Educating Rita

1983
PG
1h 50m

IMDb RATING

7.2/10

15K

YOUR RATING

Michael Caine and Julie Walters in Educating Rita (1983)

An alcoholic professor has been hired by a working-class girl for higher education.

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Comedy Drama

An alcoholic professor has been hired by a working-class girl for higher education.An alcoholic professor has been hired by a working-class girl for higher education.An alcoholic professor has been hired by a working-class girl for higher education.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.2/10

15K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 3 Oscars
- 6 wins & 8 nominations total

Trivia
This movie inspired many marriage break-ups according to Dame Julie Walters (Rita). While receiving the Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Film at the Moet British Independent Film Awards in 2013, Walters said: "I get people who come up to me and say 'I left my husband because of you, because of that film', or 'I got an education'. So many."

Goofs
O.U. students do not enjoy one to one tutorials with a professor.

Quotes
[Rita is being nosy about Frank's marriage]
Dr. Frank Bryant: We split up, Rita, because of poetry.
Rita: You what?
Dr. Frank Bryant: One day, my wife explained to me that, for the past fifteen years, my output as a poet had dealt entirely with the part of our lives in which we discovered each other.
Rita: Are you a poet?
Dr. Frank Bryant: Was. And so, to give me something new to write about, she left me. A very noble woman, my wife - she left me for the good of literature. And remarkably it worked.
Rita: What, you wrote a lot of good stuff, did ya?
Dr. Frank Bryant: No. I stopped writing altogether.

Alternate versions
In a version screened on British TV in the '80s and '90s, Frank tells the imaginary Morgan to 'p*** off', not 'f*** off'; Michael Caine's voice is quite badly dubbed.

Connections
Featured in At the Movies: Never Cry Wolf/Rumble Fish/Heat and Dust/Educating Rita (1983)

Soundtracks
Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467, 2nd movement Andante
Written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (uncredited)
[Record played in Julia's flat]

User reviews103

Review

Featured review

9/10

Can't Get It Out of My Head

Whatever its faults and flaws might be, I've never been able - or wanted to - get 'Educating Rita' out of my head. What makes it so memorable, such a touchstone? Is it Julie Walters's expressive face? Is it Michael Caine's professor being chivvied from his sodden rut by the pixilated yet determined Rita? Is it the wit and good humor and Rational-enquiry-and-argument-as-drama of the screenplay? Is it the dated electronic score that somehow dates the film but not its cerebral or emotional impact? Truth is I don't know what makes 'Educating Rita' so memorable for me - in my head scenes and snippets of this film just pop up and play whenever they've a mind to! - and perhaps that's what makes this film exemplary as movie magic. It deserved and deserves more viewers - whether or not they'll like isn't important: as Rita/Susan says, she now has "choices" - and in my head when its scenes play I can't help giving it unending applause.