'Posh Boys Behaving Badly: Lone Scherfig on 'The Riot Club'

What happens when ten ridiculously handsome, clever, rich and sexy Oxford students gather for an evening of select cuisine and libations?

Do the boys confer on how they plan to affect change to better the world?

Not so much.

Nor do they begin having mad sex with one another while '80s dance music plays. That's an entirely different movie, despite the palpable homoeroticism onscreen.

No, in Lone Scherfig's new and blistering feature, The Riot Club, these boys begin behaving in such an offensive, entitled manner, audiences will be appalled, but they probably won't be surprised.

With stories of racist and misogynistic fraternities making recent headlines as well as Kirby Dick's film, "The Hunting Ground" blowing the whistle on campus rape by calling out University presidents as well as alleged rapist athletes, the time is ripe for a film that exposes the horrific conduct of over-privileged white boys that think they are somehow above the law.

U.S. parallels

And while Scherfig's work is more focused on the English class system and expectations that come with being in that elite group, the obvious parallels with U.S. frat boys do not escape the passionate director's aspirations when it comes to the American release. "You're very ambitious if you think your film can change anything, but I am hoping that students will watch this film and think a little differently -- that at least you can walk away --that you can learn, that you have a choice. You don't have to behave really badly just because you can or just because everybody else does."

Originally titled "Posh," the film concerns a gaggle of Oxford boys that are part of a secret, elite society known as "The Riot Club" - a type of fraternity, but one whose members are exclusively upper crust. These are the boys who will probably go on to run Britain one day, if they their daddies can keep them out of jail.

The story is inspired by actual clubs and real stories, many far worse than what you see in the film according to Scherfig. "There is a club called the Bullingdon Club, which Prime Minister David Cameron was in when he was young, that has some parallels. But Laura Wade (the writer) wanted to create a club of her own. So there's no direct translation, but it is inspired by reality."

Potent story

Wade's "thoroughly researched" script is based on her 2010 stage play that has been rethought for the screen. The Danish filmmaker was Wade's first choice for directing and she was equally interested in collaborating.

"When I saw the play the second time, I thought, this must be a film and I would like to direct that film," Scherfig explains. "I though it was a very original and potent story to tell -- very dynamic -- a fascinating world. Great characters. And the way she adapted it worked quite well because she made the world very seductive."

In the film the current members tap two newbies to potentially join their exclusive club. The pompous Alistair (Sam Claflin) represents the pinnacle of the cr�me de la cr�me. He has mostly reprehensible qualities but we feel a tad sorry for him because he's living in the shadow of his popular brother. While earthy and loveable Miles (Max Irons) is the more relatable upper-middle class boy who is seduced by the club's glamour and reputation, almost despite his better judgment.

"You want Miles to be a member, Scherfig offers. "He does things you would have done, even if you sensed that it might not be the right thing to do. But it also means that when it turns out that Miles has committed sins of omission and made wrong choices, you have made them with him. And that give complexity and depth to the film."

Bad behavior

Those "wrong choices" manifest in the film's lengthy centerpiece sequence, an annual private assemblage where the boy's darker and creepier natures run rampant and prove destructive. Hate and prejudice rear their ugly heads and rapist and homicidal tendencies emerge.

"What I am hoping is that people can see that if you are that privileged you can also be responsible," Scherfig says. "And that people who are confronted with different groups, if you're part of the group that is going in the wrong direction, you can walk away. If you can't change things at least you can decide to not join them. And I think the film has that message very strongly. But I also think the film is primarily political -the main conflict is about class and not gender."
Wondering about our Universities here in the States, she correctly assumes that our issues and controversies tend to be more about sex and race than background and upbringing. When it comes to class issues, Scherfig grew up in country (Denmark), "that had very little difference between the richest and poorest people."

Strange combination

Lone Scherfig graduated from the Danish Film School in 1984 and first came to International prominence, in 2001, as writer and director of Denmark's 5th "Dogme" film, "Italian for Beginners." She is best known for the 2010 feature, "An Education," starring Carey Mulligan, which was nominated for three Oscars including Best Picture. A year later she helmed the ambitious and highly underrated film, "One Day" with Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess.

In the last decade, she's worked mostly in Britain and has been around every class of people but considers herself "slightly classless."

"I feel confident being with very posh people but I also feel that I can portray characters that work in a pub kitchen because I have done that so it's a very strange combination of having lived both worlds which I think gives me an understanding and affection for both worlds."
That "understanding and affection" greatly contributes to a combined empathy and indictment of these lads since the way they behave isn't premeditated but a mixing of mob mentality (and how often do see that here in America) coupled with misguided notions of tradition.

Lack of empathy

Scherfig gets excited when she hears this. "Exactly! There are lots and lots of Oxford students that do not have privileged backgrounds. And -- I'd never say anything negative about Oxford because I love Oxford -- but I would say something negative about tradition because as wonderful as it is it's also one big fat excuse to behave badly and keep behaving badly. And thinking you are better because you had more lace in your crib is just wrong."

She adds, "And it should be more nuanced the more time I spend in that world but it's actually the other way around. There's an arrogance and a lack of empathy that is shocking. So when you have one of our characters standing at the table yelling "I hate poor people!" It's not unlikely that that would happen."
Trying to make sense of it, she underlines the very old traditions that many boys are born into. "From the kindergarten stage, you are trained to get into the best public schools-which are posh boarding schools-and then into the best Universities. And you do see surprisingly few people with a non-white English background-even though London is so multi-cultural. London is a melting pot exactly like New York and it's a very happy, tolerant cultural blending. But Oxford and Cambridge are different. I don't think they want to be."

The conundrum even confounds her. "It's not really their fault. I can understand they need to take their best students and protect the level of education and the level of research and science."

Lack of homophobia

Yet somewhere within the savage satire on privilege and the power it wields, is compassion for these young men just beginning life and trying to figure out who they are. And each of the ten students is cast to perfection. "I worried that it was going to be harder than it was," Scherfig confesses.

"They're so strong and energetic and brilliant-just wanted to make the best possible film and they wanted to collaborate. It's a really nuanced portrait they each do. There is not one I wouldn't want to work with again."

The ensemble features some of the best up-and-coming actors working today including: Douglas Booth ("Noah," "Christopher and His Kind"), Sam Reid ("Belle"), Ben Schnetzer ("Pride"), Matthew Beard ("The Imitation Game"), Jessica Brown Findlay (Lady Sybil on "Downton Abbey"), Holliday Grainger ("Cinderella") and Freddie Fox ("Pride").

Asked about the near-absence of homophobia in the film, Scherfig explains, "If you come from the English boarding school system, there's very little homophobia in that world. The characters would be very open about it and they are...It's not as alpha male as you would find in Universities in other parts of the world. Not at all. Because they come from boy's schools and they joke about it. And the tolerance they have towards Hugo (the gay character played by Sam Reid) is very realistic. They're completely aware of his sexuality and they're fine with it."
She laughs, and then continues, "Of course there's a lot of sexual tension in the room and they do tease him but there is a certain tolerance and I think in that very posh world they accept that people are eccentric in all sorts of ways."
The Riot Club is in limited release, iTunes and VOD.

Watch the trailer to "The Riot Club":