Posted at 8:30 a.m.
Since the presentation ofaftersun at the Critics’ Week of the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the jury prize, Charlotte Wells’ first feature enjoys an exceptional run. In Quebec, the film won top honors at the Festival du nouveau cinema.
It is fully deserved. But it was perhaps difficult to predict since in writing, the scenario ofaftersun is all in all quite simple, the holiday in Turkey of a young estranged father (Callum, played by Paul Mescal) with his 11-year-old daughter (Sophie, played by Frankie Corio).
Not only did the director of Scottish origin Charlotte Wells know how to brilliantly put into images the scenario indirectly inspired by the death of her father when she was a teenager, but she also knew how to show great mastery in terms of acting who embody characters whose emotions are lived a lot from the inside. Characters who love each other as much as they tame each other.
Callum is a good father who is always close to his ex, but if he does tai chi, for example, it’s to contain a kind of instability. As for Sophie, she is inhabited by a certain melancholy, if only at the idea that the holidays with her father will come to an end and that they will return to their respective towns.
One might be tempted to compare aftersun at Somewhere by Sofia Coppola or more recent film C’mon C’mon by Paul Wells, but Charlotte Wells’ drama has an authenticity and realism that elevates it from the pack.
In fact, we quickly understand – from family videos recorded on tape – that Callum and Sophie’s vacations are nostalgic memories of the past, that is to say the 1990s, a period not so distant when family activities were done without smartphones. , but rather with a Polaroid camera. Sophie watches the older teens curiously from her lounge chair, instead of spending most of her time on Instagram.
The chemistry between Frankie Corio and Paul Mescal can be explained by the disarmingly natural play of the two actors in front of the camera. This is a first film for the girl while Mescal was revealed by the series Normal People.
We must also highlight the quality and formidable efficiency of the soundtrack with songs by REM, Blur and Bran Van 3000, and the icing on the cake during the powerful final scene: Under Pressure of Queen with the great David Bowie.
There are movies that bother us when they end with a lot of mystery. This is not the case with aftersun. What is not known of Sophie’s adult life without her father preserves the emotion of the memories that the film tells.
Indoors
Drama
aftersun
Charlotte Wells
With Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio
1:36