F-0245

Title:

Hilary and Jackie

Category:

S

Produced:

1998

Country:

UK

Released:

Film: Sep 1998 (Italy, Venice Film Festival); Dec 1998 / Jan 1999 (USA)
DVD: Jul 1999; Nov 2002
VHS: Nov 1999
Soundtrack: Dec 1998 (CD)

Director:

Anand Tucker

Writer:

Hilary du Pré & Piers du Pré (book "A Genius in the Family"); Frank Cottrell Boyce (screenplay)

Actors:

Emily Watson (Jackie); Rachel Griffiths (Hilary); James Frain (Danny); David Morrissey (Kiffer); Charles Dance (Derek); Celia Imrie (Iris); Rupert Penry-Jones (Piers); Bill Paterson (Cello Teacher); Auriol Evans (Young Jackie); Keeley Flanders (Young Hilary); Grace Chatto (Teena); Nyree Dawn Porter (Dame Margot); Maggie McCarthy (Margaret); Vernon Dobtcheff (Professor Bentley); Anthony Smee (BBC Nabob)

Description:

This movie tells the true story of the tragic life of the brilliant international concert cellist Jacqueline Du Pré and her sister, Hilary. Despite starting out in music together, Hilary chooses a more normal life in having a husband and children. Jacqueline gets married too but can never seem to quite achieve the happiness of the mundane life Hilary has and Hilary's devotion to her sister causes them to take some rather drastic measures in their lives. The irony of having a great musical ability fades away as Jacqueline transcends into a slow decline when struck with a deadly illness. (mad janssen & Amazon.com))

It earned Oscar nods, yet this cinematic look at a genius--that of English cellist Jacqueline du Pré, who enraptured audiences with her bold, emblazoned, and wholly unconventional playing style, and who died at age 42--was criticized for its "lapses" in truth by people who purportedly knew du Pré. Some of the controversy revolved around the other main character in Anand Tucker's gorgeous, involving movie--du Pré's sister, Hilary, whose book, A Genius in the Family (cowritten with brother Piers), dished some dirt on Jackie's sleeping with Hilary's husband. But don't let that deter you from this ebullient movie experience. The film is a bisected story (each sister's tale is told in the same amount of screen time) teeming with heartfelt drama that belies the cheap shots it received from its detractors. It's stirring, reckless, loving, involving, and rife with unconventional passion; passion for music, life, art, and the delicate relationship between these two synchronous, extraordinary sisters as played by brilliant actors Emily Watson and Rachel Griffiths (both of whom earned Oscar nods). Though Watson got the juicy, showy role as Jackie, it's Griffiths who provides the heart, soul, and spine of the film. And director Tucker has that gift of being able to explain through the visual medium what is happening inside of his character's heads. He's helped by a fine screenplay by Frank Boyce Cottrell. No matter what the truth of Hilary and Jackie might really be, this is an exceptional, rare film that is defined and graced by fine acting and writing. (Paula Nechak, Amazon.com)

Anand Tucker's film takes us through the politely fraught story of the cellist Jacqueline du Pré and her sister Hilary. We see them first as young girls, and follow their rivalry; Hilary, the sensible flutist, is gradually outstripped by her more impassioned sister. The sense of period, of ungainly English pride, is funny and acute, but the movie mislays its sense of wit as the girls grow up. The nub of the tale, in which the now famous Jackie (Emily Watson) starts up a rural threesome with Hilary (Rachel Griffiths) and Hilary's husband Kiffer Finzi (David Morrissey), feels both overblown and oddly beside the point; it certainly means that Tucker takes his eye, or his ear, off the music. The whole picture, indeed, is more likely to gratify the emotionally prurient than to appease lovers of Beethoven and Elgar; that is certainly the effect of Watson's strains and strivings, and you feel grateful whenever Griffiths and Morrissey (both excellent) manage to calm her down. With Celia Imrie as the girls' tireless mother, and James Frain as Daniel Barenboim. (Anthony Lane, Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker)

Language:

English

TT:

121 min (Film, DVD) / 124 min (VHS)

J.S. Bach's Music:

Prelude (Mvt. 1) from Suite for solo cello No. 1 in G major, BWV 1007
Excerpts played as part of the score

Gigue (Mvt. 6) from from Suite for solo cello No. 1 in G major, BWV 1007
Excerpts played as part of the score

Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor, BWV 1067 Overture
Barrington Pheloung / London Metropolitan Orchestra
with David C. Heath (Flute ?)

Gavotte (Mvt. 5) from Suite for solo cello No. 6 in D major, BWV 1012
Excerpts played as part of the score

Prelude (Mvt. 1) from Suite for solo cello No. 3 in C major, BWV 1009
Excerpts played as part of the score

Format:

Film: Color (DeLuxe), Dolby Digital
DVD: See below.
VHS: See below.
Soundtrack: CD

Company:

Film: Arts Council of England; British Screen Productions; Channel Four Films; Intermedia Films; The Oxford Film Company
DVD: Universal Studios; Polygram USA Video; ArtHaus
VHS: Polygram USA Video; Universal
Soundtrack: Sony [CD]

Comments:

Watch selections:

Buy movie at:

DVD: Amazon.com [Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Widescreen, NTSC, Region 1] | Amazon.com [Closed-captioned, Color, Full Screen, Letterboxed, NTSC, Region 1] | Amazon.com [PAL, Region 2] | Amazon.com [PAL, Region 2]
VHS: Amazon.com [Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC] | Amazon.com [PAL] | Amazon.com [PAL, German]
Soundtrack: Amazon.com [CD]

Source/Links: IMDB
Contributor: Aryeh Oron (November 2007)