Known for acting in big movies like the Twilight series, Kristen Stewart shows another side of herself in her arthouse debut as a writer and director. As she told Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep, "I want to make tiny little movies that then don't seem tiny."
The Chronology of Water is based on a memoir by Lidia Yuknavitch, who wrote of growing up with a beastly father and learning to deal with her own memories.
"There's abuse involved and there's a sort of atmosphere of 'no' in her household," said Stewart. "So she defines very early on in the movie what it feels like to have no voice."
Imogen Poots plays Yuknavitch in the film, and there are long periods where she doesn't say a word. Often she seems to be barely whispering. There's a moment when she's invited to tell her story to a social worker, and she says, "I'm not telling anything to you."
Stewart explains, "The whole movie is about processing and metabolizing and then regurgitating something that is beautiful, reflects your insides."
The title Chronology of Water speaks to its subject. Water references the main character's escape, in part, through competitive swimming. While Chronology references how the story is fragmented on screen, slipping back and forth in time, the way that memories do.
"It's such a universal experience to have one memory lead to another, even if those memories are across a huge span of time and seemingly disparate," Stewart said. "That's what it's like to fall asleep at night. That's what it's like to remember your childhood."
Stewart has been acting in Hollywood since childhood, but she said she's been gunning for the opportunity to write and direct for almost as long. Though she rejected the idea of directing a lighter film, like a rom-com, for her debut.
"Even though my movie has tough subject matter, I also think that it celebrates all of her release in a way that feels so exuberant," Stewart said. "I think that there's room for the avant garde to be totally commercial."
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