Educating Rita (film) Educating Rita (film) Educating Rita is a British 1983 drama/comedy film directed by Lewis Gilbert with a screenplay by Willy Russell based on his 1980 stage play. The film stars Michael Caine, Julie Walters, and Maureen Lipman. It won multiple major awards for best actor and best actress and was nominated for three Academy Awards. Caine and Walters both won BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for best actor and actress. The British Film Institute ranked "Educating Rita" the 84th greatest British film of the 20th century. A Liverpudlian working-class young hairdresser Rita (Julie Walters) wants to better herself by studying
Educating Rita Bryant. Susan (who initially calls herself Rita), dissatisfied with the routine of her work and social life, seeks inner growth by signing up for and attending an Open University course in English Literature. The play opens as 'Rita' meets her tutor, Frank, for the first time. Frank is a middle-aged, alcoholic career academic who has taken on the tutorship to pay for his drink. The two have an immediate and profound effect on one another; Frank is impressed by Susan's verve and earnestness and is forced to re-examine his attitudes and position in life; Susan finds Frank's tutelage opens doors