Aftersun
2022, UK
written and directed by Charlotte Wells
cinematography by Gregory Oke
edited by Blair McClendon

starring:
Paul Mescal as Calum
Frankie Corio as Sophie


​SYNOPSIS
Sophie reflects on the shared joy and private melancholy of a holiday she took with her father twenty years earlier. Memories real and imagined fill the gaps between as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the man she didn't...
(from imdb)
From the review at rogerebert.com:

Charlotte Wells' Short Films

LAPS
TUESDAY​
BLUE CHRISTMAS

Further Viewing

Reviews & Analysis

Music & Songs
Consider the emotions created by the music and songs to help tell this story.
​
Do the songs simply help establish the film's setting of the 1990s? In the case of 'Macarena', yes - it also helps show the rather low-budget nature of the holiday resort, further showing Calum's lack of resources.

For others songs, consider if these help the viewer understand Sophie's memories. Which lines/lyrics give clues about how Sophie or Calum are feeling?
​
'Under Pressure' by Queen & David Bowie plays at a pivotal moment in the film.
What is the song about? What does it clarify about the story, particularly about Calum's thoughts and feelings?
"This is our last dance" is rather literal here.

Meanwhile, 'Road Rage' by Catatonia fades out after the line
"If all you've got to do today is find peace of mind" - perhaps an early clue to Calum's inner troubles.

'Losing My Religion', sung by Sophie at karaoke, is about one-sided love, perhaps working here as an expression of future Sophie's love for her lost father. 
(Separately, there's a fantastic episode of Song Exploder that breaks down how this song was created).

from SONGFACTS:
 “We were always thinking, ‘How do you get away from the music just being the music? Because the thing that this movie really demands of you is that you be paying attention in a certain way. At every moment where the music starts to take over, is there a way to make sure it’s not just being the pop song, so that it is still set somewhere within this [fictional] world?”
​
Editor Blair McClendon, quoted by IndieWire


Excerpt from Hollywood Reporter's interview with director Charlotte Wells about the Under Pressure sequence:
IndieWire interview with editor James McClendon:
UNDER PRESSURE lyrics
Queen and David Bowie

[Verse 1: David Bowie & Freddie Mercury]
Pressure pushing down on me
Pressing down on you, no man ask for
Under pressure that burns a building down
Splits a family in two
Puts people on streets

[Bridge: Freddie Mercury]
Um ba ba be
Um ba ba be
De day da
Ee day da- that's okay

[Chorus: David Bowie & Freddie Mercury]
It's the terror of knowing what this world is about
Watching some good friends screaming, "Let me out!"
Pray tomorrow gets me higher
Pressure on people, people on streets

[Verse 2: David Bowie & Freddie Mercury]
Day day de mm hm
Da da da ba ba
Okay
Chipping around, kick my brains around the floor
These are the days it never rains but it pours
Ee do ba be
Ee da ba ba ba
Um bo bo
Be lap
People on streets
Ee da de da de
People on streets
Ee da de da de da de da

[Chorus: David Bowie & Freddie Mercury]
It's the terror of knowing what this world is about
Watching some good friends screaming, 'Let me out'
Pray tomorrow gets me higher, high
Pressure on people, people on streets

[Bridge: David Bowie & Freddie Mercury]
Turned away from it all like a blind man
Sat on a fence but it don't work
Keep coming up with love but it's so slashed and torn
Why, why, why?
Love, love, love, love, love
Insanity laughs under pressure we're breaking

[Verse 3: Freddie Mercury]
Can't we give ourselves one more chance?
Why can't we give love that one more chance?
Why can't we give love, give love, give love, give love
Give love, give love, give love, give love, give love?

[Outro: David Bowie]
Because love's such an old-fashioned word
And love dares you to care for
The people on the (People on streets) edge of the night
And love (People on streets) dares you to change our way of
Caring about ourselves
This is our last dance
This is our last dance
This is ourselves under pressure
Under pressure
Under pressure
Pressure
AFTERSUN: Track listing of all the songs in the film in addition to the music score by Oliver Oates:
​
  • Lucky You – The Lightning Seeds
  • Macarena (Bayside Boys Remix) – Los del Río
  • Road Rage – Catatonia
  • Drinking in L.A. – Bran Van 3000
  • Real Gone Kid – Deacon Blue
  • Unchained Melody – The Righteous Brothers
  • Losing My Religion – REM
  • Tubthumping – Chumbawamba
  • Never Ever – All Saints
  • For he’s a jolly good fellow – cast
  • Gamsız Hayat – Candan Erçetin
  • Under Pressure – Queen & David Bowie
  • The Tide Is High – John Holt
  • 5,6,7,8 – Steps
  • Tender – Blur
  • My Oh My – Aqua

from IndieWire's article on the film's songs:
PODCASTS ABOUT THE USE OF MUSIC IN THE FILM

Analysing the music of Aftersun

Further Listening

Further Reading
Slate (Sam Adams) - Aftersun has the best ending of the year
Little White Lies - interview with director Charlotte Wells​
Filmmaker magazine - good interview with Wells about her intentions and influences
Slate - Charlotte Wells on delineating sound and vision in Aftersun
IndieWire - interview with director/editor about the final Under Pressure needle drop 
​CinemaDaily - Director Wells' joint interview with Mia Hansen-Love about their similar films
RogerEbert.com - 4-star review of the film
Smash Cut - Insightful analysis of the film
Film Companion - Interview with Charlotte Wells
The Guardian - Interview with Charlotte Wells 'The grief of the character is mine'
No Film School - Analysis of cinematography and lenses

​
​
Does the rave in the film represent your own journey making the film? It’s the creation of a liminal space where you can, inside of a dark room, tackle the image or idea of your past?

Charlotte Wells: Yes! Thank you for articulating it for me. Absolutely, it was the element of the script that was never intended to be there. And I think it’s a result of the process of trying to write the script

SLATE magazine interview

Influences on Aftersun
Wells has acknowledged these films as influences on her film - check them out!
from The Guardian's interview with Charlotte Wells:

Which films have moved you in the way people have been moved by yours?

There were a few documentaries that we were watching leading up to production: 

Silence Is a Falling Body, which mostly uses DV footage a woman found of her father after he died. That’s phenomenal. 

Terence Davies’s trilogy. Chantel Akerman I adore, especially News from Home. Edward Yang.
​
Murmur of the Hearts by Sylvia Chang was the last film that I sobbed at in the way that people describe sobbing at this film. It has a dream ghost-type sequence for a departed parent. I saw that in the midst of writing this and was inconsolable.

In terms of sucker punch, when I saw Carol, Todd Haynes’s film, I knew nothing about it going in and hadn’t read the book. There was something in that film that I had never seen before. I was really, really unexpectedly moved. It was like seeing something of myself on screen that I hadn’t expressed.

Contemporary British Cinema 

Little White Lies: Why are so many British feature debuts about childhood trauma
​ScreenDaily: The rise of female genre filmmaking in the UK (link to video below):