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AFTER WORKING WITH A CHINESE (JONG LIN) AND AN INDIAN (SANTOSH SIVAN) ON HER TWO PREVIOUS FILMS, SHE COLLABO- RATED HERE FOR THE FIRST TIME WITH DICK POPE BSC, WHO’D JUST FINISHED SHOOTING MIKE LEIGH’S HAPPY-GO-LUCKY.
he first two in Louise Renni- Tson’s popular series of ‘Con-
fessions Of Georgia Nicolson’ books – eight to date and still counting – are the basis for
writer-director Gurinder Chadha’s much-anticipated new romantic comedy entitled, Angus, Thongs And Perfect Snogging.
Chadha, who previously struck paydirt with her 2002 tale of teen angst, Bend It Like Beckham, has concentrated this time round on a slightly younger strand of British youth - hormonally-challenged 14- year-olds, personified by Georgia (Georgia Groome from London To Brighton) and her Eastbourne schoolfriends.
“One moment they are to par- ents,gorgeouslittlebabiesthatrely
Photo main: Georgia Groome (left) and Georgia Henshaw in party mood; right: Director Gurinder Chadha on set
entirely on you. Then you watch them grow up and discover the world. Then, almost overnight, you’re the enemy!” says Chadha.
“I had been sent the material by Paramount who’d had the books for five years. I read the first two and thought them really funny. As a di- rector, I felt this was a real good chance to do a ‘genre’ film that could potentially be a British ver- sion of, say, Mean Girls or Clueless.
“As I worked on it more, it became for me more of a Sixteen Candles, about first love, feeling gawky and ugly, that feeling nobody understands you. We were also trying to traverse the tricky world of parents and siblings.”
Chadha admits that while she waspreparedtosetitintheframe- >
GEORGIA ONMYMIND
INSIDE THE TEEN WORLD OF ANGUS, THONGS AND PERFECT SNOGGING
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