Latest news with #TheChronologyOfWater
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Kristen Stewart's First Feature ‘The Chronology of Water' Felt So Good, She Says, She'll Direct Again
Kristen Stewart has been 'wanting to make movies since I was nine or 10 years old,' she told me on her fourth trip to Cannes in 2017, for the short 'Come Swim.' She's been a fixture at the festival ever since her maiden voyage in 2012 with Walter Salles' 'On the Road,' followed by Woody Allen's 'Cafe Society,' Olivier Assayas' 'Clouds of Sils Maria' and 'Personal Shopper,' and David Cronenberg's 'Crimes of the Future.' She also served on Cate Blanchett's Competition jury in 2018. Stewart's audacious debut, the Un Certain Regard entry 'The Chronology of Water,' was well-received. After eight years of development, Scott Free financed the mood poem about swimming and writing for survival amid personal trauma. Stewart is ebullient after having talked about making her first feature for so long. Back in 2022, she announced that she was adapting (with Andy Mingo) Lidia Yuknavitch's frank 2011 memoir. Stewart resonated with her hardscrabble story about a woman (Imogen Poots) coping with her teenage sexual abuse by her father via sex, anger, competitive swimming, addiction, and creative writing. More from IndieWire Darren Aronofsky Partners with Google DeepMind on Generative AI Short Film Initiative Google Unveils Gen-AI Video Tool with Camera Controls, Consistent Character Design, and Even Sound Stewart and I talked on a balcony at the Majestic Hotel. The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity. Anne Thompson: What made you so clear that you should turn this material into your first feature? You went for it. Kristen Stewart: It's not a movie about the things that actually happened to Lidia. It's about the things that happened to all of us, and then how to take those things into your body. [They] might not be equivalent or exactly like the experience and abuse specifically that she had. Her plight might not be everyone's, but it's similar. There's thievery and violence in the fucking female experience right now, with the imagery that's thrust at us and the conversations that are had outside of our bodies and what they do to our inner voices, when we go: 'I don't think you should do that. Don't say it, keep it a secret. Don't tell anyone you're in pain. Don't tell anyone that that wasn't OK with you. Keep it to yourself. Oh, don't vouch for yourself. Don't fight for that. Oh, don't speak too loud; they won't hear you.' Measure, measure, measure. Shame, shame, shame. And so it was not possible to pull back, because the whole movie is about getting that feeling out. I've never felt like a provocateur. I never was trying to push buttons. It doesn't feel like that. It feels like you're expressing yourself in every fiber of your being. It is the truth. There was never a point where I ever questioned it, because there was no way that I was alone in this. The book is such a lifeboat. It's like a flotation device. It's such a good place to start. It's very meta to make a movie about how hard it is to say something that's exactly what I was experiencing. Over your career, you've taken control of your choices. You've often taken the indie route. Absolutely. This was not without help. I needed to have a couple of public temper tantrums in order to get the right people to listen. I have this stunning collaborator in Charles Gillibert, who [produced] 'On the Road,' 'Personal Shopper,' and 'Clouds of Sils Maria.' He understands that [women] need help and we need a fucking leg up. It took a long time to get this made. Yeah. It took forever. What hurdles did you face? The book is not about the things that happened to her, but about how she processes those things, and about how art can save you. And there was no way to sell the movie as an idea. It was impossible to say to people that I wanted to make a DMT trip experience, a life flashing before your eyes, in the way that your memory feels neurological and physical to you. It's different from the book. It's a faithful adaptation, but it is not the same experience. There was no way for me to tell people that I needed to go make so many puzzle pieces that I could come home and find authentic, emotional connective tissue, because you cannot plan for things like this. You can't plan for the ephemeral. You have to go catch it. You have to go create an environment in which things can sprawl and people can explore and learn things. And so therefore, the movie had to have a life in order for it to have its own memory. It couldn't be exacting, controlled. My hands and my fingerprints are all over it, but I'm not strangling the movie, because the movie had such volition, it had such its own life, that it was telling me what it wanted every day. Was the movie finished when you brought it to Cannes? Would you go back to the editing room? The picture is pretty final, it's color-corrected. I'm not going to cut it, OK? It deserves space. It's not like the normal success story that has a three-act structure in the terms that we're used to. Audience are trained, everybody is, because you could not be, to have a certain capacity and a certain expectation for a rhythm and a time code: 'I'm supposed to get this now. I want it. Where is it?' Quite often in the movie, there's so many false wins and starts and hard crashes. And there's an undulation that resembles a female orgasm that steps away from this 1-2-3, punch of the climax and a sigh of relief in the last five minutes, and the movie's over. You think you're there, you think you're there, you're not sure. Then you kill it, then you pull back, and then you're: 'Why am I still here?' And it's frustrating at times, probably. Three-quarters of the way through, you might think to yourself, 'Where are we going?' It is intentional. Imogen Poots anchors it. She's the reason why you can get away with all the rest of it, because you never want to stop hanging out with her. Unless we had somebody who really kept you on a line, we were dead in the water. How did you know she was the right one? She's a walking motif. Look at her eyes. Visually, I was taken aback when her face filled my Zoom screen in which we did a pseudo audition, aah, I started getting this feeling: 'Oh, my God, the movie might exist.' Because without Lidia — her body is our movie. You do not shy away from all the orifices and aspects of a woman's body, and you show a lot of blood. The second shot of the film is intentional. Fifty percent of the population is not going to wonder where that blood came from. It didn't come from a wound. It's textured and chunky, and it's being sucked down a drain. She also comes into her hand so hard that it's dripping from her fingers, and she smells it before getting her mind blown by the sheer capability of her own body. And then the hymen breaking, all of the times that she was aching and itching and bleeding. How often have you ached or itched or bled in public and just been: 'No, you never, that's an alone experience, no matter what.' It's isolating. I hate walking around not telling people what's going on with me. It happens to everyone. Women will respond to this. It's all about the physical. Yes — the movie takes place on the surface of this woman's skin. We would arrange rocks on the sand in the same configuration as my favorite pattern of moles on her stomach, just to make sure that we related her to organic material, to imply that she grew here. She did not choose the things that happened to her. We are gouged out. Our desires are given to us. We experience things that we don't choose, and then they define us for the rest of our lives. [It's] a book about revering words, and the life-saving significance and importance of words. I also wanted to stay outside of any word, inside the unnamed wet, because we don't have to take credit for all the shit that comes out of us, but we can turn it into something that is pleasure and pain at once and have that be something that you can decide whether or not it hurts or it feels good. It must have felt good for you. You're a director now. Oh man, it felt so good. I'm dying. You're going to do it again. I can't wait. Have you got things in the hopper? Now they'll give it to you easily. Yeah, several. It's going to be a lot easier this time. I've always said that as long as I can make another movie after my first one, that I don't need to be precious or clever about it at all. It just needs to feel pure. I've earned the right to try one more time. I never want to make the same movie twice. So whatever comes out next is going to not be anything like this. I can't fucking wait. Jim Belushi is brilliant as Lidia's writing mentor, Ken Kesey. He brought pages to our pages. He's a movie star: He did so much research. He was the person that we needed to come pat us on the back and remind us that it's okay to want approval from a male figurehead, it's not weird, and it's not anti-feminist. You're not a bad feminist if you want someone like Jim Belushi to pat you on the back and tell you that you're a good did you shoot in 16 millimeter? Because I didn't want to record this. I wanted to take pictures so I could slice them up, and I wanted it to feel like a dream, and I needed it to flash before your eyes. And there's just too much information in a digital image. You can't put yourself into it, and it also doesn't speak to time in the way that the movie needs to. The movie needs to fracture. You can't fracture a recorded image. There's no break. You get all the information. [The movie] is a completely and utterly inundating experience. But for us, we only have 24 pictures every second, and sometimes less because we've pulled them out. And so we really fuck with the experience of literal time, and we put it back into the body, and we can span four decades fluidly, because we shot on film. And also, it does something to people on set. You realize your camera has a heartbeat, you can hear it when the camera starts running — whir — everyone stands at attention. It infuses an immediacy and a sort of honor. 'The Chronology of Water' premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. It is currently seeking U.S. distribution. Best of IndieWire Quentin Tarantino's Favorite Movies: 65 Films the Director Wants You to See The 19 Best Thrillers Streaming on Netflix in May, from 'Fair Play' to 'Emily the Criminal' Martin Scorsese's Favorite Movies: 86 Films the Director Wants You to See
Daily Mail
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Kristen Stewart reveals the incredibly X-rated meaning behind her latest tattoo at the Cannes Film Festival launch of her new movie
Kristen Stewart has revealed the X-rated inspiration for one of her latest tattoos after unveiling her latest movie at the 78th Cannes Film Festival. The American actress took centre stage at the annual ceremony with her directorial debut The Chronology Of Water, a stirring drama based on American swimmer Lidia Yuknavitch's visceral memoir about surviving abuse as a child, on May 16. And she admits her latest tattoos - the word WHY on her bicep and MINE on her thigh - were heavily inspired by the film, with the latter referencing one of its most sexually provocative scenes. She told Vulture of its genesis: 'The coolest song in the movie is when she c**es on her hand, smells it, wipes it on her f**king bicep, and goes, 'I didn't know a girl body could do that. Shoot c**e." 'And then this song comes on and it goes, 'Mine, mine, mine, mine.' And it's just f**king mine.' From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new Showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. she admits her latest tattoos - the word WHY on her bicep and MINE on her thigh - were heavily inspired by the film, with the latter referencing one of its most sexually provocative scenes A labour of love for Stewart, 35 - who refused to act again until she was able to finish it - The Chronology Of Water had been well received in Cannes, where it earned a standing ovation following an initial screening. And first time director Stewart says the positive response fully justifies its two hour, eighteen minute run-time - the inspiration for her cryptic WHY tattoo. 'I didn't need to make an hour and a half digestible experience so it would be less difficult for the consumer,' she explained. 'It's cool that at one point you go, 'Are we still doing this? Why?' I have 'Why' tattooed right here [her upper arm].' Variety has called her latest film "a stirring drama of abuse and salvation, told with poetic passion", while Indiewire critic David Ehrlich said "there isn't a single millisecond of this movie that doesn't bristle with the raw energy of an artist". 'I had just never read a book like that that is screaming out to be a movie, that needs to be moving, that needs to be a living thing,' Stewart told AFP following its May 16 launch. That Yuknavitch was "able to take really ugly things, process them, and put out something that you can live with, something that actually has joy" is awe-inspiring, she added. 'The reason I really wanted to make the movie is because I thought it was hilarious in such a giddy and excited way, like we were telling secrets. Stewart has numerous tattoos, but her latest were heavily inspired by her directorial debut 'I think the book is a total lifeboat,' said Stewart, who also wrote the screenplay. It certainly saved Yuknavitch and made her a cult writer, with her viral TED Talk The Beauty of Being a Misfit inspiring a spin-off book, The Misfit's Manifesto. 'Being a woman is a really violent experience," Stewart told AFP. 'Even if you don't have the sort of extreme experience that we depict in the film or that Lidia endured and came out of beautifully'. Stewart insisted there were no autobiographical parallels per se that drew her to the original book. 'I didn't have to do a bunch of research (for the film),' she explained. 'I'm a female body that's been walking around for 35 years. Look at the world that we live in. 'I don't have to have been abused by my dad to understand what it is like to be taken from, to have my voice stifled, and to not trust myself. It takes a lot of years (for that) to go. 'I think that this movie resonates with anyone who is open and bleeding, which is 50 percent of the population.' Stewart - who cast singer Nick Cave's son Earl as the swimmer's first husband and Sonic Youth rock band's Kim Gordon as a dominatrix - told reporters she was never really tempted to play Yuknavitch herself. Instead she cast British actor Imogen Poots, who she called "the best actress of our generation". 'She is so lush, so beautiful and she's so cracked herself open in this,' Stewart said. 'She has this big boob energy in the film - even though she is quite flat-chested - these big blue eyes and this long hair.' She described her movie's fever-dream energy as "a pink muscle that is throbbing" and that Poots was able to tap into, channelling Yuknavitch's ferocious but often chaotic battle to rebuild herself and find pleasure and happiness in her life. 'Pain and pleasure, they're so tied, there's a hairline fracture there,' Stewart told the Cannes Festival's video channel. Yuknavitch's book "sort of meditates on what art can do for you after people do things to your body - the violation and the thievery, the gouging out of desire. Which is a very female experience." Stewart said Yuknavitch discovered that the only way to take desire back was to "bespoke it... and repurpose the things that have been given to you in order for you to own them." She added: I'm not being dramatic, but as women we are walking secrets.'
Free Malaysia Today
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Free Malaysia Today
‘Being a woman is a violent experience,' says Kristen Stewart
US director, screenwriter and producer Kristen Stewart during a photocall for the film 'The Chronology of Water' at the Cannes Film Festival. (AFP pic) CANNES : 'I can't wait to make 10 more movies,' Kristen Stewart told AFP the morning after making what Rolling Stone called 'one hell of a directorial debut' at the Cannes film festival. Nor can film critics judging from the rave reviews of 'The Chronology of Water', her startling take on the American swimmer Lidia Yuknavitch's visceral memoir of surviving abuse as a child. All the producers who Stewart said passed on her script, saying its subject matter made it 'really unattractive' to audiences, must now be crying into their champagne. Variety called it 'a stirring drama of abuse and salvation, told with poetic passion', while Indiewire critic David Ehrlich said 'there isn't a single millisecond of this movie that doesn't bristle with the raw energy of an artist'. The fact that she has got such notices with what is normally a no-no subject in Hollywood – and with an avant-garde approach to the storytelling – is remarkable. 'I definitely don't consider myself a part of the entertainment industry,' said the 'Twilight' saga star, dressed head to toe in Chanel. And those looking for something light and frothy would do better to avoid her unflinching film. Stewart has long been obsessed with the story and with Yuknavitch's writing, and fought for years to make the movie her way. 'I had just never read a book like that that is screaming out to be a movie, that needs to be moving, that needs to be a living thing,' she told AFP. That Yuknavitch was 'able to take really ugly things, process them, and put out something that you can live with, something that actually has joy' is awe-inspiring, she added. 'Book is a total lifeboat' 'The reason I really wanted to make the movie is because I thought it was hilarious in such a giddy and excited way, like we were telling secrets. I think the book is a total lifeboat,' said Stewart, who also wrote the screenplay. It certainly saved Yuknavitch and made her a cult writer, with her viral TED Talk 'The Beauty of Being a Misfit' inspiring a spin-off book, 'The Misfit's Manifesto'. 'Being a woman is a really violent experience,' Stewart told AFP, 'even if you don't have the sort of extreme experience that we depict in the film or that Lidia endured and came out of beautifully'. Stewart insisted there were no autobiographical parallels per se that drew her to the original book. But 'I didn't have to do a bunch of research (for the film). I'm a female body that's been walking around for 35 years. Look at the world that we live in. 'I don't have to have been abused by my dad to understand what it is like to be taken from, to have my voice stifled, and to not trust myself. It takes a lot of years (for that) to go. 'I think that this movie resonates with anyone who is open and bleeding, which is 50 percent of the population.' Stewart – who cast singer Nick Cave's son Earl as the swimmer's first husband and Sonic Youth rock band's Kim Gordon as a dominatrix – told reporters she was never really tempted to play Yuknavitch herself. 'We are walking secrets' Instead she cast British actor Imogen Poots, who she called 'the best actress of our generation. She is so lush, so beautiful and she's so cracked herself open in this'. 'She has this big boob energy in the film – even though she is quite flat-chested – these big blue eyes and this long hair.' She described her movie's fever-dream energy as 'a pink muscle that is throbbing' and that Poots was able to tap into, channelling Yuknavitch's ferocious but often chaotic battle to rebuild herself and find pleasure and happiness in her life. 'Pain and pleasure, they're so tied, there's a hairline fracture there,' Stewart told the Cannes Festival's video channel. Yuknavitch's book 'sort of meditates on what art can do for you after people do things to your body – the violation and the thievery, the gouging out of desire. Which is a very female experience.' She said 'it is only the stories we tell ourselves that keep us alive', and that art and writing helped liberate Yuknavitch and find a skin she could live in. Stewart said Yuknavitch discovered that the only way to take desire back was to 'bespoke it… and repurpose the things that have been given to you in order for you to own them.' 'I'm not being dramatic, but as women we are walking secrets,' the actor said.
Geek Vibes Nation
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Vibes Nation
‘The Chronology Of Water' Review: Kristen Stewart Delivers A Wild, Unhinged, Fearless Directional Debut
It's not because you're great in front of the camera that you'll be equally superb behind it, too. More often than not, when a famous actor takes a stab at filmmaking, they play it too safe. This results in a timid and hold-back movie that hopefully is straightforward enough to attract the biggest audience. However, Kristen Stewart ( Love Lies Bleeding , Spencer ) is a stunning exception to that rule. With The Chronology of Water , she – and a formidable Imogen Poots – treat the audience to a dynamic, chaotic and compelling experience. The boldness and braveness of Stewart as a director and writer are apparent from the start. She decided to film on grainy 16mm and, together with co-writer Andy Mingo ( Romance , The Iconographer ), she turned the film's source material, the abuse memoir by Lidia Yuknavitch, into a striking script worth being adapted. While fiction and reality blend in the script, it doesn't matter how much we know about the actual Lidia. Even more so because for a lot of abused people, fantasy is the ultimate form of escapism, and for Lidia, it's no different. She created a self and reality that might not be everyone's reality. Throughout multiple chapters, you follow what Lidia's (Poots) story could have been, was and is. An accumulation of childhood abuse, broken relationships, drinking problems and professional failures would be a difficult watch watch in any feature, but in this work, it all hits you even harder. The extreme close-ups, the loud and energetic score, and the compelling but dry voiceovers result in compassionate, intense and absorbing storytelling. The visceral cinematography certainly matches Lidia's gut-wrenching story. While this feature certainly isn't immune to cliches, there are only a handful of predictable moments. Most of the scenes ooze the pain, rawness and secrets the swimmer and aspiring writer has carried with her throughout her entire life. Ever since she was a young woman, she had to suffer physical and mental abuse at the hand of her stern and ferocious father. The only times she could escape the violence were when he was harming her sister and when she dived into the swimming pool. During The Chronology of Water , it becomes clear that water means so much more to Lidia than it does to most people. It represents freedom, happiness and fulfilment. She sometimes also feels that escapism and transformative feeling in writing, especially during the later part of this film when her dream of becoming a writer might be on the horizon. However, it seems that in everything she does, the abuse and her troubled past are present. Thora Birch as Claudia and Imogen Poots as Lidia in 'The Chronology of Water' courtesy of WME Independent Despite being beaten up and raped by her dad, it's precisely that pain and violence that get Lidia off. This not only results in nonstop masturbation sessions (and secretively enjoying spanking by her swim coach) but also in a troubled view of what an honest, loving, and genuine relationship is. Frustrated that her boyfriend (Earl Cave) is not rough enough as he's too gentle and tender, she finds comfort in booze, coke and a cocky fuckboy. No matter how freely she feels herself in the water, once back on dry land, she's being locked up again in a cage of abuse, frustration, repression and self-destruction. Even when an artistic opportunity arrives, that could change her life, her toxic daddy issues come creeping around the corner. There's not a single frame in this feature in which you don't feel the messy and painful life Lidia has been living. Stewart takes you on a rollercoaster of different tones, emotions and kaleidoscopic colours in the most remarkable way. Equally impressive is Poot's immersive, intense and ecstatic performance. Like her director and the passionate writer and Olympic swimming hopeful she's portraying, Poots put their whole being into this work. Some scenes only consist of a handful of snippets or fast-paced edited shots, and during these moments, Poots has little time to show what her character is going through, but she does it impeccable every time. After watching her in Baltimore and All of You , it's great that even a bigger audience will finally see her immense talent. Poots make every scene come alive, whether with one piercing look, a subtle or not-so-subtle gesture or the fast swimming. So, despite the flaws that come with creating an indie feature as your directional debut, this is a heartfelt and intense story with strong direction and honest and committed on-screen performances. The Chronology of Water held its World Premiere in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. Director: Kristen Stewart Screenwriters: Kristen Stewart, Andy Mingo Rated: NR Runtime: 128m
Forbes
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Kristen Stewart And Steven Yeun's ‘Love Me' Gets Streaming Premiere Date
"Love Me" partial movie poster featuring Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun. Love Me — a futuristic sci-fi romantic drama starring Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun — is coming soon to streaming on Paramount+ with Showtime. Love Me premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival before opening in limited release in theaters on Jan. 31. The film stars Stewart as Me/Deja and Yeun as Iam/Liam. The official synopsis for Love Me reads, 'A buoy and a satellite meet online long after humanity's extinction. As they learn what life was like on Earth, they discover themselves and what it means to be alive and in love.' Rated R, Love Me is written and directed by Andrew Zuchero and Sam Zuchero. Paramount+ with Showtime announced on Monday that Love Me will be premiering on streaming video on demand on the platform on Monday, June 16. The film was previously released on digital streaming via premium video on demand on Feb. 18. For viewers who don't have Paramount+ with Showtime, the platform offers an ad-free subscription for $12.99 per month or $119.99 per year. In addition to the release of Love Me, Kristen Stewart recently appeared at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival for the world premiere of her feature directorial debut, the drama The Chronology of Water. The official summary of The Chronology of Water reads, 'Brought up in an environment torn apart by violence and alcohol, Lidia Yuknavitch (Imogen Poots) seemed destined for self-destruction and failure until words offered her unexpected freedom in the form of literature.' The Chronology of Water also stars Thora Birch, Jim Belushi and Tom Sturridge. Stewart's film opened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival on Friday. Per Deadline, the film received a six and a half minute standing ovation after the film's debut for the film's attendees. The film took eight years to get to the big screen. Speaking to the Cannes crowd, Stewart said (via Deadline) that The Chronology of Water 'is about birth, death and rebirth, and we sort of followed that cycle. I think you can feel it in the result. At the time, it hurt a lot. The biggest wound of my 'creative' life so far. And by far my favorite scar.' Stewart is also currently at work on the upcoming series The Challenger, where she plays iconic astronaut Sally Ride. Love Me, starring Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun, debuts on Paramount+ with Showtime on June 16.
