Loved Up

Director: Peter Cattaneo
Screenwriters: Ol Parker

Institute History

  • 1996 Sundance Film Festival

Description

Sarah is heading out of a life with her teenage sister and alcoholic mother and straight into the life of Tom, an interesting guy she meets one day in the café where she works. Sarah’s world is family fights, dealing with her mother‘s emotional breakdowns, and baby-sitting. Tom’s world is rave music, clubbing, and Ecstasy. Sarah moves in with Tom after their first night together. At first, she is impressed by him, his friends, and the all-night parties spent permanently “loved up.” When she loses her job, she finds herself unable to tell Tom, who carefully structures his life and his work to support his party habits. As their problems mount, Sarah must face up to them alone while Tom just wants to rave on forever.

“All we wanted to do was explore a love story in a situation where people take Ecstasy and feel as if they love everyone,” explains producer Elinor Day. “That’s an intriguing dynamic because the question is‘ Where does the drug stop and the real emotion begin?’” Abley headed up by Ian Hart (Backbeat, Land and Freedom) and Lena Headey (Waterland), Loved Up is a rites-of-passage film about the dilemma of getting older and accepting life’s responsibilities or remaining arrested in youth forever.

— Christian Gaines

Screening Details

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