Susan's assigned Open University tutor, Frank Bryant, is jaded and has long ago openly taken to the bottle, describing himself as "an appalling teacher". She seeks to better herself by signing up for and attending an Open University course in Literature.
Susan (who initially calls herself Rita), a 26-year-old working-class hairdresser, is dissatisfied with the routine of her work and social life she is reluctant to have a child, fearing it will tie her to the same monotonous routine for life, and she yearns to escape to something more profound, without exactly knowing what that is. The British Film Institute ranked Educating Rita the 84th greatest British film of the 20th century. It won multiple major awards for best actor and best actress and was nominated for three Academy Awards.Ĭaine and Walters both won BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for best actor and actress. The film stars Michael Caine, Julie Walters, Michael Williams and Maureen Lipman. But like all literary critics, I cannot resist giving away the moral to the tale: if the technology is not 21 st Century, the basic design for Educating Rita today, online, is there for all to see.Educating Rita is a 1983 British comedy-drama film directed by Lewis Gilbert with a screenplay by Willy Russell based on his 1980 stage play. I leave the rest of the story for you to watch on your telly.
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So it must have been off-stage, when she was getting her on-line instruction, that Rita gradually learned how to think and write.īy the end of the story, the instructor is so besotted he embraces Rita’s anarchic view of literature-what’s good is what you like-but clever and hard-working Rita, knowing she has to pass that external examination, learns how to turn a phrase to good advantage and wins a “good pass,” which in the days before grade inflation was high praise indeed. Her instructor seems more interested in her remarkable figure than helping her figure things out. Asked to suggest a solution to the problems encountered by stage directors of Henrik Ibsen’s “Peer Gynt,” Rita writes a one line essay: “Do it on the radio.” That answer, he explains, won’t survive the scrutiny of the external examiners.Įxactly how Rita learns what is needed to pass the examination is hard to figure out from anything that happens on stage. To help her get the hang of it, she is entitled to a weekly visit with a tutor, who in Rita’s case is a university lecturer moonlighting in order to get the extra cash needed to support his vast consummation of hard liquor, served neat.Īs the story begins, the drunken slob faces a serious challenge. To complete a course on British prose and poetry, Rita has to pass an external examination by writing an essay that demonstrates she can write serious literary criticism.
Students like Rita came from all walks of life, including Liverpudlian hairdressing salons. Students, even those without the usual academic credentials, could enroll in a public university which offered courses on television supported by materials sent through the mail. Rita is taking courses from University of the Air, known today as “Open University,” an idea invented by the British in the 1960s. Rita is the protagonist, but the play’s most heroic figure is the end-of-the-year examination.
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You can get the movie from Netflix I recently saw a live version on stage at the Huntington Theatre in Boston, but the play’s season has come to an end. “ Educating Rita” makes the case both for digital learning and for end-of-the year external examinations.
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