I interpret the rave as Sophie’s memories and when Calum walks into the rave at the end he is walking into her memories because they never see each again after the holiday.
I get some symbolism but too be honest, I trying to figure out how did you come to the understanding of the depths this film goes through. Your explanations are hard for me to follow. It’s like I learned fundamentals of math and you are speaking Algebra mixed with Geometry. I love the look and feel of this film but I want to finally understand it as you do. Can you simplify your observations of this film? I am not so frustrated that I want to give up learning more about this film’s construction, etc. I feel frustrated that I didn’t get it. I’m asking for help. Thanks.
First of all, thank you so much for watching! I’ll do my best to simplify my thoughts. Memory is at the core of the story, and from the basis of that perspective we can see the events unfold either through Sophie or Calum. The only concrete evidence we have of what truly happened on holiday is through the video footage, which cannot be altered in any way. During the holiday, we see Calum’s mental health struggles display themselves in subtle ways, but Sophie is too young to understand them. As the majority of the film takes place on the holiday, I believe Wells purposefully crafted the sequence of events to be ambiguous with the intent of allowing the viewer to form their interpretation of what is fiction or reality. This is why the scenes that take place outside of the holiday are just as important, which consist of these: 1. The video footage. 2. Adult Sophie’s fleeting moments of reminiscence. 3. The rave sequence. All three have one motif in common, the importance of the camera, the only place where memories do not exist since the truth is contained within the recording. Adult Sophie is only shown briefly throughout, and she now can understand her father since she is the same age. To find the truth of what happened, she combines the remembered clues from her mind and memory and lines them up with the video footage. The rave itself is entirely up to your interpretation - I believe it represents something in between concrete truth and memory, an intangible connection as I mentioned in the video. I hope this helps and please let me know if you have any other questions.
for me the rave represented the place Calum was mentally & emotionally when he wasn't with his daughter (depression,anxiety,chaos). At the end when he closes his camera, you see it in his face, he knows his little ray of light is going back to her mum, and he is going back to his hell. Adult Sophie can enter the rave because she's old enough to understand that place, and she displays her anger and love. . . .. . Such a good film
I just watched this movie and the scene that really hit me was when sophie was singing. I like to think that in that scene calum felt in that moment an older sophie singing right at him trough child sophie " I think I thought i saw you try"(and maybe it even was because memory is not reliable). And I feel like this makes him spiral even deeper in a way, for why: "oh no I've said too much, I havent said enough". And it really connects them in a way trough the memories of sophie. How sophie probably felt guilty for not being able to help, was just how calum felt guilt for not being able to comfort the hereditary depression sophie was starting to develop.
This film has undeniably penetrated my top four of favourite films ever. Like: ever. I lost my father at an early stage of my life (esophageal cancer) and while I was only 6 year old, his death haunts me ever since. Even if I can't put into words whatever I've felt after this film, it hit home. It's unreal.
an amazing film I’ve watched it 2 times so far the first time i savoured the picture, the atmosphere, the feeling of nostalgia etc. but i immediately knew that the second time will be very different, i knew i would cry and i did i started sobbing in the middle of the film and couldn’t stop (paying no attention to other people in the cinema hall…) i think it has never happened to me before shout out to my friend who held my hand during this emotional roller coaster… thank you for this video essay!! more people need to learn about this film! 🙏🏻
It's such an incredible film, it made me cry as well upon rewatch. The emotions are so intense and palpable, I'm glad to hear that you were able to share the experience with someone ✨ thank you so much for your comment, I couldn't agree more
This movie absolutely wrecked me! l appreciate your insight at the end of your essay about Calum switching off the camera and walking into the rave. Thank you for your insight!
I know that I am a year behind, but this is another amazing video essay about a wonderful film. I think your essay including the wonderful choice of that ambient music from Jonny Easton hits on all of the points of the film especially the malleability of our memories and how memory isn't a video recorder. I love also the discussion from Tarkovsky's book about memory I think that the film was a moving testament and meditation on the evolution of love between a parent and child. That as a child your love for a parent is often because of your need for them and also that they care about you to provide what you need but also your sources of fun. But you don't really understand yourself when you're younger (one could argue that you may never be able to fully understand your own motivations at any age) so how can you understand your parent as something beyond being a parent? As an adult you realize that you are more alike with your parents then you would like to admit (the shared depression you discuss) and that as your relationship with them evolves, you learn more about them as a person and why they are how they are. But you can never fully understand them because no matter your age they are always your parent. It's a feat we can never quite achieve but the effort to do so continues as a manifestation of unconditional love. Sophie (and Wells by extension) doesn't have the luxury of having her father alive but this film keeps that love going. Such a painfully beautiful film and a wonderful essay.
I’m making a video essay on this film right now, highlighting on themes of loss, grief, and memory, and was even planning on including Twin Peaks within it (though in a different context). There’s a lot of things within this essay that I expound upon, though I was already planning/creating it prior to when I saw this video. It’s for class but I’ll be sure to cite your video as it’s impossible for me to not build off some of it now. Great stuff!
Best of luck on completing your video essay, I'd love to check it out whenever you're finished! I'm excited to see your comparisons between the two works and the themes you mentioned. Thank you so much!
Great analysis, perspective, and interpretation of a great movie. I loved the films you used to contextualize this one. Glad to have found your work through this!
I really love your interpretation of its sad ending. It brings me the comfort I never thought I would get watching a review of the movie. Would you review Close? It is a story about 2 boys. It is marketed as lgbtq but it really is about the weight of grief and longing. That movie destroyed me and it is something that I still think about. Like Aftersun, Close is both subdued and beautiful.
@@cinematothemax you are more then welcome! I absolutely agree with your perspective and perception. Thanks for linking this movie with other masterpieces, for the interesting narrative and editing. This movie is significant, and it impressed me very much, triggering my own relationships with my parents and helping me to see them as just human beings with their own issues. And my own experience of fatherhood that failed to happen. I live with anxiety and experience of adjustment disorder, so I can also relate with Mescal’s character. And the whole thing about autofictional base of the screenplay resonates with my art. Brilliant movie. You keep up great work!
If you didn't understood the description of this video just enjoy the movie. The movie doesn't have a plain story . It's perceivable. Because it leaves upto the audience to decide what's happening and what they can understand through the flow of emotions shown in the movie.
when i first watched the film i thought the rave was sophie seeing callum again when she is grown and choosing to not speak to him so that her innocent view of him wasn’t broken
Beautiful interpretation of a beautiful film. Regarding the Rave, I'd like to add that it is place of transcendence where all the stimuli are overwhelming and very often people are under the influence of substances. IMO it could be a bit more ambiguous than your interpretation. The rave could also be a place for a ritual for adult Sophie to cope with her father's absence, a place where she deals with trauma through compulsion and substance abuse and in that sense a place where she's trapped in. But I think it's ambiguous since it is also a place of contact with the core of her past in a healing way.
There is an absence of mother and adult woman partner in this film It is as if the little girl replaces the partner of her father not in a sexual but a sentimental way When she grows up it seems to connect to women (because of her mother absence ?) although in the film she seems attracted to boys I think that the father is depressed but someone who has just been abandoned by his wife has a strong reason to feel grief and been lost in thought about what went wrong… That’s a reason for someone not to be concentrated in the cars or his self care and been lost in thoughts Actually I see a strong presence of father I lack the presence of the mother Sorry for my English Bones and All is the best for me
I interpret the rave as Sophie’s memories and when Calum walks into the rave at the end he is walking into her memories because they never see each again after the holiday.
That's a great interpretation, thank you for watching!
that's how i interpret it as well !
I get some symbolism but too be honest, I trying to figure out how did you come to the understanding of the depths this film goes through. Your explanations are hard for me to follow. It’s like I learned fundamentals of math and you are speaking Algebra mixed with Geometry. I love the look and feel of this film but I want to finally understand it as you do. Can you simplify your observations of this film? I am not so frustrated that I want to give up learning more about this film’s construction, etc. I feel frustrated that I didn’t get it. I’m asking for help. Thanks.
First of all, thank you so much for watching! I’ll do my best to simplify my thoughts. Memory is at the core of the story, and from the basis of that perspective we can see the events unfold either through Sophie or Calum. The only concrete evidence we have of what truly happened on holiday is through the video footage, which cannot be altered in any way. During the holiday, we see Calum’s mental health struggles display themselves in subtle ways, but Sophie is too young to understand them. As the majority of the film takes place on the holiday, I believe Wells purposefully crafted the sequence of events to be ambiguous with the intent of allowing the viewer to form their interpretation of what is fiction or reality. This is why the scenes that take place outside of the holiday are just as important, which consist of these: 1. The video footage. 2. Adult Sophie’s fleeting moments of reminiscence. 3. The rave sequence. All three have one motif in common, the importance of the camera, the only place where memories do not exist since the truth is contained within the recording. Adult Sophie is only shown briefly throughout, and she now can understand her father since she is the same age. To find the truth of what happened, she combines the remembered clues from her mind and memory and lines them up with the video footage. The rave itself is entirely up to your interpretation - I believe it represents something in between concrete truth and memory, an intangible connection as I mentioned in the video. I hope this helps and please let me know if you have any other questions.
for me the rave represented the place Calum was mentally & emotionally when he wasn't with his daughter (depression,anxiety,chaos). At the end when he closes his camera, you see it in his face, he knows his little ray of light is going back to her mum, and he is going back to his hell. Adult Sophie can enter the rave because she's old enough to understand that place, and she displays her anger and love. . . .. . Such a good film
I love your interpretation! Thanks for watching.
Gorgeous film that can emotionally touch you as a DAD who never had a dad or a loving, stable life.......Who just cannot cope...
It is incredibly powerful 🙏 wishing you all the best with what you have been dealing with.
@cinematothemax Great clip mate.....beautiful movie, I agree, one for the ages.....
I just watched this movie and the scene that really hit me was when sophie was singing. I like to think that in that scene calum felt in that moment an older sophie singing right at him trough child sophie " I think I thought i saw you try"(and maybe it even was because memory is not reliable). And I feel like this makes him spiral even deeper in a way, for why: "oh no I've said too much, I havent said enough". And it really connects them in a way trough the memories of sophie. How sophie probably felt guilty for not being able to help, was just how calum felt guilt for not being able to comfort the hereditary depression sophie was starting to develop.
This film has undeniably penetrated my top four of favourite films ever. Like: ever. I lost my father at an early stage of my life (esophageal cancer) and while I was only 6 year old, his death haunts me ever since. Even if I can't put into words whatever I've felt after this film, it hit home. It's unreal.
I'm so sorry for your loss. The film is truly a remarkable piece of art.
@@cinematothemax Thank you! Yes, this film makes me feel all kinds of things, it's so very rare for a film to do that to me.
an amazing film
I’ve watched it 2 times so far
the first time i savoured the picture, the atmosphere, the feeling of nostalgia etc. but i immediately knew that the second time will be very different, i knew i would cry
and i did
i started sobbing in the middle of the film and couldn’t stop (paying no attention to other people in the cinema hall…)
i think it has never happened to me before
shout out to my friend who held my hand during this emotional roller coaster…
thank you for this video essay!! more people need to learn about this film! 🙏🏻
It's such an incredible film, it made me cry as well upon rewatch. The emotions are so intense and palpable, I'm glad to hear that you were able to share the experience with someone ✨ thank you so much for your comment, I couldn't agree more
This movie absolutely wrecked me! l appreciate your insight at the end of your essay about Calum switching off the camera and walking into the rave. Thank you for your insight!
Same here, it is such an emotionally powerful film. Thank you so much!
I know that I am a year behind, but this is another amazing video essay about a wonderful film. I think your essay including the wonderful choice of that ambient music from Jonny Easton hits on all of the points of the film especially the malleability of our memories and how memory isn't a video recorder. I love also the discussion from Tarkovsky's book about memory
I think that the film was a moving testament and meditation on the evolution of love between a parent and child. That as a child your love for a parent is often because of your need for them and also that they care about you to provide what you need but also your sources of fun. But you don't really understand yourself when you're younger (one could argue that you may never be able to fully understand your own motivations at any age) so how can you understand your parent as something beyond being a parent? As an adult you realize that you are more alike with your parents then you would like to admit (the shared depression you discuss) and that as your relationship with them evolves, you learn more about them as a person and why they are how they are. But you can never fully understand them because no matter your age they are always your parent. It's a feat we can never quite achieve but the effort to do so continues as a manifestation of unconditional love.
Sophie (and Wells by extension) doesn't have the luxury of having her father alive but this film keeps that love going. Such a painfully beautiful film and a wonderful essay.
Thank you so much for watching and for your comment! I really appreciate it 🙏
Fantastic video, I hope the algorithm treats you kindly cos this deserves more views🙏
Thank you very much, I really appreciate it!
The algorithm brought me here. Love the film, love your analysis.
Much appreciated, thank you so much!
I’m making a video essay on this film right now, highlighting on themes of loss, grief, and memory, and was even planning on including Twin Peaks within it (though in a different context). There’s a lot of things within this essay that I expound upon, though I was already planning/creating it prior to when I saw this video. It’s for class but I’ll be sure to cite your video as it’s impossible for me to not build off some of it now. Great stuff!
Best of luck on completing your video essay, I'd love to check it out whenever you're finished! I'm excited to see your comparisons between the two works and the themes you mentioned. Thank you so much!
Best film of the decade. I agree. Mother em Aftersun, the best films in many many years.
Can't wait to see more from Wells! Thank you for watching.
I can’t think of a better film, period.
Great analysis, perspective, and interpretation of a great movie. I loved the films you used to contextualize this one. Glad to have found your work through this!
Thank you for your kind words, they mean a lot!
Excellent video. I am spellbound by this film.
Thank you so much! It's absolutely incredible.
Great stuff. Loved this film
Thank you so much! It's incredible.
I really love your interpretation of its sad ending. It brings me the comfort I never thought I would get watching a review of the movie. Would you review Close? It is a story about 2 boys. It is marketed as lgbtq but it really is about the weight of grief and longing. That movie destroyed me and it is something that I still think about. Like Aftersun, Close is both subdued and beautiful.
Thank you so much! I will definitely try to review Close at some point.
@cinematothemax Great! Would be looking forward to it 😊
really well done. thank you very much. excellent work. One of my own top 5 of this century so far, i come across as a lunatic when saying this.
That's incredibly kind of you, I really appreciate it! It's certainly worthy of the spot.
Thank you for this essay!
Thank you for your comment and for watching, I really appreciate it!
@@cinematothemax you are more then welcome! I absolutely agree with your perspective and perception. Thanks for linking this movie with other masterpieces, for the interesting narrative and editing.
This movie is significant, and it impressed me very much, triggering my own relationships with my parents and helping me to see them as just human beings with their own issues. And my own experience of fatherhood that failed to happen. I live with anxiety and experience of adjustment disorder, so I can also relate with Mescal’s character. And the whole thing about autofictional base of the screenplay resonates with my art.
Brilliant movie.
You keep up great work!
Thank you once again, I'm sorry to hear about your struggles. I'm glad that Aftersun helped you feel seen in some way, it's a one of a kind film. ✨
This is a great movie,, great acting
100 percent agreed! Thank you for watching.
Great essay !
Thank you so much!
great essay, hope your channel get more subs :)
Thank you so much!
If you didn't understood the description of this video just enjoy the movie. The movie doesn't have a plain story . It's perceivable. Because it leaves upto the audience to decide what's happening and what they can understand through the flow of emotions shown in the movie.
when i first watched the film i thought the rave was sophie seeing callum again when she is grown and choosing to not speak to him so that her innocent view of him wasn’t broken
That's a fantastic interpretation, thank you for watching!
10:27 what was the title of the 2006 film?
Syndromes and a Century, directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Thank you for watching!
Beautiful interpretation of a beautiful film. Regarding the Rave, I'd like to add that it is place of transcendence where all the stimuli are overwhelming and very often people are under the influence of substances. IMO it could be a bit more ambiguous than your interpretation. The rave could also be a place for a ritual for adult Sophie to cope with her father's absence, a place where she deals with trauma through compulsion and substance abuse and in that sense a place where she's trapped in. But I think it's ambiguous since it is also a place of contact with the core of her past in a healing way.
Thank you so much! I love your interpretation as well - the meaning changes based on if you view the physical location as literal or metaphorical.
💝💝💝💝
If you watch the rave scene in slow motion is devastating
There is an absence of mother and adult woman partner in this film
It is as if the little girl replaces the partner of her father not in a sexual but a sentimental way
When she grows up it seems to connect to women (because of her mother absence ?) although in the film she seems attracted to boys
I think that the father is depressed but someone who has just been abandoned by his wife has a strong reason to feel grief and been lost in thought about what went wrong…
That’s a reason for someone not to be concentrated in the cars or his self care and been lost in thoughts
Actually I see a strong presence of father
I lack the presence of the mother
Sorry for my English
Bones and All is the best for me
Thank you for watching and for sharing! The father/daughter dynamic is brilliant in this film. I liked Bones and All as well.