Out of Competition 2001 / Bridget Jones´s Diary / USA 2001
Bridget Jones is a slightly rounder thirty-rear-old who has two seemingly simple and attainable dreams: she wants to drop a few pounds and find a real relationship. She starts keeping a diary, it’s pages swarm with calamities. She falls in love with her good-looking boss only to soon find out that she’s just something on the side: his steady gal is both thin and rich. In her disappointment she gives notice at the publishing house where she’s been quite happy, and plunges headlong into a career as a television reporter – a profession, she finds out, which involves far more than merely smiles and success. Out of the blue her mother, who was always willing to do anything for her daughter’s happiness (read ‘to help her get married’), begins promoting a certain old suitor, while her father looks on silently with a tragic expression on his face. But Bridget doesn’t need even well-meant advice since she’s feeling like a regular ball of fire. At least she’s got a bottle of her favourite Chardonnay close at hand and a pack of cigarettes.
97 min / Black & white, 35 mm
Director Sharon Maguire
/ Screenplay Helen Fielding, Andrew Davies, Richard Curtis
/ Dir. of Photography Stuart Dryburgh
/ Music Patrick Doyle
/ Editor Martin Walsh
/ Producer Helen Fielding
/ Production Universal Studios, Studio Canal, Miramax International., Working Title
/ Cast René Zellweger, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, Jim Broadbent, Gemma Jones, Sally Phillips, Shirley Henderson, James Callis, Embeth Davidtz, Celia Imrie
Sharon Maguire (b. 1961, Coventry) worked from 1991 to 1993 as a producer for the BBC’s The Late Show. Later she made a series of noteworthy television documentaries, of which The Godfather (1994), about American architect Philip Johnson, was awarded at a festival in Montreal, Rumer Godden: An Indian Affair (1995) was nominated for an Emmy, and H. G. Wells: Parts 1 and 2 was one of the top finalists for the Royal Television Society award. She has also worked on commercials for prominent clients. Then, after Helen Fielding entrusted the film adaptation of her book to Maguire’s hands, Bridget Jones’s Diary became her feature debut. It was a lucky choice because the director manifest an exceptional sensitivity not only towards directing drama but also sharp and dry British humour. Her debut may become the most successful British comedy of all time.
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