The memories of self-image become the focus of '56 Up'

Andrew at age 49, as seen in “56 Up,” a film by Michael Apted. (First Run Features)

Every week, Ultimate Movie Year looks back into the past to highlight the best film that came out that weekend.

"56 Up"
Released domestically Jan. 4, 2013
Directed by Michael Apted
Where to Watch

The Pick

The year begins with a completely blank slate. The possibilities are endless! The world is our oyster! But as it turns out, Week One is the weakest weekend of the year for new releases for reasons we’ll cover below. The options are limited, like starting the first round of a fantasy draft with only last round players. Fortunately, there is still a gem available, like a film from one of the most respected documentary series in cinematic history. Not only does “56 Up” get us out of the hole, but it immediately improves the quality of our year by marking off “documentary” on our genre checklist.

The Reason

Sometimes in times of trouble, we retreat to the past - our pasts - to remember when life was more comfortable. A time when someone or something we loved existed in its purest form, and we wonder where it all went wrong. Or perhaps something good has happened to you, and you think back to the path that led you to this place of happiness, recognizing the hardships that contributed to the journey. 

We can remember through physical and tangible objects. We can look back to pictures, journals, videos, and now even social media memories to see a moment that preserved who we were in the past, allowing us to reflect on who we are now. Did your life and dreams come true? Who are you if they didn't?

For an astonishing six decades, documentary filmmaker Michael Apted has been following the lives of 14 people from Britain since they were the age of seven in the remarkable Up docuseries (Paul Almond helmed the first film, "Seven Up!," in 1964, with Apted steering production for all subsequent installments). Every seven years, Apted checks in on the same people, selected from diverse socio-economic backgrounds, to see where their lives have taken them. The series is an examination of the philosopher Aristotle’s expression, “Give me a child until he is seven, and I will give you the man.”

“I think in a certain way it’s true,” Apted told PBS in 2013. “I think their personality is set at seven. When you compare the 56-year-old personalities with the 7-year-old personalities on the whole you can see the 7-year-old and the 56-year-old and maybe that’s wishful thinking, but I got the feeling that one’s character is sort of set. But that doesn’t mean that you’re going to know what’s going to happen in their lives, how they’re going to conduct themselves, or what slings and arrows are going to be thrown at them throughout their life.”

As the series continues, each subsequent installment contains footage from the previous films as the viewer glimpses the life of each participant in five to 10-minute chunks. Tony had dreams of being a jockey (and was training for it), before running his own taxi service. Lynn became a school librarian, a profession that is continuously in danger of budget cuts. Raised by a single mother, Symon went through his own relationship difficulties but endured to raise his children, both biological and foster. Neil became homeless for a time before becoming an elected representative in his hometown in North West England. Fourteen lives of different origins, connected by this one film project, grappling with the concept of our lives being foretold when we are young.

They say life happens in a flash, but while watching “56 Up,” it occurs in an edit. The film cuts moments and quotes from the participants at age 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 49 and 56 right on top of one another, so you can see the course of their lives and dreams in minutes. Relationships, and even marriages, begin and end in seconds. The series can ask one question, "Do you want to get married?" to a 7-year-old, and again throughout their lives as they get older. How does their answer change? How does the question evolve when the person actually does get married, and their spouse is sitting right next to them, listening to their answers?

The power of film is brought to life in this extraordinary documentary series, as years of a person's experience is condensed in an edit to reveal truths about us that may not be obvious by looking at the whole. At the same time, it is also limiting, in that does a 10 minute segment genuinely represent a person's entire life? Both sides are explored throughout the series, as the participants grapple with those questions themselves, and express their conflicted emotions about continuing to participate in the series where the viewers might mistake them for "characters" in a program they watch, like a soap opera or long-running movie franchise.

What was once a unique experience for these people is now more familiar to the rest of us. Our lives are becoming more digital. It’s easier and more convenient to take pictures and videos of important moments in our lives and share them with family and friends, and everything is more accessible. Social media reminds us of our past with regular memory postings. Younger generations are now growing up without any concept of an analog age. How we choose to reveal ourselves in public is now easily captured with a download, but does what we share truly express who we are in life? The sensation, once limited to the participants of the "Up" series, are now ours.

I've tried to include every genre in the Ultimate Movie Year, but with rare exceptions, theatrical releases of documentaries don't tend to get much attention. They are often made on minimal budgets (at least compared to traditional films), leaving little funding to market the documentary and relying on word-of-mouth to boost attendance. It's also easy to get lost in the shuffle with the seeming onslaught of weekly releases that desire to capture our attention for just one weekend. The window of a theatrical release continues to grow smaller, and unless you're a branded documentarian like Michael Moore or a family-friendly subject like 2005's "March of the Penguins" or 2018's "Won't You Be My Neighbor," you're likely to be seen by more people by distributing your film on television or streaming.

For this exercise, it was fortunate that "56 Up" was released on the first weekend of the year, which traditionally doesn't see many new movies debut. The reason is two-fold: Many of the big-budget studio movies from Christmas are still enjoying a healthy box office run after the holidays, and the smaller "prestige" pictures that debuted late in the year to qualify for awards contention are opening in broader markets. There's not a lot of space in the marketplace for a new movie, but if one were to focus only on debuting pictures, the small release of a documentary on a quiet weekend makes sense.

It doesn't get any smaller than "56 Up's" release, dropping in one theater on Jan. 4, 2013, but grossing an astonishing $22,000 throughout the weekend (placing second in per-screen average). It received limited distribution for the next few weeks, eventually increasing to a total of 32 theaters on Feb. 22, before gradually losing screens through the spring and early summer. This was never a film that was going to make a lot of money, a limited release that topped out at $701,000, and yet, its long six-month run domestically speaks to the strength and affection of this documentary series.

The late film critic Roger Ebert was a longtime champion of the Up series. He included the films in his Great Movies series, and while the country’s most famous critic passed away only a few months after the release of “56 Up,” he was able to watch and review that entry.

“In one of my several reviews of the Up documentaries, I referred to the series as the noblest project in cinema history,” Ebert wrote. “I am older now and might refrain from such hyperbole. But we are all older now, and this series proves it in a most deeply moving way.

“It is a mystery, this business of life. I can’t think of any other cinematic undertaking that allows us to realize that more deeply.”

The legacy of the Up series continues to this day, as the most recent installment, "63 Up" was released in 2019 as the ninth film. Unfortunately, one of the original participants has passed away before "63 Up." More will follow, as that's how life works. Those who have seen each film upon release have grown up with these individuals, and will likely mourn their loss as they would a childhood friend they rarely see in the present. We know the feeling, as the Internet and social media have made us all have relationships with people we never see or meet, viewed behind a digital screen. Sometimes those are good relationships, but too often those connections turn negative and toxic because we only see the digital front, the avatar of what they choose to represent.

Spending a few hours with the participants of “56 Up” helps me remember the humanity of the people behind the screens.

The Weekend

As I've mentioned, it's an extremely unusual weekend to release anything worthwhile as the post-holiday films settle in for their runs. On this weekend in 1998, acting titan Daniel Day-Lewis starred in "The Boxer," directed by his longtime collaborator Jim Sheridan. The following year, "Affliction" earned some Academy Award attention with a nomination for Nick Nolte and win for James Coburn. Several other acclaimed films making their debuts this weekend include "Once Upon a Time in Anatolia" in 2012 and "Anomalisa" in 2016.

It's a big weekend for cult movies as well. Chris Elliott was a fan favorite on David Letterman's late-night shows, but his "Cabin Boy" became one of the worst reviewed films of 1994. Still, I will occasionally ask people if they would like to buy a monkey. Eli Roth scored with one of the most successful movies of his career, "Hostel," becoming a cult classic in the horror genre upon its debut in 2006. Also, a few installments to horror franchises debuted here as well, such as "Texas Chainsaw 3D" in 2013 and "Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones" in 2014.

Going back to the earliest years of film, let’s also note the premiere of Charlie Chaplin's "The Circus,” occurring this week in 1928. Caplin is one of film's early innovators both onscreen and behind-the-scenes, and his influence continues to be felt a century later, as evidenced by next week's pick.

Next Week: "Paddington 2"

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