{ "id": "epnbjh7m87", "slug": "hilary-and-jackie", "title": "Hilary and Jackie", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1990s", "label": "Drama films 1990s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1990s" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1990s.drama-films-late-1990s", "label": "Drama films late 1990s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1990s.drama-films-late-1990s" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1990s.drama-films-late-1990s.yr-1995-1998", "label": "Released 1995 to 1998", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1990s.drama-films-late-1990s.yr-1995-1998" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1990s", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000: Drama films 1990s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1990s", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1990s", "label": "Drama films 1990s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1990s" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Hilary and Jackie (1998) is Anand Tucker's British biographical drama about cellist Jacqueline du Pré and sister Hilary, based on A Genius in the Family; Oscar-nominated for Emily Watson and Rachel Griffiths, controversial for its affair storyline.", "snippet": "Hilary and Jackie (1998) is Anand Tucker's British biographical drama about cellist Jacqueline du Pré and sister Hilary, based on A Genius in the Family; Oscar-nominated for Emily Watson and Rachel Griffiths, controversial for its affair storyline.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1990s.drama-films-late-1990s.yr-1995-1998", "markdown": "# Hilary and Jackie\n\n**Hilary and Jackie** is a 1998 British biographical drama directed by Anand Tucker, written by Frank Cottrell Boyce, and based on the memoir *A Genius in the Family* by Hilary and Piers du Pré, the sister and brother of the cellist [Jacqueline du Pré](https://www.edgepedia.org/jacqueline-du-pre).[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/6e68fe56-c374-5d67-9e90-afe8dca793ce/hilary-and-jackie) Emily Watson plays Jacqueline and [Rachel Griffiths](https://www.edgepedia.org/rachel-griffiths) plays her older sister Hilary; both actresses received Academy Award nominations for their performances.[2](https://www.universalpicturesathome.com/movies/hilary-and-jackie) The film follows the sisters from a shared childhood in music through Jacqueline's rise to international fame, her marriage to the pianist and conductor [Daniel Barenboim](https://www.edgepedia.org/daniel-barenboim), her diagnosis with multiple sclerosis, and a controversial episode in which she asks for, and receives with Hilary's consent, a sexual relationship with Hilary's husband.[3](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-jan-29-ca-2682-story.html)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director / writer | Anand Tucker's feature debut; screenplay by Frank Cottrell Boyce[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/6e68fe56-c374-5d67-9e90-afe8dca793ce/hilary-and-jackie) |\n| Source | *A Genius in the Family* (1997) by Hilary and Piers du Pré[4](https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/jan/21/stephenmoss.stephenmoss1) |\n| Lead cast | Emily Watson as Jacqueline du Pré; Rachel Griffiths as Hilary du Pré; James Frain as Daniel Barenboim; David Morrissey as Kiffer Finzi; Charles Dance as Derek du Pré[5](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/hilary-and-jackie-1999) |\n| Runtime / rating | 121 minutes; rated R for language and sexuality[5](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/hilary-and-jackie-1999) |\n| Awards | Academy Award nominations for Watson (Best Actress) and Griffiths (Best Supporting Actress)[2](https://www.universalpicturesathome.com/movies/hilary-and-jackie) |\n| UK opening | £92,000 (about $152,000) on 13 screens in January 1999[3](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-jan-29-ca-2682-story.html) |\n| Critical score | 88% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 60 reviews[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hilary_and_jackie) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Story and structure\n\nThe film opens in the 1950s with the sisters as musical prodigies in England. Hilary, the elder, is at first the star musician, but when Jackie is nine she wins her section of a music competition to a standing ovation, and the balance between them reverses.[7](https://www.filmfestival.be/en/film/hilary-and-jackie) As adults their paths separate: Hilary ends her career as a flutist, marries the conductor Kiffer Finzi, and raises a family, while Jackie achieves worldwide fame as a cellist and marries Daniel Barenboim.[8](https://filmfestival.cologne/en/filme/searching-eva-2)\n\nThe film's central episode comes when Jackie, exhausted by touring and increasingly unwell, arrives unannounced at Hilary's remote farmhouse and tells her sister that she wants Kiffer. Hilary, who has never been able to refuse her, consents, and Jackie joins the household until Kiffer ends it.[9](https://filmsandfestivals.britishcouncil.org/projects/hilary-and-jackie) The film then retraces these events from Jackie's point of view, revealing her loneliness and her ambivalence toward the instrument that made her famous.[10](https://www.timeout.com/movies/hilary-and-jackie-1) This two-perspective structure, in which the second pass supplies information withheld the first time, is the screenplay's answer to the question of who has the right to tell which story.[11](https://cineoutsider.co.uk/hilary_and_jackie_blu-ray_review/)\n\nThe final movement follows Jackie's illness. Constantly tired and fearing she is losing her mind, she collapses on tour when she cannot feel her fingers; the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis comes as a relief because it proves she is not going mad.[9](https://filmsandfestivals.britishcouncil.org/projects/hilary-and-jackie) She rejects Hilary, whom she believes let her down at her moment of greatest need, and only near the end of her life do the sisters reach a moment of peace together.[9](https://filmsandfestivals.britishcouncil.org/projects/hilary-and-jackie)\n\n## Source and production\n\nThe screenplay draws on *A Genius in the Family*, the memoir Hilary du Pré published with her brother Piers in 1997. The book and the film were developed in parallel: the siblings were writing the memoir while the screenplay evolved.[12](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-dec-22-ca-56358-story.html) Tucker, previously a documentary filmmaker, made the film with the Oxford Film Company in co-production with Film Four and Intermedia Films, with support from British Screen and The Arts Council of England; Barrington Pheloung wrote the original score.[8](https://filmfestival.cologne/en/filme/searching-eva-2) The film was shown at the festivals in Venice and Toronto.[8](https://filmfestival.cologne/en/filme/searching-eva-2)\n\nRoger Ebert, the longtime film critic of the [Chicago Sun-Times](https://www.edgepedia.org/chicago-sun-times) and winner of the 1975 [Pulitzer Prize](https://www.edgepedia.org/pulitzer-prize) for criticism, reviewed the film in January 1999 and called it unusually knowing for a biopic, noting details that only a family member could supply and reading it as a film about performing rather than about performances: the physical and emotional cost of traveling from city to city and finding, every night, the ability to play the cello as well as it can be played.[5](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/hilary-and-jackie-1999)\n\n## Controversy\n\nThe film opened in Britain in January 1999 to what the Los Angeles Times described as an extraordinary chorus of disapproval from some of the musical world's most revered names.[3](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-jan-29-ca-2682-story.html) The objection centered on the affair with Kiffer Finzi, which the memoir had already made public: Hilary's husband, [Christopher](https://www.edgepedia.org/christopher) \"Kiffer\" Finzi, had slept with Jacqueline with her sister's acquiescence.[4](https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/jan/21/stephenmoss.stephenmoss1)\n\nAn open letter to *The Times*, signed by the cellist [Julian Lloyd Webber](https://www.edgepedia.org/julian-lloyd-webber) and co-signed by [Yehudi Menuhin](https://www.edgepedia.org/yehudi-menuhin), Itzhak Perlman, William Pleeth (Jacqueline's cello teacher), [Mstislav Rostropovich](https://www.edgepedia.org/mstislav-rostropovich), and Pinchas Zukerman, condemned both book and film: \"This is not the Jacqueline du Pré that we, as her friends and colleagues, knew.\" The signatories objected that the film concentrates heavily on the affair and portrays Jacqueline as selfish, spoilt, and manipulative.[4](https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/jan/21/stephenmoss.stephenmoss1) Lloyd Webber called the film \"ugly\" and accused Hilary and Piers of discrediting a sister who could no longer answer back.[3](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-jan-29-ca-2682-story.html) The guitarist John Williams, a close friend of Jacqueline's, called the film \"sick\" and \"macabre\" in an interview with *The Observer*.[13](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1999/02/08/the-pictures-19)\n\nHilary du Pré defended the work publicly, writing that \"what appears to have caused offence is not too little truth but too much honesty,\" and insisting that her sister would have loved the film.[4](https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/jan/21/stephenmoss.stephenmoss1) Daniel Barenboim refused involvement with either the book or the film.[4](https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/jan/21/stephenmoss.stephenmoss1) The dispute also caused a rift between Hilary and her daughter Clare Finzi, who said, \"Her memory has become the film.\"[4](https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/jan/21/stephenmoss.stephenmoss1) The controversy even extended to record labels: EMI, which refused to cooperate with the film, rushed its 1965 recording of du Pré's Elgar cello concerto into stores to compete with the Sony soundtrack, and the EMI version entered Britain's classical charts before the film's release.[3](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-jan-29-ca-2682-story.html)\n\n## Reception\n\nDespite the protests, reviews by national film critics in Britain were mixed with a majority favorably disposed, and the film received mostly good notices in the United States as well.[3](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-jan-29-ca-2682-story.html) The opening weekend's returns were solid for a limited release: £92,000 on 13 screens, a per-screen average of about £7,096, before expansion to 150 screens on February 12.[3](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-jan-29-ca-2682-story.html) Rotten Tomatoes later recorded an 88% Tomatometer score from 60 reviews, with a critics consensus citing \"brilliant performances, lush cinematography, and complex storytelling.\"[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hilary_and_jackie) Both lead actresses earned Academy Award nominations, Watson for Best Actress and Griffiths for Best Supporting Actress.[2](https://www.universalpicturesathome.com/movies/hilary-and-jackie)\n\nThe film's subject, Jacqueline du Pré, had died in 1987 at 42, having given up performing in 1973 after her multiple sclerosis diagnosis; she remained one of Britain's most beloved postwar musical figures, which is why the portrayal drew such strong feeling.[4](https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/jan/21/stephenmoss.stephenmoss1) • [13](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1999/02/08/the-pictures-19) In 2001, documentary filmmaker Christopher Nupen made a celebratory film about du Pré that was widely read as a riposte by her friends to *Hilary and Jackie*.[14](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2001/jan/17/artsfeatures2)\n\n## Home media\n\nThe BFI released the film on Blu-ray in the United Kingdom on 3 November 2025, in what would have been Jacqueline du Pré's eightieth birthday year, with booklet essays discussing the relationship between truth, memoir, and dramatization.[15](https://www.bfi.org.uk/press-releases-media-enquiries/press-releases) • [11](https://cineoutsider.co.uk/hilary_and_jackie_blu-ray_review/) The film remains available for digital rental and purchase.[16](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/hilary-and-jackie)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Hilary and Jackie (1998), BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/6e68fe56-c374-5d67-9e90-afe8dca793ce/hilary-and-jackie)\n2. [Hilary and Jackie, Universal Pictures At Home](https://www.universalpicturesathome.com/movies/hilary-and-jackie)\n3. ['Hilary and Jackie' Opens to a Chorus of Criticism in Britain, Los Angeles Times (Jan. 29, 1999)](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-jan-29-ca-2682-story.html)\n4. [Du Pré sister defends film, The Guardian (Jan. 21, 1999)](https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/jan/21/stephenmoss.stephenmoss1)\n5. [Hilary And Jackie movie review, Roger Ebert (Jan. 15, 1999)](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/hilary-and-jackie-1999)\n6. [Hilary and Jackie, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hilary_and_jackie)\n7. [Hilary and Jackie, Film Fest Gent](https://www.filmfestival.be/en/film/hilary-and-jackie)\n8. [Hilary & Jackie, Film Festival Cologne](https://filmfestival.cologne/en/filme/searching-eva-2)\n9. [Hilary and Jackie, British Council UK Films Database](https://filmsandfestivals.britishcouncil.org/projects/hilary-and-jackie)\n10. [Hilary and Jackie review, Time Out](https://www.timeout.com/movies/hilary-and-jackie-1)\n11. [Hilary and Jackie Blu-ray review, Cine Outsider](https://cineoutsider.co.uk/hilary_and_jackie_blu-ray_review/)\n12. [She Just Makes It Look Easy, Los Angeles Times (Dec. 22, 1998)](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-dec-22-ca-56358-story.html)\n13. [The Pictures, The New Yorker (Feb. 8, 1999)](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1999/02/08/the-pictures-19)\n14. [The Jackie we knew, The Guardian (Jan. 17, 2001)](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2001/jan/17/artsfeatures2)\n15. [BFI press releases: Hilary and Jackie released on BFI Blu-ray on 3 November 2025](https://www.bfi.org.uk/press-releases-media-enquiries/press-releases)\n16. [Hilary and Jackie streaming, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/hilary-and-jackie)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1990s › Drama films late 1990s › Released 1995 to 1998*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/hilary-and-jackie", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/hilary-and-jackie.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Hilary and Jackie\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/hilary-and-jackie. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Hilary and Jackie](https://www.edgepedia.org/hilary-and-jackie)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/hilary-and-jackie](https://www.edgepedia.org/hilary-and-jackie). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Hilary and Jackie\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/hilary-and-jackie. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Hilary and Jackie is Anand Tucker's British biographical drama about cellist Jacqueline du Pré and sister Hilary, based on A Genius in the Family; Oscar-nominated for Emily Watson and Rachel Griffiths, controversial for its affair storyline." }