Film In Focus: DRIVING LESSONS

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Wednesday, October 18----Rupert Grint (of HARRY POTTER fame) stars as a shy teenage boy in this comedic coming-of-age drama reminiscent of the 1970s cult hit HAROLD AND MAUDE. Oscar-nominated actress Laura Linney, one of our finest film stars, gives another terrific performance as the boy's domineering mother, who continues to exert an influence on him as a way of holding on to him. The boy learns independence and a sense of self when he begins to work for a retired actress, played by Oscar nominee Julie Walters.

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Jeremy Brown, who directed and also wrote the engaging script, is the hottest writer in UK film these days, having just penned the current arthouse hit THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND, which features a performance by Forrest Whitaker as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin that is generating Oscar buzz.

Brown previously wrote the scripts for CHARLOTTE GRAY (2001), a World War II drama directed by Gillian Armstrong and starring Cate Blanchett, and HER MAJESTY, MRS. BROWN (1997), a historical drama starring Dame Judi Dench as the imperious Queen Victoria. Jeremy Brock was nominated for BAFTA Awards for that film, and won the Evening Standard British Film Award that year.

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His latest, DRIVING LESSONS, won the Grand Jury Prize at the Moscow International Film Festival, where Julie Walters also copped the prize for Best Actress. The film has since been screened at film festival events in Dublin, Cannes, Edinburgh, London, Rio and Rome, and will be released in theaters later this year by arthouse distributor Sony Pictures Classics.

[img_assist|nid=1252|title=|desc=|link=node|align=block|width=135|height=90]Julie Walters

South Florida audiences will have two chances to catch this funny and endearing film. DRIVING LESSONS screens on Saturday, October 21 at 5:00pm and again on Sunday, October 22 at 7:00pm at Cinema Paradiso.

Two bits of trivia: Director Jeremy Brock chose Rupert Grint for the leading role was because he felt that he had bee underused in the third and fourth installments of the HARRY POTTER franchise. When filming, Grint was only 16 which meant it was illegal for him to drive (the legal age in the UK is 17), so they had to film his driving scenes in private roads.

Sandy Mandelberger

Festivals Editor