Ever feel your life is a foregone conclusion? That's the fear everybody's resisting in 49 Up, the groundbreaking British TV documentary which keeps tabs on 14 English men and women at seven-year intervals. (Screening at the Cinematheque at 7 and 9.30pm, today, tomorrow and Saturday).

This is the seventh installment of the show, and you have to wonder if they'll all have the heart to keep going for much longer. So far only one of the subjects has dropped out (ironically, he works in TV), but this year there seems to be a stirring the ranks: one woman puts producer Michael Apted on notice she means to call it quits. Another turns the tables to challenge his assumptions about her. Quite a few say they don't see the point of it all.

You can imagine it must be a difficult prospect, to be confronted with your seven-year-old self, full of hope and expectation. And maybe worse, to find that everything you predicted for yourself has come to pass (very much the case with the rich kids here, who foretold exactly what college they'd attend and their subsequent career). It's hard enough as a viewer, because inevitably you measure your own accomplishments (and lack thereof) against them.

Yet for all that, most of these people seem to have found a degree of peace and contentment in middle age, finding solace in family and life's simple pleasures. If you've watched any of this series before you won't need me to tell you it exerts a strong fascination. If you haven't, don't worry, the film stands alone, somehow recapping 14 half-centuries in just over two hours. Spare a thought for Apted, a researcher on 7 Up and the producer ever since. He's 65 and counting.

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