Michael Apted (1941-2021)

[Big Ben]

Michael Apted

[hearthesilence]

Michael Apted

Very sad to hear this. By strange chance, I got to speak to him on the phone around 2011 or 2012 - he was looking for a colleague, and when he asked me to take down his name, my immediate reaction (with increasing excitement) was, "Apted? You mean the 7 Up films director Michael Apted?" He sounded flattered when I told him how much I loved those films and he talked a bit about 56 Up, which hadn't been released yet. It was doubtful he'd ever finish the series due to the age difference (and it feels morbid saying "finish" - essentially waiting for the participants to pass away), but it's still very sad that he won't be taking the helm for any more installments.

[therewillbeblus]

Michael Apted

Very sad to hear this. By strange chance, I got to speak to him on the phone around 2011 or 2012 - he was looking for a colleague, and when he asked me to take down his name, my immediate reaction (with increasing excitement) was, "Apted? You mean the 7 Up films director Michael Apted?" He sounded flattered when I told him how much I loved those films and he talked a bit about 56 Up, which hadn't been released yet. It was doubtful he'd ever finish the series due to the age difference (and it feels morbid saying "finish" - essentially waiting for the participants to pass away), but it's still very sad that he won't be taking the helm for any more installments.

Agreed, I hope someone else takes the helm on the Up series. I finally went through them all this year, and even though I'm a lot cooler on the films than most, they still function collectively as a fascinating longitudinal study.

Coincidentally I revisited his Bond entry, The World is Not Enough, yesterday- one that I still probably enjoy more than the masses. Honestly he's a curious filmmaker, and looking at his oeuvre always makes me turn my head sideways (for example, the same guy made stylistically-disparate thrillers Gorky Park and Enough?) but his first feature, The Triple Echo, is terrific and one of the best 'discoveries' of this year for me.

[swo17]

Literally just got the 7-63 Up Network Blu-ray this week and was wondering if it would become obsolete in a few years

[MichaelB]

Apted has been a notable influence on various eastern European documentary-makers, who seem to have been especially fascinated by his approach to long-form projects.

In particular, the Czech director Helena Třeštíková's entire career owes an incalculable amount to Apted, as he'd already demonstrated the viability of this kind of filmmaking when she was still at film school (and I warmly commend her work to anyone fascinated by Apted's - 2009's Katka, a study of a heroin addict shot over 14 years, is an excellent starting point), and even Krzysztof Kieślowski started his own Apted-style project with First Love (1974), a study of a couple coping with the impending arrival of their first child - if I remember rightly, it spans the few months between pregnancy confirmation and birth - that was originally planned to be a much more ambitious project filmed over many years, until Kieślowski got cold feet over the ethical side of things. It's easy to see the appeal of a film about a young girl growing up literally from birth, but he felt that it was fundamentally immoral to do this to someone who wouldn't have been able to give informed consent to this until many years into production.

[FrauBlucher]

Tommy Lasorda

Considering how long he had suffered from heart issues it's a credit to him for making it so long.

I have a love hate relationship with Lasorda. He was great for the game. A true ambassador for Baseball. I enjoyed to no end when his Dodgers beat the Yankees in 1981. But also hate him for his vastly underdog 1988 team beating the "Mighty" Mets, as Lasorda referred to them, in the playoffs. They had all the mojo going that year. But I do love him more. LOL. RIP.

Michael Apted

Very sad to hear this. By strange chance, I got to speak to him on the phone around 2011 or 2012 - he was looking for a colleague, and when he asked me to take down his name, my immediate reaction (with increasing excitement) was, "Apted? You mean the 7 Up films director Michael Apted?" He sounded flattered when I told him how much I loved those films and he talked a bit about 56 Up, which hadn't been released yet. It was doubtful he'd ever finish the series due to the age difference (and it feels morbid saying "finish" - essentially waiting for the participants to pass away), but it's still very sad that he won't be taking the helm for any more installments.

I love the Up Series but it started to depress the shit out of me as I aged along with the subjects being that I am not far behind them. But hey, that's life. It will be one of the great antiquity pieces that film has to offer.

[therewillbeblus]

The Up series wast most interesting around 21, 28, 35 (though maybe I'll find the later chapters better once I get there), really because of how some of these characters changed across these formative years of identity development. Neil is hands-down the most interesting to me (if you've seen it, you'll probably know why), and where he ends up in the later chapters is rather heartening in its own way, though I'm sure many will contest that view. I also find myself drawn to John's trajectory because he comes off like a real snob and then shows us that he's not and eventually critiques Apted for depicting him that way originally. It's also a case study of how one's offputting demeanor is a book cover that doesn't reveal their true virtues, and may only be offputting because of how we're socially conditioned to view people who speak or superficially act a certain way, making the study more about our cultural processing than any fault of Apted or John's.

[hearthesilence]

It's easy to see the appeal of a film about a young girl growing up literally from birth, but [Kieślowski] felt that it was fundamentally immoral to do this to someone who wouldn't have been able to give informed consent to this until many years into production.

That's one of the more interesting things about the Up series as it moves along. Appropriately, it came out of the film's subjects pushing that idea forward in their interviews, not to mention those who eventually declined to participate altogether. Given the nature of the series, those conflicts couldn't be diminished, much less brushed aside, and it highlighted an ethical dilemma that wasn't explored enough in mainstream documentaries.

Michael Apted

Very sad to hear this. By strange chance, I got to speak to him on the phone around 2011 or 2012 - he was looking for a colleague, and when he asked me to take down his name, my immediate reaction (with increasing excitement) was, "Apted? You mean the 7 Up films director Michael Apted?" He sounded flattered when I told him how much I loved those films and he talked a bit about 56 Up, which hadn't been released yet. It was doubtful he'd ever finish the series due to the age difference (and it feels morbid saying "finish" - essentially waiting for the participants to pass away), but it's still very sad that he won't be taking the helm for any more installments.

I love the Up Series but it started to depress the shit out of me as I aged along with the subjects being that I am not far behind them. But hey, that's life. It will be one of the great antiquity pieces that film has to offer.

I came across an interview promoting 63 Up where the reporter told Apted he was the same age as the film's subjects, much to his delight. For him, the series probably made him more self-aware of his own mortality as well. That was actually the main subject of their interview, with one of the members having already died and then another (the nuclear physicist who worked with radioactive materials) fighting cancer. It was suggested that he didn't have much time left, but not only is he still with us, he even managed to do a 90-minute interview rather than the 10 minutes Apted was ready to settle for.

[FrauBlucher]

That's awesome. I'm going to try to find the interview... I didn't see 63 up. It was screening at the Film Forum but I couldn't make it

[Sternhalma Weinstein]

Regarding Apted's Up series of films, always thought it would be even more interesting, and possibly more moving, to spend the decades and decades filming and only then show the films in, and in reverse order. Probably better suited to modern television or streaming format, and even so probably not the least bit realistic as a production.

[willoneill]

Regarding Apted's Up series of films, always thought it would be even more interesting, and possibly more moving, to spend the decades and decades filming and only then show the films in, and in reverse order. Probably better suited to modern television or streaming format, and even so probably not the least bit realistic as a production.

I've yet to see any of the Up films, despite them being on my watchlist since I heard of them 20 years ago or so, but now that you've given me this idea, I'm going to hold out until the end.

[therewillbeblus]

I’m curious why you’d think that would be more moving or more interesting, unless purely as an eccentric twist for the latter? The series is a longitudinal study and it’s moving precisely because we age forward and can identity with this process of maturity, wavering stability, and the continuous loss that comes from forward momentum without the ability to go back and do things differently, which also makes it interesting for its purpose of exploring human development and the permanence of time. I feel like suggesting a Memento-esque narrative imposes an entirely different meaning on the series for the sake of experiment, and is trying to manipulate realism with imagination via a recontextualization of anthropological evolution, a fictitious documentary from the mind of Charlie Kaufman. Sounds cool, especially if one wants to mimic the process of looking back, though that’s getting into the realm of tainted memories, nostalgia, and not really the spirit of the project (they continually go back and show old footage to grant us this experience of measured growth and longing for lost youth throughout the series as it is, which assists in contemplating the ongoing complex engagement with acceptance, a significant theme that would be muted if reversed).

[hearthesilence]

Regarding Apted's Up series of films, always thought it would be even more interesting, and possibly more moving, to spend the decades and decades filming and only then show the films in, and in reverse order. Probably better suited to modern television or streaming format, and even so probably not the least bit realistic as a production.

I've yet to see any of the Up films, despite them being on my watchlist since I heard of them 20 years ago or so, but now that you've given me this idea, I'm going to hold out until the end.

I understand where Sternhalma's coming from, but it would need to be re-cut from scratch because it would be disastrous with the way each film is cut now. They often re-visit or re-cap an individual's life with footage from past episodes, so right off the bat you wouldn't have the benefit of seeing them recede in age over time. Instead, there may be little or nothing to discover as you approach the beginning again, in which case it could grow more tedious and repetitive as you get to the first installment.

[colinr0380]

I would like to put in a word for the magnificent Gorillas In The Mist too which is not afraid to feature a protagonist (in a fearless role for Sigourney Weaver) who at times can be rather unsympathetic and purposefully blinkered as to the human community that she has parachuted herself into, due to her focus being entirely on the apes that so engage her.

Apted is always really good at making films featuring characters who go against the grain of received thinking and end up creating their own worlds after rejecting the current society to some extent, although his films often feature those more extreme characters being viewed through a more moderate audience surrogate figure, providing a bit of safe distance from full identification. That's perhaps why the 7 Up series flew at its highest with the chap who was homeless and roaming the country at one point. But its there in Nell too, or Firstborn, or the murder in the Native American community investigation taking place in Thunderheart.

I also quite like his run of mid-90s thrillers with Madeleine Stowe as the blind woman in peril in Blink from 1994 and the 1996 Hugh Grant film Extreme Measures (which is a bit Coma-light but very enjoyable with an interesting ethical dilemma about what happens when ambitious organ donation plans go a bit too far into the homeless community, and features Sarah Jessica Parker in the potentially shifty girlfriend part equivalent to Michael Douglas as the shifty boyfriend in Coma!). I have not yet gotten to his 2002 Jennifer Lopez film Enough as yet, although from that trailer it looks as if it has set the template for the last couple of decades of TV movies!

[knives]

I’m a bit surprised Coal Miner’s Daughter hasn’t been mentioned yet. In addition to the two great central performances it really helped define the modern ‘realistic’ musical biopic in a way studios are still working in.

[therewillbeblus]

I was going to mention it, since I think it's his most famous film, but I remember nothing about it to the point where when I revisit I may as well log it as a first watch.

[knives]

Then you’re in for a great time with Tommy Lee Jones going super ham.

[Aunt Peg]

I’m a bit surprised Coal Miner’s Daughter hasn’t been mentioned yet. In addition to the two great central performances it really helped define the modern ‘realistic’ musical biopic in a way studios are still working in.

Great film and Michael Apted's best work. I've honestly lost count of the number of times I've seen the film though my most recent viewing was in the first half of 2020. The commentary between Apted and Sissy Spacek is a great listen too. At the end of the commentary they mentioned their desire to work together again which did come to fruition when Apted directed an episode of Bloodline in Season 3 which also happens to be the episode in the entire series that gives Spacek her finest moments in the series.

[Feego]

The first half or so of Coal Miner's Daughter does such an incredible job of capturing a sense of period and location that it's pretty much the only musical bio where I forget that I'm watching a recreation of someone's life and just become absorbed in the story and these characters. Once Lynn achieves fame, it does fall into more conventional biopic trappings, but there's an intimacy and decided lack of glitz that most other Hollywood musical bios (that I've seen) never quite accomplish. Certainly Spacek and Jones contribute greatly to that, but I also think Apted smartly approached this film as a complicated, and sometimes toxic, love story rather than a celebrity's rags-to-riches story.

[beamish14]

Michael Apted

I knew that Apted had been Directors Guild of America President, but I didn't realize that he had one of the longest tenures in said position, nor was I cognizant of
the fact that he was partially inspired to take on that role because Thunderheart was re-edited without his consent.

I do think he was a great filmmaker, even if he seemed to take on many studio jobs that I don't think he was deeply attached in the development of (e.g. taking over
for an ailing Curtis Hanson on Chasing Mavericks and his Narnia installment). I'm reminded of a quote from Wayne Wang, who said something to the
effect that his work ethos was to do "one for them" (the Hollywood system) after he made "smaller", personal films for himself, and I think Apted probably had a similar attitude.

[thirtyframesasecond]

Apted's 'P'tang Yang Kipperbang', written by Jack Rosenthal of London's Burning fame, was one of the first films shown on Channel 4, I think - a sensitive tale of male adolescence and particularly poignant if you're a cricket fan.

[colinr0380]

Yes, it was not quite aired on Channel 4's first night (that honour went to Stephen Frears' Walter, starring Ian McKellen) but it aired the the day after!

[colinr0380]

Here's a contemporary review of Extreme Measures from the BBC's Late Review show. Spoiler: Germaine Greer is not impressed! It is also interesting to see the commentators seemingly more interested in the Simian Films production company formed by Hugh Grant and Liz Hurley (which went on to make Mickey Blue Eyes) which reminds me a little of all that furore over the Natural Nylon production company that Jude Law and Sadie Frost were involved in around the same time and also disbanded a couple of years afterwards (eXistenZ was the most notable film produced by that company), where the press interest was similarly more directed towards the short term 'power couple' aspect than the films themselves.

Mark Lawson's rather cutting comment that "Hackman gets the pretty boy young actor and acts them off the screen" was very amusing, especially as after this Hackman was teamed up with Will Smith in Enemy of the State!