A woman in her early 30s looks back at footage from a holiday she took with her father when she was 11. She is trying to recover something she didn't understand at the time. Wells's debut rebuilds the past through 2 lenses: what a child only partly saw and what an adult still only partly understands.
Aftersun is a 2022 drama film directed by Charlotte Wells. This breakdown covers 4 techniques (1 editing, 1 cinematography and 2 narrative), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Manchester by the Sea uses several of the same techniques.
Cutting between the present and scattered, out-of-order flashbacks, the way a painful memory comes back in pieces. You put the backstory together as the character remembers it.
How this film uses it
Wells cuts between the holiday footage Sophie is watching, the adult Sophie as she watches it and fragments that could be memory or imagination. The editing never puts together a full account of what happened to Calum, and that is the point. Memory piles up fragments and never joins them into a whole. The most important parts of the film are in the gaps.
Where to see it
The strobing disco sequences. The adult Sophie can only reach pieces of a moment she was there for and didn't understand. The editing shows you the limits of what memory can recover.
Shooting with a handheld camera so the frame shakes and moves with the action. This documentary-style look, called cinema vérité, puts you uncomfortably close to the character.
How this film uses it
Gregory Oke shoots 2 kinds of footage: the camcorder footage and the 35mm scenes that simply observe. The camcorder footage is handheld, so it feels like something being recorded as it happens. The film looks the way memory feels: slightly unsure, slightly moving, close to things but unable to get all the way inside them.
Where to see it
The camcorder sequences. The holiday footage looks like real home video. The handheld camera makes the past feel like something recovered.
Starting the film by showing or telling you how it ends, such as the main character's death or defeat. The rest of the story then explains how things got there.
How this film uses it
The film opens with the adult Sophie already watching, already looking back. Because of this, the holiday is happening now (as you watch it) and is already over (as Sophie watches it) at the same time. Every happy moment has a shadow over it. You know Sophie is watching from a future in which something has happened.
Where to see it
The opening. Sophie watches the camcorder footage, so you know where things end before you visit any memory. The film tells you right away that it is looking back.
Watching events from a measured distance with no swelling music, tear-jerking close-ups or showy camera moves. The film trusts what happens to carry the weight on its own.
How this film uses it
Wells's camera watches Calum the way a child would. It is present and paying attention, but it doesn't fully understand what it is seeing. A conventional film would explain his psychology or add dramatic emphasis at certain moments. At exactly those moments, this film holds back. That matches how little Sophie herself can see of her father's inner life.
Where to see it
Calum alone on the balcony at night. The camera watches him from a distance and never moves closer. It keeps a child's view of a parent's private suffering, respectful and incomplete.
Questions
Aftersun: quick answers
What filmmaking techniques does Aftersun use?
CineCode breaks down 4 techniques in Aftersun (2022): Fractured Memory Editing, Handheld Cinema Vérité, Proleptic Opening and Observational Restraint.
Who directed Aftersun?
Charlotte Wells directed Aftersun, released in 2022.
What films are similar to Aftersun?
Films that share techniques with Aftersun include Manchester by the Sea (2016), Moonlight (2016), 12 Years a Slave (2013), The Tree of Life (2011).
