Notes on a Scandal (2006)

Director:

Richard Eyre

Writers (WGA):

Patrick Marber (screenplay)
Zoe Heller (novel)

Release Date:

5 January 2007 (Canada)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

One Woman's Mistake Is Another's Opportunity...

Plot:

A veteran high school teacher befriends a younger art teacher, who is having an affair with one of her 15-year-old students. However, her intentions with this new "friend" also go well beyond platonic friendship.

Plot Keywords:

Lesbian Interest | Friendship | Opportunism | Extramarital Affair | Lurid

Awards:

Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 10 wins & 35 nominations

Cast

Judi Dench	...	Barbara Covett
Cate Blanchett	...	Sheba Hart
Tom Georgeson	...	Ted Mawson
Michael Maloney	...	Sandy Pabblem
Joanna Scanlan	...	Sue Hodge
Shaun Parkes	...	Bill Rumer
Emma Kennedy	...	Linda
Syreeta Kumar	...	Gita
Andrew Simpson	...	Steven Connolly
Philip Davis	...	Brian Bangs (as Phil Davis)
Wendy Nottingham	...	Elaine Clifford
Tameka Empson	...	Antonia Robinson
Leon Skinner	...	Davis
Bill Nighy	...	Richard Hart
Juno Temple	...	Polly Hart

MPAA:

Rated R for language and some aberrant sexual content.

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS | SDDS

Certification:

USA:R | South Korea:18 | Canada:14A (Ontario) | Brazil:14 | Singapore:M18 | Japan:R-15 | Netherlands:12 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | Australia:MA | Ireland:16 | Argentina:16 | Malaysia:18PL (DVD) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Portugal:M/16 (Qualidade) | UK:15 | Finland:K-15 | Germany:12 | New Zealand:M

Filming Locations:

Cavendish Hotel, Grand Parade, Eastbourne, East Sussex, England, UK

Company:

BBC Films

Trivia:

The LP that Steven picks up in Sheba's workshop is "Kaleidoscope" by Siouxsie and the Banshees (1980). The band's song that plays over the scene, however, is "Dizzy", which was first released as a new track on a "Best of" compilation in 2002.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Barbara goes to lunch at Sheba and Richard's house, Richard is sitting in the front room with her and holding a glass of wine. As they're talking, Ben comes running into the room and jumps on Richard whose wine glass is now on the table in front of him. There doesn't appear to have been enough time for him to put the glass down.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Barbara Covett: [voiceover of Barbara writing in her diary] People trust me with their secrets. But who do I trust with mine? You, only you.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The 64th Annual Golden Globe Awards (2007) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Dizzy

State of the art acting by Dench, Blanchett and Nighy

What a treat to watch three of the best actors of our time in the same movie! Judy Dench is an international treasure; Cate Blanchett never looked better or created a more compelling character in any of her other movies, and I had the good fortune to discover Bill Nighy on Broadway in "The Vertical Hour" with Julianne Moore the night before I saw "Notes from a Scandal," and I now want to see everything he's done. A superlative creator of character. "Notes from a Scandal" tells us a lot about the "British" penchant for relishing "scandals" (they invented the tabloid press) and also about the odd, intersecting relationships that have become a nearly commonplace reality in the contemporary world. Both Blanchett and Dench (as Sheba and Barbara) teach at the same Islington secondary school. And both, in very different ways, embark on "inappropriate" relationships that create turmoil in their lives and the lives of their community. Judy Dench conveys the desperate loneliness of her character's life and a remarkable scene of her smoking a cigarette in a bathtub conveys the distinction between her kind of loneliness--an older, unattractive, single woman with no real connections in life--and the more endurable kinds of loneliness that many of us share. This is a gripping film that moves crisply from one scene to the next, missing only a very few beats along the way. A must see.