Project Detail

Metroland

Name: Metroland
Director: Philip Saville
Released: 1998
Duration: 100 mins

Synopsis

Chris and Toni have grown up together in suburban London in the early sixties. In an age full of angry young men they excel in their rebellion against the values of middle England and dream of the jazz clubs and boulevards of Paris. Trapped in 'Metroland', the suburban sprawl at the end of the London Underground's Metropolitan Line they were the best of friends.

By the end of the sixties both have escaped. Toni has disappeared to Africa while Chris is working in Paris and living with Annick, a liberated young French woman who embodies the freedom he dreamed of as a young man. His early hopes seem to have been fulfilled, but then he meets Marion, a young English girl. He falls in love and returns to London and the suburban life.

Nine years later, in 1977, Chris is happily married to Marion, back in Metroland with a young daughter. Then one day Toni returns from his travels. He has seen the world but has never settled down and cannot believe his friend has fallen into the life they so fully rejected.

Fired by the energy of Punk and the freedom of the seventies, he tries to show Chris that there is still a lot of adventure to be had in life, and that he is too young to settle down. Drawn to his friend, Chris starts to doubt the certainties he has built his life upon and starts to question the choices he has made. Then one night at a party he meets another woman and for the first time puts his marriage at risk.

Details

Year: 1998
Type of project: Features
Running time: 100 mins
Format: 35mm Kodak
Director: Philip Saville
Producer: Andrew Bendel
Director of Photography: Jean-François Robin
Principal cast: Christian Bale, Emily Watson, Lee Ross and Elsa Zylberstein
Screen Writer: Adrian Hodges

Production Status

Complete

Production Company

Blue Horizon (Metroland) Ltd 5th Floor 35 Soho Square London W1V 5DG Tel: 020 7434 2467 Fax: 020 7434 2476

Sales Company

Pandora Cinema SA 7 rue Keppler 75116 Paris France Tel: 1 40 70 90 91 Fax: 1 40 70 90 91

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