Film / News
Bristol-shot Julian Barnes adaptation hits the big screen
Filmed on location in Bristol and London over seven weeks back in August and September 2015, The Sense of an Ending is the eagerly anticipated adaptation of Julian Barnes’s 2011 Man Booker Prize winning novel of the same title. Something of a male-oriented counterpart to Iain McEwan’s Atonement, it’s an exploration of selective memory and how the past can weigh heavily on the present, unfolding in two time frames.
The great Jim Broadbent stars as curmudgeonly, divorced and solitary Tony Webster, who finds himself forced to confront flawed recollections of his younger self. This is sparked by the arrival of a lawyer’s letter telling him that the mother of Veronica, his girlfriend at Bristol University back in the sixties, has bequeathed him a diary. It was written by his best friend, Adrian, who dated Veronica after the couple split up. Now all the deceit, heartbreak and guilt comes flooding back as Tony faces up to the devastating consequences of his actions all those years ago.
is needed now More than ever
Charlotte Rampling is cast as the adult Veronica, while Downton Abbey‘s Michelle Dockery plays his pregnant lesbian daughter. Freya Mavor (Mini McGuinness in Skins) and Billy Howle are the young Veronica and Tony in the Bristol scenes. The novel is adapted by playwright Nick Payne, this being his first screenplay, and directed by Ritesh Batra, whose 2013 debut feature The Lunchbox was nominated for a BAFTA.
The Sense of an Ending opens nationwide on April 14. Keep an eye on our comprehensive film listings for details.
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