AMERICAN FRIENDS

AMERICAN FRIENDS is a lush, romantic, literate tale set in the summer of 1864 and filmed at historic Oxford University and in the magnificent countryside of Switzerland. Michael Palin plays a sensitive performance as Francis Ashby, a senior tutor trapped in the all-male “world of the university who decides to take a holiday in the Swiss Alps. Here he is freed of the restraints of college life and a delightful new side of his character is awakened, dangerously exposing him to events that will change his life. Not the least of these is his fateful meeting with two American women, Miss Caroline Hartley and her lonely 17-year-old ward, Elinore. Before long, Francis must make a choice between rising through the ranks of the university or entering real life. -Toronto Film Festival.