An Education

Lone Scherfig’s source is not a novel but a magazine piece: Lynn Barber described her schoolgirl affair in the summer 2003 issue of Granta, number 82, and Nick Hornby built the screenplay from it. Barber’s book length memoir appeared only in June 2009, after shooting finished. Hornby was then the boyfriend of Amanda Posey, one of the producers, and later married her. Jenny’s house, set in Twickenham, was actually found in Ealing, and St John’s Smith Square, standing in as the concert hall, was still a wartime ruin in 1961, the year the film is set, and reopened as a concert hall only in October 1969. At Sundance in 2009 it took the World Cinema Audience Award and the World Cinema Cinematography Award for John de Borman. The 82nd Academy Awards brought 3 nominations, for best picture, adapted screenplay and Carey Mulligan, and no win. At the 63rd BAFTAs its 8 nominations tied with Avatar and The Hurt Locker, and Mulligan’s best actress was the single award. The 7.5 million dollar production took 26.1 million worldwide. A good fit if you accept that the film makes David attractive on purpose and presents the bill later. Not for anyone expecting the affair in detail; classifying it 12A, the BBFC noted the sex scenes are discreetly filmed and lack strong detail.