To "A" or not to "A"...

 Some of you may recall the film 10 Things I Hate About You, which I showed a few weeks ago, and which adapts Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew to an American High School. 

At the time, I noted that there have been so many High School adaptations of the classics, the concept has practically become a sub-genre in its own right. There have been High School re-workings of Othello, Cyrano de Bergerac, The Crucible, Twelfth Night, and the story of Faust, to name but a few. 

I think I said at the time that I could almost put together an entire film series consisting of nothing but High School re-makes of the classics (I believe I said that just before I promised I would never actually do so).

There is however one more High School film I would like to show as part of this series. Not Shakespeare this time, but a modern version of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. 


The Scarlet Letter was published in 1850, but takes place in the 1640s. It tells the story of Hester Prynne, a young woman who has a child out of wedlock and who must endure harsh judgement and reprimand from a highly puritanical Massachusetts community of, well... Puritans.

Not only is she ostracised and shunned by "decent" townsfolk, Hester is forced to wear a scarlet "A" on her breast for the rest of her life ("A" for Adultery).

The Scarlet Letter is today regarded as a high point of American literature (and a novel that most American High School students will be asked to read at some point in their academic lives) but it might not be the most obvious first choice for an update to our modern, sexually permissive society.

Ladies and Gentlemen (etc) I give you Easy A.


Quite apart from being Emma Stone's breakout film role, Easy A manages to bring The Scarlet Letter into the 21st Century with a great deal of style and insight.


We may well live in an age of sexual freedom and gender fluidity, but never let it be forgotten that the US is a country founded by Puritans.


Easy A is also quite possibly one of the most important films I have yet shown in this series; not only because of its razor-sharp social commentary and its funny, well-written script, but because it features just about the most incredible, gorgeous, truly astonishing dog in the history of Hollywood movies.

We will be screening Easy A on Thursday, the 7th of April at the Victoria Park Baptist Church. We will also be taking a short break after this, but we will be back after the whole Passover/Easter/Ramadan thing (delete as appropriate) so watch this space for updates!

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