tMF | The Movie-Fanatic

Someone recently said, "The cash is in America, in Hollywood to be exact, but the talents are here in Britain". I don't know if you'll agree, but it seems to me, when Hollywood is looking for the next big star, many turn to the U.K. It's a veritable gold mine of talents - James McAvoy, Ben Whishaw, Emily Blunt, Andrew Garfield, Jamie Bell and now Carey Mulligan.

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Poised to become this year's most celebrated young actress, Carey Mulligan, will be seen in four high-profile films - Michael Mann's crime-drama Public Enemies (with Johnny Depp), Jim Sheridan's much-anticipated film Brothers (featuring Jake Gyllenhaal, Tobey Maguire and Natalie Portman), Shana Feste's The Greatest and Mark Romanek's Never Let Me Go, where Mulligan will act alongside Keira Knightley, Sally Hawkins, and Charlotte Rampling.

Introducing... !: As this year's UK representative in EFP's European Shooting Stars, there can be no better introduction for Carey Mulligan. Born in 1985, Carey has already appeared on stage on both sides of the Atlantic. After some notable performances on television, the 23-year old actress went on to act alongside some of cinema's most talented. Says the actress::

I was born in London, lived in Germany until I was 8. My father ran hotels. And then back. Now I’m just outside London. I acted all the way through school. My first job was Pride and Prejudice when I was 18 turning 19, and then I just carried on after that.

More of Carey Mulligan and clips from her movie, An Education, right after the jump!

Rotten Tomatoes' Joe Utichi puts Ms. Mulligan's career in perspective:

A ferocious appetite for acting seems to inspire Mulligan to work so hard, and it's clearly paying off. This year her co-stars include Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman, Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina, Susan Sarandon and Pierce Brosnan. And all indications are that she holds her own alongside such seasoned thesps, delivering performances that belie her short CV.

It's April 2008, and RT has come to the West London set of An Education to meet Mulligan. Her passion for her craft is immediately obvious - when we arrive she has her head buried in a script, emerging occasionally to seek advice from her director and co-stars and laugh and joke with the whole crew. She has the good sense to enjoy what she's doing, and that seems to give her the necessary confidence to deliver as a performer. Most would be intimidated by the starry names around them -- Mulligan seems to be thrilled by the opportunity to learn from them. [ read more ]

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Says Killian Fox @The Guardian:

If there was one big revelation at Sundance this year, it was Carey Mulligan. She was the "belle" of the festival, according to Harvey Weinstein, and her easy grace and gamine good looks had misty-eyed pundits making reference to Audrey Hepburn. The 23-year-old has been on British radars for a while - she played Ada Clare in the excellent BBC serialisation of Bleak House in 2005 - but her turn in An Education is about to propel her to international fame.Mulligan plays a smart Twickenham schoolgirl coming of age in the early 1960s via a relationship with an older man (Peter Sarsgaard).

An Education is based on a short memoir by Lynn Barber, adapted by Nick Hornby and directed by Lone Scherfig. The film, and Mulligan's "captivating" performance, garnered ecstatic reviews at Sundance and Berlin... [ read more ]

But these write-ups mean so little to me, and to the general movie-going public. Unless, they have seen her perform, I don't think we can rely solely on what film writers and reporters have to say.

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Selected Clips from An Education: After watching a few clips from the movie 'An Education', I would have to say, she is indeed a revelation! I don't think I have been this excited about a young actress, except when I watched Natalie Portman in Leon. Take a look! ( Clips originally seen from EFP's European shooting stars) Wait for the scene where she argues with Emma Thompson, who is the Headmistress of her school.

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Insights from Nick Hornby: The screenwriter has a blog and it has a lot of fascinating posts. I think this excerpt would really complement my article:

One of the points – the chief point – of premiering the film at Sundance is to try and sell the film to an American distributor. ‘An Education’ was made without any distribution already in place, which means that there was no guarantee that anyone would ever see it in a cinema, a fate that befalls a surprisingly large number of movies. To our delight, we had sold it for UK release shortly before the festival, but the US financiers need American distribution. It’s not our problem, but of course we all want it too: it’s been made for people to watch, on a big screen.

Everything I had read in the trade press about Sundance in the run-up to the Festival contained dire warnings about the economy’s impact on sales; nobody was expecting much to happen. Our sales agents were confident that they’d get something, but they thought it would take time, that distributors would need to see all the movies before committing themselves to one or two. We were prepared not to hear anything for a week or two.  But when we get to the strange and rather cheerless village hall that is our post-film party venue, we hear that an offer has already been made. We are jubilant. It turns out that it is a very bad offer – insulting, even, if you know enough to be insulted, which I don’t. So I remain jubilant, like an idiot. [ read more ]

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This outstanding young British actress has already worked with an impressive roster of directors, and her versatility and zest for life underline her multifaceted talent.

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The Last Word: Says the actress regarding her experience in filming 'An Education':

It was the best filming experience of my career. Lone is only interested in telling the story as well as we can, working with her is about the story and nothing else and she has an amazing sense of humour and passion for her work. We were so lucky as Nick is the partner of one of our producers Amanda Posey so we could call him up at 3am and talk to him about the script. I have read every single one of Nick’s books and was so happy to have got to work with him.

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You may want to visit Carey's first fansite - it has a lot of great articles and info.

What's on your mind? Are you a fan of Carey Mulligan? Have you seen her films? Which are your favorites? Let us know what you think!

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