British stars Max Irons, Sam Claiflin premiere "The Riot Club"

Описание: (7 Sep 2014) YOUNG BRITISH STARS DESCEND ON TORONTO FOR 'THE RIOT CLUB'
The red carpet at Toronto's Roy Thomson Hall was filled with well-coiffed Brits Saturday night (6 SEPT. 2014). Sam Claflin, Max Irons, Ben Schnetzer and Douglas Booth showed up together to promote their new film "The Riot Club."
"The Riot Club is a club at Oxford University, a fictional club, that's kind of the creme de la creme of the elite, this upper echelon of young men, who get together and debauch and wreak havoc," said Schnetzer. Except it's just the name that's fictional.
"This particular part of society is rarely looked at. It's quite protected," said star Max Irons. "They're very good at protecting themselves.
The leaders of our government, for example, when they're asked about the Bullingdon Club, they just shrug it off, 'It was a period in our lives and we were young.'
Other members of society aren't quite so fortunate as to use that as an excuse, so I think this film, if it opens a window into that world, we've done our job."
British Prime Minister David Cameron and the current mayor of London, Boris Johnson, were both members of the Bullingdon Club during their time at Oxford.
"The Riot Club" takes the notion of unchecked classism to the extreme, showing what can happen when a band of rich college boys commits to living without rules. "So often we see gangs kind of depicted in films, but it's always with the lower classes and people trying to strive to move up the ladder, you know, financially or for power reasons," said Sam Claflin. "What's interesting about this film and what makes it so different is that they are already at the top of their game. They are already in power. They already have money. But they are still a gang. They're a gang of guys, and it's about that power mentality. What I think is interesting is that we never really get an opportunity to get an insight into that world and this is just a small slice of what really goes on, you know? It's interesting."
There are a few females in the film, including former "Downton Abbey" star Jessica Brown Findlay and Natalie Dormer ("Game of Thrones"). Neither walked the red carpet. Fellow actress Holliday Grainger, who plays the love interest of Max Irons' character, did.
She talked about why the British class system is so ripe for storytelling. "It's so ingrained in history and I think it's so ingrained in a lot of storytelling and a lot of art through the ages, so it's hard to be reading books from other centuries without having an understanding of it," she said, "and because it's not -- particularly something in America, not something that kind of people have over this side of the pond -- so I guess it's kind of this archaic thing that is sort of still around, which surprises some people and shocks some people and fascinates some people, I guess."
"The Riot Club" was directed by Lone Scherfig ("An Education") and will be released in the U.K. on 19 September. It is hoping to find U.S. distribution at the Toronto International Film Festival.


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