Tina Kakadelis
Writers like William Shakespeare and Jane Austen have had their works adapted hundreds of times throughout history. Some are straight adaptations that show modern audiences what the worlds of Austen and Shakespeare were like when the originals were published. Others take creative liberties to modernize the stories. The Sorrows of Young Werther, by Johann Wolfgang Goethe, hasn’t entered the modern zeitgeist the way other 200-year-old novels have. Writer/director José Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço is looking to change that with his contemporary take on the 1774 novel Young Werther.
Werther (Douglas Booth) has been tasked by his mother to travel to Toronto to pick up a statue that was promised to her in a family member’s will. The statue is of little importance to Werther, who sees his trip to the big city as filled with possibilities and sightseeing opportunities. While at a gelato shop, he crosses paths with Charlotte (Alison Pill) and it’s love at first sight – for him. They spend an electric night together, and it’s only as they’re saying goodbye that the other shoe drops: Charlotte is engaged to Albert (Patrick J. Adams). Undeterred, Werther befriends Albert as well and entwines himself in their lives in the hope that Charlotte will return his feelings.
After its premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival earlier this year, Young Werther will begin its theatrical and digital release on December 13. Writer/director José Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço sat down with Film Obsessive News Editor Tina Kakadelis to discuss updating a classic, the timeless of Werther, and the magic of Toronto.
The transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
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José Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço: I like this stained glass you have back there very much.
Film Obsessive: I wish I could claim it as mine, but I’m dog sitting.
Okay, I was about to be like, how did you even install that glass? I’ve been looking for windows recently and watching a lot of YouTube tutorials on stained glass window installation.
Weirdly, my parents actually got a piece of stained glass made too. This is not their house, but they got one because they met in a space studies graduate program. They got a space-themed stained glass window and they mounted it in their front door.
That’s very cool. Anyway, sorry, sorry for getting sidetracked.
No need to apologize! I want to start with the source material. The Sorrows of Young Werther is a book from 1774, and it’s not one of the hits that we know of today. Where did you come across it for the first time? What made you sure that you could update it to a modern audience?
Yeah, it was a book that I was totally unfamiliar with until a class at university. It was just a book I was made to read. The class was coming-of-age literature, and I liked the book very much, but I didn’t think much of it at the time. I didn’t even have any clue that I was ever going to pursue a career in filmmaking.
Many years later, it was on my shelf. I just moved to a new place and was moving my books around, and I was like, oh yeah, this. I pulled it down and reread it. It affected me in a much more powerful way. I’d had my heart broken several times in the ensuing years and it just felt like a timeless piece of literature. It had incredible characters, themes, and a very, very relevant story and emotions. It seemed nuts that this didn’t exist as an English language adaptation.
It has been adapted so many times in films, plays, operas, and comic books across the world in the years between 1774 and today. I was like, why not? Why not take a swing and add our own entry into the Werther canon?
What was the hardest part to modernize and what was unexpectedly the easiest?
One of the things that was challenging about it was the book is written as a series of letters from Werther to his best friend Wilhelm. Initially when I was adapting the book, I was like, oh, maybe we’ll do phone calls or texts or emails. Then I was like, I don’t really want to see someone on the phone or texting all the time. I came up with the character of Paul (Jaouhar Ben Ayed) and brought him in initially just as a device for Werther to have someone to pour all his angst and emotions into. Then Paul sort of took off in the writing and really became one of my favorite parts of the film.
As much as he’s a sounding board for Werther, he has his own journey and his own first blush of love. Paul has his own conflict with Werther where he eventually challenges him. Paul is a catalyst for Werther to sort of grow and change, which is something that’s always so powerful in a narrative. Thank goodness for Paul.
He is really great. He’s a fun little side character. I saw this back at TIFF and it immediately felt like it belonged in the canon of the ’90s Shakespeare adaptations where the side characters are so fun. That actually brings me to my next question. You touched on it a little bit as far as technology goes. Young Werther does fit pretty seamlessly with those movies from the ’90s, because I think your character makes a phone call or two. Technology is not a big part of moving the plot along. Why choose to modernize this story but not use something that is attached to all of our hands 24/7?
One of the discussions we had with the production designer early on was that we wanted the film to feel like it was out of time, you know? Something that reflected Werther’s character because he is very much a person who’s out of time. He’s this hopeless, reckless, romantic guy. He could travel by plane, but he travels by train. He could make a phone call, but why wouldn’t he just show up at your door and knock? He has a laptop. He can type on a laptop, but when he really wants to put his heart into something, he goes to the hotel concierge and gets a typewriter.
This is a bit of a side thing, but something I thought about after making the film was this attraction to physical things that we can hold. We’re in this time where all my photos are on my phone, all my documents are in my computer and hard drives. There’s something nice about finishing a screenplay, printing it out, and holding it in your hands. Making the revisions by hand. Getting a little photo printer and printing out a photo of our dog that my daughter can tape into the journal that she writes in every night.
I wanted to make a version of it that was fresh and set today, but have it feel like it could be happening at any time over the past hundred years. Roundabout rambling answer, I apologize.
No, I totally feel the same way about tangible things. I’m a huge proponent of physical media, so I totally get it.
Exactly. Don’t you want to hold that record, look at the liner notes, and just have it exist?
Yes, it’s crazy that we’ve gone away from that, and it makes me sad.
The worst part is when my eldest was a baby, I got into the habit of reading on my iPad. There’s a library app and I could just check out books from the library on my iPad. I’ve continued doing that for the past six years. It breaks my heart when I look at my bookshelf and I’m like, not a lot of new books on the shelf because I’m reading everything from the library on my stupid tablet.
I know exactly what you mean. I saw this at TIFF and the scene that still stuck in my mind is…well, you can probably guess.
Oh, I don’t know. Which is it?
It’s the scene in the sample sale with the zipper.
Oh, yes!
It feels very similar to what they call the “hand flex” in the Joe Wright Pride & Prejudice movie. Obviously, they weren’t doing zippers like that in 1774. Is this scene something you created or is there precedent for it in the novel?
That was something I came up with for the film. Although, I will say I love Joe Wright’s Pride & Prejudice so much. I feel like it’s a wonderful holiday season movie. A few months before prep, a good friend of ours was visiting. My wife, our friend Natalie, and I sat down and we rewatched the Joe Wright Pride & Prejudice. So good. You know, like the ballroom scene? I was like, oh, I love how they’re doing this. How can I rip that off? I didn’t quite get there fully, but one day, one day, I’ll lift all of Joe Wright’s shots. That’ll be a great triumph.
Joe Wright’s one of my favorite directors, and I felt a kinship between Young Werther and Pride & Prejudice. Very much so.
I love that. That’s very nice.
The relationship between Charlotte, Werther, and Albert is not very simple in the way that a lot of romantic comedies are. I don’t want to spoil the ending or spoil the journey that they go on, but can you talk a little bit about the dynamic between the three of them and how it goes against the modern genre conventions of a romcom?
I wish I could take credit for any of it, but that’s all taken directly from the source material. I think one of the things that attracted me so much to this story was that it felt like it wasn’t like black and white. There wasn’t a clear hero and villain. It wasn’t like, here’s the good person and here’s the bad person. They just feel like human beings in the same way that, if you walk down the street and interact with a stranger, people I feel like are generally quite good to each other face to face. There are obviously exceptions and there are awful things happening all over the world. But people give each other a little grace. People give each other a little break.
Take Albert. Albert very much knows what Werther is doing and what his intentions are. Albert is not a fool, but he’s not threatened by it. There’s a lot of wisdom in Melanie’s (Amrit Kaur) advice to Charlotte about the Werther situation. Life is long and you will be attracted to people. You will connect with people. You will have friendships with people that grow and change. I love that Werther and Albert have this separate relationship. Even with what should be an obstacle between them, they find their own kinship and their own sort of rhythm together.
The film is shot in Toronto, and I saw online a lot of people saying that you beautifully captured the city. Even as someone who isn’t from there, it just feels like such a love letter to that town. Is that where you’re from? Did you feel like the city played a character of its own in the movie?
I’m not from Toronto. I moved here in 2001. It’s my chosen home. I’ve lived all over Canada. I was born in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, grew up in Fort McMurray, Edmonton, Vancouver Island University, then Montreal. I’ve lived all across the country and seen it all. My brother was at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. I have family in Calgary. I feel like I know this entire country, and Toronto is my favorite place in Canada. I’ve not been to every country in the world, but Toronto is my favorite place in the world.
It’s a city that I feel very lucky to have been able to set the film in and shoot in a way that acknowledges the city for what it is. It’s all been on film before. It’s not like it’s never playing itself, but I feel like more often it’s playing New York or Chicago or Detroit or some anonymous city that doesn’t exist. It’s a really special place. A city of neighborhoods. It’s so multicultural. There’s a sense of community and spirit here that I’ve just never seen quite the equal of anywhere else. I think it’s a beautiful city, even though it’s not known for grand landmarks. Wonderful neighborhoods, wonderful architecture. I just…yeah. I love it so much.
I totally feel the same. I’m from the States, but I have to go every year to the Toronto Film Festival because the city is just, like it’s the best city in the world, like you said.
Move here, it’s great!
I’d love to! My last question for you is actually a question that Werther asks Charlotte in the movie. What baby animal is the cutest?
Oh, that’s a great last question. I mean, the obvious answer is our puppy who’s downstairs. But I feel like I gotta go…oh, you know what? My daughter would be very upset if I didn’t tell the truth. The cutest animal in the world is the axolotl. A baby axolotl is just ridiculously cute.
I don’t know if I’ve seen a baby one, but now I’m going to have to look it up.
It comes from Minecraft, I guess. Or, it doesn’t come from Minecraft, but there are axolotls in Minecraft and the kids, they go nuts for them. They love these axolotls.
Thank you so much for your time. Young Werther was one of my favorite movies out of TIFF and I’m so happy I got to talk to you.
That is so nice. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Have a wonderful day and I hope you get stained glass in your own home!
You, too!
YOUNG WERTHER will be in Theaters, On Digital and On Demand December 13, 2024.
