Trailer: An Education

I found Carey Mulligan quite annoying as Catherine in the ITV version of Northanger Abbey, but I think she might be quite good in this new film from Lone Scherfig and Nick Hornby. The storyline of an ordinary school girl becoming romantically involved with a rich older man (played by Peter Sarsgaard) is quite interesting here, as it differs from the typical cliché of a sleazy older man dating a slutty teenage girl. The film had a very positive response when shown at Sundance earlier this year, and I’m pleased that for once there is a British film I’m looking forward to seeing, because that’s quite a rare occurence.

News

• The wonderful Swedish director Lukas Moodysson is currently hard at work on his first English-language film, Mammoth, and I was extremely excited to hear that it will star the beautiful and brilliant Gael Garcia Bernal! I could hardly dream up a better pairing so I’m bursting in anticipation to find out more and see the film when it’s finished, although it sadly won’t be out until 2009!

• Now out in Europe is the new film directed by and starring the lovely Julie Delpy, best known for the ace films Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. It’s called 2 Days In Paris and is a bit more of a mainstream comedy of culture clashes, but it still looks good and it seems to be doing quite well as well, so perhaps it will help some more people discover her previous work.

• One of my favourite books of all time is Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, and the TV series of it is considered a classic, so the new film version has a lot to live up to. I’m sure Emma Thompson will rise to the challenge as Lady Marchmain, but I’m less sure of Matthew Goode, who was quite wooden in Chasing Liberty and Imagine Me And You, as the lead character Charles Ryder.

Trailers: British Film Special

There are very few British films that I would count among my favourites, and I don’t know if any of these will be joining them, but I do think they’ll be worth seeing:

Atonement

I’ve not read the book but I’ve heard great things about it and that this film is a good adaptation, although quite unsurprisingly the focus has been increased on Keira Knightley’s character. I love James McAvoy but I hated Romola Garai in Daniel Deronda, so we’ll have to see if she can win me over.

Hallam Foe

Now this actually looks like the kind of film I’d normally see – something like Art School Confidential or Thumbsucker, but it’s British. I haven’t seen Jamie Bell in anything since Billy Elliott, so it’ll be interesting to see how he is as an adult actor.