Among Friends
A Spy Among Friends, which premiered March 12 on MGM+, dramatizes the story of two British spies and lifelong friends, Nicholas Elliott and Kim Philby. The six-episode limited series stars Golden Globe- and Emmy-winning actor Damian Lewis (Homeland), Emmy winner Guy Pearce (Mare of Easttown), and Anna Maxwell Martin (Motherland).
Among Friends
The multitude of cultures and artistic traditions across Asia have produced countless examples of visually beautiful and emotionally profound art reflecting the importance of time spent with loved ones. Among Friends and Family presents a selection of objects from China, Japan, and Korea that portray some of the gatherings that enrich everyday life and special occasions, highlighting the value of life shared with friends and family,
Bernadette (Alyssa Lobit) is the main villainess of the 2012 horror film Among Friends. She was a psychiatrist and a friend of the main protagonists (Melanie, Sara, Adam, Jules, Marcus, and Blane).The movie began with Bernadette inviting the six friends to her house for a murder mystery party.
Bernadette than duct taped her guests to their chairs and began to sadistically torment her friends, both physically and verbally. At one point, Bernadette put a plate of unidentified meat on the table, revealing soon after that that it was human meat from a man who "touched his little girl one too many times". When the limo driver that brought the protagonists to Bernadette's house came to return Jules' forgotten phone and heard her captives screaming for help, the evil Bernadette stabbed the man with a knife before slitting his throat.
Along with revealing that she had knocked out their friend Lily and placed her in the bathtub when she came to her for help getting an abortion, the psychotic Bernadette revealed that she had been spying on the six friends with cameras, using the footage to reveal their secrets. This included: Jules and Sara having a tryst while Marcus watched and masturbated, Blane and Melanie having sex (with Adam joining in) during a time when Blane was dating Sara, and Adam raping Lily. All the while, Bernadette tried to argue that she was in the right for exposing her friends' misdeeds.
In the film's climax, Lily woke up and barged into the dining room. Bernadette, who expressed disdain for Lily (in her mind) being weak following her rape, attacked her. But during the ensuing struggle, Lily managed to choke Bernadette unconscious before tying her up with duct tape. But when Lily learned that Jules (Adam's sister) had heard him raping her and done nothing to stop him, Lily left the six tied to their chairs. As they all began to scream to Lily to come back, Bernadette regained consciousness and gleamed evilly at her captives, most likely killing them all offscreen. A mid-credits scene then shows Bernadette at a bar receiving a call from her friend Amelie, expressing excitement for Bernadette's upcoming murder mystery party, hinting that Bernadette intends to continue her sadistic scheme with another group of friends.
Research suggests that meals eaten with other people are larger than meals eaten alone. The effect of group size and acquaintance on consumption was investigated by serving dinner to female subjects alone, in pairs or in groups of four. Subjects dined alone, with friends or with strangers. Subjects in both pairs and groups of four ate more than did subjects alone, suggesting that the mere presence of others is more important in enhancing intake than the specific number of people present. Subjects with friends ate more dessert than subjects with strangers, indicating that the relationship of dining companions is an important factor contributing to social facilitation.
So it was quite a journey for me to sort of dig in and try to understand Philby more. And I certainly didn't know anything about Nicholas Elliot, and so that was a very interesting part of the story, to really get a sense of their friendship. Because often in the things that we've seen before, the drama and the intrigue is about the spy world and it's life and death stuff, and lives are at stake and countries are at war and that it's all quite big stuff, whereas this had a lovely sense of intimacy and friendship and the betrayal of friendship about it. So it was great to try and dig into some of those details and understand these people as people as well as being spies.
LEWIS: I think it does relate to politics now, but I think far more interestingly, right at the center of this is a conversation about faith and love and the risks we take when we love people. You never know another human being. Even in marriage, you'll never fully know another human being, and I think if there's a big betrayal at the end, maybe just in a romantic relationship that you've had, [or] in this case a thirty-year relationship of best friends, I think the damage that it does to people who are the betrayed is profound. And you ask yourself all kinds of questions about your part in it, your role in it. Did I contribute somehow? How did this happen? And so I think that's what this show is about, and I think it's set in the spy world with a thriller framework, whereas Guy just said, everybody's lying to everybody. Is anything ever as it seems?
Philby was able to escape to Russia under Elliott's watch, and it is this part of history as well as the friendship between the two men, that are the focus on the espionage thriller based on Ben Macintyre's book of the same name.
"He was always sort of helping him escape, and I think that's why the debriefing was quite intense after Philby then affected his final escape to Moscow and then Elliott came back and everyone was wondering exactly what Elliott's role had been in this friendship over the past few years."
"Alex Cary has brilliantly adapted Ben Macintyre's historical novel about friendship, loyalty, and betrayal. He, along with Nick Murphy, Damian Lewis, and the remarkable cast led by Lewis and Guy Pearce, have brought to life this riveting tale of two British spies whose deep personal bond and long friendship is challenged by duplicity and deception," Michael Wright, head of MGM+, said in a statement.Advertisement
A Spy Among Friends is an upcoming historical thriller starring Guy Pearce and Damian Lewis. The six-part series is set during the Cold War and highlights the political, economic, and social tensions of the later twentieth century between the U.K. and the Soviet Union, or the "West" and "East." The series follows Nicholas Elliott and Kim Philby, two British spies and long-time best friends, as they face bitter betrayal in more ways than one. Elliott worked as an intelligence officer for MI6 alongside his friend and professional colleague, Philby, before Philby cuts ties and defects. The two spies face dangerous adversaries as the East and West trade state secrets, technology, and information tied directly to the safety of each empire's population.
Elliott is the ideal candidate to admonish Philby of any accusations--they are lifelong friends, having both attended Cambridge University and eventually navigated the complex British "old boys'" network together. Elliott knows Philby on both a personal and professional level. Additionally, Elliott is an intelligence officer for MI6, and he is undoubtedly loyal to his country and the accompanying ideologies of the West. If anyone were to suspect or identify espionage, it would be Elliott. Therefore, the seemingly out-of-the-blue accusations levied against his friend were bogus. They were ridiculous. They were impossible... and they were all true.
Their friendship is fractured when Philby is, in fact, revealed as a KGB spy. Elliott spirals upon learning the news. How long had he been a spy? Was Philby just using Elliott as a source of information? Was any part of their friendship genuine? If Elliott's own best friend was a conspirator, who can he trust? Who can anyone trust?
The series shows the two friends (and their accompanying ideologies) diverging from one another. What started as a bitter, earth-shattering betrayal between two close friends slowly evolves to encapsulate the betrayal felt on both sides of the Cold War. As world powers, MI5, MI6, and SIS all endeavor to fight for the ideologies of the West, they face a blunt reality: no one is to be fully trusted. 041b061a72