THIS FRIDAY, January 18th, sees the opening at the Nuart Theatre in West Los Angeles of a limited run for the latest in the acclaimed British documentary “Up” series – 56 Up -, Michael Apted’s masterly study of a group of Britons whom the series has followed since they were seven years old. Director Apted will appear in person on Friday, January 18 for a Q&A after the 4:45pm show and an introduction to and Q&A after the 8:00pm show. He will also appear Saturday, January 19 for a Q&A after the 4:45pm show and an introduction to and Q&A after the 8:00pm show.
This remarkable series had its genesis in 1964 when Granada Television brought together a bunch of 7-year-olds, to discuss their dreams, their fears and their hopes for the future. The plan was to revisit them every seven years, to see the truth of the old quote attributed to St. Francis Xavier: “Give me the child until he is seven and I’ll give you the man”
Nearly half a century later, the series, which has revisited its subjects every seven years, has become not just a unique social document but an absolutely riveting piece of drama.
It says much about the persuasive powers of Apted – who started on the show as a teenage researcher – that he is able to intrude on these people’s lives so fundamentally every seven years and that they are still such willing participants.
The seven year gap is long enough gap for professional status, relationships and environments to be completely transformed, but not so long that people’s characters fundamentally change. And the people involved seem to have made their peace with the fact that they are essentially data in this grand experiment, of watching social survival in the 20th and 21st century. For anyone who grew up in Britain in the 1960s or 1970s, the flashbacks to their younger selves, with different clothes, hair, opinions and dreams is often unspeakably poignant.
Take Sue, first seen as a chubby seven year old schoolgirl speaking estuary English and talking about her plans to get married. She’s still engaged to Glen, whom we first met in 49 Up, but in no rush to tie the knot again, following her divorce in her early 30s. Work is an administrative job at London University, where she speaks to up to 500 students at a time. Recreation is local am-dram after a neighbour twisted her arm. “I’ll never be a rich pensioner, she chuckles, “but as long as I can keep the house warm and we can feed ourselves, I’ll be fine.”
Then there’s Paul, whom we first met living in care as a 7-year-old, bright but obviously conflicted, he moved to Australia as a schoolboy, and has been married to Susan for many years. The couple are happy grandparents and now work together as well, but Paul continues his battle with low self-esteem and problems expressing himself, all of which had their genesis in his days in a London boys’ home 50 years ago.
Then there is Neil, perhaps the most haunting of a very haunting group. We first met him as a sweet-faced little 7-year-old who by this thirties was homeless, living rough in Scotland and clearly suffering from sort of undiagnosed mental illness. From his Shetland council estate, he reinvented himself completely as a Liberal Democrat councillor in Hackney and then in Cumbria, where we meet him now, continuing his council work, and working within the church.
Neil has managed to function, to find a purpose, to make a living, but even the most cursory of surface-scratching will see this is man who is still wrestling with demons from childhood who will not get the help he so desperately needs.
The others in the group are, to a greater or lesser extent, fully functional and living happy lives, but what is most notable is how none of them have really made dramatic changes or departures or progress in their lives. They are all fiftysomething versions of their seven year old selves. It’s quite gripping to watch, and all the poignant for the messages it sends us about our own lives and the inevitabilityy of our futures, based on our beginnings.
Of the Up series, Apted says: “This project has spanned my entire working life. It has been a unique and fulfilling experience, the one I treasure most in my career. I owe a debt to Granada for their five decades of unstinting support, to First Run Features for launching the films in the USA and sticking with us, but my biggest debt is to the participants for their commitment and courage in seeing it all through. It’s no small matter offering your life up for public appraisal every seven years to a large international audience. I’ve known them so long that they’re more like a family than fellow workers. Like a family, we’ve had our good times, our disagreements, but now, all but one of the participants are back for 56UP. I never know how each new film will turn out, except that it’ll be quite different from the last. 21 UP was full of hope, 28 was about children and responsibility, 35 was concerned with mortality when some were losing parents, and 49 had a sense of disappointment with lives maybe not fully achieved. Yet 56 is quite different again, which goes to prove, if nothing else, that our series mirrors life, and is always full of surprises.”
56 Up. Directed by Michael Apted. 146 minutes. Opens at the Nuart January 18th..
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