AN EDUCATION
UK, 2009, 95 minutes, Colour.
Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina, Olivia Williams, Cara Seymour, Matthew Beard, Dominic Cooper, Rosamund Pike, Emma Thompson.
Directed by Lone Scherfig.
An older man involved with a younger woman has often been a focus of romantic dramas and melodramas. With an awareness these days of affairs and grooming girls, especially via the internet (and re-thinking the lyrics of such popular songs as 'Sweet Sixteen'), we are on less firm ground than before.
One of the advantages of An Education (and there are many) is looking at the man, in his 30s, and the girl, celebrating her 17th birthday, in the context of England in 1961 and with some psychological and moral insight. That is why cases need to be considered case by case, discovering, especially, how much the younger woman is complicit in the affair and, even though she is young, how much an innocent or a conscious participant in the relationship.
Based on a memoir by British columnist, Lynn Barber, with a screenplay written by novelist, Nick Hornby (Fever Pitch, High Fidelity, About a Boy), the film is witty and insightful. It has a light touch, many comic aspects, but takes the audience more deeply into the characters of David, a mid-30s Jewish Londoner, who is involved in some dubious financial scams but has a certain charm and vitality who is attracted towards schoolgirl, Jenny, who is preparing for final exams that will ensure her entry into Oxford. David is played smoothly, with a blend of the callous and the vulnerable, by American, Peter Sarsgaard. Jenny is played by Carey Mulligan who, on the strength of this persuasive performance, is headed for a successful career.
Jenny is bored with the limitations of post-war Britain and is ready to embrace the 60s even though she does not know what they will be like. She reads. She speaks French. She is daring. While inexperienced in the ways of the world (except through books and French films), she knows what she is doing in responding to David, his deceptions, weekends in Oxford to visit C.S. Lewis and trips to Paris. While he leads her on, she makes deliberate choices to follow him when she could have opted out. That it ends in disaster, and the exposure of David as a pathetic man is, for Jenny, an education in itself, more profound than all the study which is part of her education for life.
The screenplay presents several moral perspectives by which to assess the characters so that this is not just a variation on a Lolita theme. Alfred Molina excels as Jenny's father, Jack, an embodiment of suburban public servant, formed by the austerities of the war years, a martinet in his family, forcing Jenny to education but relieved when the possibility of a comfortable marriage arises. Cara Seymour is her subservient mother, Marjorie, who does have a mind of her own but using it and expressing it was not the done thing in Twickenham in those days. Their home regime, their being seduced into permissive permissions for Jenny by David's smooth talk and bonhomie, are well observed.
There are the gossiping schoolgirls, the gauche potential boyfriend. But, there is also the headmistress (a fine cameo from Emma Thompson) who states the decorums of the day with some firmness (and anti-Semitic feelings). Even more strongly from the school point of view, there is Olivia Williams (hair pulled back, thick spectacle rims) as the encouraging teacher who has a prim life of her own but tries to offer sound advice to a non-hearing and mocking Jenny.
And then there are David's friends who live the comfortable, fashionable and affluent life which actually does seduce Jenny into thinking that this is living and worth sacrificing her education for. Dominic Cooper is the wealthy spiv, accomplice of David but who does try to warn David about how he could hurt Jenny. And Rosamund Pike is marvellous in her scenes as the vacuous blonde girlfriend, relishing the satirical lines that Hornby has written for her character – especially about books, reading and magazines and Latin not being used in 50 years time, even by the Latins!
The director is Lone Scherfig who comes from the Dogme tradition and made the delightful and wise Italian for Beginners.
An Education enters a difficult area of behaviour (of which we are made more conscious these days by liaisons made on line between girls and older men and some of the violent consequences) but it handles characters and situations with some delicate realism.
1.A memoir, a woman’s memories of the 1960s? The UK, London? The perspective of the 60s, later?
2.The title, Jenny and her love of learning, school and the prospect of Oxford? The experience with David, the university of experience and life?
3.The period: London before the Swinging 60s, quiet and suburban, the post-war effect, isolated, xenophobic, a life of routines, stifling – and Jenny’s feelings for breaking out?
4.The re-creation of London in the 60s, Twickenham, the suburbs, houses, interiors, school, cafés, the street? The contrast with inner London, the world of concerts, auctions, the races, homes, art? The cars and costumes? The score, the songs?
5.The attraction of France, language, Paris, food, books, films, philosophy?
6.Carey Mulligan as Jenny, age sixteen and her seventeenth birthday? The Twickenham background, yet being forward, reading, quoting, the insights into Jane Eyre during class, quoting French, her relationship with her parents, her quiet mother, her dominating father and his pressures about an education and money, her girlfriends and their chat, the taunts about Graham, her liking for Graham, inviting him over for tea, his putting his foot in it with her father? Graham later coming for her birthday and giving her the gift of the Latin dictionary? Her being precocious, the cello, the concerts, practice? Her arguments about her future?
7.Jack and Marjorie, very British, coming from the 1920s and 30s, their experience of the war, rationing, being careful about money, a job, home? The simple life, work, routines? Permissions and order? A lack of vision? Yet a hope for the benefits of education?
8.Miss Stubbs, her appearance, pulled-back hair, glasses? Her classes, the discussions about Jane Eyre? The essays, her reaction to the girls’ gossip? Her praise of Jenny, concern about her, offering help? Knowing what was going on? Jenny’s reaction, the critique of Miss Stubbs, her degree, her life, trapped in school? Miss Stubbs' hurt, her explanation of her degree? Jenny finally seeking her out, her home, her promise of encouragement?
9.The principal, her role in the school, her background of education, talk, discipline, the surprise of the anti-Semitism and the comments about the Holocaust and the war? Her dismissing Jenny?
10.The accident of meeting David, the rain, his approaching her, genial, age? The cello, in the car, talking, his explanation, no university degree – and later lying? Not giving an explanation? Meeting Jenny in the street, with the girls, inviting her to the concert? His visiting the parents, charming them, plausibility? The ruse of Aunt Helen? The concert, Jenny liking it, meeting Danny and Helen? Their being his friends? The invitation to the auction, Jenny and her bidding? The house, stealing? His explanation to Jenny of what he did, moving black families into neighbourhoods and the older women moving out, selling cheaply, resales? Stealing and dealing? Danny warning him about Jenny? Helen warning him? The relationship with Jenny, going to Oxford, the lies about his degree, the friendship with C.S. Lewis, forging the signature? Jenny and her reticence about sexual encounter, his accepting this? Going to Paris, the celebration of the birthday, the sexual encounter – off-screen? His proposal, the ring? Jenny’s reaction? Jenny’s discovering the letters, the truth? His trying to explain, wanting to get a divorce? His not having the courage to confront Jenny’s parents, driving off?
11.Jenny, going to see David’s wife, the child, hurt, the wife and her pity, learning that there were others?
12.Danny and Helen, as a pair, Danny’s shrewdness, the schemes, stealing, the auction, his house and the art treasures? Helen, vacuous, talking, helping Jenny with clothes, hairdos, going out, the races? Her reaction to books and magazines? Her warning? Yet their colluding with David, their way of life?
13.Jenny and her exhilaration, the experiences, seeing David and his behaviour with stealing, his offering her the choice? The nature of the choice, the good life compared with security, her making the choice?
14.Her reactions, her immaturity, thinking that she was clever, dropping out of school, the reaction to her parents?
15.Jenny’s father, his accepting the wedding, the change of plans about the university? In the car, their going home and being mystified?
16.The truth, Jenny’s reaction, David’s fear? Her father bringing up the cup of tea to her room? Her silence when she should have apologised?
17.Graham, schoolboy, devotion to Jenny, the girls laughing at him? Coming to tea, his plans, Jack’s reaction? Invited for the birthday party, the gift of the Latin dictionary? The repercussions for Jenny’s studies, not doing well in Latin? Her overall good results?
18.An education, experience, learning? An image of the transition in the UK from the post-war era into the more permissive and open 60s?
