56 Up — The New Chapter

There is no movie I anticipate more eagerly than the new episodes of the “Up” series that come out every seven years.  The first one came out in 1964, when Britain’s Grenada Television interviewed 14 7-year-olds to ask them about their lives and their hopes for the future.  Director Michael Apted, who worked on the first film, has returned to as many of the original group that are willing to participate to see how they are doing.  While the original film focused on the class and economic differences of the children, the subsequent chapters have increasingly focused on their universality as the group goes through adolescence, marriage, parenthood, losing their own parents, money problems, family problems, aging.  After seeing them over so many years, it’s like catching up to classmates or even family members.