Metroland (1997 film)

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Metroland is a 1997 film with Christian Bale also starring Emily Watson.

It was directed by Philip Saville and based on the 1980 novel by Julian Barnes.

Mark Knopfler wrote the soundtrack and released it as the eponymously titled Metroland (album)

Bale plays Chris, young married professional living an ordinary life in the suburbs of London. A visit from an old friend, the carefree Toni, (Lee Ross) stirs Chris to re-evaluate his life and to recall his time spent in Paris ten years before where he lived with an exciting French girl Annick (Elsa Zylberstein) and dreamed of becoming a photographer. Now bored with his marriage to his dour wife Marion, Chris considers having sex with another woman, until he discovers that Toni has arranged it for him in attempt to draw Chris out of his complacency. When Marion, who has herself resisted sexual advances from Toni, points out to Chris that Toni is actually jealous of all that Chris has, Chris realizes that although his life may lack perpetual excitement he has made the right decisions and is content.

The film explores the tension between the youthful idealism of a hedonistic existence and that of the inevitable middle-class establishment. 'Metroland' refers to the London suburbs which are served by the expansive subway network, an environment that Chris and Toni had always promised themselves they would escape. The narrative format is largely the flashback, with extended portions showing Chris as a 21 year old living in Paris.