St Trinian's is a 2007 British comedy film and the sixth in a long-running series of British films based on the works of cartoonist Ronald Searle set in St Trinian's School. The first five films form a series, starting with The Belles of St Trinian's in 1954, with sequels in 1957, 1960, 1966 and 1980. The release of 2007, 27 years after the last entry, and 53 years after the first film, is a rebooting of the franchise, rather than a direct sequel, with certain plot elements borrowed from the first film.
Whereas the earlier films concentrated on the adults, this film gives the school pupils greater prominence. St Trinian's is an anarchic school for uncontrollable girls run by eccentric headmistress Camilla Dagey Fritton (the reboot continues the tradition, established by Alastair Sim in the original film, of casting a male actor to play the female headmistress, with Rupert Everett inheriting the role).
St Trinian's received mixed reviews but remains one of the highest grossing British independent films of the last thirty years.
Video St Trinian's (film)
Plot
Annabelle Fritton, an uptight daddy's girl, unwillingly transfers to St Trinian's from the distinguished Cheltenham Ladies' College at the request of her father, Carnaby Fritton. Annabelle is clearly different and doesn't fit in, telling her father that the school is "like Hogwarts for pikeys". She is taken around the school by Kelly Jones, the head girl, who introduces her to the various cliques within the school.
On her first night, Annabelle is pranked by the girls, resulting in a video of her running around the school naked being broadcast live on the internet. She calls her father to pick her up, but he pretends to have bad phone reception so he can stay at a bar. Annabelle is drafted to the hockey team when she hits her phone with her hockey stick, smashing a statue. The girls of St Trinian's are involved in business with spiv Flash Harry, who pays them to make cheap vodka. Flash is shown to be romantically interested in Kelly, who initially turns him down.
The Cheltenham Ladies' College hockey team arrive at St Trinian's, along with Education Minister Geoffrey Thwaites. Thwaites is shown to have romantic history with the headmistress of St Trinian's, Camilla Fritton. Annabelle is forced to face her former bullies, including captain Verity Thwaites. The hockey match is violent, ending in Kelly shooting a winning goal for St Trinian's, which is followed by a brawl between the two schools. As the match is being played, Thwaites inspects the school, finding the illegal vodka-making business and the chatline being run by the Posh Totty clique.
The following morning, a banker arrives at the school and serves Camilla with a foreclosure notice, as the school owes the bank in excess of £500,000 and has ignored six previous final demands. A subsequent meeting between Camilla and Carnaby is watched by the girls using hidden cameras, in which Carnaby confesses his distaste towards his daughter. Annabelle is clearly upset, despite Camilla defending her. Carnaby encourages Camilla to turn the school into a boutique hotel, telling her that "when this school closes down, you'll have lost everything. More importantly, so will I."
Kelly and Flash work with the students to devise a plan to save the school. They must get into the final of School Challenge, a TV quiz show held in the National Gallery in London, as a cover for stealing Vermeer's "Girl With a Pearl Earring". Chelsea, Peaches and Chloe (the Posh Totty clique) are chosen as the School Challenge Team. By cheating in every round, they make it to the grand final. As the final is being filmed, Kelly, Taylor and Andrea manage to steal the painting, with help from the Geeks, as well as Annabelle and Camilla.
Camilla paints an exact copy of the painting and has Flash, posing as a German art dealer, sell it to Carnaby in a black market deal. The school then receives a further £50,000 reward for returning the real painting to the National Gallery. The loans are able to be repaid and the school is saved.
Maps St Trinian's (film)
Cast
- Gemma Arterton as Kelly Opossum Jones, the Head Girl
- Rupert Everett as Miss Camilla Dagey Fritton, St Trinian's Headmistress
- Everett also plays Carnaby Fritton, Camilla's brother and Annabelle's father
- Colin Firth as Geoffrey Thwaites, the Education Minister
- Russell Brand as Flash Harry, the spiv
- Tamsin Egerton as Chelsea Parker, Posh Totty #1
- Antonia Bernath as Chloe, Posh Totty #2
- Amara Karan as Peaches, Posh Totty #3
- Paloma Faith as Andrea, the Emo
- Juno Temple as Celia, the "Trustafarian" one
- Kathryn Drysdale as Taylor, the Chav
- Lily Cole as Polly, the Geek
- Cloe and Holly Mackie as Tara & Tania, the Twins
- Lena Headey as Miss Dickinson, the English Teacher
- Fenella Woolgar as Miss Cleaver, the Sports Teacher
- Theo Cross as the Art Teacher
- Caterina Murino as Miss Maupassant, the Foreign Languages Teacher
- Jodie Whittaker as Beverly, the receptionist
- Toby Jones as St Trinian's Bursar
- Talulah Riley as Annabelle Fritton
- Celia Imrie as St Trinian's Matron
- Stephen Fry as Himself, the School Challenge presenter
- Anna Chancellor as Miss Bagstock, Cheltenham's Headmistress
- Lucy Punch as Verity Thwaites, the Minister's daughter, and Cheltenham's school bully
- Mischa Barton as JJ French, the PR Guru, and previous Head Girl
- Steve Furst as Bank Manager
- Dolly the Dog as Mr Darcy, the school's dog
The members of Girls Aloud (Nicola Roberts, Kimberley Walsh, Sarah Harding, Nadine Coyle and Cheryl Fernandez-Versini) all make cameo appearances as the members of St Trinian's school band, and cameos in the film itself. Zöe Salmon also makes a cameo as an emo girl, while Nathaniel Parker, the director's real life brother, makes a short appearance as the Chairman of the National Gallery. Newscaster Jeremy Thompson also briefly appears, as himself.
Music
The film's score was composed by Charlie Mole.
Soundtrack
The film's soundtrack was released on 10 December 2007, via Universal Music Group. The album featured two original songs by British pop group Girls Aloud, including the single, "Theme to St. Trinian's". A music video for the song was released to promote the film and soundtrack.
The film's cast also recorded the theme, as well as a cover of Shampoo's "Trouble". A music video of the cast performing "Trouble" was also released. Rupert Everett and Colin Firth, who star in the film, recorded the John Paul Young song "Love Is in the Air". A number of popular singles or current album tracks by artists, such as Mark Ronson, Lily Allen, Noisettes, Gabriella Cilmi, and Sugababes, were included on the soundtrack.
- Track listing
Filming locations
- Park Place, Remenham, Berkshire, England (St Trinian's school)
- Ealing Studios, Ealing, London, England
- London, England
- Oxfordshire, England
- The National Gallery, London, England, (exteriors, The National Gallery)
- Trafalgar Square, St James's, London, England
Release
St Trinian's premiered in London on 10 December 2007, and was theatrically released on 21 December 2007 by Entertainment Film Distributors.
Box office
The film grossed £12,042,854 in the United Kingdom, surpassing its £7 million production budget. As of 18 July 2010, the film had grossed a worldwide total of $29,066,483. It was the fifth highest-grossing film during the Christmas season of 2007, behind Enchanted, I Am Legend, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem and The Golden Compass. It ranks in the top grossing independent British films of the past decade.
Critical reception
St Trinian's received mixed reviews. Empire wrote that the film "fuse[s] an understanding of what made the originals great with a modern feel - the writers have fulfilled their end of the bargain, even tweaking some of the weaker points of the original story."
The Observer wrote that it "is raucous, leering, crude and, to my mind, largely misjudged, with Rupert Everett playing Miss Fritton as a coquettish transvestite with the manners of a Mayfair madam. The attempts to shock us fail, though Cheltenham Ladies College may well be affronted to hear one of its teachers say 'between you and I'. But the preview was packed with girls aged from seven to 14 who found it hilarious, and especially enjoyed Russell Brand."
Derek Malcolm, in The Evening Standard, wrote: "Structurally, the new movie is a mess, and it doesn't look too convincing either, with cinematography that uses all sorts of old-fashioned dodges to raise a laugh", and "when you look at it again, the old film was not only superior but rather more radical. This St Trinian's looks as if it is aiming at the lowest common denominator, and finding it too often."
On the film-critics aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, St Trinian's holds a 31% positive rating, with the consensus "Both naughtier and campier than Ronald Searle's original postwar series, this St. Trinian's leans on high jinks instead of performances or witty dialogue."
Home media
St Trinian's was released on DVD on 14 April 2008 by Entertainment in Video.
Awards
Sequels
It was announced at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival that the sequel, The Legend of Fritton's Gold, also directed by Parker and Thompson, would be released in 2009. Filming began on 6 July 2009, and on 7 July 2009, it was announced that David Tennant, Sarah Harding and Montserrat Lombard had all signed on to appear in the sequel.
In December 2009, it was announced that there will be a third installment, entitled Battle of the Sexes. However, as of August 2018, no cast or release date has been confirmed for the third instalment. It has been assumed the film is cancelled.
References
External links
- Official website
- St Trinian's on IMDb
- St Trinian's at AllMovie
- St Trinian's at Rotten Tomatoes
- St Trinian's at Metacritic
- St Trinian's at NeoClassics Films
Source of article : Wikipedia
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