365 Days. 365 Films.

An Education is set in the 1960s, about a coming-of-age girl being seduced by a man twice her age. With maturity and taste beyond her years, Jenny (Carey Mulligan) falls in love with David (Peter Sarsgaard) because of their common interests in art, literature and music, and like most romances between people with a certain age distance, the relationship is fatally flawed.

I have to admit that I was initially repulsed by the film, opening with the title: ‘BBC Films’, but after only a few minutes it got into full swing thanks to stunning direction by Lone Scherfig. Scherfig manipulates the audience with her use of cinematography, inspiring emotions ranging from discomfort to romance and the performances she managed to pull from the actors are untouchable.
Carey Mulligan, being 23/24 at the time of filming and release effectively persuades the audience to her young naivety as a 16 year old and Peter Sarsgaard swings effortlessly from romantic lead to villan as the story progresses. The film is packed with British talent such as Olivia Williams and Emma Thompson and encompasses every great thing about British cinema and Britain in general.

The film is primarily about a romance between a young woman and an older man but also portrays views of feminism during the 1960s in a very happy-go-lucky way. This could be the downfall of the film as it quite comfortably ignores further intellectual stimulation in favour of a traditional structure, although if the film had gone down this route, it could have failed in prompting the same emotions concerning the romantic side of the story. Giving into commercial structure, however, does not downgrade the film – it’s still thoroughly enjoyable and thought provoking in equal measure; a true characteristic of a British Film, and hopefully the future for BBC Films…