Rita, Sue and Bob Too

Infobox_Film
name = Rita, Sue and Bob Too


writer = Andrea Dunbar
starring = Michelle Holmes,
Siobhan Finneran,
George Costigan,
Lesley Sharp,
Kulvinder Ghir
director = Alan Clarke
producer = Oscar Lewenstein
Sanford Lieberson
distributor = Channel 4
music = Michael Kamen
released = July 17 1987 (USA)
"(earlier UK date unknown)"
runtime = 95 min.
language = English
budget =
music =
amg_id = 1:41523
imdb_id = 0091859

"Rita, Sue and Bob Too" is a 1986 British film directed by Alan Clarke about two West Yorkshire schoolgirls who have a sexual fling with a married man. It is adapted by Andrea Dunbar from her 1982 stage play of the same name and a 1980 play of hers, "The Arbor". Its portrayal of 'ordinary' people's lives made it a cult film soon after its cinematic release. It was released on DVD in 2003.

Plot

Two 15-year old girls from a rundown council estate in Bradford babysit for a relatively affluent couple living in a large private house in a more desirable part of the city. They start having an affair with the married man, who seduces them in his car on the moors outside Bradford. When Bob develops a preference for Rita, the two girls fall out. Sue then falls for Aslam - a Pakistani colleague from a taxi firm that she works for.

Impact

The 2000 play "A State Affair", written by Robin Soans, is said to have been inspired by "Rita, Sue & Bob Too". The former is again set on the Buttershaw estate, but is a much more serious play than the latter. The play ends with an entrance by a character named Lorraine, who claims to be one of Andrea Dunbar's daughters. She says, "As a piece of writing, "Rita, Sue and Bob Too" is OK.... as a piece of autobiography it's disgusting. She made herself look a right tart."Fact|date=June 2007

Filming Locations

*Buttershaw council estate - (Rita's house; Sue's flat).

*Baildon - (Bob's house; moorland scenes).

*Haworth - (the school trip).

Trivia

*In reality, the distance between Buttershaw and Baildon is six miles, so the girls would have had a long walk home the night they left Bob's on foot.

*The line: "Send 'em on Manningham Lane, it's the best place for 'em" is a reference to Bradford's Red Light district - but, in fact, it was Lumb Lane which was synonymous (and infamous) with prostitution in Bradford during the 1980s, albeit in the area of Manningham.

*Bob's & Michelle's kids in the film are actually George Costigan's own children.

*Lesley Sharp is only a couple of years older than Michelle Holmes & Siobhan Finneran.
*Maureen Long, who had a non-speaking role in the film as Rita's mother, had survived an attack by the Yorkshire Ripper. [ [http://www.execulink.com/~kbrannen/victim12.htm The Attacks And Murders - Maureen Long ] ]

References

External links

*
*rotten-tomatoes|id=rita_sue_and_bob_too|title=Rita, Sue and Bob Too
* [http://www.britishcouncil.org/11katy_limmer_rita_sue__bob_too.doc Investigating the authority of the literary text in critical debate] - academic essay discussing auteurism.
* [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/439435/synopsis.html British Film Institute Screen Online]