Tuesday, June 19, 2007
49-Up
The most recent documentary in the -Up series is fascinating. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Up!
The children we first met when they were 7 years old in 1964 are now 49. (It was actually filmed in 2005 so they are really 51 at this moment.)
One thing that I liked was the astonishing difference in production values that can be seen when they run the original opening and credits and also when they show fragments of the 1964 film to introduce the people.
In 1964 the editing and music were designed to add false drama. There was something ominous about the theme song.
The voice over comments which appeared to be crafted to be neutral were very loaded with value judgments about class, divorce, neighborhoods. Now it comes across as a phoney kind of objectivity that was not objective in the least.
Just a few observations about the "kids".
I was surprised at the number of divorces. I guess I shouldn't have been considering my own life experience.
I recognized the houses in the "Tony" segment as 'looking like Spain' even before he said that they had built a holiday home there. What is most interesting to me is how it fits with the stereotype about the English vacationing in southern Europe to escape the English weather and then eventually recreating exactly the same English community rather than blending into the local community. It is easy to imagine that this was how colonization occurred in the 18th-19th centuries (although it would have been with severe hardship rather than as a vacation home.)
I wonder how the every-seven-year-filming schedule has influenced the lives of the people who were filmed. Did they strive to succeed in different ways because they knew they would have to explain themselves on camera?
It is also great to see the physical transformations of everyone. You can't see the child in all of the adults. Although sometimes you can see the 'child" in some of their offspring.
I was surprised at how few of them and/or their children had gone on to higher education.
I was also surprised at how many of them already had grandchildren when they were 49.
By and large I was especially struck by how happy everyone seemed to be at 49 even if they had be obviously very unhappy in previous segments.
I think this is a great series.
The children we first met when they were 7 years old in 1964 are now 49. (It was actually filmed in 2005 so they are really 51 at this moment.)
One thing that I liked was the astonishing difference in production values that can be seen when they run the original opening and credits and also when they show fragments of the 1964 film to introduce the people.
In 1964 the editing and music were designed to add false drama. There was something ominous about the theme song.
The voice over comments which appeared to be crafted to be neutral were very loaded with value judgments about class, divorce, neighborhoods. Now it comes across as a phoney kind of objectivity that was not objective in the least.
Just a few observations about the "kids".
I was surprised at the number of divorces. I guess I shouldn't have been considering my own life experience.
I recognized the houses in the "Tony" segment as 'looking like Spain' even before he said that they had built a holiday home there. What is most interesting to me is how it fits with the stereotype about the English vacationing in southern Europe to escape the English weather and then eventually recreating exactly the same English community rather than blending into the local community. It is easy to imagine that this was how colonization occurred in the 18th-19th centuries (although it would have been with severe hardship rather than as a vacation home.)
I wonder how the every-seven-year-filming schedule has influenced the lives of the people who were filmed. Did they strive to succeed in different ways because they knew they would have to explain themselves on camera?
It is also great to see the physical transformations of everyone. You can't see the child in all of the adults. Although sometimes you can see the 'child" in some of their offspring.
I was surprised at how few of them and/or their children had gone on to higher education.
I was also surprised at how many of them already had grandchildren when they were 49.
By and large I was especially struck by how happy everyone seemed to be at 49 even if they had be obviously very unhappy in previous segments.
I think this is a great series.
# posted by blue-foot Sue @ 8:32 AM 
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