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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 332964" data-attributes="member: 23">It could be to do with me becoming more familiar with the participants, but this series seems to get better and better in many ways.As well as the connection between participants, growing assertiveness, becoming grandparents, and changing health felt like the themes of 49.49 Up felt like the most self-aware instalment yet, in so many ways. What I particularly enjoyed was the overt recognition that they're part of the series. This film felt like it broke the fourth wall, particularly in the respect that the relationships between the participants and Michael Apted were acknowledged.The standout moment - for me one of the most powerful of the entire series to date - came when after spending a little time with Jackie, she suddenly went into this impassioned speech dissecting her relationship with the series and with Michael. She spoke about a significant behind-the-scenes disagreement when filming 21 with a specific referral to that scene with the three women in the pub where Jackie spent most of the time hanging her head down, face hidden behind her hair. As well as adding layers to the story behind the story, and almost making me want to go back and rewatch the entire series, it also made me hungry to know more about the making of the series. I dare say some of the participants were difficult at times, but what about Apted himself? I remember way before watching, I read that he'd fallen out with one of the participants after losing his temper and shouting when contacting them to appear in an instalment (on reflection, I think it must have been Charles, but I can't confirm this as I'm avoiding any searches around the series). Was it difficult for him when his reasonably compliant young subjects became young adults with sometimes strong views and perhaps represented an even broader cross-section of society than he'd planned?Reinforcing Apted's very specific direction, Jackie's fiery diatribe goes on to cover her frustration at the way the programmes are edited to the point that she feels her sections don't accurately represent who she is but instead show who Apted thinks she is (or wants to portray her as). She angrily tells him that 42 should not have focussed so much on what she cannot do due to the arthritis in her hands, but on what she still can do and is doing. She goes on to effectively say that she feels Apted has undermined her and her peers, and not allowed them to grow on screen beyond his vision of them, and she tells him this is where that changes.It's a winning scene because it feels like it's been a long time coming, and it really brings home that this is something with which participants have lived for over four decades at this point. I doubt any of them can really remember a time before it was part of their lives and indeed, no seven years have gone by without it being so, which means it always was.Jackie's not the first to venture such an opinion. Suzy has commented on it several times since 14 and in 49 she, too feels like she's reached a literal point of no return, stating that she has every hope this will be her last. I felt sad to hear this, as I've liked her more and more with each instalment and hoped to follow her journey more. I found her reflection that she's grown into someone who is comfortable in her own skin for the first time, and that she's grown up (or words to that effect) quite late in life very touching.If this is her final film, at least she's had some form of closure with the series, which is more than Charles had. Or Peter who hasn't appeared since 28. I find it very strange that there's been no commentary about his lack of appearances. Apart from some archive footage showing him beside Neil there's been nothing. His name hasn't even been uttered. Did he, too, fall out with Apted. Did he simply not want to return? Or could he not be contacted? Were there professional repercussions from his "school doesn't teach you anything" comments in 28? His sudden invisibility feels like the biggest mystery in the series at this point.While some members have become more assertive as the films have progressed, it's also fascinating that others have taken the opposite trajectory. After being among the first to challenge the Up concept and the misconceptions it might create back in 14, Andrew and John have mellowed and now simply participate on their own terms. They feel more relaxed with each appearance, and seem to do so on their own terms, which means they have at least a little more say in their own narratives.I thought it interesting  that some participants were becoming grandparents at the same time Bruce became a first-time parent. Perhaps this represents the greater freedoms that this generation had compared with the previous in some areas thanks to improvements in the areas of health and lifespan.I  noted, too, that Paul's depression and questioning his place in life seemed to somehow symbolise the mid-life crisis (for want of a better term). It must have been incredibly difficult for him to seek support for all kinds of reasons, not least that he's a straightforward Aussie bloke, but how wonderful he's so loved and supported by his family. Their visit to London to see Symon was great. Strangely, it felt like they'd been together on-screen quite recently when actually it was 28 years earlier. The gap between 7 and 21 felt larger to me, I suppose because that was the first time they'd connected as adults. Tying in with the ongoing talk of Up connection, Paul, Symon and their wives acknowledged the ties that bind them even when they're apart. It felt simultaneously surreal and perfectly natural. The moment where Paul's wife (whose name I forget) observed that both men had "noisy wives" made me laugh.As if all of this wasn't meta enough, Tony is now producing a stage play based on his own story. It's typical Tony, of course, but as he acknowledges, the Up series was a significant driving force and selling point for the very concept. And so it continues to not only document lives, but shape them as well.</blockquote>

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