavours to make their experience a special one by buying her a couple of expensive gifts. But, as the days pass languidly with swimming, eating and doing the things tourists do while on holiday in foreign lands - Sophie befriends a boy her own age - you detect a sense of dread in the air, as if Calum is keeping a secret from Sophie. There is an air of melancholy about him although Sophie is unaware of it. Is he depressed or is something else concerning him? As the film unspools via flashbacks to the vacation, we realise that we are seeing an adult Sophie (played by Celia Rowlson-Hall) trawl through her memories of that time and that she, too, is trying to unearth the mystery of her father.
Aftersun is a breathtakingly beautiful film. Wells leaves her audience with feelings of loss but also of poignancy and tenderness at having observed a beautiful relationship. You feel as if you have been privy to recorded memories that are intensely personal and ultimately heart-breaking, which, in a way, you have. The director says, “Working on [the film] for so long meant a lot of reminiscing about my own adolescence, my parents, and my dad specifically. That process of reflecting while writing lent a retrospective gaze to the script and what began as more conventional fiction slowly gave way to something more personal, more emotionally autobiographical I suppose.” The performances by Mescal and Corio are superb; the two actors became genuinely friendly on set and it shows in the easy nature of their scenes together. The look of the film is also a highpoint. Wells and her DoP, Greg Oke, opted to shoot on 35mm. film as a means of staying true to the bright, ‘90s, holiday aesthetic they wanted to capture. They recorded much of the action (lethargic as it is) via images caught in water, glass doors, mirrors, TV screens and so on, reflecting the distance between Paul’s interior and exterior worlds. Wells explains that, “… the cinematographer and I invested a lot of time in discussing our strategy for shooting. It's the part of the process I find most creatively challenging and interesting, allowing the most subtle visual choices and observations to accumulate to the film’s ultimate feeling.”
This is an unusual movie and an exceedingly bold one for a first-time feature writer/director to make. The fact that Charlie Wells has pulled it off so successfully marks her out as a filmmaker to watch; that BAFTA Award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director, or Producer is richly deserved. Aftersun shines brightly.