Kristen Stewart’s directorial debut, an adaptation of Lidia Yuknavitch’s memoir The Chronology of Water, premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, captivating audiences with its emotional depth and distinct visual style. Stewart’s bold interpretation of Yuknavitch’s life story demonstrates her willingness to take creative risks and cements her as a serious new voice in filmmaking.
A Complex Memoir Becomes a Unique Cinematic Experience
Adapting books for the screen can be challenging, with directors often toeing the line between faithful reproduction and artistic translation. Kristen Stewart took on this challenge with Yuknavitch’s 2011 memoir, a raw and confessional work noted for its intense engagement with the author’s own physicality and artistry. Yuknavitch, also known for The Small Backs of Children, crafts her story with a forceful prose style, describing formative experiences as a girl and swimmer, as well as the scars—both literal and metaphorical—left by others throughout her life.
The memoir is characterized by its unpredictable tone, shifting between awe and revulsion as it plumbs the depths of the desire to create art when there is no other choice. Stewart didn’t shy away from these complexities, opting instead to create a cinematic language that matches the book’s impressionistic approach and unfiltered frankness. Rather than attempt to contain Yuknavitch’s messy truths, Stewart’s method hinges on inventiveness and expressive freedom, recognizing that some stories require a newly forged form to be told authentically.
Inventive Visual Language and Emotional Storytelling
Perhaps the most impressive quality of Kristen Stewart’s directorial debut is the way it channels both Yuknavitch’s inspiration and Stewart’s own conviction. The Chronology of Water remains closely tethered to the memoir, adapting its five-act structure and first-person narration into a filmic environment rich with texture and feeling.
Cinematographer Corey C. Waters, tackling his most significant project to date, brings the narrative to life using 16mm film and frequent extreme close-ups. These shots often fragment the protagonist Lidia—portrayed by Imogen Poots—mirroring her struggle with selfhood. The film opens with a visual montage: blood disappearing down a drain, small stones resting on infant clothing, and the curve of a pregnant belly. These evocative images, marked by grainy detail, serve as emotional waypoints for the audience. The combination of sharp close-ups, ambient sound interrupted by silence, and a swelling score contributes to a thoroughly subjective experience of Yuknavitch’s life.
Exploring the Rhythms and Realities of a Turbulent Life
Stewart entrusts certain scenes with a slower, more linear unfolding, allowing viewers to witness Lidia’s life at her own pace and perspective. The film doesn’t shy away from the difficult dynamics of Lidia’s upbringing, her time in competitive swimming, reckless college years, substance use, complicated romantic and sexual relationships, repeated encounters with loss, and ultimately, the grief of becoming a mother to a stillborn child. Through careful adaptation of the memoir’s structure, Stewart’s script demonstrates an acute sensitivity to the rhythms of personal memory, with flashes of experimental inspiration reminiscent of Maya Deren, especially during segments where the past interrupts the present in vividly remembered moments.
Orange and yellow hues color these memory-laden sequences, evoking the atmosphere of Yuknavitch’s childhood home. There is a tactile quality to these scenes, which almost transmit the textures and smells of the past, drawing the viewer deeper into the protagonist’s journey of self-understanding and artistic compulsion.
Translating Flow from Page to Screen
If one word encapsulates Stewart’s adaptation, it is “flow.” This is not just a metaphor, but an apt descriptor for the way the film’s visuals and sounds capture the momentum of Yuknavitch’s prose. Stewart manages to translate the fluidity of the memoir into a cinematic form that is both forceful and flexible, like a river gaining strength as it passes through obstacles. The dynamism of images and movement becomes a testament to cinema’s unique power to embody internal experience—an achievement that requires both mastery and discipline from a first-time director.
Yuknavitch’s memoir is rooted in reflections on pain and resilience, documenting the complex relationship between a woman and her own physical existence. Stewart’s film does not only make those experiences visible and audible, but invites the audience to feel them through its immersive style and intense emotionality.
The Film’s Continuing Journey After Cannes
The Chronology of Water began a one-week qualifying run in New York and Los Angeles on December 5 and will officially open on January 9. With its striking use of form and emotionally charged storytelling, Kristen Stewart’s directorial debut has made a remarkable impression at Cannes. The film’s reception at the festival signals a promising start for Stewart’s career behind the camera and positions her as a filmmaker with a bold vision. As audiences in LA and NY prepare to experience the film, the industry will be watching to see how Stewart’s adaptation contributes to ongoing conversations about memoir, embodiment, and artistic innovation in cinema.
