Lately I had been losing my appetite watching TV cable movies. They play mostly Hollywood or some typical shallow flicks which make me bored. In order to satisfy the need of watching quality movies, I used to go to the computer. This morning I woke up with the hope of enjoying another Pedro Almodóvar's, and there I found my brother was playing some games with the desktop. I postponed the intention, then grabbed a remote control to check on the TV cables. Luckily it was not so bad with the movies today.
"An Education" is a movie which caught my attention. The BBC production was released in
Sundance Festival 2009, but I cannot remember it has reached Indonesia's cinemas up to now. I deplore it happened as the British film might inspire us, not girls not yet women of Indonesia. I believe that traditional culture teaches us females to be good wives ignoring other field that we are good at. I mean no matter how skillful we are at something, the ultimate goal is to find the princes charming, affluent ones of course, pleasure them, be married, have a good life, then raise children. With this old-fashioned paradigm, most of my girlfriends, who attended university, hold the plan of getting married soon after the graduation. If that is what we meant to be, why do us women need high education?
This movie, which is written based on British writer Lynn Barber's early life, pictures the case perfectly. Sixteen-year-old bright high school student Jenny Mellor wants to be a writer and go to Oxford University. The dream blurs when she meets David, a man whose age is twice of hers, offering a life fairy tale ending. A high class classic music concert, expensive auctioned painting, glamorous outfits, and a trip to Paris are what Jenny could only dream of before. Then comes David arresting her heart with such fortune, including an engagement ring in the end. David impresses her parents too. He convinces that it is okay for Jenny leaving her Oxford dream behind to marry him. The only side who against it is school, thus she leaves it. When she finds out that David is a married man, she goes back to the lane she was before, the education.
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| The young Lynn Barber |
Directed by Lone Scherfig and written by Nick Hornby, the story takes place in the early 60s in England. It is a pre-Beatles era after the World War II, when England was poor and did not do very well like US, as the writer says "Over there, it was all about Cadillacs. Here in Britain, we were still waiting for a bus.” The flick also reveals the cultural revolution with Jenny parents' (played by Alfred Molina and Cara Seymour) struggling and uptight 50s custom facing their daughter's young 'swinging 60s' invasion. I believe this is my favourite cultural scene too as I was entertained that much by the architecture and fashion.
The
three Oscars nominated film, including the best motion picture of the year, rockets the young actress Carey Mulligan as Jenny and Peter Sarsgaard as David. Mulligan herself wins some film awards through her acting success, with the help from the more senior actress like Emma Thompson, Olivia Williams, and Rosamund Pike.
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| The naive school girl Jenny |
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| David (right) impresses the Mellors |
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| David and Jenny in Paris |
I know the story happens a lot in women's life. We are blinded by love and think that he is our only world. However, at some point we need to choose which way would take us to be a person we want to be. What I know now that I will not giving up my dream and I need education to support it and keep me independent. So, I don't recommend you young ladies to cut your dream out of your life. We are on our own in the university of life, where there are no books nor teachers to give us lesson.What I'm saying is that we need to keep doing something we love and are good at, while the princes charming are the blessings who will come to you in the right moment.
