35 Up

The 'Up Series' represents one of the most fascinating and unusual uses of film in cinema history - a documentary life-long chronicle of the lives of 14 people starting at 7 years old, revisiting them every seven years through age 49 (so far).

While I could quibble, wishing for a bit more depth here and there (especially with the women, where there's a bit too much emphasis on love and marriage at the expense of all else), it's really an astounding, moving, frightening and uplifting document. There's no way to watch this remarkable series of films without reflecting deeply on one's own life, and how you have changed (and stayed the same) over your own lifetime.

While Michael Aped deserves every bit of credit he's received for this amazing piece of cultural anthropology, it's important to note this first film, 7 Up,was actually directed by Paul Almond, and Apted was a that point a researcher for the project.

The fifth chapter in the ongoing seven-year cycle of documentaries catches up with all but two of the original kids, after following their development from childhood through repressed adolescence to (mostly) hopeful young adulthood, and here to a more or less stable maturity. The changes in the past seven years are less dramatic than those revealed in '28 Up', but with each new installment the series grows more rich and provocative, and seeing the latest episode is like visiting old friends.

Some of the stories have taken surprising turns: the upper class snobbery of Andrew and John (who refused to appear in the previous film) has mellowed with age. Destitute Neil is doing community theater in the Shetland Islands. And the trio of friends (Jackie, Lynn and Sue), whose lives were the least interesting seven years earlier now each deserve their own separate film (one of them is suffering, with bitterness, from an obscure neurological disorder). Director Michael Apted's socio-political assumptions have long since fallen by the wayside; the series might have started as an experiment in social upbringing with an eye on class distinctions, but if anything the films prove that time is the great equalizer.

Fascinating longitudinal study of the changes in people over time. My college students were so engrossed several asked to borrow my copy to watch again at home. Can't wait for "42 Up" to come out in video. I recommend this film for anyone who likes to think about what they've viewed, and anyone interested in the power of class differences.

Life continues; a parent's life ends (and it is never one that ends too early and you never get over it);; new life is created and comes into family; one of the subject (Tony's) wife takes up some extra work duties and it is clear she has to run the house; life springs some horses to ride around and feel merry; life is a little more awkward when a figure gets recognized in public (though "you get the odd one who is rude..."); life leads you sometimes to Bangladesh (what a mess) or Wisconsin (there are deer, surprised); life is harder because the government under Thatcher was (lightly put) a grave disappointment; another parent died and you can see every bit of the devastation in their eyes and the 30s is the time when people start losing their parents; and life is going to keep going on even if things looked grim (or quite good) for the particular subject at hand.

I find 35 Up to be as on par with the absorbing feeling and interest into this series as the rest - when it comes to absorption and the Up films, just call me a big pack of paper towels - but one of the fascinating parts here is how some of the subjects (like Nick) look back on the previous Up film and how they thought, or really the spouses thought, they came across made it so they were not sure to want to appear in the next film. Charles doesn't appear here at all, a shame as he was one of the more low-key captivating ones from 21 and 28 Up (working for the BBC perhaps ironically he didn't want to appear on TV in this film).

Sometimes seeing oneself on film can do that, and I think that it is remarkable just how many of the subjects agreed to be in the series up till 35 much less than this continued for decades afterward. And in the case of John, of course, they didn't appear in the previous entry and that means we are seeing then go from 21 to 35 and that is also another sort of jump (he didn't even get interviewed by Apted due to a falling out, who knows why, and he's speaking with an assistant here) as he makes his case for Bulgarian charity. Because who doesn't want to give to... Bulgaria!

I'm not sure what else I can add that Roger Ebert didn't touch on in his multiple write-ups on the films in this series, and I'm sure there will be even more to get out of seeing how these adults and their spouses and (if they choose to be included) the kids in 42, but this segment in particular is so striking because of how these children are not only in full adulthood but now, more or less, parents and losing their parents and finding that living any decent life means finding peace in one's work and social situation and, moreover, responsibilities.

Take it from someone who knows: when you're 14 or even 21, you literally don't know how much you are going to bristle and smile and maybe look away from how you were at that age by the time you're 35 (or, if you have kids which I don't, you'll see those qualities in them). That's the power of this series and 35 Up in particular.

I've been watching "Siskel& Ebert" reviews for years, but it's only one week ago that I discovered through their "35 Up" review Michael Apted's "Up" documentary series. I saw it from the start and got instantly hooked up. This is one of the most fascinating and ambitious projects that ever used TV as a medium. A work for the ages. The moment is twice pivotal, because I'm back to the "35 Up", and because I happen to be 35. From now on, they'll be older than me and maybe the documentary will try to teach me lessons, rather than inspire me regrets.

Indeed, as I said before, the appeal of this program is that by being able to provide glimpses of the same lives every seven years, it allows us to detect some common denominators between the kids, the teens they became and the adult they were. At first, we try to guess who is going to be happy, to succeed, now, we try to find out why they did or didn't. Indirectly, it made me measure my own accomplishments or lack thereof. It always seems easy when you do it retrospectively and I admire them for playing the game till the end. I was pleasantly surprised that John came back, he declined to be interviewed at the age of 28, stating that he was fully satisfied, which could pass as snobbery. But here he's back, at 35, revealing richer layers of his personality, starting with his Bulgarian background which encouraged him to take part to some Balkan-oriented charity events. I don't think he ever mentioned that his mother was Bulgarian in the other episodes. Peter and Simon declined to be interviewed, perhaps because they had no call for people's attention, which is understandable.

But the others are still there and I think Apted had found his pace and uses practically the same order as the other episodes. I expected Tony to be the first, he's still high- spirited, trying to fulfill all his dreams, being a cab driver, raising a family, taking acting courses etc.. Bruce has never gave up on his idealism and still teaches courses to immigrants children and goes visit Bangladesh to understand the background of his pupils, every word he delivers speaks a lot about his generous nature and profound altruism. I really liked Bruce.

And other couples are doing quite happily, Paul, Andrew, Nicholas and Suzie they're all stable and content with themselves. The film isn't always as 'dramatic' as the previous ones, but it features some very poignant moments, many involving deaths or health problems. Sadly, Lynn has been diagnosed with some brain condition and I guess the show was heading to that, sooner or later. Parents are getting old, some have left the world, and while we don't know when this will end, we know how it will. I got so accustomed to these people, they became family and I know the show will reach a point when one subject will die, if not Apted.

But let's just embrace the present, and appreciate that for all his emotional struggles, the most troubled subject Neil is alive. It's funny but reading my previous reviews, I never really gave much thoughts about Neil, I simply didn't see his troubles coming. His personality was positive and cheerful but something between the "14" and "21" episode must have totally derailed him. Neil lives in a remote Scottish country from welfare and trying to have a place in a rather modest community. As he says "I've got many things I want to do, but the question is how likely am I to do them?" This is a man intellectually advanced enough to diagnose his problems, not emotionally apt to solve them.

Neil is the eternal question mark and maybe he has somewhat found his status by being an unlikely spokesperson to all the misfits of the worlds. I was surprised by how slightly distracted I was at the middle of the documentary. I was waiting for "Neil" part but Apted kind of anticipated it and the way he constructs his documentary shows that he knows exactly it has to start with Tony who's like the little mascot, then Suzie. In the middle. At mid-point, there's John's comeback. And the documentary has got to end with Neil, it is almost indecent to go back to sights of suburban happiness after him.

But who's happy anyway? I like the comment from Jackie, the idea of being unhappy never occurs to her until the next seven years when Apted comes "nosing around", it was deep in a funny way. Sometimes, the simple question, "are you happy?" implies that you're not. And maybe the reason we want to see this documentary, one episode after another, is because we're not happy or let's just say: we're not as happy as we wished. But again, who is? I don't expect answers of course, I'm not even expecting drastic changes for the next episode, I only wish I will find Lynn in good health and Neil in a better state.

But it's incredible how things change in seven years. I said I'm 35, it's been coincidentally 7 years that I started reviewing movies on IMDb, and while I was reading the early ones and try to find hints about my character, I realized I could also be subject to my own introspection and have glimpses of the state of mind that lead to the very choices I ended up regretting. They were imperceptible then but now, they're as plain as the nose in the face.

So, we might lose hair, gain weight but there's always something in the mind, the heart and the eye that resist the passing of time and speak a core-truth about us, whatever it is, it's what the "Up" series is always digging in. And the hints are more interesting than the answers.