Please go here. As there are clips with this story: https://www.50odd.co.uk/being-human/.
Ingredients.
If three of the main ingredients of total, total brilliance are bravery, creativity and staying true to a bold and vivid vision.
A vision that is likely to shock, arrest and polarise.
Then ‘Rita, Sue and Bob Too’ is one of the most totally, totally brilliant films ever made.
Rita, Sue and Bob Too.
I love this film even more at 51 years old.
In 2019.
Than I did when I was 19 years old.
In 1987.
When it was released.
Reminder.
Rita, Sue and Bob Too is a reminder about real life.
And how raw and amazing real life can be.
A reminder also that real life is – mostly – confusing.
As well as broken, bruising and fucking hard.
A reminder that – of course you are going to fuck up vast chapters of your life.
Over and over.
But it is also a reminder that life.
All life.
Should be celebrated.
Not in a pathetic, silly, pointless and unauthentic Instagrammable way.
But just as it is.
Being Human.
Being human means being dysfunctional.
At least sometimes.
And being OK with it.
I love the poetry of the clip below.
There are so many amazing clips that I could have chosen from this film.
But this one, if you’ve not seen the film before.
Or maybe even if you have.
Might just leave you sat silently.
Wide mouthed.
Eyebrows high.
Staring at the screen.
Rita Sue and Bob, Too.
Rita, Sue and Bob are some of most beautifully written and played out characters I’ve ever seen.
As they chronicle the reality and confusion of growing up if you are ‘a Rita’.
Or ‘a Sue’.
And chronicling the reality and confusion of not growing up if you are ‘a Bob’.
Brilliance.
If three of the main ingredients of total, total brilliance are bravery, creativity and staying true to your vision.
Then ‘Rita, Sue and Bob Too’ is one of the most totally, totally brilliant films ever made.
And here are cast members and wider team discussing it in (I think) 2017.
Listen how tenacious Michelle Holmes (Sue) was to get the part:
3 Comments
Michael, thank you for reminding me about this, it’s up there as one of my favourite films alongside Kes & Educating Rita. I remember watching it in my teens and never really picking up on the chaos, in fact we would joke about which characters reminded us of family members.
I then spent my 20’s & 30’s trying to be as far removed from Rita or Sue as I could be and failing miserably. Thankfully in my 40’s I’m probably a little bit Rita, tiny bit Sue, a hell of a lot of drunk dad and shit loads of “piss taking” neighbour.
#simplertimes #itsmyjumpnow.
Thank you for reminding me about this, it’s up there as one of my favourite films alongside Kes & Educating Rita. I remember watching it in my teens and never really picking up on the chaos, in fact we would joke about which characters reminded us of family members.
I then spent my 20’s & 30’s trying to be as far removed from Rita or Sue as I could be but failing miserably. Thankfully in my 40’s I’m probably a little bit Rita, tiny bit Sue, a hell of a lot of drunk dad and shit loads of “piss taking” neighbour.
#simplertimes #itsmyjumpnow.
Hello Claire.
Thank you very much for taking the time to message.
If you like Kes. You’ll like this.
It’s when I went shopping with a friend to buy all the copies of Kes that HMV had in stock.
My friend is David Bradley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVIm1smpdxA&t=4s.
Drop me a line. We can grab a coffee if you like: michael@50odd.co.uk.
M.