Hilary and Jackie

Deeply harrowing yet deeply touching, the much acclaimed biopic HILARY AND JACKIE (1998) depicts the often stormy relationship of musical sisters Hilary and Jacqueline du Pré - starting with their strong bond during early childhood to professional rivalry in later life.

This professional rivalry has many facets and ultimately leads to a rift between the sisters but let’s start at the beginning, when two little girls (Hilary and Jacqeline) play on a beach and spot the figure of a woman standing by the shore. We don’t get to see the woman’s face nor do we find out who she is, but one of the girls approaches her. From the beach we’re in a quaint street in 1960’s London - the home of the du Pré family: father Derek (Charles Dance), mother Iris (Celia Imrie), son Piers (Rupert Penry-Jones) and daughters Jackie (Auriol Evans) and Hilary (Keeley Flanders). It’s mum Iris and her formidable piano skills which doubtlessly rub off on her young daughters with regards to their musical skills and from an early age, Iris, who is also their musical instructor, sees to it that Hilary excels at playing the flute and Jackie the cello, with Jackie claiming in later life that “she hates playing the cello”.

We follow the two young girls on their musical journey, winning numerous awards and prizes in the process although ultimately, it’s Jackie who appears to be the more gifted one while Hilary has a hard time making progress at the Royal Academy of Music. At this point, the two girls have grown into young women and are played by Rachel Griffiths (Hilary) and Emily Watson (Jackie). Apart from minor jealousies during their childhood, especially as far as their musical career is concerned, the two sisters enjoy and incredibly strong bond although cracks beging to show when it becomes evident that Jackie’s career takes off to the extent of her becoming a world-renowned cello player while Hilary has to admit that she will never reach her sister’s phenomenal success. Instead, she finds herself romanced by fellow music student Kiffer Finzi (David Morrissey), who happens to be the son of composer Gerald Finzi. You’d swear that such a connection might do wonders for Hilary’s career but no, she and Kiffer get married and decide to live a rural existence in the country and start a family.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum, Jackie’s career goes from strength to strength and takes her all over the globe though it is apparent that her fame comes at a price and her behaviour is increasingly temperamental. Often, she misses her sister and thinks of their shared childhood. At one point, she suggests to Hilary “Let’s move together and go bonkers” - implying that although their childhood was happy, it was also controlled due to constant musical studies. Alas, Cupid doesn’t ignore Jackie and while on tour, she meets Argentinian pianist and conductor Danny Barenboim (James Frain), who reveals that he is Jewish. Jackie converts to Judaism and they get married but somewhere, something goes wrong because one day, Jackie (via taxi) arrives at Hilary’s and Kiffer’s farm… without Danny. It becomes crystal clear that Jackie has suffered some sort of breakdown and to make matters worse, she feels that having sex with her sister’s hubby might just be the tonic she needs. Unbelievably, Hilary reluctantly agrees as she’s genuinely worried for Jackie’s mental state but suffice to say, the ensuing love triangle doesn’t end well and Jackie packs her suitcase and leaves the farm.

Hilary’s and Jackie’s story is divided into the chapter Hilary and the chapter Jackie and we get to see their individual stories from their own perspective, leading up to Jackie’s devastating MS diagnosis and her untimely death at 42. This is as much a portrait of a famous musician as it is a portrait of human emotion and tragedy, with Emily Watson delivering a terrific performance as the troubled musical genius and Rachel Griffiths multi-faceted performance just as impressive. There are some truly inspiring and light-hearted moments to be found as well, for example when Jackie plays cello and is accompanied by Danny on the piano, only for the two playing an impromptu version of The Kinks ‘You Really Got Me’ with a mischievous twinkle in their eyes.

HILARY AND JACKIE has just been released on 2K Blu-ray, with the following Bonus Material:
Newly recorded audio commentary / Avec Sonia (2003, 52 mins): a celebration of cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton / Instruments of the Orchestra (1946, 20 mins): Sir Malcolm Sargent presents, conducts and comments on the performance of the different instruments of the London Symphony Orchestra / Selected Tales from Hoffnung (1964, 22 mins total): three animations from Halas and Batchelor’s Tales from Hoffnung series / Our Magazine No 2 (1952, 10 mins) / Trailer / Illustrated booklet (first pressing only).