Educating Rita (1983)

Director:

Lewis Gilbert

Writer:

Willy Russell (screenplay)

Release Date:

21 September 1983 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Comedy

Tagline:

A comedy about a teacher and a very memorable student [Video Australia]

Plot:

A young wife decides to complete her education and take her exams. She meets a professor who teaches...

Plot Keywords:

Professor | Doctor | Hairdresser | Teaching | Waitress

Awards:

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 5 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

Michael Caine	...	Dr. Frank Bryant
Julie Walters	...	Rita Susan White
Michael Williams	...	Brian
Maureen Lipman	...	Trish
Jeananne Crowley	...	Julia
Malcolm Douglas	...	Denny
Godfrey Quigley	...	Rita's Father
Dearbhla Molloy	...	Elaine
Patrick Daly	...	Bursar (as Pat Daly)
Kim Fortune	...	Collins
Philip Hurd-Wood	...	Tiger (as Philip Hurdwood)
Hilary Reynolds	...	Lesley
Jack Walsh	...	Price
Christopher Casson	...	Professor
Rosamund Burton	...	Denise

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:L | Singapore:PG | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Chile:14 | Finland:K-8 | Sweden:7 | UK:15 | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Belfield Campus, University College, Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland

Company:

Acorn Pictures

Trivia:

At the train station, there is an unusual black rectangle above the word "Platform" on the platform sign hanging from the ceiling. Its purpose is to cover up the Irish (Gaelic) word "Árdán", which would have been out of place in an English railway station. A slightly different tactic was employed in another scene showing a double-decker bus. Its destination is listed as Beaumont, a real suburb of Dublin. It was most likely chosen partly as a could-be-anywhere sort of name, but mostly because practically every other destination on a Dublin bus is listed bilingually.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Rita first enters her shared flat, a record is playing on the turntable. The needle is extremely close to the end of the record, yet the song continues playing in the background for at least another two minutes with no sign of stopping.

Quotes:

[first lines]
[Frank walks on campus and addresses some students]
Dr. Frank Bryant: Good afternoon.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Acting" (1987)

Shaw would be proud.

What delights me most about this movie is that in early 2006 it finally came out on DVD. There is a minor glitch in the establishing scene at the beginning, but to see Rita once again in widescreen is almost like seeing it for the very first time.

Educating Rita is one of many re-tellings of Shaw's Pygmalion, itself based on a Greek myth, so the story is nothing new. Rita, as so many great British films, is based on a play, in this case by Willie Russell, who also collaborated with director Lewis Gilbert, who, in addition to directing several Bond features, also directed Michael Caine in his Oscar nominated title role in Alfie, on the delightful Shirley Valentine, cast in a similar vein. It would be easy to think of Rita as My Fair Lady without the Marne Nixon voice overs, but that would be, as a classmate of Rita's puts it, facile.

The combination of Michale Caine and Julie Walters is pure magic. Unlike Dudley Moore's lovable drunk, Caine's Frank Bryant is a drunk that is difficult to love, which makes him far more interesting. He wallows, not in self pity, which would be disgusting, but in the infinitely sadder depths of self acceptance and resignation to shortcomings. He is a failed drunken poet who has lost the capacity to feel his own life.

Enter Rita, a hairdresser who wants to learn literary criticism, but more importantly, learn a way out of a life that she feels all too well. From his jaundiced perspective, Frank fears that educating Rita would transform her into just another one of the lifeless women that litter his life, but Rita will not be denied. Gradually, through voracious consumption of the Canon of Western Literature, Rita learns what she believes to be a better song to sing.

But it's not that simple. Rita finds that people, even educated people, in the end, have only themselves to cling to, and Shaw, Blake, Ibsen and Chekov may help fill up the empty moments, but they can't take away the emptiness itself. What does Rita want? Frank? A baby? Her ex-husband? No. What Rita wants is choices, and the freedom to choose among them for herself, and getting there is warm and moving drama that elevates Educating Rita among the absolute best of its era and genre.

David Hentschel's synthesized soundtrack is absolutely wonderful. It is by now so obviously from another era that it allows you to be drawn even more into the film, giving it a more timeless than dated feel. The supporting cast is wonderful, including Michael Williams, who, aside from being Mr. Judi Densch for the last thirty years of his life, also received a Papal knighthood, and classically renowned actress Maureen Lipman who was later awarded a C.B.E. for her work in British theatre.

Ultimately, however, it is the sheer magic of Caine and Walters, no less so than with Harrison and Hepburn in My Fair Lady, that gives Rita the boundless charm, wit, and passion that have made it one of my favorite films of all time.