May December: Movie with Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore inspired by authentic stories?

What is it about? To prepare for a new role, he comes to meet the famous actress he plays on screen, whose love life 20 years earlier had exploded the tabloid press and shocked the country.

Loosely adapted from Dark News

The couple formed by Julianne Moore and Charles Melton in May in December is inspired by Mary Kay Letourneau’s novel, which took place in 1997 in the United States. The latter was an American teacher who, at the age of 34, became pregnant by one of her twelve-year-old students, Willie Fualau. He was sentenced to six months in prison (three suspended) and three years of sex offender treatment.

She then violated her probation and got pregnant again with Fualau, landing her in prison for seven and a half years in 1998. After serving his sentence, he married Fualau in 2005 and raised their two children, who were born to him while in prison. The couple eventually separated in 2019 and Letourneau died of cancer the following year.

The film is not a faithful reconstruction of the case. The characters do not have the same names as the original characters, and Todd Haynes imagines the actor’s breakthrough in the couple’s life. Still, the inspiration is clear, and the main person concerned, Willy Fualau, now 40, shared his displeasure that the producer was not consulted.

“I’m still alive and well. If I had contacted you, we could have worked together on a masterpiece. Instead, they chose to repeat my original story.”he told the Hollywood Reporter. “I am offended by the whole project and the lack of respect for me, who lived the real story and who still lives it. My story is not as simple as this movie”.

Directed by Natalie Portman

It was Natalie Portman who sent Todd Haynes the Sammy Birch script. The director was immediately seduced “The way he approaches potentially explosive subjects with a kind of observant patience that allows the characters in this story an unusual subtlety. His writing was imbued with moral and narrative uncertainty that was exciting for the audience.”

Todd Haynes adds: “At the beginning of the film, the audience trusts Elizabeth (played by Natalie Portman). It is through her that we get to know Grace (played by Julianne Moore) and her story. Then we discover how Elizabeth uses everyone she meets. And our trust in her is shaken, which is what attracted me to this project: Juxtaposing two actresses that I adore and putting the audience in a precarious position where they have to constantly reevaluate what they think of the characters…”

The meaning of the title

“May-December” is an expression that means in English a relationship where the two partners have a large age gap. At a press conference at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, where the film was selected, when asked about the title of his film, Todd Haynes joked: “In France we call him ‘Macron'”.

At the movies: May December… Why you should see this movie with Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore?

Cinematographic references

May December awakened direct cinematic associations in Todd Haynes, such as Persona, where the actor and his nurse develop a troubled relationship, as well as two more films by Ingmar Bergman, Autumn Sonata and The Communicators, where the characters address each other directly to the camera. moments.

Films focused on relationships with a significant age gap also fueled her, such as The Graduate, Twilight Boulevard, A Sunday Like Any Other, Manhattan and Lolita. Manhattan and The Graduate are examples for him “Where stylistic minimalism is almost indistinguishable from the success of the film”.

A familiar tune

The film’s soundtrack takes its theme from the score composed by Michel Legrand for Joseph Los’s Le Messager in 1971. The music is well known to viewers as it also serves as the theme song for the show Bring in the Accused! “This score was originally a working instrument, but it ended up being played throughout filming and before the editing was finished. composer Marcelo Zarvos used by rearranging it”Todd Haynes explains.