James Hitchcock
The death of the cellist Jacqueline du Pré in 1987 was the cause of an unusually large amount of public grief and attention in Britain; the passing of a classical musician is normally marked by little more than an obituary in the broadsheet papers and possibly a brief item on the news. Du Pré, however, was someone the British had taken to their hearts. Part of the reason was her special relationship with the Elgar cello concerto, a work which has always played an important part in British cultural life; there may be room for disagreement with all three parts of the analysis, but at the time of her death I remember her being described as the greatest interpreter of the greatest work by the nation's greatest composer.The main reason, however, was the sheer tragedy of her life. She was a youthful prodigy who reached the top very early on; her famous recording of the Elgar concerto with Sir John Barbirolli was made when she was only twenty. Her marriage to the pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim made them a Golden Couple, the Dick Burton and Liz Taylor of classical music. And then, while still in her twenties, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She gave her last concert in 1973 at the age of 28, after which her condition quickly deteriorated. By the time of her death aged 42 she had become paralysed and was confined to a wheelchair. The film was based on a memoir written by Jacqueline's sister Hilary and brother Piers and concentrates on the relationship between the two sisters. Hilary du Pré was also a musician, in her case a flautist, but was much less famous than her sister. Even so, the film pays them equal attention, being divided into two sections, the first telling events from Hilary's point of view and the second from Jackie's. Hilary was the older of the two and during their childhood and early teens was regarded as being at least as promising as Jackie. Eventually, however, it was Jackie who achieved greater prominence and Hilary seems to have given up performing as a professional after her marriage to Christopher Finzi, son of the composer Gerald Finzi. Such a scenario could easily have led to bitter jealousy and rivalry, but in this case appears not to have done so; according to the film the sisters were devoted to one another as children and remained so as adults, even though Jackie seems to have done her best to live up to the old stereotype of artistic geniuses as highly-strung, eccentric and temperamental. Hilary, who was probably not a genius, seems to have been much more placid and level-headed, which enables her to cope with her sister's foibles. When Jackie announces that she wants to sleep with Christopher, Hilary acquiesces, believing that this will help her sister's complicated mental state, and even persuades her reluctant husband to consent to this unorthodox "adultery as therapy" arrangement. Of the main actors I was least taken with James Frain as Barenboim, whom he plays with a heavy foreign accent; the real Daniel Barenboim speaks much better English than this. The others, however, are all much better, especially Emily Watson as Jacqueline and Rachel Griffiths as Hilary, both of whom were nominated for Academy Awards. Both lost, Watson to Gwyneth Paltrow in "Shakespeare in Love" and Griffiths to Judi Dench in the same film. In both cases I would disagree with the Academy; Paltrow's performance was not a particularly distinguished one and Griffiths' contribution is much more substantial than Dench's brief cameo. The two actresses seem exquisitely well suited to their roles, with their contrasting styles of acting- Watson's more demonstrative, Griffiths' more restrained- bringing out the contrasting personalities of the two sisters. An adjective commonly used about Elgar's great concerto- which we hear at several key points in the movie- is "autumnal", and the director Anand Tucker seems to be trying to reflect this in the look of the film. Autumnal tones- dark reds, oranges, browns, yellows- predominate throughout much of the film, and most scenes feature a prominent object in one of these colours, often Jacqueline's dresses. Only towards the end are these colours replaced by more wintry greys, whites and pale blues, indicating symbolically that Jacqueline's autumn has now turned to winter during a period of her life which should have been her spring and summer. The film ends with her looking back at her childhood, seeing herself and Hilary playing on the beach as young girls."Hilary and Jackie" was not perhaps the greatest film made in 1998; my vote for "Best Picture" that year would have gone to Peter Weir's astounding "The Truman Show". Nor is it perhaps the greatest ever film about classical music to my mind that must be Milos Forman's equally astounding "Amadeus". It is, however, beautifully written, acted and directed, a riveting psychological portrait of musical genius, of love, of loss, of sisterhood and of understanding. I am surprised that we have not heard more of Anand Tucker since. 9/10 A goof. The film implies that Jacqueline du Pré died during the night of the Great Hurricane, 15th - 16th October 1987- we even see that notorious forecast with Michael Fish denying that a hurricane was on the way. In fact, she died a few days later, on 19th October. This may, however, have been a deliberate change to make the story seem more dramatic.
oragex
This is the real story of a cellist (some sort of musical instrument) player, as described by her sister. Although I'm by far not a fan of anything musical in movies, this one is real, so real, so close to the human nature, it's a gem. Rarely seen this on screen, both the script, directing and acting. Because, this is not only about the magical, almost hard to believe acting of Emily Watson, it's also about an unbelievable directing and, I guess, a very deep and complete script about human emotions. Note that I'm mostly talking about the second half of the movie where the action is replaced by some more emotional detail. Emily has this emotional play that is simply stunning. I've first seen her in Equilibrium at the moment of her death (mostly the only good scene in the movie), when I understood how deep emotionally this person is. But credit must as well go to the movie director, and I really want to point this out. Just like in the music industry where the credit goes too often to the interpret, and not to the music writers. In this movie, the credit goes equally both to the directing and the actors. Rare gem, if you can understand the human nature or have experienced something more or less similar as the leading role.
ianlouisiana
....a simplification perhaps,but not an absurdity."Hilary and Jackie" presents a version of the life of Miss Jacqueline Du Pre,an extravagantly gifted English cellist whose career and, ultimately, whose life was cut tragically short by M.S.It could have been a moving tribute to a considerable musical talent but it turned out as an exploitative sensationalist hatchet - job worthy of the sleaziest tabloid newspaper. The dreadful signs and symptoms of the final stages of Miss Du Pre's disease are graphically portrayed with the same glee as beggars once used to display their sores and deformities for the delectation of the public. In much the same way that "Lady Sings The Blues" salaciously bared Miss Billie Holiday's very private demons,so this movie is happy to desecrate the memory of a much - loved musician in the name of profit. No matter how good Miss Watson and Miss Griffiths are,they are still participating in a film whose only purpose can be to smear the memory of young woman who was revered by a generation of concert - goers. No amount of subsequent declarations of undying love from Miss Du Pre's guilt - ridden siblings can change that. All we are left with is some cello music that the unwary might think is played by Miss Du Pre.Don't be fooled - it isn't.
bob the moo
As a child Hilary was the talented musician on the flute and the younger Jacqueline was encouraged to keep up if she wanted to accompany her sister on trips to musical events. So Jackie practiced hard on her cello to do so, gradually becoming better than her sister. As adults Hilary is now very much in the shadow of her brilliant sister Jackie, who is booked solid for shows. However where Hilary finds happiness and support from her partner and husband Kiffer, Jackie grows increasingly isolated from others. The pair's relationship drifts apart but comes together again to produce one traumatic moment in their relationship.I'm sure it has been done many times but I still found this film's structure to be pretty clever. The central traumatic act in the narrative occurs halfway through the film; up until then we follow things from Hilary's point of view and then in the second half we jump backwards and work up to it again (and beyond) from Jacqueline's (more or less). The effect is that the first half of the film is engaging as it develops along lines we don't know while the second film is engaging as it underpins the reasons for Jacqueline's character and where she goes from there. I put of watching the film because I had no knowledge of the characters and no real interest in their music, however now that I have watched it I am glad I did as it is well made and interesting. It is very character driven and evenly paced, which will annoy some viewers but for me it worked really well and produced a story that didn't require you to know the people involved because you felt you did by the end.Watson leads the cast really well, bringing out the innocent of her character as easily as she does the spite within Jackie. Griffiths yet again shows her talent in taking on yet another accent and strange character and pulling it off. They work well together although their best scenes are early on. Support is good from Frain, Morrissey, Dance, Imrie and others but the film is lead well by the main two actresses who work well with the material given them.Overall this is a well paced film that will annoy some but is heavy in quality. The character development in the script is strong and the cast respond well to it. Tucker controls it all well with a good eye for a scene and some imaginative visual touches and brings out a film that is well-structured and engaging even if it won't be to everyone's tastes.
