Michael Apted is most persuasive when he pays attention to how people live and where they stand in society. We value that patience, though his willingness to adapt can leave the larger studio films looking anonymous.
Fi1m perspective
In Rome (2005), the city has not been tidied for the benefit of a historical drama. Apted directed the first three episodes, helping establish ordinary life as something against which the scenes of privilege can be measured. We warmed to the series because that attention made its brutal society feel inhabited. It is an effective use of the naturalism he brought from documentary into fiction. We rate him most highly when he takes this care with people's circumstances; a recognisable visual flourish would add little here.
That habit has its clearest basis in the Up documentaries, which he took over as director in 1970 and continued directing through 2019. Returning to the same British participants every seven years gives observation time to correct an easy judgement about how a life will go. With producer Claire Lewis among his collaborators, he sustained an attention to individuals that makes the study of class worth following. The early films have a serious limitation, though: the gender imbalance and questions reinforcing domestic stereotypes restrict what women get to tell us.
His move into features in the early 1970s led to the American breakthrough of Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980), with its grounded performances. Gorillas in the Mist (1988) likewise benefited from his documentary-influenced realism. The later move to The World Is Not Enough (1999) and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010) makes sense for a director willing to adapt to the job. In the latter, though, that willingness leaves too little that feels particular to him.
The opening of Rome shows why we would not dismiss such adaptability. April Ferry's costumes make social position readable, while Jeff Beal's music gives private disputes the seriousness they have for the people involved. Apted's attention to ordinary life belongs alongside those contributions: together they help us follow a crowded story without constant explanations of rank. The opening is uneven, and the cruelty demands a tolerance we would not assume everyone shares. Try Rome for his ability to make a complicated society legible, provided the brutality will not spoil the evening.
Biography
Michael Apted was an English television and film director and producer. Born on 10 February 1941 in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, he was educated at the City of London School and Downing College, Cambridge. He began his career at Granada Television as a researcher before directing programmes including episodes of Coronation Street.
Apted directed the Up documentary series from 1970 to 2019. His feature films include Coal Miner's Daughter (1980), Gorillas in the Mist (1988), Nell (1994) and the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough (1999). He directed the first three episodes of the series Rome (2005), on which he was also credited as writer. He served as president of the Directors Guild of America from 2003 to 2009 and was appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 2008.
Apted died on 7 January 2021 in Los Angeles, California.
