was 22 when he joined the crew of “Seven Up!,” a British made-for-television documentary that profiled 14 children from different class backgrounds. That made him 15 years senior to his subjects, with whom he maintained contact, establishing an almost familial connection that spanned more than half a century.
As conceived, the “Up” series had a decidedly sociological bent, focusing on the British class system and to what degree it determined the course of those kids’ lives. In terms of such a study, the results were baked into the premise, which is to say that Apted essentially found what he was looking for.
Apted’s first big commercial hit was “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” the lively Loretta Lynn biopic that earned Sissy Spacek an Oscar. He also made movies about mystery novelist Agatha Christie and primatologist Dian Fossey , and followed up the jokey, juvenileouting “The World Is Not Enough” with guilty-pleasure female-empowerment potboiler “Enough,” starring Jennifer Lopez as a woman who learns to defend herself in order to stand up to her abusive husband.
It is not, in fact, the only longitudinal documentary series, though it has inspired many other filmmakers — including Steve James and Richard Linklater with his own time-spanning “Boyhood” film — to invest years in their subjects. In the Czech Republic, director Helena Třeštíková has spent more than 40 years following 10 married couples via her “Marriage Stories” series .
A great loss
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