EDUCATING RITA
UK, 1983, 106 minutes, Colour.
Michael Caine, Julie Walters, Michael Williams, Maureen Lippman.
Directed by Lewis Gilbert.
Educating Rita is a delightful film. The original play by Willie Russell was an outstanding success on the stage, internationally. Russell has adapted his essentially two-hander play for the screen, opening out sequences and dramatising characters spoken about and quoted in the play. While this has the possibility of detracting from the presence of Frank and Rita, it situates them in some reality.
Michael Caine acts quietly but persuasively as the semi-alcoholic intellectual poet Frank. He received an Oscar nomination for his performance. However, the film relies very-much on the extraordinarily vital performance of Julie Walters as Rita, a role she performed on stage. She is full of verve and delight and makes Rita a credible and interesting character. She also received an Oscar nomination. The supporting cast, which includes Michael and Maureen Lippman, have limited roles.
The film was made in Ireland with attractive university settings with contrast for the northern English towns and their inner city houses. The direction is by Lewis Gilbert, a director of many action films (from war films to James Bond films) and who directed Michael Caine in his initial Oscar-nominated role as Alfie.
A deservedly popular film.
1. Audience response to the film - interest, delight, humour? The nomination of the film for awards and their merit?
2. The adaptation of a two-hander play for the screen? How successfully was the film opened out visually? With including characters spoken about or quoted in the play?
3. The use of Irish locations? University atmosphere, the city? Bistros, hotels, churches, homes? The touch of the exotic with Frank's French vocation? Colour photography? The strong scoring and theme?
4. The reliance of the film on verbal humour, wit, irony? The jokes - many obvious? The parody of intellectual life and of intellectuals? Laughing with, laughing at? The verbal attractiveness and wisdom of the film?
5. The film as basically a two-hander and the strength of the stars' presence and interaction? Michael Caine subdued? Julie Walters vivacious? Their representing types but making them individual and alive? Their skill with the verbal wit? The contrast in masculine-feminine roles, age, class, learning and ignorance?
6. The expectations of the title? The irony of Rita's name (from Rita Mae Clark, the author of novels and the screenplay of The Slumber Party Massacre)? The education also of Frank? The comparisons with the Pygmalion theme?
7. The film's insights into the nature of education - as process rather than merely dictation of information? The patterns of adult education and involvement in one's own learning? Tutorial and guided reading systems rather than lectures? Tutorials? The background of the open university?
8. The presentation of the university and the students? The English literature background and the comments on William Blake, Ian Forster, D. H. Lawrence, Ibsen, Harold Robbins? The appreciation of reading and literature? Lectures, discussions, tutorials? The summer schools and the experience of learning in a holiday situation? The life of the university, the administration, the lecture and tutorial system - and Frank despising it, being drunk, collapsing? Exams?
9. The film's highlighting of the various gaps, in education, in experience, in social class? The gaps between Rita and Frank, the growing gap between Rita and her husband and her family, Rita's mother and the rest of the family, Rita and Tricia?
10. The portrait of Frank: Michael Caine's presence and skill, the initial tutorial and his being drunk, his comments on Blake, on wanting the students out in the sunshine? His writing of poetry and his failure, his wife's despising him, his giving his poetry to Rita and her appreciating it? The failure of his marriage, his living with Julia and her looking after him? Brian's presence - and the humour about his being on the telephone to his publisher? Frank and the authorities at the university and the criticisms of the bursar? His lacklustre life? His office and the books and the view - and Rita's delighting in them? The initial meeting with Rita, his being overwhelmed, his wanting to put her off and his inability to help her, her staying with him, his continually being delighted by her insights, her wisdom, her humour - the comments on assonance, on putting Peer Gynt on the radio, Harold Robbins stories? His looking forward to her coming? Her inquisitiveness about his life? The delight in sharing learning, her essays? Her reaction to him as a dictator? The invitation to the party and her getting cold feet, his being hurt by her not coming and her comments? Her going to the summer school and his receiving the letters, his delight in reading them while others were looking at the scenery and the buildings? Frank's life at the university and discovering that Julia was leaving him for Brian? His reaction to Rita's changes? To her development after her return from the summer school, relying on the students and talking with them e.g. to Tiger? His going to the disco and the bistro? His drunken fall at the lecture? The final encounter with Rita - and her giving him a haircut? His decision to go to Australia - and his having been transformed and brought alive again by Rita?
11. The portrait of Rita by Julie Walters? Her first appearance, her gangliness, her mini-skirt and hairstyles (and her continually changing hairstyles and improving clothes throughout the film)? Brashness, seeking the way, bright, uninhibited, gawky? Her real name being Susan - the reason for Rita? Her accent, choice of words, her insights e.g. about assonance? Her reaction to Frank putting her off? Her insistence? Her arguing for education? Her ability to work hard, her reading, her writing? Her being glimpsed doing people's hair in the shop? Her home life and her arriving home? Denny and his work, the pill and her pregnancy, knocking walls in the house and the roof falling on her, Denny's burning her books, his refusal to go to the party with her, her going to the pub and singing the songs (flashback technique while she was talking to Frank)? Talking with the snobbish student in the bus about being a student? Her changing, growing more curious, her going to the summer school and her absolute exhilaration in learning, the letters to Frank, her return at the station, her having done William Blake? Moving ahead of Frank? The wedding and her father's criticisms about her pregnancy? Her alienation from Denny and the family? Moving out? Sharing the flat with Tricia? Her work, the bistro, Mahler and better accents, her giving information to the students and chatting with them? Her witnessing Frank's drunken fall? Tricia’s suicide attempt? Her decision to go out by herself? Her changing Frank - and the haircut? The farewell? A portrait of an interesting character - from the awkward beginnings, to the rushing to the tutorial to tell Frank about Macbeth, to her understanding of her mother, to the end?
12. The supporting cast opening out the film: Julia as pleasant and attractive, tutorial work, at home, socialising, her deception of Frank and affair with Brian? Brian as a pompous type? His participation in university discipline, his continued phone calls to his publisher? The image of the callow intellectual?
13. Me presentation of authority figures at the university: the bursar and his attendance at Frank's disastrous lecture, the council and their reprimands?
14. The picture of the students: attending lectures, priggish attitudes, Collins and the discussions about Blake, Tiger and his group, consulting Susan for her opinions?
15. The contrast with Denny at home, bashing down the wall, wanting a child, preoccupied about the Pill, discovering Susan's pills in the floor, burning her books, reacting against learning, inferiority sense, the outing at the pub and his enjoying the sing-song, Susan's leaving him? The later encounter with him and his new girlfriend, bab?
15. Susan's Camill, her father and his sternness, the expectations of children, the wedding, the celebration, the line-up for the photo, his remark about her sister's pregnancy, embarrassing her mother and then the photo being taken with a smile? The emptiness of the family background? Susan's reminiscences & the outing at the pub after not attending The party, her mother's sourness? Leaving this world behind?
16. Tricia and her style, mannered, Mahler, the bistro, her accent? Rita's imitation of her? Finding her interesting? Her shock at discovering the suicide attempt? Her presence at the hospital? Tricia's sense of failure - even in killing herself?
18. The film as a variation on the Pygmalion story? An entertaining variation - with humour and the human touch?
