Educating Rita
Educating Rita the film was commissioned by Columbia and produced and directed by Lewis Gilbert for Acorn Pictures. The screenplay was written by Willy Russell. It was released in the UK in April and the USA in September 1983. Educating Rita was originally a play for 2 actors. Julie Walters played Rita and Mark Kingston played Frank in the original production. The play opened in June 1980 at the RSC Warehouse (now the Donmar Warehouse) and transferred to the Piccadilly Theatre in August and went on to win the Laurence Oliver Award for Best Comedy in 1980.
Cast
Rita - Julie Walters
Frank - Michael Caine
Trish - Maureen Lipman
Brian - Michael Williams
Julia - Jeananne Crowley
Denny - Malcolm Douglas
“What the film and the play are about is not really somebody who has to be educated but about somebody who had to arrive at a point in her life where she had more control over her life, more choice. She says ‘I don’t know how I’ll exercise that choice. I might have a baby. I might go back to me mother’s. I might go to Australia’. Her actual choice is not important, what decision she comes up with is not important. She tells Frank ‘What’s important is you have brought me to this stage in my life where I can have the exercise of choice and I did not have it before’ Now that seems to me a cause for celebration…”
Willy Russell The Arts Desk Jasper Rees
Nominations
Academy Awards
Best Actor – Michael Caine
Best Actress – Julie Walters
Best Screenplay based on Material from another medium – Willy Russell
British Academy Film Awards
Best Actress in a Supporting Role – Maureen Lipmann
Best Screenplay Adapted – Willy Russell
Most Promising Newcomer – Julie Walters
Golden Globe
Best Foreign Film – Educating Rita
Best Screenplay – Willy Russell
Awards
British Academy Film Awards
Best Film – Lewis Gilbert
Best Actor – Michael Caine
Best Actress in a Leading Role – Julie Walters
Golden Globe
Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Michael Caine
Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Julie Walters
National Board of Review Awards
Top Ten Films – Educating Rita
In 1999 Educating Rita was included in the BFI’s greatest British films of the 20th Century.
“Making the film was utterly different. I made Rita a bit rougher round the edges and toned my performance down. The director, Lewis Gilbert, wanted me but I’d never done a feature before, only a bit of telly, and they needed a star. There was talk of doing it with Paul Newman and Dolly Parton. But then Michael Caine came on board as Frank and I was in. I remember his wife saying - “You are very lucky it’s Michael.” She was thinking of other people of that ilk, who were starry and not that easy. But Michael was lovely, so generous to me. Women have moved on since it was written. Today, they know they have choices but that was only dawning on people like Rita back then. But there’s still work to be done. The basic premise – that education means choice – still matters today, the world over. And not just for women, but for all of us”.
Julie Walters The Guardian
“It was a big character change for me up until that point I’d been playing Michael Caine-ish in everything. The most extraordinary thing about that role for me was that I could find nothing of myself in it. He was the farthest away from myself I’d ever been with a character, which is the ideal place for an actor to be. Julie Walters really helped me look good. She’d never done a movie before. She’d done the play, so she was very into the characters, but I thought she played down, into the style of film acting, just beautifully. A lot of theatre actors would have gone over the top with it”
Michael Caine
“I cant think of any figure in my life who influenced Frank. He’s a sort of straight-out-of-the-air creation but he does share again the thing that a number of characters have in the plays of being, to my mind, a real teacher, ie he provides the space and the stimulus in which somebody can securely learn and that’s what he does for Rita. And the other thing is, don’t forget that working in Frank’s voice, I was able to write a lot of things in a certain way that I couldn’t perhaps write in other idioms, in other accents. There are certain ways of thinking that an ‘educated’ man will have, that I was able to deal with for the first time in a play, most of which I share. In a way you can see Rita and Frank as two sides of Willy Russell”
Willy Russell with John Gill
“In the play, Rita does all the moving about on stage, while the man, for the most part, just sits at his desk and listens and reacts. Now the theatre is about 'acting'; the cinema is about 'reacting'. When Rita said something, the camera had to cut to me for my reaction. You can't do that on stage, and that's what happened to balance the weight of the two parts in the film.”
Michael Caine - What’s It All About
“It took me ages to figure out that the marrow and bones of the story was all about me”.
“I think it has to be a love story about two people who have that love, regard and care for each other… I remember shooting the final scene and Lewis Gilbert saying to Michael Caine in at the airport, “Grab Rita and give her a real full kiss.” I said, “No no!” It’s not about that. It’s about a deeper love than that. It’s about real human regard.”
Reviews
“Producer-director Lewis Gilbert has done a marvellous job of bringing the charming British play, ed ucating Rita, to the big screen. Aided greatly by an expert film adaptation by its playwright, Willy Russell”
Variety 1982
“Glorious, subtle and striking film.”
The Sunday Times
“Caine back in the top class… Julie Walters a talented new star”
Mail on Sunday
“Julie Walters a blazing starburst of a screen debut… a warming delight of a picture”
Sunday Telegraph
“Educating Rita is a gem, created by the fertile pen of Willy Russell who dresses the downtrodden in layers of self-respect… Lewis Gilbert, and two career best performances from his leading actors, give this film such energy it leaves the pleasant aroma of life and possibility.”
Empire
“Rita’s worth your money any time… Julie Walters is magnificent”
Sunday Express
“This is a master film actor’s performance. The goal of Caine’s technique seems to be to dissolve all vestiges of technique. He lets nothing get between you and the character he plays”
