Hilary and Jackie (1998)

Directed by

Anand Tucker

Genre

drama film, biographical film, musical film

Country

United Kingdom

Runtime

2h 01m

Rated

12+

Rating

6.6 of 10 from 115 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This 1998 biographical drama focuses on the relationship between two British sisters, one a famous cellist and the other a flutist. It shows Jacqueline du Pré's rise to fame, her romantic involvement with her sister Hilary's husband, and her later battle with multiple sclerosis.

intimatebittersweetreflectiveemotionally complexslow-pacedmelancholicobservationalcharacter-driven

What happens

Hilary and Jackie is a 1998 British biographical film directed by Anand Tucker, starring Emily Watson and Rachel Griffiths as the British classical musician sisters Jacqueline du Pré (cello) and Hilary du Pré (flute). The film covers Jacqueline's meteoric rise to fame, her alleged affair with Hilary's husband Christopher "Kiffer" Finzi, and her struggle with multiple sclerosis starting in her late 20s ultimately leading to her death at the age of 42. Frank Cottrell-Boyce wrote the screenplay at the same time that siblings Hilary and Piers du Pré were working on their memoir, published in 1997 as A Genius in the Family (later republished under the title Hilary and Jackie). As such, the film's closing credits states that it is based on the memoir, though Cottrell-Boyce confirmed, in a programme distributed at early showings of the film, that: "Hilary was working on the book at the same time as I was working on the film ... it was at a very early stage when we were doing the script". The film was not intended as a documentary and thus, unlike the book, does not claim to be the true story and includes some fictionalised incidents. When it was released, the film attracted controversy when several personal friends of Jacqueline publicly condemned it for allegedly distorting details in her life, while Hilary publicly defended it as her and Piers's version of the family's story. Hilary and Jackie generally received critical acclaim, and both Griffiths and Watson were nominated for an Academy Award, for Best Supporting Actress and Best Actress, respectively. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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