Atonement

Atonement (2007)

Timing: 2:3 (123 min)

7.633/10
4659

8.067/10
323839

7.8/10
327000

All about film

Video 13

Photo 167

Actors and characters

Release date

2007-02-27

Country

United Kingdom, France, United States

Production

Universal Pictures, Relativity Media, StudioCanal, Focus Features, Working Title Films, Working Title Films

Genre

Drama, Romance

Budget

$30 000 000

Revenue

$131 016 624

Website

Director

Joe Wright

Actors

James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, Saoirse Ronan, Romola Garai, Vanessa Redgrave, Brenda Blethyn, Juno Temple, Benedict Cumberbatch, Harriet Walter, Alfie Allen
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Paul Webster, Robert Fox, Debra Hayward, Liza Chasin, Richard Eyre, Ian McEwan

Operator

Seamus McGarvey

Composer

Dario Marianelli

Artist

Audition

Jina Jay, Dixie Chassay

Editing

Paul Tothill
All team (61)

• The film is based on Ian McEwan's novel "Atonement" (2001).
• The plot features Keira Knightley as the elder sister of Romola Garai's character; in real life, Garai is almost three years older than Knightley.
• Emily Watson and Kristin Scott Thomas were considered for the role of Emily Tallis.
• Abbie Cornish was originally cast as the 18-year-old Briony, but dropped out of the project due to her commitment to "The Golden Age" (2007).
• Initially, the film's director, Joe Wright, wanted Keira Knightley to play the role of the grown-up Briony, but she preferred the character of Cecilia from the very beginning. The actress also wanted to finally shake off the image of a young woman on the cusp of adulthood and play, at last, a mature and fully formed character.
• Scenes involving Romola Garai were filmed in just 4 days.
• The film premiered at the opening of the annual Venice Film Festival. 35-year-old Joe Wright became the youngest director in the history of this most prestigious film forum to receive such an honor.
• The small British town of Redcar was used to recreate the French Dunkirk. The local authorities gave the film crew permission to erect a pavilion and place wreckage of a wrecked ship on the beach to create complete authenticity. A number of houses along the coastline were repainted to match the period depicted in the film, and cosmetic changes were also made to the appearance of the cinema and hotel. Once the three-day shoot was completed, everything was returned to its original condition. The total cost of building the set in Redcar amounted to approximately one million British pounds.
• Residents of Redcar were invited to act as extras in the role of British soldiers, each receiving 50 British pounds for their work.
• Some scenes, taking place on the streets of Dunkirk, were filmed in the docks of the British port city of Grimsby.
• To better recreate the atmosphere of wartime England, director Joe Wright spent considerable time watching many British films from the 1940s, including "Rebecca" (1940) and "Brief Encounter" (1945). The latter had the most noticeable influence on his work on the project.
• Copies of the film were delivered to cinemas under the false title "Saturday," which is the title of Ian McEwan's next novel after "Atonement," though unrelated to it.
• James McAvoy, one of the leading actors in the film, called the screenplay for "Atonement" the best he had ever received.
• The film was one of the first foreign films to be released in Chinese cinemas on February 22, 2008, after several months of an unofficial ban on the distribution of foreign films in the PRC cinemas.
• The film is based on Ian McEwan's novel "Atonement" (2001).
• To better recreate the atmosphere of wartime England, director Joe Wright spent considerable time watching many British films from the 1940s, including "Rebecca" (1940) and "Brief Encounter" (1945). The latter had the most noticeable impact on his work on the project.
• James McAvoy, one of the leading actors in the film, called the screenplay for "Atonement" the best he had ever received.