ST TRINIAN’S (2007)

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Oliver Parker and Barnaby Thompson

SCREENWRITER: Piers Ashworth and Nick Moorcroft

FILM STARS: Talulah Riley, Rupert Everett, Jodie Whittaker, Gemma Arterton, Kathryn Drysdale, Juno Temple, Antonia Bernath, Amara Karan, Tamsin Egerton, Lily Cole, Paloma Faith, Holli Mckee, Cloi Mckee, Russell Brand, Lena Headey, Toby Jones, Colin Firth, Mischa Barton, Stephen Fry

COUNTRY: Britain

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: Pippa Le Quesne

TYPE: Novelisation

PUBLISHER: Penguin

THIS EDITION

PUBLISHED: 2008

COUNTRY: Australia

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: Ronald Searle

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1950s

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: St. Trinian’s School series of books (Hurrah for St Trinian’s (1948), The Female Approach (1950), Back to the Slaughterhouse (1952), The Terror of St Trinians or Angela’s Prince Charming (1952), Souls in Torment (1953))

NOTES

GENRE: Satire

WORDS: Sometimes you look at the books you have and think, how did that get there?

That is the case here

A pretty ordinary film which will not lead me to read the novelisation.

The Girls of St Trinian’s films are a British comedy institution much like, though not as good as, the “Carry On” or “Doctor” films.

St Trinian’s originated as a British gag cartoon comic strip series, created and drawn by Ronald Searle which ran from 1946 until 1952. Interestingly Searle’s first St Trinians cartoon was draw in 1941. He subsequently went to war and was captured and a prisoner of the Japanese. The cartoons that came out after the war were, perhaps understandably, darker.

The setting, the St Trinian’s school, is a madhouse. The teachers are sadists and the girls are juvenile delinquents. The humour is anti authorian and barbed. “Cartoons often showed dead bodies of girls who had been murdered with pitchforks or succumbed to violent team sports, sometimes with vultures circling; girls drank, gambled and smoked”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Trinian%27s_School

The cartoon strip was popular.

Films followed starting with The Belles of St. Trinian’s in 1954, with sequels in Blue Murder at St Trinian’s (1957), The Pure Hell of St Trinian’s (1960), The Great St. Trinian’s Train Robbery (1966), The Wildcats of St Trinian’s (1980).

The 50s films are fun if for no other reason than the casts are a who’s who of British supporting players and comedians of the time. The satirical extremities of the cartoon strip aren’t attempted (or have ever been on film from what I have seen) and are replaced with good natured cheekiness (especially sexual,  which became cheekier as they went on).

St Trinian’s is depicted as an girls’ school where the younger girls wreak havoc, act like delinquents whilst the anti authorian older girls express their femininity and sexuality overtly, by turning their modest shapeless schoolgirl dresses into sexy and risqué outfits (by the standards of the times) and by smoking and carry on like boys etc. In the films the school became embroiled in various shady enterprises, thanks mainly to the headmistress trying to save the school from being shut down, and the activities of the girl students (who  are the wayward offspring of gangsters, bookies etc).

The 2007 film I watched because I like Rupert Everett and Colin Firth … even since I saw Another Country (1984) in the cinema whilst I was at Uni (and it looked as if Rupert was going to be the bigger star). Both are great actors and clearly friends and are always watchable … and though they are both slumming it here and not stretching themselves this film is still hard work.

The film is called a “reboot” (why can’t they just say “remake”?) and not a sequel as the story about trying to save the school was the basis of the first film from 1954.

Rupert Everett plays the female headmistress (the reboot / remake continues the tradition, established by Alastair Sim in the original film, of casting a male actor to play the female headmistress) and Colin Firth plays (in a large supporting role) the education minister (who has a romantic history with the headmistress). There are many familiar faces (but names sometimes unknown) amongst the girls – Gemma Arterton, Tamsin Egerton, Talulah Riley, Juno Temple – as well as comic turns from more well known actors and celebrities – Jodie Whittaker, Lena Headey, Stephen Fry, Russell Brand, Toby Jones.

Despite this it is all loud, obvious and noisy with a “punky” (the girls are rebellious remember) rock soundtrack and a digital video feel. The earlier films (specifically the 50s ones) were the same in tone but their era wasn’t as loud, noisy or obvious, and to us, watching them now they are well (but cheaply) made sometimes charming time capsules of an era. The girls are tomboyish and run amok but are still female. Their antics clash or rather complement the school administration who drive the story. There are chuckles to be had. Contrary to that, this 2007 film concentrates more on the girls than the administration and teaching staff. Which is, perhaps, a mistake though, empowered youth movies were all the rage in the 2000s so it makes sense money wise. The film becomes just noise and random mayhem with kick arse all knowing women, err schoolgirls. It buys into the schoolgirl fetish (as did the earlier films) with only a minor nod to changing mainstream attitudes. The girls are both 21st century empowered and in your face and girls that inhabited teen T&A films of the 80s and earlier. The schoolgirl actors here were all (mainly) in their 20s or late teens and not of school age and act it. So, it is okay to look, or is it? Ultimately, though, that is the problem. The film wants to update the girls but also feed off what made them popular in the past. A cake and eat it too story.

The author of the novelisation, Pippa Le Quesne, writes books for young teen girls.

The film was successful enough to have a sequel, St Trinian’s 2: The Legend of Fritton’s Gold (2009), hich had much the same cast.

LINKS

TRAILER

the English trailer

the US trailer