Educating Rita, filmanalyse

Educating Rita is a British feature film from 1983 directed by Lewis Gilbert. Rita is a working-class woman in her twenties from Liverpool, and she works as a hairdresser. From the beginning of the film, there is no doubt that Rita is a straightforward, vigorous and kind person. She is clumsy and awkward, but nevertheless, she manages to appear charming. Rita has decided to return to school and therefore she meets up with the university professor Frank. He asks her what she wants to learn, and she answers ”everything” and keeps on talking about how hungry she is to learn. She is tired of her job as a hairdresser, where she has to small-talk with the ignorant masses about inconsequential things. Rita’s husband Denny do not understand what she is trying to do. He is completely unsympathetic about her desire to educate herself. During the film Rita tries her very best to change her behaviour, her appearance and how she speaks. She will do everything to fit into the middle class. Rita gets divorced from Denny and finds a new place to live, together with a young woman, who outwardly is everything Rita so desperately desires to be. The woman who Rita lives with commits suicide and that teaches Rita a huge lesson – education is not everything in life.