Educating Rita (1983)

Julie Walters: Rita, Susan

Photos 

Quotes 

• [Rita is being nosy about Frank's marriage] 

  Dr. Frank Bryant : We split up, Rita, because of poetry.

  Rita : You what?

  Dr. Frank Bryant : One day, my wife explained to me that, for the past fifteen years, my output as a poet had dealt entirely with the part of our lives in which we discovered each other.

  Rita : Are you a poet?

  Dr. Frank Bryant : Was. And so, to give me something new to write about, she left me. A very noble woman, my wife - she left me for the good of literature. And remarkably it worked.

  Rita : What, you wrote a lot of good stuff, did ya?

  Dr. Frank Bryant : No. I stopped writing altogether.

• Rita : I did join in the singing. But when I turned around, me mother had stopped singin', and she was cryin'. I said, 'Why are you cryin', Mother?' And she said, 'There must be better songs to sing than this.' And I thought, yeah - that's what I'm trying to do, isn't it? Sing a better song.

• Rita's Father : Say, Denny. Denny, I'm sorry for you, lad. If she was a wife of mine I'd drown her.

  Rita : If I was a wife of yours I'd drown meself.

• Denny : Fellows in our family only have to look at a woman and she's pregnant.

  Rita : Oh, must be because you're all cockeyed.

• [Rita discovers Frank packing all his books into crates] 

  Rita : Have they sacked you?

  Dr. Frank Bryant : Not quite.

  Rita : Oh... Why are you packing your books up?

  Dr. Frank Bryant : Well, I made rather a night of it last night, so they're, uh... they're giving me a holiday. Two years in Australia.

  Rita : Did you bugger the Bursar?

  Dr. Frank Bryant : Metaphorically.

• [Trish has just tried to kill herself; Rita goes to visit her in hospital] 

  Rita : Why?

  Trish : Darling, why not?

  Rita : Oh, Trish, don't. Come on, it's all right, don't cry. You're still here.

  Trish : That's why I'm crying - it didn't work. It didn't bloody work.

  Rita : Trish. Look, you didn't really mean to kill yourself. You were just...

  Trish : Just what, darling? Poor Susan. You think you've got everything, don't you?

  Rita : Trish, you have.

  Trish : Oh yes. When I listen to poetry and music, then I can live. You see, darling, the rest of the time it's just me. And that's not enough.

• Dr. Frank Bryant : What does it say?

  Rita : Right. I've passed. Now will you get on that bloody plane?

  Dr. Frank Bryant : Let me see. You've passed with distinction. I'm proud of you, Rita.

  Rita : I'm proud of both of us.

• Rita's Father : How old are you now, Susan?

  Rita : [sarcastically]  Seventy-four, Dad.

  Rita's Father : You're not, you're twenty-seven! Been married six years and you still haven't got a baby to show for it. Here's your sister, only two minutes married, and she's already four months pregnant.

• [Frank has just been officially reprimanded for being drunk while giving a lecture] 

  Dr. Frank Bryant : Sod them, eh, Rita! Sod them!

  Rita : Will they sack you?

  Dr. Frank Bryant : Good God no. That would involve making a decision. Pissed is all right. To get the sack, it would have to be rape on a grand scale. And not just with students, either. That would only amount to a slight misdemeanour. No, for dismissal it would have to be nothing less than buggering the Bursar.

• [last lines] 

  [Rita is saying goodbye to Frank at the airport departure gate] 

  Rita : Frank.

  Dr. Frank Bryant : What?

  Rita : Thanks.

• Rita : I just... wanted to tell someone who'd understand.

  Dr. Frank Bryant : Rita, I am honored that you chose me.

• Rita : Christ! Me customer! She's still under the dryer. She only wanted a demi-wave, she'll come out lookin' like a friggin' muppet!

• Customer in Hairdressers : Was that a book you're reading?

  Rita : Yeah, yeah.

  Customer in Hairdressers : What's it called?

  Rita : Oh, "Of Human Bondage".

  Customer in Hairdressers : Yeah? My husband's got a lot of books like that.

  Rita : What, Somerset Maugham books?

  Customer in Hairdressers : Nooo. Bondage books!

• Rita : I'm beginning to find me. It's great.

• Rita : Do you think you did nothing for me? You think I just ended up with a load of quotes and empty phrases. Well, all right, I did. But that wasn't your doing. I was too hungry for it all. I didn't question anything. I wanted it all too much, so I wouldn't let it be questioned. Told you that I was stupid.

  Dr. Frank Bryant : You're not stupid.

  Rita : Listen, if I say I'm stupid, then I'm stupid, okay? So don't argue!

• Rita : You're a student, aren't you?

  Student : Yes.

  Rita : So am I.

• Rita : It's fun, tragedy, isn't it?

• Dr. Frank Bryant : You really can't bear to spend a moment with me now, can you?

  Rita : Frank, that is not true. It's just that tonight, I've got to go to the theatre.

  Dr. Frank Bryant : As I was saying, if you want to stop coming...

  Rita : Oh, for Christ's sake, Frank, I don't want to stop comin'! I've got to keep comin'. What about me exam?

  Dr. Frank Bryant : Oh, I shouldn't worry about that. You'd, uh, sail through it anyway. You really don't have to put in the odd appearance out of sentimentality. I'd rather you spared me that.

  [he downs a glass of whiskey] 

  Rita : If you could stop pouring that junk down your throat, in the hope that it'll make you feel like a poet, you might be able to talk about things that matter, instead of where I do and don't work. And it might actually be worth turnin' up.