There's never been anything quite like the "Up" series, which started in 1964 and had its most recent installment (the ninth) in 2019. It's a prolonged psychological and sociological study committed to film. In '64, the first film introduced the world to 14 English 7-year-olds who were carefully chosen from a variety of backgrounds, and every seven years since then, the series has checked back in. The result is a panorama of human existence: success, failures, parenthood, marriage, health problems, passion, and disillusionment. The series offers a chance to see snapshots of other people's ordinary lives over an extraordinary period of time, something we can usually only do with ourselves and those closest to us. The "Up" series asks thoughtful questions about how we become the people we do, what chances we have, how our circumstances affect us, and how we look for happiness. And like life itself, it just keeps going on.
Directors: Paul Almond and Michael Apted
Year: 1964, 1970, 1977, 1984, 1991, 1998, 2005, 2012, 2019
Runtime: 1,018 minutes (all films)
Rating: NR
