An Education

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Lone Scherfig directs. John de Borman behind the camera. Paul Englishby scores. Barney Pilling cuts. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United Kingdom. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Released 17 years ago.
• 2Directed by Lone Scherfig, shot by John de Borman. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 3Original score by Paul Englishby. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 4Editor Barney Pilling shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 5Carey Mulligan and Peter Sarsgaard and Dominic Cooper carry the top of the cast.
• 6Marketing tagline: "An education isn't always by the book.".
• 7IMDB entry: tt1174732 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 8Classified under 12 themes, including "adolescence", "parent child relationship", "age difference", "self-discovery".

The technical file

Cinematography

John de Borman

Original score

Paul Englishby

Editing

Barney Pilling

Production design

Andrew McAlpine

Costume design

Odile Dicks-Mireaux

Makeup / hair

Elizabeth Yianni-Georgiou

Sound

Richard Straker

Runtime

100 min · 1h 40m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Budget

$10,000,000

Box office

$26,096,852

Return

261% of budget

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

PG-13

IMDB

An Education (2009) ↗

Also by

Lone Scherfig

• 
  Morten Korch - Ved stillebækken

  1999 · ★ 9.0
• 
  The Shift

  2022 · ★ 8.0
• 
  One Day

  2011 · ★ 7.4
• 
  Taxa

  1997 · ★ 7.4
• 
  On Our Own

  1998 · ★ 6.7
• 
  Their Finest

  2017 · ★ 6.6

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  An Education Trailer

  Trailer · Official
• 

  ▶
  An Education | Official Trailer (2009)

  Trailer · Official

Community reviews

What people are saying

• CinemaSerf2024-07-18
  ★ 7/10

  Sixteen year old "Jenny" (Carey Mulligan) lives with her aspiring, middle class, parents "Jack" (Alfred Molina) and "Marjorie" (Cara Seymour) whose only real desire in life is for her to study at Oxford University. This is and has been her sole focus throughout her childhood, until, that is - she encounters the dashing "David" (Peter Skarsgard). He's easily twice her age but is so much more stimulating than her schoolboy friend "Graham" (Matthew Beard). This isn't a sweep her off her feet relationship, he gradually engages her in conversation and finds they share common interests. He makes her feel special, interesting, grown up - and when he introduces her to his friends "Danny" (Dominic Cooper) and "Helen" (Rosamund Pike) she starts to feel like the proper fourth wheel on a social wagon that's truly exhilarating. Needless to say, her schoolwork starts to suffer - much to the chagrin of her teacher (Olivia Williams) and, like we all were at that age, there's no telling her that her short term path is not necessarily in her long term interests. As the film develops, we discover that though harmless enough, "David" and his pal are a pair of cads who make their living legally, but maybe just a little immorally - and when "Jenny" discovers that he has one whopping great (if predictable) skeleton in his closet, she has to put her new found maturity to good use. There's something very natural not just about Mulligan's performance here, but also about her burgeoning relationship with a man who knows just which buttons to press. He's not a nasty man, he has no agenda to get her straight into bed, indeed he seems just as dependent on having this young woman around to make him feel alive as she does him; and those characterisations proves quite effective. The star for me, though, was probably Molina. He portrays almost perfectly a father whose dreams for his daughter partnered with his own middle-class mores leaves him caught between his paternal instincts to protect his daughter and his ambitions that she live a better, more fulfilled, life than he. It does run out of steam a little at the end, but then again I'm not quite sure how I would have wanted it to conclude without copping out - one way or another, so maybe it is for the best. It looks classy, the 1960s cars, costumes and soundtrack see to that and it's well worth a watch,

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• 

  BBC Film

  GB

• 

  Wildgaze Films

  GB

• 

  Endgame Entertainment

  US

Key crew

• EditorBarney Pilling
• CastingLucy Bevan
• Production DesignAndrew McAlpine
• Property MasterTerry Woods
• ProducerAmanda Posey
• ProducerFinola Dwyer
• Set DecorationAnna Lynch-Robinson
• Still PhotographerKerry Brown
• Script SupervisorCaroline O'Reilly
• Music SupervisorKle Savidge
• Location ManagerCamilla Stephenson
• Executive ProducerJames D. Stern
• Executive ProducerWendy Japhet
• Executive ProducerDavid M. Thompson
• Executive ProducerJamie Laurenson
• Executive ProducerNick Hornby
• Executive ProducerDouglas Hansen
• Art DirectionBen Smith
• Line ProducerCaroline Levy
• Dialogue EditorNina Hartstone
• Dialogue EditorGillian Dodders
• Sound SupervisorGlenn Freemantle
• Costume DesignOdile Dicks-Mireaux
• Costume SupervisorAmanda Keable

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• adolescence
• parent child relationship
• age difference
• self-discovery
• coming of age
• love
• based on memoir or autobiography
• love affair
• family
• woman director
• teenage life
• cautionary

Release history · US

When it landed

• Premiere2009-01-18· Sundance Film Festival
• Theatrical2009-10-30PG-13

Also known as

International titles

• EducaçãoBR