An Education

• SOUNDTRACK AN EDUCATION

When jenny a bright young school girl who longs for adulthood meets david a dashing older man he introduces her to his world of glamorous friends chic jazz clubs and her own sexual awakening. Will she let this affair ruin her dreams of attending oxford as her headmistress fears? Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 03/30/2010 Starring: Carey Mulligan Alfred Molina Run time: 100 minutes Rating: Pg13 Director: Lone ScherfigEDUCATION - Blu-Ray MovieA young girl seduced by an older man may be a common story, but An Education is no common movie. As Jenny, a precocious middle-class British schoolgirl charmed by a small-time criminal, newcomer Carey Mulligan is luminous; her face can be plain and beautiful at the same time, her eyes expressing a restless intelligence and a hungry soul. As David, the seducer, Peter Sarsgaard (Year of the Dog, Gar! den State) gives yet another rich, thoughtful performance. The script, adapted by Nick Hornby (whose novels High Fidelity and About a Boy have been made into movies), is full of unexpected details that bring every moment to life. Director Lone Scherfig (Italian for Beginners) has made sure that every character is vivid and real; even seemingly minor moments have texture and vitality. The supporting cast--including Alfred Molina, Emma Thompson, Cara Seymour (Adaptation), Dominic Cooper (The History Boys), and Olivia Williams (Rushmore)--is simply impeccable. In a small but memorable part, Rosamund Pike (Die Another Day) shows an unexpected (and marvelous) comic side. In short, An Education is a funny, smart, and compassionate movie that will launch a great career for Mulligan and be a jewel on the filmographies of everyone involved. See this movie. --Bret Fetzer


Stills f! rom An Education (Click for larger image)

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The inspiration for the award-winning motion picture: "Candid, unsentimental and extremely funny. I read it in one glorious go, laughing and crying throughout."â€"Zoë Heller

When Lynn Barber was sixteen, a stranger in a maroon sports car pulled up beside her as she was on her way home from school and offered her a ride. It was the beginning of a long journey from innocence to precocious experienceâ€"an affair with an older man that would change her life. Barber! ’s seducer left her with a taste for luxury hotels and posh ! restaura nts and trips abroad, expensive habits that she managed to support in later life as a successful London journalist whose barbed interviews at once terrorized and fascinated her smart-set subjects.

A poignant, shockingly candid account of the stages in a literary lifeâ€"from promiscuity at Oxford to a stint at Penthouse to a complex marriage that enduredâ€"An Education is a classic of English memoir.SINGLE MAN - DVD MovieColin Firth gives the performance of a lifetime in A Single Man, a drama directed and adapted for the screen by fashion designer Tom Ford, who clearly has a deft vision and ability in the world of film as well. A Single Man is based on a novel by Christopher Isherwood, and Ford's--and Firth's--gift is bringing the inner-turmoil world of the novel to believable, and devastating, life on the screen. Firth may be best known as a dashing romantic-comedy hero (Pride and Prejudice, the Bridget Jones films), but in A Single Man he demonstrates nuance and depth that will stay with the viewer long after the film is over. Firth plays George, a gay British professor, living a life of true, if closeted, bliss with his partner, Jim (Matthew Goode), in the straitlaced early '60s. When Jim dies suddenly at the beginning of the film, George wrestles with how to go on without his true love--and with never being able ever to express his grief openly. The film flashes back to scenes of George and Jim and their dogs, scenes awash in warm tones, and then forward to the present, shot in subtle sepia tones that show joy has disappeared from George's life. Yet there are flashes of hope and feeling: one brief scene--showing George's seeing a dog similar to one the couple had owned, and drawing his face close to the dog's for a familiar and comforting scent--lasts but a moment yet resonates that grief and loss are felt the same by everyone, no matter what they have lost. A Single Man's cast also includes Julianne Moore, playin! g a comp lex role as George's best friend and long-ago lover--one of the only people on the planet who can know all that George is going through, yet with vast vulnerabilities of her own. Nicholas Hoult plays a student who reaches out to George, saying, "I guess I just thought you looked like you could use a friend." But it's Firth who triumphs in the film, and who drives the complex emotions--all true, all rewarding--that hold A Single Man aloft and give it its impact. A Single Man can hold its own against Brokeback Mountain as a story of love and loss that transcends any single genre. --A.T. Hurley


Stills from A Single Man (Click for larger image)

The Education score is by Paul Englishby. It features 'Smoke Without Fire' performed by Duffy 'Your Heart Is As Black As Night' performed by Melody Gardot and 'J'ai Deux Amours' performed by Madeleine Peyroux. The movie is set in 1960s London, Jenny (Carey Mulligan) is a bright 17 year old preparing to go to Oxford. After she meets a much older man (Peter Saarsgard) who smoothly romances her with flattery, stories and weekends in Paris, Jenny abandons her University plans, to the horror and consternation of her hard working father (Alfred Molina) and a teacher (Emma Thompson). Jenny must come of age and decide what is her real education. Soundtrack is by noted composer Paul Englishby (Miss Pettigrew Lives for A ! Day) and includes recognizable 60s pop songs performed by Ray Charles, Mel Torme, Juliette Greco and Percy Faith. Duffy will perform a new song written exclusively for this film. An Education is based on the novel by Nick Hornby (High Fidelity, About A Boy) and is directed by Lone Scherfig. An Education received critical acclaim this past year when it debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, as well as at the Berlin Film Festival. It opens in the U.S. on October 9 followed by releases in Europe and Australia.