Hilary and Jackie

Two sisters study music together. Hilary starts ahead on the flute, and Jackie passes her on the cello and becomes a star of the first rank. Hilary leaves the stage and marries into country life. Years later Jackie arrives at her sister's house, famous and burned out, and asks for something extraordinary: her husband. Hilary agrees. The film tells the same events twice, first from Hilary's side and then from Jackie's. The same scene means something entirely different from the second angle, and the subject is not talent but how talent splits a family. At the end Jackie is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Anand Tucker directed, from a screenplay by Frank Cottrell-Boyce. Emily Watson plays Jackie and Rachel Griffiths plays Hilary; both were nominated for Oscars. Argument followed the release. Several close friends of Jacqueline du Pre condemned it for distorting her life, while Hilary defended it, saying this was her and her brother Piers's version of the family's story. There is one more detail: the credits name Hilary and Piers's book as the source, but that book had not yet been published when the film was shot. It was actually built from conversations with the two of them and does not claim to be the true story. Who it is for: anyone who likes musician biographies and hard films about siblings. Who it is not for: anyone after the facts of du Pre's life. Some incidents are invented, and the music itself gets little room.