AN EDUCATION

CAREN MULLIGAN
during a Q&A following the screening of
An Education at the Ryerson Theatre
on 25 September 2009.
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An Education is a 2009 British coming-of-age drama film
based on an autobiographical memoir of the same title
written by the British journalist Lynn Barber.

The film was directed by Lone Scherfig, with screenplay written by Nick Hornby, and features an ensemble cast including Emma Thompson, Peter Sarsgaard, Dominic Cooper, Rosamund Pike, Olivia Williams and Carey Mulligan in the lead role.

An Education premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival,
gaining critical acclaim.

It screened on 10 September 2009 at the Toronto International
Film Festival, and was featured at the Telluride by the Sea Film Festival in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on 19 September 2009.
The film was shown on 9 October 2009, at the Mill Valley Film Festival.

It was released in the US on 16 October 2009 and in the UK on 30 October 2009.

On 2 February 2010 it was announced that the film had received three Academy Award Nominations in the categories of Best Picture, Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay.


THE PLOT :

In England in 1961, following a youth orchestra rehearsal, Jenny Miller, a schoolgirl, is given a lift home by a charming older man, David Goldman.
The two strike up a relationship, which includes David's business partner Danny, and Danny's vapid mistress, Helen.
David manages to charm Jenny's protective parents into allowing him to take her to concerts, jazz clubs, and even to Paris.

Jenny finds out that David makes money by moving black families into flats near elderly women who are afraid of them, so he can then buy their flats cheaply.
She also finds out that David and Danny steal valuable objects from houses that are for sale.
On discovering this, Jenny is horrified and threatens to leave the relationship, but in the end she finds her new life so thrilling and enthralling that she chooses to overlook its darker side.
After seeing Jenny dance with Danny, David hastily proposes marriage.

Her father agrees to the engagement, and Jenny drops out of school without taking her A-levels.
While searching for cigarettes in David's glove compartment, Jenny finds a stack of letters addressed to "Mr. and Mrs. David Goldman".
She demands that he tell her parents that he is already married, so she won't have to do it herself, but instead he drives off.

Her old headmistress refuses to allow her to repeat her final year of school, so Jenny goes to the home of her favourite teacher, who helps her study and pass her A-levels.
She is accepted to read English at Oxford, which had been her ambition before she met David.

The final scene shows her riding her bike on the streets of Oxford with a male student.
Jenny narrates in the background:
"So, I went to read English books, and did my best to avoid the speccy, spotty fate that Helen had predicted for me.
I probably looked as wide-eyed, fresh, and artless as any other student...But I wasn't.
One of the boys I went out with, and they really were boys, once asked me to go to Paris with him. And I told him I'd love to, I was dying to see Paris... as if I'd never been."





CAST :

Carey Mulligan as Jenny Miller
Peter Sarsgaard as David Goldman
Dominic Cooper as Danny, David's friend and partner in crime.






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