13: Before the Sixities Swung- some thoughts on some recent films

-An Education (Lone Scherfig)

Nowhere boy (Sam Taylor Wood)

-a Single man (Tom Ford)

Well enough of the TS stuff for a while! As noted in my review of 'It felt like a kiss' the early sixties are all the rage in the cinema at the moment. It may well be that at the beginning of a new decade and a new political era with the Obama presidency (which has frequently drawn comparisons with the JFK era) we are trying to understand this period through the prism of another era.

All three films explore the underlying social tensions of the era from different vantage points. Two are based on real life stories (Nowhere boy and An Education).

As a Beatles fan I was delighted that Sam Taylor-Wood had properly researched her Beatles history and reproduces faithfully some of the key moments in their early history. Paul gives his all on '20 flight rock' in the church hall, George strums 'Raunchy' on the top of a bus. Woods also picks up on Ian MacDonald’s' point that John and Paul bonded because of both losing their mothers in their teens. Wood focuses on Lennon’s' relationship with his aunt Mimi who raised him and his free spirited mother Julia. Mimi may have given John a stable home life but it was Julia who encouraged John as a musician. Both were strong women.

'A single man' is another debut film by someone who has made their name in another field- this time fashion designer and photographer Tom Ford. Many critics have found this film too stylised. However in a story which is about a man who has to put on a front everyday and conceal his true nature in the face of a hostile world. He is also obliged to look for beauty in the face of the bigotry he faces. I found Colin Firth's performance as George deeply moving and dignified, with his grief for his partner Jim. I also appreciated the senitive portrayal of a committed monogamous gay relationship. For me the film was deeply romantic.

My favourite sequence is when George gets his class to consider fear and 'the other', which speaks to the anxieties of the modern age and roots of unfortunately ongoing homophobia.

My favourite of all three films was 'An education'. Carey Mulligan gives a performance wise beyond her years as Jenny, a highly intelligent and bored teenage girl in early sixties Twickenham. It is interesting to compare Jenny's interest in French culture with John Lennon's interest in Rock and Roll, both speaking to a more liberated and exciting mind set. Jenny's relationship with an older man begins to show her a more sophisticated and liberated world. However this relationship threatens to undermine all Jenny's efforts to assert herself as an intelligent, independent woman. I was heartened by the ending which affirms Jenny as a strong independent person.

Both 'Nowhere boy' and 'An education' show that society is about to change and explore the motiviations of those who were at the forefront of these changes.