Feature film in development
The Part We Played
Written and directed by Connor Clements
Northern Ireland, the early 2000s. A young film student who has yet to make a film of his own falls for an older concert pianist, and for a world of music, grand hotels and Italian lakes he has only ever seen on screen.
The story
James is twenty-two: a film student who hasn’t started his own film, a lifeguard on the early shift, and the quiet son in the downstairs room of a full family house.
Then Sebastian, an older concert pianist, writes to him “from the other side of the world”. Within weeks James is in Milan, then on Lake Como, in the first love affair of his life that happens with the lights on.
Director’s statement
The Part We Played comes from a time in my own life, though it is a work of fiction. I started writing it before I made James, and I have kept coming back to it.
What stays with me is how little we can know of another person, even someone we love, and how much of a relationship is made of what each of us chooses to believe. Twenty years on, I’m less interested in judging that winter than in looking at it clearly: the excitement and the comedy of it, the desire, and the stories we tell about ourselves to make a different life feel possible.
I want to film it the way memory keeps it: closely observed and unhurried, with the same care for performance I tried to bring to James. It is the film I want to return to directing with.
Visual approach
The film is conceived in a classical 4:3 frame, with naturalistic performances, carefully composed photography and a visual approach informed by British and European cinema. A full visual treatment is available to producers on request.
Production enquiries
Feature screenplay complete. Seeking an experienced producer.
Connor is looking for an experienced producer to develop, package and finance *The Part We Played* with him, and to take it into production. The screenplay and the visual treatment are available to producers and financiers on request.
- The feature screenplay
- The visual treatment
Materials are sent personally after an introduction. Nothing confidential is stored on this website.