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Vanessa Redgrave noted that "Saoirse Ronan and Romola Garai and I did some improvisations on body language, among other things, for Briony. Joe - who is brilliant with actors - was able to pick and choose what he wanted focused on during the filming."
Atonement - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts
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This is the first movie of Benedict Cumberbatch set during World War II. The second was The Imitation Game (2014).
Atonement - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts
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Keira Knightley and Benedict Cumberbatch also appeared in The Imitation Game (2014). Both films received several Oscar nominations (including Best Picture) and end up winning in one category.
Atonement - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts
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Brenda Blythen played Keira Knightly's characters mother in Pride & Prejudice (2005), Mrs. Bennett and Elizabeth Bennett respectively.
Atonement - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts
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The locals of Redcar, who served as extras in the Dunkirk scene, were paid 50 pounds.
Atonement - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts
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Shooting the five-minute Dunkirk beach scene was arguably the toughest portion of shooting. The shooting schedule dictated that the scene must be completed in two days, because the crew has limited time with the 1,000 extras. However, the location scouts report indicated the lighting quality at the beach was not good enough until the afternoon of the second day. This forced director Joe Wright to change his shooting strategy into shooting with one camera. The scene was rehearsed on the first day and on the morning of the second day. The scene required five takes and the third take was used in the film. On shooting, Steadicam operator Peter Robertson shot the scene by riding on a small tracking vehicle, walking off to a bandstand after rounding a boat, moved to a ramp, stepped onto a rickshaw, finally dismounting and moving past the pier into a bar.
Atonement - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts
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The green dress Keira Knightley wore as Cecilia was named the best of all time by InStyle Magazine.
Atonement - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts
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The small English town of Redcar stood in for the French city of Dunkirk, and the Dunkirk set built there was the most expensive one in the film, costing an estimated £1 million.
Atonement - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts
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Release prints were delivered to theaters with the fake title 'Saturday' - the title of another Ian McEwan novel.
Atonement - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts
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Saoirse Ronan received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Briony in the 2007 film adaptation of Atonement. She was only 13 at the time.
Atonement - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts
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The opening film of the 2007's Venice Film Festival. Director Joe Wright, at 35, is the youngest director to have a film open this prestigious event.
Atonement - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts
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Joe Wright imagined that Cecilia would not be sexually experienced and losing her virginity to Robbie in the library scene, even though a historian informed him that given the time, place and her background she probably would have been sexually active during her college years.
Atonement - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts
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In one early scene, Paul Marshall says that army conscription is inevitable "if Herr Hitler doesn't pipe down, and he's about as likely to do that as buy shares in Marks and Spencers". British retail chain Marks and Spencer was co-founded by Jewish immigrant Michael Marks, and many senior-management staff have been members of his family; Jews were the ethnic group which was the prime target of Adolf Hitler's genocidal purges.
Atonement - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts
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Joe Wright: Appears during the lengthy tracking sequence on Dunkirk beach.
Atonement - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts
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Briony's appearance next to the stained glass window featuring Saint Matilda may also be a reference to the saint's status as patron of falsely accused people.
Atonement - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts
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Atonement - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts
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Before this movie was even released, Saoirse Ronan had already been cast in The Lovely Bones (2009) based solely on a compelling audition DVD she'd sent director Peter Jackson.
Atonement - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts
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Joe Wright was apparently so impressed by Sir David Lean's epic work that he screened most of it before making Atonement, and then instructed cinematographer Seamus McGarvey also to watch Lean's oeuvre, with the hope of being able to match some of the director's power. Lean's widow Sandra Lean, however, felt she 'just didn't like the movie. I thought it was terrible and badly directed. Everyone goes on about the long shot of the beach at Dunkirk, but I thought it was boring and laborious. Obviously they were trying to get the feel of a David Lean epic but they failed. Without David, it's not so easy.'
Atonement - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts
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On the DVD commentary, director Joe Wright notes that the designer of Keira Knightley's green evening dress costume deliberately kept the seam down the middle of the skirt open (where it would normally be sewn shut in a dress design) for what Wright calls "easy access" in the library scene.
Atonement - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts
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For scoring, Dario Marianelli reconvened key Pride & Prejudice (2005) collaborators, including - to perform the score he composed - the English Chamber Orchestra.
Atonement - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts