Me Without You

Colour, 35 mm
United Kingdom, 2001, 107 min
Section: Focus on British Film (2000-2005)

Synopsis

Following up her windswept period drama The Governess, director Sandra Goldbacher made a refreshing segue into this 2001 bitter-sweet comedy about female friendship. Anna Friel and Michelle Williams (a future Oscar nominee for Brokeback Mountain) star as feisty Marina and shy Holly: two childhood pals whose intense bond finally overwhelms them. Beginning in early-70s suburbia, the story flashes forward to the punk era, a spell at university in the southern coastal town of Brighton, and beyond – perfectly capturing, along the way, the messy complications of growing up and growing apart. From a script by Goldbacher and French-born, London-based Laurence Coriat (Michael Winterbottom’s Wonderland), Me Without You also stars Kyle MacLachlan as a predatory college lecturer, Trudie Styler as Marina’s fading glamourpuss mum, and Oliver Milburn, who plays Marina’s elder brother and the secret object of Holly’s affection.

About the director

Sandra Goldbacher (b. 1961, London) studied French literature at Brighton University, and then took a year-long course in film and video at Middlesex University. She found work in TV documentaries, including the BBC architecture series Building Sights. She also landed gigs directing commercials for clients including Absolut, Evian and Philips, and in 1994 made two shorts, Seventeen, starring Rachel Weisz, and Piccadilly Circus By Night. Her debut feature, 1998’s The Governess, starring Minnie Driver and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, won her a special Debut Film prize at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, as well as the Hitchcock Award for Best Film at the Dinard British Film Festival. Me Without You is her second feature.