Educating Rita

Educating Rita (original title: Educating Rita) is a British comedy-drama film released on September 14, 1983, directed by Lewis Gilbert and based on Willy Russell's play of the same name. The film stars Julie Walters and Michael Caine in the lead roles.

Plot

Raising Rita tells the story of Susan White (Julie Walters), a young woman who feels the desire to go back to school because she would like to leave her current lower-class life. Susan changed her name to Rita, after the writer Rita Mae Brown.

The professor at the Open University she attends, Frank Bryant (Michael Caine), teaches her to know herself and make her own decisions freely. At the same time he helps her prepare for his exams. As Rita learns, her relationship with her husband becomes more and more distant.

Finally, Rita changes her name back to Susan and tries at all times to behave like a cultured person, while Frank, for his part, speaks using low-culture language (like the one Rita used at the beginning of the work) and, furthermore, he has fallen into the vice of alcohol and cigarettes.

Cast and characters

• Michael Caine like Professor Frank Bryant.
• Julie Walters like Susan "Rita" White.
• Michael Williams like Brian.
• Dearbhla Molloy as Elaine.
• Jeananne Crowley like Julia, Frank's girlfriend.
• Malcolm Douglas like Denny White, Rita's husband.
• Godfrey Quigley as Rita's father.
• Patricia Jeffares like Rita's mother.
• Maeve Germaine like Sandra, Rita's sister.
• Maureen Lipman as Trish, Rita's roommate.
• Gerry Sullivan as a security guard.
• Pat Daly as a fellow.
• Kim Fortune like Collins.
• Philip Hurdwood as Tyson, nicknamed Tiger.
• Hilary Reynolds like Lesley.
• Jack Walsh as Price.
• Christopher Casson as a teacher.
• Gabrielle Reidy like Barbara.
• Nealon as a vigilante.
• Marie Conmee as a client of the hairdresser.
• Oliver Maguire as a tutor.
• Derry Power as a photographer.
• Alan Stanford as a restaurant manager.

Awards and nominations