KEIRA Knightley and Carey Mulligan brought both glamour and class to the opening night of the 54th BFI London Film Festival in Leicester Square, London, on Wednesday night (October 13, 2010), as their new film Never Let Me Go opened the two-week event.

The leading ladies were joined by fellow British co-star Andrew Garfield and the film’s director, Mark Romanek, at the star-studded bash, which will see some of the world’s top filmmakers visiting the capital over the next fortnight.

Never Let Me Go kicked off the festival on a positive note, winning rave reviews from critics who attended a screening earlier in the day.

An adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Booker Prize-nominated novel of the same name, the film follows three boarding school friends (Garfield, Mulligan and Knightley) who discover complicated feelings for one another, while coming to grips with the dark fate that awaits them in their adult lives.

The book has been adapted by screenwriter Alex Garland, who is most famous for The Beach and 28 Days Later, and who also attended the premiere with Ishiguro.

Earlier in the day, the stars attended a press conference, during which they spoke for their deep love for the book and dedication to making the film the best representation of it as possible.

Mulligan, who was Oscar nominated earlier this year for her performance in one of last year’s festival hits An Education, described it as “a love story about people who want very simple things from life and can’t get them”.

While Garfield – who was recently announced as the new Spider-Man – said it was ‘very rare’ to find a script “that is so full of what it is to be alive – to be human and the struggles that we collectively go through”.

The 54th London film festival runs until October 28.

View photos from the opening night gala or read our review of Never Let Me Go

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