I was around the age of 14 and my botany class teacher was asking everyone what they want to do when they grow up, a clichéd question. At my turn, I answered without hesitations that I wanted grow up to be an archaeologist. The teacher was surprised since it is a standard answer of doctor or an engineer from any kid at that point of time and trend of the society in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India. I was very much interested in adventure and I thought digging the past would give me amazing tons of fantastic roller coaster rides of heroism and thrills. I am almost 27 and a Software Engineer, clichéd is not it? The first two documentaries of “The Up Series” brought back that particular event from my childhood.At the year 1964, Paul Almond with Michael Apted and other interested researchers decided to choose 14 different seven year old kids in England of different class and background, and see how the concept of money, discrimination, opposite sex, class and fight play in their mind. After the first documentary, they decided to visit the life of the fourteen every seven years. Michael Apted from then on visited and grabbed the progresses in them every seven years and gave them as “The Up Series”.
The “Seven Up” is entirely shot in black and white with bringing the innocent, sweet, mischievous kids. If I were to answer the questions of what I felt about money, opposite sex, fight and all other complicated yet necessary information at my age of seven, I would have had no clue on what to say. I will never be able to experience myself in that age again anytime in this lifetime and this film made me revisit the old and dusted brain cobwebs of mine. The “Seven Plus Seven Up” brings out their change in view of the very same question they asked and some of the their remember their answers and correct it. The interesting part about both the films are that the viewers will hardly remember four to five kids name but will never forget the faces of the fourteen, their views, their answers and their small talks.
The film is far away from the fake expressions since everyone is new to this concept and they are themselves. It will be very interesting to watch the further series since these two documentaries has roughly given everyone’s characterization at the surface level in a tender age. The viewers tend to form their own favourites and try to associate themselves with the fourteen of them. The truth is that any particular character in every one of them can be associated by anyone.
The usage of camera in both the films is very tactical and loyal to the style of documentary, capturing the behaviour of the children on and off the interview. While all of them are very open and bubbly in the first movie, the real exhibition of candid, honest and innocence, the second movie which has been shot at the middle of their teens express some of them understanding and forming opinions about life and couple of them extremely shy. The concept of improvisation during documentary making is evident when interviewing Suzy, one of the female participants. When she is interviewed in her yard, her dog hunts a Rabbit and without any hesitation, the camera focuses on that. They immediately ask her reaction on how she feels on the death of the Rabbit. This one particular instance promises lot more to come in the further series.
Rest of the series and the recent addition “49 Up” are in line in the queue of mine to watch. Even though there are not much of detailed observations per se in depth, the coming stages in life in all of them are the one which are extremely fragile at the same time powerful, deviant yet straightening the life, complex yet lucid destiny and journey to different places, people and themselves.
Addressing me myself a lot in this review is the clear mark of what “The Up Series” makes the viewer too. How was I when I was seven or fourteen? How were you?
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