This Year's Love Variety Article


from Variety, 12/14-20/98

Scottish writer-director David Kane always wanted to make movies, but spent a decade in theater and television before directing his first feature, This Year's Love.

He has departed from the predominantly Scottish flavor of his previous work to compose an ode to London's Camden Town, whose funky street scene and hippy markets make it the capital's grunge mecca. The film delves into the romantic entanglements of the struggling bohemian types who live and work there, given glesh by an ensemble cast of rising British stars including Catherine McCormack, Jennifer Ehle, Emily Woof, Kathy Burke, Ian Hart, Dougray Scott, and Douglas Henshall.

"You follow six characters who live in Camden Town over a period of three years as they have relationships with each other," Kane explains. "You get nine relationships between these six people, as they go from one relationship to another and learn from their mistakes, but can't get rid of the emotional baggage."

Kane picked Camden for its cosmopolitan yet villagey feel, which made plausible the sheer volume of coincidental meetings among his characters. "Visually I like Camden - I like the colors," he says, referring to the gaudy market stalls. "I have shot it in a heightened way. It's not urban realism, but designed to reflect characters who are on the fringes of the artistic life - unsuccessful painters, clothes makers."

The pic is produced by Michele Camarda and financed by Entertainment Film Distributors and the Scottish Arts Council.

Budget: $4-5 million
U.K. Distribution: Entertainment
U.S. Distribution: Available
Intl. Sales: TBD
Status: in post


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