My Last Five Girlfriends
UK | 2009 | 89 mins
from Alain de Botton’s book Essays in Love, adapted and directed by Julian Kemp
starring Brendan Patricks, Naomie Harris & Michael Sheen
Alain de Botton’s book Essays in Love was the first book that he wrote, aged twenty-three. It explores the process of falling in and out of love through a style of writing which mixes elements of a novel together with reflections that are normally found in non-fiction. It went on to sell over two million copies and it was this book which Julian Kemp, the adapting writer and director, came across over ten years ago.
Kemp had wanted to make an original film about love and was inspired by Orson Welles’s film F for Fake which is part drama, part essay and part magic trick. De Botton’s book also held all of these elements and Julian Kemp felt that “it was the literary equivalent of what I was trying to achieve on screen”. Taking nearly a decade to write and make this film, it explores romantic love through drama, animation, puppetry and fantasy sequences. It is a laugh out loud imaginative comedy providing a man’s perspective on the single life.
Generously sponsored by Salon on the Square
Adults £7 | Under 25s £5
FEATURING AN INTRODUCTION AND POST-FILM Q&A WITH ADAPTING SCREENWRITER AND DIRECTOR JULIAN KEMP
Julian Kemp is a multi BAFTA and international Emmy award winning director and film writer. He began his career in the eighties working as a child actor in a series of television programmes. This secured him a place at RADA where he realised his real passion was directing. He made children’s television programmes before moving into feature films. My Last Five Girlfriends is his second feature film.
See also:
The Boys are Back
The Damned United
The Bridport Prize International Creative Writing Competition now receives thousands of entries from over 80 countries. 
