“May December”, charm and mysteries in a film about the art of acting

How much can we identify with the character we are about to play? “May December”, the new feature film by Todd Haynes, this week’s protagonist among the new releases in theaters, could start from this question.
Let’s start from the fact that the film is freely inspired by the story of Mary Kay Letourneau, a teacher known in the American news for the enticement of one of her twelve-year-old students, who became her husband following the scandal that overwhelmed them. However, the film does not deal directly with this story, but tells of a famous actress who will have to play the woman who is the protagonist of this scandal.
This is also the case with a film about cinema, “May December”, a feature film that focuses on the art of acting, on the mimesis between performer and character, highlighting its dangers and controversies.
In fact, the actress insinuates herself into the life of the woman she has to impersonate, going so far as to recreate her gestures and behaviors, upsetting the existence of the family in which she finds herself and trying in every way to enter into the controversial psychology of the protagonist of such a scandalous act.

“May December” and the other films of the week

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It is no coincidence that Haynes’ film looks in some passages at “Persona” by Ingmar Bergman, a film recalled by the figure of the actress Elisabeth (the same name and the same job that the character played by Liv Ullmann did in the 1966 masterpiece) which in a moment of the narrative seems to photograph us just as happened in the masterful work of the Swedish director.

The poetry of transformation

“May December” opens with butterflies and the theme of the chrysalis is often taken up within a script that focuses heavily on transformations and metamorphoses, recalling once again the work of the actress, ready to change to truly feel inside himself the role he has to interpret. In some passages Haynes goes too over the top, also due to some stylistic and musical choices that make one turn up their noses a bit, but with the exception of these moments it is a film of great charm and which on the The starting topic raises reflections that are anything but banal.

Haynes – already director of excellent films such as “Far From Heaven”, “I’m Not Here” and “Carol” – confirms himself as a highly refined author capable of capturing the best from his cast: Julianne Moore is as always remarkable, but Natalie Portman he overcomes it by giving one of the most intense tests of his career. One of his monologues looking into the camera is simply goosebump-inducing.