St Trinian's

Released in 2007, *St Trinian’s* brings Ronald Searle’s fictional girls’ school back to the screen. Directed by Oliver Parker and Barnaby Thompson, the British comedy follows earlier St Trinian’s films rather than continuing their stories. Its unruly pupils belong to a tradition that began with Searle’s cartoons and reached cinemas in *The Belles of St. Trinian’s* in 1954.

Talulah Riley plays Annabelle Fritton, a newcomer whose arrival gives viewers an introduction to the school’s rival groups and unusual rules. She is the niece of headmistress Camilla Fritton, played by Rupert Everett. Everett also plays Annabelle’s father, Carnaby. Camilla treats the pupils’ schemes less as disciplinary problems than as expressions of the independence she wants the school to protect.

That attitude puts her at odds with Geoffrey Thwaites, the education minister played by Colin Firth. He wants to bring St Trinian’s into line with conventional standards, while Camilla resists his attempts to change it. Their clashes give the film a second contest alongside the girls’ efforts to save their school.

Those efforts become urgent when St Trinian’s faces financial trouble. The pupils devise a plan to steal Vermeer’s *Girl with a Pearl Earring* and use the proceeds to keep the school open. To reach the painting, they compete on the television quiz show *School Challenge*. The unlikely combination of art theft and school competition makes the heist a distinctly St Trinian’s solution: the girls apply their separate talents to a shared, illegal goal.

Gemma Arterton plays head girl Kelly Jones, who helps organise the operation. Russell Brand appears as Flash Harry, an associate of the school who assists with the plan. The cast also includes Jodie Whittaker, Lily Cole and Paloma Faith as pupils. Rather than presenting the students as a single obedient class, the film makes their different looks, interests and alliances part of how St Trinian’s functions.

The film’s central joke is not that the school hides its disorder. Camilla and her pupils are proud of it, even as mounting debts threaten the place that lets them behave this way. Annabelle’s experience connects the heist to a more personal change: she begins as an outsider and gradually finds a role among the girls.

*St Trinian’s* was followed by *St Trinian’s 2: The Legend of Fritton’s Gold* in 2009. The sequel continued the revived series, but the 2007 film stands on its own as the story of how Camilla’s pupils turn a threat to their school into an elaborate painting theft.