What is it about? To prepare for her new role, a famous actress comes to meet the woman she will play on screen, whose love life ignited the tabloids and thrilled the nation 20 years ago.
Dark news is freely accepted from the story
The May December couple by Julianne Moore and Charles Melton is inspired by the Mary Kay Letourneau affair, which took place in the United States in 1997. The latter was an American teacher who, when she was 34, became pregnant by her twelve-year-old student Willie Fualau. She was sentenced to six months in prison (three of which were suspended) and three years of treatment for sexual offences.
She then violated her probation and became pregnant again by Fualau in 1998, landing her in prison for seven and a half years. After serving her sentence, she married Fualau in 2005 and raised their two children with him, born while he was in prison. The couple eventually divorced in 2019, and Letourneau died of cancer the following year.
The film is not a faithful reconstruction of the affair. The characters don’t have the same names as the original protagonists, and Todd Haynes imagines the actress’ breakdown in marriage. Still, the motivation is clear and the main man concerned, Willie Fualaau, now 40, shared his displeasure at not being consulted by the production.
“I am still alive and well. If (the production) had approached me, we could have worked together on a masterpiece. Instead, they chose to reproduce my original story.”he told The Hollywood Reporter. “I am disgusted with the whole project and the lack of respect for me, a real story that I lived and still live. (…) My story is not as simple as this film (portrays).”.
Under the leadership of Natalie Portman
It was Natalie Portman who sent the Sammy Burch script to Todd Haynes. The director was immediately attracted by her “The way he approaches potentially explosive topics with a kind of observant patience allows the protagonists of this story to be approached with unusual subtlety. His writing is full of moral and narrative ambiguity that thrills the viewer.”
Todd Haynes adds: “In the beginning of the film, the viewer trusts Elizabeth (played by Natalie Portman). Through her, we learn about Gracie (played by Julianne Moore) and her story. Then, we discover that Elizabeth is the love of everyone she meets. uses, and our confidence in it is shaken. That’s what appealed to me about this project: confronting two actresses that I love, and putting the viewer in a precarious position, in which he has to decide what he thinks of the characters. Must be constantly re-evaluated…”
May December Productions 2022 LLC
Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman
Meaning of the title
“May-December” is an expression in English that designates a relationship where there is a large age difference between the two partners. Asked about his film’s title during a press conference at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, where the film was selected, Todd Haynes joked: “In France, we call it “a macron”..
In cinemas: May December… Why you should see this movie with Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore?
Cinematic references
May December awakened immediate cinematic associations in Todd Haynes, such as Persona where a troubled relationship develops between an actress and her nurse, but also two other films by Ingmar Bergman, Autumn Sonata and The Communicants, where the characters address each other directly into the camera. Key moments.
Films focusing on relationships with a significant age gap also nurtured her, such as The Graduate, Twilight Boulevard, A Sunday Like Any Other, Manhattan and Lolita. Manhattan and The Graduate are examples of this “where stylistic minimalism is almost indistinguishable from the film’s success”.
A familiar melody
The film’s soundtrack was composed by Michel Legrand in 1971 for Joseph Losey’s Le Messager as its theme. The music is known to viewers as it also serves as the theme song of the show Bring in the Excused! “The score was initially a working instrument but was eventually played throughout filming and towards the end of the edit. Composer Marcelo Zervos Reorganize it and use it”Todd Haynes explains.