Two Films About Clashing Worlds That Change Lives

by Luanne Paul King

An Education

In the 60s, many English students applied to Oxford. Talented Carey Mulligan plays Jenny, a bright 16-year-old who is a diligent student, but bored with school and the suburban lifestyle of her parents. Literature teacher Miss Stubbs (Olivia Williams) warmly tells Jenny she could be accepted at Oxford if she studied Latin.

Flash to Jenny in pouring rain, clutching her cello case, when a nifty Bristol roadster pulls up. I liked handsome 30-something driver David Goldman (Peter Sarsgaard) declaring, “I’m a music lover and I’m worried about your cello.” Jenny is grateful when he loads her instrument and drives her home.

Days later, David runs into Jenny and asks her if she’s free Friday. “Yes,” she says, accepting his invitation to dinner. Jenny’s mother (Cara Seymour) and father (Alfred Molina) are suspicious at first, but are won over by David’s urbane charm. He takes Jenny to a Ravel concert in London’s West End. They dine and dance with David’s partner, Danny (Dominic Cooper) and Danny’s lover, Helen (Rosamund Pike). Future dates include enchanting days in Paris!

I began to worry, along with Jenny’s headmistress (Emma Thompson) and Miss Stubbs, when they again mention Oxford to Jenny. She exclaims: “It’s not enough to educate us anymore. … You’ve got to tell us why you’re doing it.”

Unexpectedly, Jenny discovers a stunning fact about David. Rarely have I been so moved by an actor as when I watched Carey Mulligan portraying Jenny trying to understand David. Clearly, Jenny alone must decide what to do next. But what?

An Education is based on a memoir by Lynn Barber. Novelist Nick Hornby adapted it as a screenplay and Lone Scherfig sensitively directed the film.

Rated PG-13. 100 minutes.

Želary

In the 1940s in Czechoslovakia, Nazis shut down universities. Doctors went underground to treat the sick and wounded. Eliška (Aňa Geislerová), a medical student, gave blood to save the life of Joza (György Cserhalmi), a woodsman who was brought from the mountains. When the Resistance clinic is discovered, Eliška’s fiancé Richard (Ivan Trojan) flees. Friends of Eliška forged travel documents for her to leave the city. Joza’s isolated cabin in the mountains was deemed the safest hideout. Joza, grateful to Eliška for saving his life, agrees to protect her.

Eliška is a beautiful sophisticate and Joza comes from Želary, where people say time stopped 150 years ago. Eliška must pretend to be Joza’s wife, Hana, living in his cabin. Joza needs to adapt to living with a woman who might evoke a raid by the Gestapo — and arouse the suspicions of the townspeople. They decide to “marry.” I loved the scene where the local priest discusses the ceremony before the artificial marriage. Eventually, Eliška and Joza fall in love.

All of the characters in Želary experience deeply personal metamorphoses beyond the war. But the savage war does come.

Rated R. 148 minutes. In Czech with English subtitles. Available on DVD.