Vanessa McMahon

An Education:

Lone Sherfig's last film An Education (2009) won her Academy Award nominations for Best Motion Picture and Best Actress for Carey Mulligan and Best Sceenwriting adaptation. Her next film, One Day (2011), is in production now. 

I met Lone in January in California on a panel for her US premier of An Education, an unusual dark romantic comedy/drama inspired by a memoir about Rachmanism in London during the 1960's. The main antagonist David (played by Peter Sarsgaard) makes his living by 'blockbusting', moving immigrants into buildings that are mostly inhabited by xenophobic tenants so out of fear they will sell their apartments at a low price and leave the building. This is a subplot that is only merely suggested at in the film, however it is very significant as Lone explained; this running subplot highlights the world that these socially restrained characters were living in at that time. It is a story about a 16 year-old girl Jenny (Carey Mulligan) who falls in love with the shady older man, David. 

While on panel in California, there was a collective feeling of shock that the legal age of sexual consent in the UK is 16 whereas in California it remains 18. Lone laughed and said: 'Well, that's nothing. In the Vatican, the legal age is 12!' The whole room gasped. There's another movie! lol! The film is gracefully told and flows like music. When asked about the editing process of the film, Lone stated: 'Whenever something didn't feel effortless, we took it out.'

One Day (2011): 

I kindly asked Lone if she could interview with me about her latest film One Day. She is steeped into production at the moment filming between London, Edinburgh, Paris and Dinard. The film is based on the novel One Day by David Nicholls and stars Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess. Other cast members include: Romola Garai (of Focus’ Atonement), Jamie Sives (Get Him to the Greek), Rafe Spall (Hot Fuzz), Ken Stott (Charlie Wilson’s War), and Jodie Whittaker (Film4’s Venus).

The story is about a girl named Emma (Hathaway) and Dexter (Mr. Sturgess) who meet on the night of their college graduation on July 15th, 1988. Although they are attracted to each other, they remain friends over the years, their friendship escalating and falling as time goes by. They meet only once every year on July 15th over a twenty year period. While both of them experience life and all its ups and downs, each in search of something, they will find out later that that 'something' was with them all along.

One Day is a Random House, Color Force, Focus Features and Film 4 co-production film. Stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks.

director Lone Sherfig on the set of One Day.

actress Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess in One Day.