The intersection of technology and culture may be the main focus of SXSW London, but that’s not to say there isn’t room for a splash of old fashioned period rom-com in the lineup.
On the first day of the Austin spinoff’s second edition in London, “Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day” served as the opening night curtain raiser of the film strand, with the cast and crew in attendance for the well-received world premiere at the Barbican Centre.
Among those on the red carpet and on stage before and after the special screening were stars Haley Bennett, Jack Whitehall and Timothy Spall, plus producer and writer Justine Waddell and director Tina Ghavari.
Set in 1910 and based on Woolf’s novel, “Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day” follows eager astronomer Katharine (Bennett), doing everything she can to avoid love and marriage to focus on her two passions: the stars and Cambridge University. However, when her controlling father (Spall) tries to push her away from her scientific pursuits and into marriage with old family friend William (Whitehall), the headstrong young woman stands up to expectations forced on her by getting involved in the Suffragette movement, spearheaded by the inspirational, straight-talking Mary (Lily Allen).
“I didn’t know that Virginia Woolf could be wacky,” Waddell told the audience after the premiere. “And I just found that endearing — that comic energy was something I fell in love with. Tina Ghavari and I discussed this kind of comic teen energy a lot when I was working on the adaptation and talking about John Hughes as a major reference and films like ’16 Candles’ and ‘The Breakfast Cup’ — they have this rebellious teen energy that you don’t really ever see in a costume drama.”
“Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day” is being released by Vue Lumiere in the U.K. and was recently acquired by Quiver from the U.S.
The film was produced by Waddell, Christopher Figg, Meg Thomson, Stephen Julius, Julie Link and Philipp Steffens, with co-producers Annegret Weitkämper-Krug, Sebastian Leutner and Marc Gabizon, and executive producers Egor Noskov, Margarethe Baillou, Lara Ta, Nadya Gorshkova, Elena Simone, Anke Klesper, Enzo Zelocchi, Konstantin Korenchuk, Saskia Thomas, Ian Hutchinson, Richard Swift, Marc Grewe, Gayle Woodruffe and Alison Gwynn.
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